CHURCH AND WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2594, 16 October 1915, Page 3

CHURCH AND WAR

THE SOUL OF ENGLAND GREAT PROCESSION AND SERVICE IN LONDON. In this equally balanced contest on the Continent it is the soul of England which is once again to free the world. No calamity can be ■ pictured more awful that if, at this supreme crisis in the history of the world, England should fail. —-Tho Bishop of London. Standing on the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral the Bishop of London spoke simply and movingly to his people .about tho war and its lessons. He called his address "Tho Soul of a Nation. ■ The most striking cartoon (said the Bishop) ho had ever seen was in tho pages of our greatest comic paper six months ago,- when Belgium had been ravaged up to tho last town. A dark figuro was made to 'say sneeringly to the Eiing of Belgium: "So you have lost overything," but with a noble pride instinct in' every feature the King answered: "Not my soul." It was a great and triio answer. Belgium in her poverty to-day was far greater than Belgium in her riches, for she stood puro_ in soul, unconquerable in spirit, untarnished in fame. She had lost her wealth; sho had found her soul. So with France. Those who had come' recently from Franco wore entranced before the change in the nation. There is a new France in the world to-day. Purified by a fire of trial of which we had no conception here, Franco'had found her soul. Again, those who had visited Russia had always loved tho great soul of her people. Russia would never be.conquered; not only because of tho extent of its territory, but because of the soul of its people. They might bo pushed back and back, but they would burn and suffer, and suffer and burn, as they went—they might loso the whole' world, but they would keep their soul. Having in turn referred to Italy, tho Bishop went on. to. say that tho Church, had come out that day to give a message to tho soul of our nation. "Have we got a soul?" ho asked, bluntly. "Who that knows the history- of the English people can doubt it?" was his answer. "It is a soul which gets overlaid, like the soul of other nations, with lovo of material comfort, with arrogance, and with worldliness, but the children would not be springing from all over the world to the mother's side if the motner had no sou!. If thcro had been no love of freedom, no belief in honour, no care for tho weak, no contempt for the merely strong, then there would have been no glad loyalty from thousands and tens of thousands who have rallied round her flag.

"We have had a call," ho continued, "addressed to the nation by its responsible leaders for universal service. .It is the greatest call which can be addressed to a nation. No other nation believes it possible. Everyone knows it is the last' time that wo. can afford to leavo tho call voluntary, but, if it can be given, voluntary service is the noblest form of serviced

"Can we admit for a moment that the soul of the nation which won Agincourt, which flung back tho Armada, which withstood for _ many years the armies of Napoleon, is not as great as the soul of other nations?

Tlie Bishop went on to say that he believed that in this equally balanced contest oil the Continent it was the soul of England which would again free the world. But t-o rise to that task there was necessary prayer and penitence, a spirit of service which must impress tho world, and a spirit of saving. No one s'et realised the changes which this war was going to make to all. Rich men now living in large houses might be living in cottages after the war—but the test of whether tho soul of tho nation was rising to its vocation was'whether it was ready to bear all cheerfully, so long as it had kept its honour untarnished and fully achieved its great aim. When we were fighting for tho freedom of the Homo of Freedom, for the liberties of tho world, for international honour, for Christ upon the Cross as opposed to the revived pagan doctrine that might was right, the Church called upon the' nation to say that no sacrifice mattered if wo won. •'We summons then the soul of Engfand to arise in all its grandeur and strength at this crisis of tho day of God. Como," lie cried, with a dramatic gesture of entreaty, ''from the four winds, thou Breath of the Spirit, and breathe upon this great people, that hope and faith and lovo may once again revive and the world be saved again by tho soul of a peoplo!" The vast crowd of Londoners—rank upon rank of Territorial soldiers, alono over 3000, and behind'them numberless thousands more of civilian citizens, filling tho churchyard and packing Ludgato Hill from sido to side —was deeply moved. For the Bishop's voico rang out high and clear through tho rain-washed air, so that everyono could at any rate catch his spirit and meaning, though manv of his words wero lost.

It was a plain drumhead service. Tho assembling placo for the soldiers was Trafalgar Square, and the Bishop marched at their head—mostly through tho rain—up tho Strand, Fleet Street, and pudgata Hill, between crowds greater

than on any Lord Mayor's Day of recent years. Down came the rain in sheets, but the khaki lads swung steadily along to. the rousing march music of their best* brass bands, while tho Bishop smiled more persistently as his lawn sleeves became more of a hopeless wreck.

Both the Bishop and the little group of Army chaplains who walked with him were wet through by the time the shelter of the Cathedral was reached, but as soon as they had changed into dry surplices the storm passed, and five minutes later a flood of golden, evening' sunshine lit up the hoary west front like ono great jewel, and turned the glistening pavement where tho stood into a sea of glass. It fell upon, the heads of tho greatest and most serious •throng'tho hill has seen for many a day. It fell upon the bare head of the Bishop as he stood by the grouped drums to summon the people of London to solemn prayer; upon the silver of nis I crozier and the gold of the processional cross, and it fell also upon the greater cross which, from the summit, of the dome, seems to dominate the city as a symbol of final victory. First came the grand old liymn, to the grand old tune, "0 God our help m ages past." Everybody joined right down to the middle of Ludgato Hill, where the congregation looked, from the topmost of tho Cathedral steps, nothing but a fading blur. Then the Bishop spoke, from the test, "For what is a man profited, if he shall whole world and lose his own soul?" His sermon was tho kind that a plain man would wish to preach to. plain men in their days of plain, basic emotions, and it rose to an eloquent climax when he quoted the lines: ' "No easy hopes or lies shall bring us to our goal, ■ But iron sacrifice of body, will, and soul." There were some striking and iiODly worded petitions in the litany of intercession—the chief act of tho servicer— which followed. They were intoned by cantors, and the responses camo up from the assembly like the murmuring of wind. Thousands of men stood bareheaded to the end. Tl . , In the centro of the steps the Bishop, with closed eyes and fingers interlocked, and isolated figure, focussing the emotion of the hour ; behuid and above him a phalanx of officers, disciplined and grim; below, the great praying company of men and women. ' "That it may please Thee, was one petition, "to. draw nigh with bright visions of tho future, to all those who will yet dio in this war. ... "That' it may please Thee to take our cause into Thine own hand, giving victory to our amis, if it be Thy' jand restoring Belgium, France, andKusI sia all that they have lost. "That it ■ mav please Theo to grant tho knowledge of Thy companionship to those who are in agonies of snffermg on the battlefield or in hospitals. ~ . .' . ' Taking his pastoral staff in nis hand, the Bishop blessed the people, and afterwards they sang together the National Anthem, the officers standing at tho salute. Since the Coronation there has been no finer scene. _ "It was, I think"" remarked tho Bishop later, "the most successful openair service I liavo ever conducted in London." •

After referring to the- great impressiveness of this remarkable _ open-air service, a writer in the "Daily Mail" Overseas Edition remarks: "The Bishop ■of London has greatly increased . his hold on tho affections and re-spect of all classes since tho outbreak of the war. Wo always knew him to be a real man. We always admired his straightforwardness, liis sincerity, and his simplicity. Everyone who watched liis career in the East End, first at Oxford House and then as suffragan bishop, knew how fine a leader he was. In the old days he was known as the bishop who prepared his sermons on tho top of a bus. Since tho war he has led the _ religious spirit of London in no uncertain way. Ho lias worked hard among the troops in camps. He spent one strenuous period at tho front. He strikes the note of determination, resolution, and faith which this country to-day needs."