ST MARY'S HOME.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6885, 21 June 1890, Page 3

ST MARY'S HOME.

BISHOP JULIUS' LECTUEE. The Oddfellows' Hall has rarely, or never, been more crowded than it was last evening, when the Bishop of Christchurch gave a lecture, or, rather, as his Lordship preferred to call it, " a talk," upon " Three Years in a Country Village," in aid of the funds of St Mary's Home. Mr C. Hastings Bridge, who apologised for the absence of Canon Stanford, briefly introduced Bishop Julius to his audience. It should be stated at the outset that it is not intended in thia report to deprive his Lordship of what iB plainly his copyright in the lecture, which ho may hare occasion to repeat, for some lite good object, at a future time ; but there are one or two matters which it may not be out of place to refer to. Hia Lordship said, by way of introduction, that when he left Victoria he did not think he would find himself plunged go soon into the pains of lecturing. He had there delivered about four hundred and twenty lectures — to be exact, four hundred and nineteen—and he His Lordship said he could not resist the application to lecture on behalf of St Mary's Home. Sfc Mary's Home did much necessary and beautiful work, and if the Church did not take it in hand she would assuredly suffer. The Home now needed enlargement, and when sufficient funds came in its usefulness would be much extended. He wished to offer an apology for his lecture. .It waß not a leoture. When he was in Victoria he found that people liked to : listen to a yarn, and that which really was I never intended to be a lecture or anything | but a talk had become a lecture. He web not, as one newspaper had said, going to lecture upon ecclesiastical life in an English village, but upon human life, which was different, for ecclesiastical life was very often not at all like human life. Now, aB he told them he was not going to give them a lecture, but a talk, they had better go out and get their shillings returned to them at the door. (Laughter.) The lecture he was going to deliver was almost unique, inasmuch as it was perfectly true. At least it was perfectly true, with one little exception, and only one. (Laughter.) It represented his experience of five years in two parishes, which he had worked up into the history of one parish. His Lordship then addressed himself to his subject. It was at once evident that he was ns accomplished a lecturer as those who have heard him know him to be eloquent in preaching. He possesses good descriptive powers, and vividly portrayed to his hearers the scenes and characters of which he spoke ; joined to .this was a keen sense of humour, and an evident perception of the oddities of the characters with which he had come in contact; while the language he used was clear and forcible. That the lecture was eagerly listened to was shown by the close attention, broken only by ripples of laughter and applause, with which the audience listened, and that it was thoroughly enjoyed was clear from the fact that every hint that his Lordship gave towards the close of his lecture that he might be wearying them and had bettor stop, was received with loud "No, no's," and cries of " Go on." In one part of tho lecture his Lordship took occasion to refer to his views on the education question. He said he was not in favour of a return to the system of denominational schools, but he was in favour of tho recognition of .God in the public schools. At the conclusion of the lecture, all present joined in the National Anthem, the Bishop leading tho singing.