The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1915. MUTILATING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2573, 22 September 1915, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1915. MUTILATING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM

The action of the bishops of the Anglican Church in Canada in the stand they havo taken against the custom which has sprung up in certain quarters of quietly dropping the second verse of the National An-' them is one which will meet with general approval and support. The irrational idea has got abroad that it would bo improper or irreverent to ask a church congregation to sing:

Oh Lord, our God, arise, Scatter his enemies, And make them fall. Confound - their politics. | Frustrate their knavish tricks, On Thee our hopes we fix. , God save us all. In some Wellington churches this verse is omitted, and it is high time that some protest was made against such an unjustifiable mutilation. According to a cablegram which appeared in yesterday's issue, the Lower House of the Canadian Synod decided to delete the verse we havo quoted, but the bishops appear to have no sympathy with this sort of feebleness. . Tney havo over-ruled the decision of the Lowen House, and have declared that tho verse can be sung with, all propriety in war time. A similar opinion was recently expressed by one of the bishops of the Church'of Ireland, and the writer of a letter.which rocently appeared in tho London Times objects most emphatically to tho practice which provails in some churches of omitting the "really relevant verse of the National Anthem." _ The majority of British people will heartily agreo with this writer when he declares that it i 3 "feeble in the extreme" to shrink from singing "Confound their politics," when wo want to see them confounded; "Frustrate their knavish tricks," when we know thoy are: knavish; "On Thee our hopes we fix," when we do or ought to so fix them. The pitiful timidity of those who are sh'ocked at tho directness of this verse is on a par with the objection which some people appear to have to the prayer for use' "in the time of war and tumults" contained in the Book of Common Prayer. The feelings of these over-sensitive folk are troubled by the.use of such plain, vigorous English in reference tc- German "frightfulncss" as "abate their pride, asswage their malice, and confound! their devices." It is really astonishing that any British subject should hesitate ■ about praying that the devices of a nation which is defying all the laws of God and man should be confounded, and its knavish tricks frustrated. The present is ■not a time for shams and makebclicves. It is a time for plain speech. Tho second verse of _ the National Anthem gives emphatic and appropriate expression to our abhorrence of Teutonic barbarity, and tho custom of omitting it should not be allowed to go unchallenged.