LECTURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3904, 21 October 1880, Page 3

LECTURE.

In connection with the Young Women's Christian Association, a lecture was delivered last evening, in St. John's schoolroom, by the Rev Allan W. Webb, of Auckland. There was a good attendance, but it is certain that had the character of the lectureentertainment been better known, tho building would have been crowded. The subject was " Frances Ridley Havergal ; her life, her poetry, and her songs." Tho licpe the lecturer had was, that ho might inspire some of his lady hearers to follow so bright an example.. There were, ho remarked, eminent women who had lei armies to victory, who kad swayed tho sceptre, and who had occupied tho foremost ranks in scienco, literature, and art. Tho century in which we lived was rich in the wealth of poetic geniuß, and was emblazoned with tho names of such women as Felicia, Heman?, Eliza Cook, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Letitia Elizabeth Landon; but no ftar had shone with a brighter radiance than that of Frances Ridley Harergal, a woman who was endowed with various mental qualities of the highest order, who was at onco a poet and a musician, and whose religion was no gaudy garmant. The lecturer told, with peculiar felicity, what she was ai a woman, and what sho became as a Christian, his illustrations, both of music and poetry, being very appropriately chosen. The musical gem of the evening was Beethoven's Moonlight r-onata, which was most appreciatively rendered by a lady amateur. The song, " Bells across tho snow " (an adaptation of an air of Gounod's), and the quartette, "Accepted, perfect and complete," were also very nicely exesutcd. At tho close the Rev Francis Snowies spoke in eulogistic terms of tho enjoyment that had been experienced, and v vote of thanks to tho lecturer was carried by acclamation.