KNOX CHURCH.

Otago Witness, Issue 1355, 17 November 1877, Page 7

KNOX CHURCH.

ANNIVERSARY SOIREE. The soiree in connection with theflrstanniversary services of the new Knox Church was held on Nov. 7th. The tea was provided in the old church, the tables were given by the bachelors of the congregation, and the supply cf edibles was all that ia desired fur such occasions. About so pc-sons were present at tho tea. The tables were presided over by the following Udies : - Misses Kennedy, Glssgow, M'Laren (2), Burn, Hislop, Huie. Smith, M'Gregor, Glasgow, Gillits, Turnbull, Morrison, Young, Wright, JH'lntyre, Bethune, Sutherland, Donnell, Wilson (2), William, and Thomson.

After tea an adjournment was made to the new church, where the meeting wai held. At 8 o'clock the Rev. Dr Stuart -the pastor of tlie church— took the chair, and the meeting; was opened with the hundredth psalm, after which the Key. Mr M'Ara, of Balclutha. engaged in prayer. Ihe Key. Or Stuart (the chairman), in his opening address slid : Christian F. iends and Neighbours— I am verytfad to sac ao many of you present this evening to rejoice with us on completing the first year of our occupancy of this handsorao church — this church which we have erected by the help of God, and by the help of our friends and 4 neighbours, to His glory and for the spread of His Gospel. lam quite sure that nil good Christians rejerce when a temple to the praise and honour of God rises up in the land of our adoption. I love the capital of Otago, and whether it be a bank, or a school, or a college, or a Christian church that is newly erected, I never fail to lift my heart to God in thankfulness that he ha< put it into the hearts of merchants, and bankers, and scholars, and educitiona'ist*, and Christians to attend to the spread of that Christian civilisation, and to the establishment ol the Colony which our fathers wished to found here, and which wo shall do our best to make prosper. I need not say that God has bl-sseJ the congregation during the pa«it twelve months. No doubt the noble houss in which we have been permitted to worship has contributed to our prosperity. Those who met ia the old church this evening, and are here now, can themselves percsive tho contrast. Bown yonder, where we had mmy happy days, because we did not know of a befcrer place, it was comparatively stifling ; but here it b airy and roomy, and if anybody goes to sleep during the sermon. I am sure you are entitled to blame the parson, for everything is favourable to make him put forth his very best efforts for their edification, and for the praise and glory of God. I cannot help remarking that this evening we were the guests ol our bachelors. lam only sorry they were not present at their own tables in greater numbers -still we have enjoyed the good thiugs provided for us. lam quite pure before another year comes icund not a fe\r of them will have leff the ranks I of bachelors to t<ke the higher rank of Benedicts. But the bachelors' ranks will be filled. We hare more growing up, and the more who pass over the line, the I better for all parttes.-(Oheers ) It is not my place to make a «peeeh tbi* evening, and I shall not •do more than publicly acknowledge my thanks to Goi for tho good vre, as a Church, have bsen able to undertake, and the same good we have been enabled to accomplish. I trust the past will be vantage ground for ths future, from which we can take higher aims and work more effectively for man's benefit and God's glory. You must help us in seeking to make the clahnß of the Goepol known. Pray regard the fulfilment of its claims as the sine qua non of true enduring and lasting prosperity. I am glad I am surrounded here, and ah*ll have by and by to call upon friends to address you. I regret that my friend Professor M'Gregor 13 compelled to absent himsel' this oveniug. Mr W". D. Stewart next addressed the meeting. He said that they might fairiy congratulate themselves upon the measure of success which they h«d ebtalned during the past 12 months, but looking from an outside standpoint, they #ore but a very Himll portion of a very large body, tho Presbyterian b °«y. which flourished throughout America and tho Colonits, and would continue, to flourish wherever there was f re«do«n. The Presbyterian form of government was sud to be republican, and th s no doubt, was cne great reason why it had developed' to euch an enormous extent in America He thought the Church of Otago shoud unite not only with tha North Island, but that it should assemble in Council with the Presbyterian boOie? in the other Colonies. He believed gtnat good would result from such a union, and by it the University of Ota?o mitrht he fairly established and its prosperity insured, as the climate of Otago was so excellently suited for hard studies. There was, he observed, amongst the Presbyterians here a most unreasonable and inexcusable apithy with regarJ tv what was C3lled the religious Press. Presbyterianism was not represented by any Press whatever. If there was a healthy religious press taken up by the Presbyterian bsdy, he believed it wouli redoimd to the credit and profk of the body throughout the Colony. The apathy in this maMer was without excuse In Ameiica the people reid their religious papers as regularly as they attended church, and the consequence wa3 that they gained intellectual development and were acquainted with what w.)B beino- done in all pirts of ,tae worl 1. The secular Press hers gave no attention to relizious matters— to the matters which more directly concerned the Church. Mr Stswart then said that if the Freich took ovsr the Islands of New Hebrides, as it was expected they would then the whole work of the miwions would be lost, as their missionaries would be turned off the Islands, and the natives they had been educating would be taken over by the Catholic Church. This was a subject which it appeared to him. had been lost tight of. Great results had folio ved the holding of ths late Pan-Prebyterian Council. The next meeting of the Council was to be held in Phladelphia in ISBO, and he hoped their worthy pistor, Dr Stuart, would repiesent them at that Council.— (Cheers). If Dr Stuart was spared, he did not think the Church couid do better th*n send him to represent this pirfc of New Zealand at the Presbyterian Council to be held in Philadelphia, and he hoped that would be done, as he believed that such a connection with the Council would redound to their credit intellectually, morally, and spiritually. ' Dr Stuart said : I should like ta say. on behalf of the Press of Otago, that whatever be its shortcomings it never refuses to circulate information respecting the Churches. On the whole it has acted in that respect very fairly towards us. A', the snme time I quit© agree with Mr Downie Stewart that the Presbyterians of Otago themselves have manifested in the matter of the Press a strange apathj'. They have not realised its va»t importance in defending and infusing saving truth— that truth which we deem nccessarv to lay the foundations securely of a people that will endure and bring glory to God and credit to their national home.

