BISHOP JULIUS AT GERALDINE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2252, 10 September 1891, Page 2

BISHOP JULIUS AT GERALDINE.

Bishop Julius, of Christchurch, preached on Tuesday evening at St. Mary’s Church, Geraldine, when there was a very large congregation. The preliminary service was conducted by the Revs. Preston and Hamilton. The Bishop chose for his text the I. Epistle of John, v. 4., “ And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” The Bishop began by saying that a writer in one of the magazines had lately given a very interesting description of the characteristics of the warfare of the future. He showed how strange had been the development of the materials of war in the past, and. how the victories of the future must widely differ from those of the past, and likewise the weapons. The past 50 years had witnessed another change of far greater importance and momentous character. He referred to the Church. They all knew how small the Christian Army was at first, and how men of one heart, one mind, and bound in unity, in faith, and in love, went forth and subdued the great Roman world to the Lord Jesus Christ. Eighteen hundred years had passed away since the first beginning of tne Church’s warfare, and still her work was, how little done ! Sometimes she was conquering and bringing all nations into Christ, and {then settling down into inglorious ease, content with past achievements, and satisfied with wealth, popularity, and ease. Then again corrupt, and divided, and helpless, and now again waking up into her strength, and, putting on the armour of God, going forth again to do battle with the world. To-day new forces, social, political, and intellectual, had been brought to bear upon her. Hew scientific methods withstand her. She hears her history, her literature—nay, her Lord and Master are attacked as they never were before. She stands in the midst of such a fire as she has never faced before. What wonder, he asked, that she seems drifting baek disheartened ? He would ask them to look at the state of things to-day in their own colony. Forty years ago, or there-about, the Province of Canterbury was settled by men who came from Home—brave, strong, earnest men—who came out not merely to change their home, and make their fortunes, but to settle in a new land, and bring with them the old home, the old faith, the old Church, There came out in these days men who knew the power of the old Church and loved it, because they were brought up in it. These men were determined that the Church should prosper, ahd they all knew how they sacrificed and gave liberally. Ah! but another generation had come since then, and another was again rising, who were strangers to the old faith. “ I remember,” one would say, “when churchmen gave liberally, and now how hard it is to get anything for the Church!” Now she must have her bazaars, her fairs, and even her farces, to carry on and pay arrears, to go on to victory. He would assure them that there was no victory in that. Looking abroad outside they could see a generation growing up without any basis of moral teaching, New Zealand to him seemed to be the subject of every fad ; social, political, and religious. Everyone who got a notion into his head wanted to try it at once on poor New Zealand. If a religious faddist came into Christchurch, no matter where he came from or what his interests were, he had only to come to Christchurch, give himself a name, get on a tub, oijhire a hall, and preach, and he would get a crowd around him. And they would say: “How nice! It isn’t a bit like we’ve heard before !” And men and women would drift awuy from this church and that church and they would drift away from the dear old Church of England. He could remember the time when the Church was defended by authority and prestige. When the Church spoke with authority people recognised that authority. Do.the people, he asked, listen to that authority now ? She had authority, true, but she could not now defend herself behind it. What the church wanted now was new weapons. The, clergy, the forces of God’s Church, should have new armours to meet the dangers of the times. The time was now past when they could argue from the pages of Paley and others. What they wanted now was a clergy more and more educated and trained to meet the difficulties

of the times. They wanted men who could go out in the thick of the fight among the people, not men of the pulpit only. They wanted, too, a better armed laity. They wanted discipline, and they wanted faith. They wanted the faith that overcometh the world to go forward to future victory. Faith was what made him look behind himself and see the one who made him—God, the Father, and that helped him to see in his own son Jesus Christ the plain revelation of Himself. The faith that helped him to look out upon the world and see in every man, woman, and child a child of Heaven, so that he could not rest till he had gone out and brought them back to God.