TRUE MANLINESS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1379, 4 March 1912, Page 2

TRUE MANLINESS.

KIOV. C. ]•'. ASKKW'S ABDIIKSH TO 1110 X. At three o'clock vcslerdny nflornoon at St. .Murk's Church a special service for mon only was held, a largo number bring present in spile of the heavy mill. Prior io the commencement of the service selections on the organ wore played by Air. L. L , '. Wntkiiis; and II r. (,'ulvenvcll sang a sacred solo. - Before addressing the'men ihe liev. C. Y. Askew (vicar of St. Mark's) sairt that it gave liini great pleasure to see so many present in such inclement weather on that the first occasion of the. men's services which would hi< held on the first Sunday of each month. lie wanted those services to l<o ;\ power for goad in the , parish of St. Mark's when they would gather at the Church month by month to worship, sing, and pray together nnd to do something to extend Christ's Church in this particular part of His vineyard, lie appealed to the men to makj the men's services known and to bring in others who attended no place of worship. Mr. Askew took for his text Jeremiah V, 1: "Itun yo to and fro through the itreets of Jerusalem, and see now, itnd know, and seek in the brood places thereof, if ye can find a man." lie said: If there is one thing above everything else, that appeals to the Englishman all the world over it is, 1 think, true manliness. We like a man to be natural and unaffected, a combination of strength and gentleness so that it can be said of him in the words of one of Shakespeare's wellknown characters, "Jlis life, was gentle and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say to all tho world, "Phis was a man'.'' Now, evidently the Prophet Jeremiah .found it a very difficult matter to meet with one. combining these qualities; and I think that what was hard to find three thousand years ago is none too plentiful a commodity even in these days. "Hun you to and fro through the streets of 'Wellington (I am now quoting from a revised version of my own) and sock in the broad places thereof, and see if you can find a num." 1 think you will agree with me that one of the qualifications and one of the chief characteristics of true manliness is courage. And when 1 speak of courage 1 do not mean the mere animal courage of the prize-fighter who, for a monetary consideration, is willing to be pounded into a jelly. The highest form of courage is moral courage. ]t 'is the courage born of conviction and means principles; it i.s one of the first characteristics of true manliness. Another characteristic of true manliness is reverence. Irreverence in any shape or form is the sign of a shallow mind. When a man realises that life is a sacred trust, that no man lives to himself, and that no man dies to liimsslf —that is to say, when ha realises that ho has a relationship to his fellow beings and that relationship is full of meaning and responsibility, then there can be ho room for irreverence in liis mind. We find that another qualification of Hie tnifl man is conscience. Conscience prevents the farmer increasing the. quantity and decreasing the quality of liis milk at the pump; it will stop the fruiterer putting all the big strawberries in the front of the window and serving you from the little ones that he keeps at the back; it forbids the grocer sanding his sugar; it prevents the draper giving Sain, instead of 3(iin. of material to His yard; it makes every workman an honest workman—one. who uses his master's time aright. The fourth qualification is religion. There are , some people in this world who seem to imagine that a nun surrenders his freedom of thought and liberty of mind when he becomes a Christian. Was President Lincoln less a man because he was a Christian? I should not like to tell an American so. Was Captain Ilcdlny Victors less n soldier and a man bocausc he wus n Christian? And what of John Howard, prison reformer, and Fox. the African missionary? We want our churches filled with more men possessing these qualifications— courage and reverence, conscience and religion. Yes, alulMve want men to feel that the Church cares for them. I pray God that there may go forth from this Church a body of men who will determine to do all in their power to help on this work that we have just started today, lien, I want you to re,ilsie that the Church cares for you, that wo recognise in every man a brother no matter what his position in life, may be, that wo realise they are immortal souls for whom the Son of 'God laid down His life. If wo can only become permeated with this spirit", then there will bo built up such a Church in this parish that men outside will be influenced by our doings and our lives, and we will'transform the whole life of this parish. I. rejoice at seeing you here to-day and I pray that each man may go forth and determine that he will innlw those 'characteristics his own, ami that for the future he. will manfully fight under the banner of our Captain and Master our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.