Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 19, 30 October 1942, Page 3

Thoughtful Moments

(Supplied by the Whakatane Ministers' Ax^ciation).

To survey the world's monuments is to review the world's history. From earliest times man has sought to leave binding expressions of the emotions that thrilled, the events that swayed, and the great characters that influenced his da}' and generation. lit is surely more than a coincidence that, the oldest memorials are of religious significance, although the deities they sought to immortalise were heathen and the worship they commemorate barbaric. In many instances the only existing records of vanished peoples are their altars or idols. Such was the great Temple of the Sun found by £ Spanish conquerors at Cuzco —at once the national cathedral and royal mausoleum of the Incas, that remarkable race whose past is the fadeless romance of South America. Such also is the druidical circle -we see to-day at. Stonehenge, formed of mighty masses of granite, brought, geologists tell us, from some far-distant region and elevated to their extraordinary positions at a time when "present-day technique of hydraulics and other lifting agencies was absolutely unknown.

Then there are the great landmarks of the Pharaohs. —the inscrutable face of the Sphinx, looking out through the centuries over the Sahara, and the mighty Pyramids— and Q multitude of other such memorials of the great things and. great men of the past. But, of all the world's monuments, there stands one which in its significance, dwarfs even the mightiest and most ancient, as the peak iof the lofty range dwarfs the rounded foothills. This statue, -which stands at the summit of the pass of the Andes between Argentina and Chile, is that of a King, but the sce'ptre He holds is a Cross, and the bounds of His conquest have all been set by Love. As I write. I, see the world fin an abyss of need and hear the tocsins of conflict, which mingle their discordant warnings even with the ringing of Christmas bells; and as 1 thin'k upon the demands of to-day, the problems of to-morrow, I am filled with forebodings of evil, but only for a moment, for I find / the answer to every question in that one supreme figure—the Christ of the Andes.

"Brotherly Love Between Nations The story of, this lordly statue cannot be too often retold in these days of national and international The season it celebrates is Easter, but the message it uplifts for all time to read is the burden of Bethelhcm's song, '"Peace on earth, good will to men!' Between, the adjoining republics of Argentina and Chile the boundary line had been a matter of long bitter dispute. Friction had -stiffened into enmity, and enmity was fast hastening the two nations toward war Avitli its awful bloodshed. Then, on a sunbathed Easter morn-

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

ing in 1900, a saintly bishop of Argentina preached, the Risen Christ and His law of brotherly love between men and between nations. Far and wide he proclaimed his message until his countrymen were roused to action. Across the border a Chilean bishop took up the same evangel, and, in his turn, toured his land, urging peace and reconciliation. Miraculous was the change wrought in public sentiment. Plans for mobilisation and fierce contlict to be pressed to the death were replaced by schemes for a lasting peace, and the glorious conclusion was a trcatj r of unconditional arbitration. And what has been the result ? 'Since that time the two' republics have signed arbitration treaties with other powers: their armies are reduced to the numbers needed for police; their warships sold or converted. into merchantmen. The Grand Arsenal of Chile has been made fi great technical school, and the money saved is devoted to public works, railways, and housing schemes. The attitude of the two nations to one another is changed from exasperation to trust and good will.' The very instruments of death, the guns of the frontier forces were melted and cast ,into a great bronze figure of the Christ. The Governments undertook to convey this to the top of the mountain pass, 13,000 feet up, amid the clouds. It was taken by train as far as the rajl'ls were laid, then drawn on a guncarriage by mules farther towards the summit: and where mules failed to achieve the ascent, soldiers and .sailors dragged it up with ropes.

All Differences Would be Covered On March 13, 1904, the glorious figure of the -world's Redeemer was dedicated in the presence ol' vast crowds of civilians and soldiers from both sides of the frontier. The Argentine soldiers encamped by invitation on the Chilean side, and the Chileans on the Argentine, each nation thereby showing that the interests of those whom they had looked upon as their bitterest enemies they would now take as their own —all differences would be covered. Martial music and the thunder of guns proclaimed the inauguration of the Law and Peace. Then, in profound silence, the statue was unveiled. As the sun went down and the old day died, the tAvo jjeoples knelt in prayer and gave their affirmation to the inscription engraved on the pedestal: 'Sooner shall these mountains crumble to dust than' Argentines and Chileans break the pcaee which at the feet of Christ the Redeemer they have sworn to maintain!'

The Bishop of Anctul, Mosenor Jara, with tlic zeal and vision of a prophet, uttered these noble words at the unveiling of the statue; 'Not only to Argentina and Chile do we dedicate this monument, but to the world, that from this is may learn its lesson of universal peace.'