THE VALUE OF HISTORY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1831, 18 August 1913, Page 2

THE VALUE OF HISTORY.

ARCHDEACON HARPER'S VIEWS. -'Archdeacon Harper, iii the course of his ssrmon at St. Peter's Church yesterday, and referring to the forthcoming centenary of the coming of Christianity and civilisation into the Dominon, quoted passages from a recent sermon by tho Archbishop of York (Dr. Cosmo Lang); on tho relation of tho old to tho new and of the new to the old, and remarked that those who had studied history knew tho tremendous importance of a knowledge by which nations had developed. One of tho moat serious outlooks of the present training of the young, in his opinion, was tho disregard paid to history, aaid there actually existed a conscience clause on ilio Statuto Hook of New Zealand by which a parent could claim exemption for his clu'ld from the teaoliing ol history at school, with the result that the teaching of that important subject was discouraged; 1 To despise tlio past was to imperil t'ho future, and tho old and the new must constantly bo in touch with one another if life was to continue and be strong. On the other hand, to live on the past was to lose vitality altogether. The Last had up to recently lived on t'ho, past, and liaa merely qxistcd witliont expanding, but now it had discovered the present its vitality was amazing. Those wlio attended r«xt Wednesday's Marsden centenary woaild gather inspiration by looking back on tho live 3 of those who liad faced similar problems and dangers to thosa we wero fac'sd with now. The great lesson learned from history -was encouragement in tho face of <jr«it difficulties, as they learned how God had through tlw ages guarded both His Church and nations from dcstiructiou, find guiided them on the civilising lines of Christianity New nations wore proud in their conceit, but as a great scholar had.said, "None of us aro infallible—not even tho youngest." And yet it was always the youngest who thought tlioy knew everything. That was New Zealand's danger. History supplied them with guidance, and showed how psople, infimtclv greater than they were, had made mistakes. History also warned them where thev were to lock for failure. They who despised tho past wero making exactly tho same mistakes with their eyes shut as the older nations made years and*generations a-ro. It was largely in the application of these principles that they would get guidance at next Wednesday's meeting, and they would hear much on tho first hundredth anniversary of anything in tho Dominion. They needed union with tho past, tho continuity of experience, and tho inspiration of a man like Samuel Jlarsd?n, who left all far C'lurist, with nothing tu liit'.p him such as we had now.