FIRST CHURCH JUBILEE SERVICES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2299, 24 March 1898, Page 34

FIRST CHURCH JUBILEE SERVICES.

The fiftieth anniversary of the First Church of Ofcago was celebrated on Sunday, when services remarkable for their power and solemnity were held. B:>th rooming and evening vaßfc congregations assembled. In the evening the great church was crowded — aisle*, passages, platform, doorways, stairs, gallery, and every part and space within the edifice ; beiDg occupied by worshippers, — and the i proceedings were most impressive, being i characterised by vigour and devotion. In i the corgregational siDging the volume of I sound showed with what earnestness this 1 portion of Mac service was entered upon, and thia was not more remarkable than the wrapt attention which Was fchown and the ' great stillnesa that wa3 maintained during j the delivery of the sermons, every syllable of which could be distinctly heard in the moat; remote part aof the church. A goodiy number of people who were among the pioneers of this province attended ths church" and took pars in the services. Tbe daughfcsra of the Rev. Dr Burns, the venerated first pastor oil First Church, wore pre- | sent, and so was Mr John Duncan, of Waikouaiti, who was a member of the kirk session in she very early days. Many others were there, also, wbo have dote noble service in the church and province, and the I congregations were characteristic, in the best sense, o£ Otago in the former and in tbesa later days. Tbe church was crowded at tbe morning service. One of the lessons was read by the i Rev. Mr Rolland, of Melbourne, who is a J deputy from the Victorian Church to the Jubilee meeting of the Presbyterian Synod, and he also assisted in tbe devotional exercises of. the congregation. In the sermon, which waa delivered by the Eev. J. Gibb, but; i slight reference waa made to the Jubilee. ilt was sn evangelical, searching, and powerful discourse from the text (Corinthians v, 2), " God, who reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ." All pre-:enfc must have been deeply impressed, and some were visibly affected. The sermon was followed by praysr, the singing of the hymn " The day Thou Ravest, Lord, is ended," and the benediction. Service and sermon were exceedingly impressive, and fittingly marked an important epoch in the history of the church and province.