ANNUAL SERVICE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 941, 11 December 1933, Page 12

ANNUAL SERVICE.

Pupils and Staff of St Andrew’s College. IMPORTANCE OF ENDURANCE. Pupils of St Andrew’s College, members of the staff, including the head master (Mr A. K. Anderson), members of the Board of Governors and old boys of the college attended St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church last evening, when the annual end of the year service was held. The preacher, the Rev J. Lawson Robinson, directed his sermon more particularly to the boys whose school life was completed this month, and who will go out into the world next year. He also offered special prayers for the well-being of the college, the boys and their masters. The college atmosphere was further enhanced by readings from the Scriptures by two of the boys, B. C. 11. Clark and E. 11. Perry, and the singing of the college song, “ St Andrew’s,” by the boys. Mr Robinson extended his congratulations to the boys and the staff at the conclusion of another year’s work. “ Examinations are over, and holidays are approaching, and it is the time when masters cease from troubling and the weary are at rest,” said Mr Robinson, who wished the boys success in their examinations. Mr Robinson preached from the text: ‘‘He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved,” St Matthew, xxiv. 13. He stressed the value of the quality of endurance, citing many cases to show its importance in all branches of life. In art, music, history, endurance was of first necessity, and even more was this so in spiritual life. The strongest Christians were often those whose lives had been a long drawn out martyrdom. Endurance had figured largely in forming the characters of the most solid and rocklike Christians. As wdth the seed of the parable sown on shallow land, many people gave promise of Christian service, but could not endure presecution or temptation. Mr Robinson spoke of the many who lost faith in prayer, and urged upon his congregation that they should endure in prayer, which fully justified itself. He also exhorted the boys of the college that they should preserve the purity of their ideals. It was a difficult thing to hold to one’s ideals when all around were losing theirs, but it was necessary that one should endure.