BESSBROOK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. Co. Armagh.

On Sunday afternoon [January 22, 1922], at 4.30 o’clock, at a special service in the Bessbrook Presbyterian Church of which the Rev. Henry Dinsmore, B.A., is the worthy pastor, a war memorial tablet was unveiled and dedicated in the presence of a large and representative congregation.

“As many as eighty-four members of the congregation responded to the call of King and Country in the Great War, and of that number sixteen including the former minister, the Rev. Alexander Stuart, C.F., made the supreme sacrifice. In grateful remembrance of the men who laid down their lives and in honour of those who were spared to return, the congregation installed in the church, immediately behind the pulpit, a splendid pipe organ which was dedicated on 11^th December last by the Right Rev. W. J. Lowe, M.A., D.D., Moderator of the General Assembly of the Irish Presbyterian Church.

A handsome brass tablet, which forms the centre panel of the pulpit, has now being provided, recording the object of the erection of the organ and containing the names all members of the congregation who served, because of the fallen appearing above the text, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” within an artistically engraved representation of a laurel wreath.

The unveiling and dedication of this tablet took place on Sunday afternoon and the seating accommodation of the sacred edifice was fully taxed. The attendance included a large gathering of ex-servicemen, for whom pews was specially reserved. District Inspector McFarland, the honorary organist of the church, ably presided at the organ throughout the service, and the choir was under the efficient conductorship of Mr. James A. Downey, the precentor of the congregation. The unveiling ceremony was fittingly performed by a lady whose indefatigable Red Cross activities throughout the Great War merited the appreciation bestowed on them, Mrs. Hunter Moore, of Moore Lodge, Newry, who was accompanied by a husband, Mr. Hunter Moore, and the tablet was dedicated by the special preacher at the service, Captain the Rev. Andrew Gibson, B.A., B.D., C.F., Lurgan, who was dressed in khaki and wore the distinctions conferred upon him for service in the Great War-the Military Cross, the 1915 Star, the Victory Medal, and the Allied Medal.

The service was opened with prayer by the Rev. Mr. Gibson, after which the 100^th Psalm, “All people that on earth to dwell,” was heartily sung. The Scripture lessons, which were taken from the 25^th Chapter of Hebrews, were read by the Rev. W. J. Kerr, B.A., B.D., Kingsmills. The 124^th Psalm, second version, “Now Israel may say,” and the hymn, “The son of God goes forth to war,” was excellently rendered. After the Lord’s prayer the hymn, “O God our help in ages past”, was sung by the choir, the congregation joining in the first, third and sixth verses. The offertory followed and a sum of close on £14 was realised, the collectors are being Messrs. Hunter Moore, Noel Harland, Edward Moles, David Haire, Samuel Pink, Andrew Dales and Rufus McClelland.

THE SERMON

Captain the Right Rev. A. Gibson, B.A., B.D., C.F., then preached an able, eloquent and appropriate sermon from the text; – “Seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses” -Hebrews XII. I.

Passage of Scripture, he said, processed a charm all its own. It made its own appeal to what was high and holy in men. It was the challenge of God to the earnest minded men and women of every generation that had seen God flame forth in judgement across the path of nations. But what did they understand it to teach? How did they interpret it? If they regarded it as only referring to mysterious and mystic heaven that lay beyond, whose inhabitants were watching them, keenly interested in their progress, that was but a partial interpretation. To come under its spell the needed to stand off from the text and to let the whole Book, come under their view up to that point. When they asked themselves what was the writer’s aim when and he sat down to pen that epistle they would discover that he was writing to Jews, to prove that all the symbols of their faith had found expression in Jesus Christ. Their ritual, their ceremonies, their temple worship were but shadows of which he was the reality. The writer was not limited to the Jewish nation only, but was embracing the whole world by linking these men and women of the first century with all the great heroes and heroines of the Faith in all ages. He was unfolding the great purpose of God that had been manifested from the beginning of history to establish his kingdom of Righteousness, Truth and Love in the world. And God called Abraham revealed his purpose in the words of that call- “in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” These men and women of the Jewish Roll of Honour had not received the promise though they died in that faith. He committed their trust to the succeeding generation to complete, if they could, the task they had striven to achieve. Thus the sacred task confronted them in their own day. They were the heirs of all the ages and they also had their cloud of witnesses in the men who are died to secure the freedom of the world, and whom they met that day to commemorate. The men who had died ever first in the pride and affection of their hearts. Standing in that pulpit he was humbled when he remembered that the former pastor had been doing his work in France when he was killed.” One shall be taken and another left.” Surely for all who survived God had still some work, and at such a service he prayed he would clearly see what that work was, and anew dedicate themselves to it. These men were the appointed ministers of their deliverance. They held back a cruel and relentless for, until this snapped his confidence and broke his strength. While he hoped they were not so arrogant as to say that their own nation won the war, he believed it could be affirmed without being again said that if had not been for the help and resources of the British Empire the world’s freedom could not have been saved by all the other efforts of mankind. In a day when many were succumbing to the fatal paralysis that somehow the war was not worthwhile, that was something to remember with humility and gratitude. Only by remembrance, by thinking of them one by one, by such memorial tablets, with the community keep their ideals high and tread the clean, white path of duty and need be, of sacrifice.