Dr MacGregor's visit.

Southland Times, Issue 10202, 8 July 1889, Page 2

Dr MacGregor's visit.

The Rev. Dr James MacGregor, the delegate who will represent the Established "Church of Scotland at the celebration of the jubilee of the Victorian Presbyterian Church, arrived hi Invercargill by the express from Dunedin on Saturday evening and was met and welcomed by a number of Ministers and other gentlemen. Dr MacGregor is now 55 years of age. and was born in the village of Scone, or Scoon in Perthshire. He was trained from his youth for the pulpit, and was sent early in life to the university of St. Andrews, the almamaierol along list of men t who have taken a high degree in after life. When 23 years of age, he was ordained to the pastorate of the High Church of Paisley, and thence was translated to the parochial charge of Monimail, in Fifeshire. From being parish minister of Monimail,- he became minister of first the Glasgow and then the Edinburgh Tron Kirk. From the Edinburgh Tron he was called to the charge of "St. Cuthbert's under the Rock," which is the oldest Presbyterian charge not in Edinburgh only, but even in Scotland, for it is 130 years old, and its site has been the scene of divine worship throughout the whole history of Scotland. Desirous of making the building one worthy of the site it stands on, with all the sacred associations and historic legends, and the beauty of its position in the finest city -in the : kingdom, the doctor set about raising the means to do so, and in one year raised LI 1,000 to restore the ancient pile. His church of St. Cuth> bert has no fewer than 3000 persons in actual communion, the largest communion roll of any single church in Scotland. The doctor is chaplain to the Royal Scottish Academy, and one of her Majesty's chaplains for Scotland. The rev. doctor preached in the Theatre . Royal yesterday evening to a congregation that must have numbered about 2000 persons, every available foot of space in the building being occupied while many were unable to gain admission. The service having opened with prayer, the 121 st Psalm was sung, the Rev. J. Ferguson read the third chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians, hymn 292 followed, and, while the collection was being taken up, the choir sang the 20th hymn. The doctor then took his text from Colossians iii, and 17, "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." He said he would preface the sermon he was about to try and preach with one remark, namely, that he waa thankful to God to have the opportunity of saying a word for his Master "in the young and growing city of Invercargill before he left the beautiful shores of New Zealand. He had preached in all the other great centres of the colony, and now by God's {irovidence he was granted the great privicge ipi doing so in this one. The text suggested the following points : Firstly, the imperious nature of Christian demands ; secondly, the breadth and spirit of Christian duty; thirdly, the motive power of holy life ; and, fourthly, the sacredness of our daily life and labour. The very first thing that would strike a reader of the verse was its imperiousness ; all was to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus. It was one of those sweeping requirements of Scripture that men were inclined to take with a little reservation, but it was quite in keeping with the whole tone and tenor of our Christian faith. Unlike other religions Christianity would have no half measures; one of its principal features was its down-rightness, its firmness ; it would have all or nothing. The law of God was universal, imperious and inexorable; the whole question was, should they believe and be saved, or believe not and be lost. Passing on to the second heading he pointed out that the words of the text covered the whole field of human activity, and the whole of the space occupied by human deed and thought. One or two considerations would show that the demand of God's law was not really so extra \ agant as it appeared. The Christian law was simplyjanother name for the law of love, the law of righteousness, and the law of holiness, and was therefore a law which none could evade. It prevailed throughout the universe, binding the holy angels who kept it, and just as much the bad angels who broke it. There would be no time here or hereafter and no place where it would not be imperative to do all things for the Lord, In the third place they came to the motive power of holy life. The stress of the text lay in the words "In the name of the Lord Jesus," and when these were considered the apparent extravagance vanished from them. In the spiritual as well as in the -physical world when they saw a great result they expected to find a great cause behind it, and no greater force, no greater power could be found than that contained in the words *' In the name of the Lord Jesus." What force had made a greater impress on humanity ; what name had exerted a greater spell? Heroes, patriots, and philosophers had won the respect of men, but who had put his hand on so many hearts as Jesus of Nazareth ? But as the world was, all that was good in it was due to Him, and the influence of His name was increasing. Christianity never had the grip of the world that it had that day, and the grip would be even better on the following one. In Christ of Nazareth they had not a dead man, one who had passed away centuries ago, but a living spirit who was always and under all circumstances near them and with them. It was this living connection, this -living union with Him that was the source and spring of their actions, the motive power of their holy life. Before proceeding to the -fourth heading the doctor paused while the congregation sang the 179 th hymn. He then asked the attention of his hearers to the sacredness of their daily life and labour.. All was to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus'; not merely praying, singing in praise, taking the Sacrameht,and so forth, but the common acts of daily life such as eating, drinking, and working. It was the common life, the daily one that people were leading, that they should sanctify, and this was the doctrine which Christ's example and precepts taught. The most common labour coukf be made holy, and in it all could most truly serve God. Presbyterians sometimes repelled gentle souls by making religion too harsh and gloomy, but such was not the religion of Christ. He lived the life of an ordinary working man, and was a working man. He did not make religion gloomy, and He cut ears of corn on the Sabbath Day and ate them when He was hungry, while some strict Sabbatarians would probably have starved first. To show the holiness of common things and common acts, and to guard against what He foresaw would be the super* stition of later years, He chose the washing of the body with water and the feeding of the body with wine and bread to constitute the two great symbolical acts in connection with His faith. Personally he (the Doctor) attached but little to the outward appearance of taking the Sacrament, but he thought in this matter the Presbyterians, compared with the Episcopalians, bad the best of it in simply sitting down together, eating a little bread, drinking a little wine, and dearly remembering | the Lord. While he knew that many had been estranged from the Presbyterian Church ! in days gone by 3by the dreariness and gloominess ofjts service, and while he advocated and welcomed the growing tendency to lighten and brighten thejform of worship, he strongly condemned ritualism in the Episcopalian and formalism in the Presbyterian Church. These observances were apart from the simple religion of Jesus as found in the Gospel, a religion which virtually annihilated any distinction between sacred and secular. Referring to formalism he had adverted to the class of men, who considered they did their duty by attending church, and who did not carry their religion with them into the workshop, the warehouse, or the countinghouse. He knew of no man who played more havoc with religion than he who went about pretending to be holy, and yet was not trustworthy, safe or honourable in bis business dealings. It was no true religion that they could not carry wherever they went and into whatever they did ; the boy on the football field could be as reverent as the minister at his communion table. It was no religion that was not with them as constantly as the air they breathed ; religion did not consist in praying, praising, or sacrament taking, but in living perpetually with the Spirit of God. It was a, blessed and hopeful thing that [they were going back more and more to the simple religion of love and faith iv Christ. He prayed that they 9qiU4 kiura iaor« and wore tow tru.%Jtw«s

that if they loved Him here and now, and hers* and now did all things in His name, tried to walk in daily communion With Him and to keep His commandments, they were already in His Kingdom. And if jthey were in that jvingdom no lapse of time, no vicissitudes of fortune, no change of world would take them out of it. If asked what his religion was he would reply that it was simply this : To be in that Kingdom was eternal life, to be out of it eternal death— death of all that was bright and blessed and beautiful fe aud holy, death to the true, to love, to good— dark, dismal death from which, in His great mercy, might the good Lord deliver them. The sermon, which lasted an hour and. a hajf, was listened to with the most profound attention throughout. Hymn 263, prayer by the Rev. J. Ferguson, Hymn 15, and the Benediction by the Rev. Geo. Lindsay concluded the service.