PRESBYTERIANISM.

Thames Star, Volume LIX, Issue 16645, 16 November 1925, Page 5

PRESBYTERIANISM.

ASSEMBLY OPENS AT DUNEDIN. A FIRST IMPRESSION. THE FIRST CHURCH FILLED. (By Ascot A. Broad.) The Presbyterians trooped to the First Church last evening. From the Bluff to nigh the North Cape, they came, ministers young and old, some of them but putting on the harness of their profession yet chafing their stubborn necks and shoulders, others about ready to take it off, the calm of experience shining in -their eyes, the dignity of a meek and quiet spirit clothing them as with a radiant garment. There are elders there, too, mostly true to their naming, elderly men often -with rough features on hardlined faces, which their kindly eyes belie. I like -to creep into a corner of the vestibule and watch them greet one another on arrival. They know how to shake hands, not by elevating the elbow and pinching the fingers, but by—well, it requires to be seen or, better still, felt, -to be realised. Then their wives! What would an assembly be without those gentlewomen with the spirit of sacrifice shining in so many of their eyes, and gleaming on their sweet faces. Imagination often plays me strange tricks, as I stared there in my corner, and it suggested to my mind: What about bringing the members of a cabaret into the vestibule! Would the over-attenuated skirts foregather with the trim, yet modest costume; would the lordly Johnny, with slight lisp and “don’t-yer-know” expression, albeit godless; would the smart man about town, dashing, debonair, and the rest, have aught to say to the ministers and elders? I banished -the thought from my mind as sacrilege, but it persisted, and I seemed to hear a voice say, “Are they not all of the same flesh: have they not all one Father?” But I escaped into the Church from such imaginings. The assembly was singing as only an assembly can sing—“l to the hills will lift mine eyes,

From whence doth come mine aid.” The organ thundered 'neath the Gothic arches, but there were pots of white lilies with fresh, green leaves and fragrant on the rostrum about the pulpit. This inspiring psalm of Pres byterianism over the retiring moderator who presided, amongst other devotional exercises, read the great appeal for consecrating in the epistle to the Romans. The choir sang an anthem remarkable in its setting of the old apocalyptic story of a great soul meeting with God to be lifted and strengthened for service. A bass voice, with fine restrained feeling, told that immortal story, well supported by the organ, while every word was distinctly enuntiated to be clearly heard, by the congregation present. Thereafter, the organ crashed, the full choir sang out truly the great Divine response of encouragement and anointing unto spiritual power. Pity it is that the claims of expression should at times overshadow those of artVulation. Yet, after all, what are words! Were they not well-known to most present: “Fear not, I am the first and the last.” These were distinctly heard when the choir essayed the great chorus. They sufficed. The preacher then announced his text, “Rejoicing in Hope,” and gave us a beautiful mystic study in keeping, one could not but think, with his silvery hair, yet boyish, fresh-looking countenance. In simple terms, he spoke of the little, restless Jew, who transformed from selfish endeavour to Christian enthusiasm and enterprise, often seemed to carry his heart upon his sleeve through very intensity of a love which was more than life to him, often thus revealing, but never inadvertently, the working of an intellect only secondary in power to the might of a spirit overwhelmingly righteous, a Christian giant through exercise of a faith which found permanent, abiding strength and working inspiration even in hope itself. The message was a good preparation for the Moderator’s address, which. in due course, followed a thoughtful dissertation on the “Headship of Christ.” Space permits me only to add that he placed his high ideal, again Pauline, clearly before the individual, the community with appropriate reference to the quelling of industrial unrest, and before the Church.