The Rev. MrFiTCHKiT ad(lress o rt the meeting He conjsratulated the congregation upon its building, its numbers, its intelligence, and upon ths energetic labours of their pastor. The subject he ha-1 chosen was "The Christianity of Christ " He had learned he said, to distinguish the Christianity of Christ from the Christianity of the interpreters of Christ. The greatest names; of ecclesiastical history were the names of fsl ible men, and in their teachings, he took it much would be found that was perishable. Is was impossible to over-esteem the great services of Luther, the father of Protestantism, and yet he framed the doctrine of conaubstantiation which very nearly appecuched the doctrino of transxibstantiation, and was now rejected by Prote^taut Churches. They might well druw a distinction between the Christianity of Christ and the Christianity of hN interpreters, the one was tho faultless performance of tho master, while in the Christianity of the creed's tbev had the blofcrerl and blotted copy of tho pnpth The remaining points of tho discourse were— that the Christianity of Christ unl.ke everything else, owed nothing to dpvol'>p . ent! It had never beca superseded. Ab a matter of fact the world was a thousand leagues in tho rear of it To get it pjrest and best it must not be takou aa developed durin? two thousaud years, but at its fountain. It was not produced by development -the literature of the early Church showed thtt there was nothing at all that could have produced it It had gained nothing, and could K ain nothiii" b" developmen', for in the Christianity of Christ they had oil they could justly hops for as the ideal of the World of the future— all that good men prayed for and dssired was found there.

Addresses wore also delivered hy the Revs Sutherland, Vx Copland, and J. V. Dtyis, an 4Mr Wright

poke upon the necessity of the co-operation of parents n the work of the Sunday School, nnd the advisability of teaching in the Sunday tchooU the Shorter Catechisx.

Dur.na; the evening the choir sang four anthems, a hymn, and a quartette (G d is a Spirit). The quartette and the hymn were fairly rendered, but the anthems wore but indifferently sung.

On the mot on of "Mr Blair, a vote of thanks was yivea ta the speakers, and on the motion ol Mr Keith, the bachelors and chair were also thanked by acclamation.

The meeting was closed by the Rev. Mr Blake pronouncing the benediction.