THE MEN WHO DIED FOR US

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 74, 21 December 1918, Page 8

THE MEN WHO DIED FOR US

A FITTING MEMORIAL

WHAT A CATHEDRAL STANDS FOR

[Contributed.] The idea of building a great cathedral ns a memorial to the men who died for us in the war, and as a thankoffering for victory and peace is a decidedly good one. A cathedral would fulfil all the requirements of such a monument. A national memorial of this character should bo worthy and appropriate; it should be as permanent as mortal man can make it; it should be eve; , visible and always accessible to nl!; ■' should be a "thing of beauty and a .-tiy for ever"; it should be the best of us kind— there should be nothing second-rate ab'.mt it.

A great cathedral would be all this. I! v.-ould bo an onduring witness to tho fact that the New Zealanders who inado (he , supreme sacrifice did not die in vain. It would stand as an assurance that for them death does not mean annihilation; that there is a "Power that makes for righteousness" who "will not leave them in the dust," but can ' and will complete their unfinished lives. A cathedral, points to eternity and speaks of Him who camp that men might, havo life and have it more abundantly.

A Central Sanctuary. The British race in all ages has felt that the memorials to its great dead should be associated with religious foundations. What Westminster -Abbey is to Britain the proposed Wellington Cathedral may ;\s the years roll on become to New Zealand. Sneaking of Westminster Abbey as a common heritage of English-speaking peoples, the Dean of Westminster recently said:

"In spite of all the changes arising from the advance in thought and civilisation, from the alteration, in fashion of government, and in forms of worship, the great Abbey has continued the central sanctuary of tho , English-speaking l«ople. The daily worship begun in Edward the Confessor's day has hero goni- on uninterruptedly, the witness of our Faith and tho unfailing source ot spiritual strength through Sacrament and prayer, 'through confession and praise, and through the teaching of the Word of God. Hither in their thousands come Britain's eons from Canada and South Africa, from fav-off Australia and New Zealand, from the Indian Empire and the Mauds of the Seas Hitherto, too, come hundreds of our brethren of the United States, nay, they come in thousands, all eager to lind in rhe old Abb?y.'their eomiu'in heritage from our common ancestry, the sacred pledge of a brotherhood indissoluble by time or distance. This house of God stood here in the days of Magna Charta. It has on its walls tho arms of Simon de Montfort; it has withstood the shocks of time and survived the vast upheaval of successive crises in the State."

The Spiritual Factor. The men who led the naval and military forces of the Allies to victory have seen and acknowledged the hand of God in this war. It is a remarkable fact that Foch, Bently, Hnig, Pershing, and Allenby are straight-out Christian men. So were Kitchener and Maude. All these men knew tho supremo value of' the spiritual factor in warfare, and would be tho first to declare their belief in the all-powerful hell) of an overruling Providence—of "One that, 'mid the i'ajling never failed." It is, therefore, entirely titling that a war memorial should takethe form of an architectural masterpiece which would stand for the fundamental spiritual realities— God, freedom, and immortality.

A Bond of Union. New Zealand has :i word of gratitude and admiration to utter. How will elie utter it? it should inspire our lx\st in literature, in art,/and in architecture. It will find appropriate expression in n cathedral whieli will lie a recording memorial which shall for all time be in evidence and outstanding in tinics of prosperity and of adversity, uniting hh as a coiniiiiinity by sacred memories of sacrifices, made in a common cause, and strengthening the bonds which biud us to the Motherland, to the other Dominions, and to our Allies. .

The proposed cathedral will 'be a memorial which will beautify this city, I his metropolis of New Zealand, and it will rest as far as can bn foreseen cenkally between the city's outstretched arms. A ini'jiioriiil worth erectinj;, for the people will not be satisfied with second best. A gem, if possible, of lofty architecture, and a modern shrine of the Christian religion. A memorial like Westminster Abbey, but not a Valhalla; of buildings which will in the future continue to store and perpetuale the records of our heroes of peace as well as of war, of our noble men of thought and force, and our noblest women. A memorial which will shed material grace upon this city—a structure which shall stand by day and sleep in the night sustained by the mass of its buttresses.

How ninny hands have wrought, duo Into G. F. Bodley, in his, living verso describe the typo left to 113 by the meii of old, our forefathers:— How many hands have wrought, ono mind conceived! Yet seems it as one great harmonious chord, Full., and complete, that soiwideth lastingly Through all the inassivo time it shall endure. "So stands the mighty Fane,- and lakes its share Of all as mountains do, j.oiv smiling back To Heaven's smile, then darkening to its frown, Claiming, and owning, its full share of all. So doth the massive Miiistar; now it glooms Dim, 'gainst the goldwi glory of Uh : West; Anon it kindles, lit from dawning East, A steadfast vision, clear, articulate - . Time's Most Sacred Wealth. Mr. H. G. Wells,' the most modern of modernists, bears testimony to the value of a cathedral. In one of his recent books he writes: "I do not see why there should not 'be, under God, associations for building cathedrals and such like groat still places urgent with beauty, into which men and women go to rest from'the clamour of the day's tonfusions. 1 do not see why Jiien slipuli; not make great shrines and pictures, expressing their sense of Divine things, and why they should not combine in such enterprises rather than work to fill heterogenous anil chaotic art galleries." So must the memorial bo- peacefully and quietly located upon an elevated site, and planned to overlook tho city not only fcom its terraced approaches, but from its external arcaded galleries and lofty roof parapets and lowers, witli outlook range limited only by Nature's hills and horizon. It sha.ll look placidly upon the city of the future, hiiminint; like a beehive,' with the kaleidoscopic movement of humanity on foot, ground vehicles, and those in mid-air, and upon the ever rolling sea; it shall greet them all the day and its presence shall l>3 felt in the night, and thus the people will never forget. It would certainly beseem this city of Wellington "if a new temple lift her votive brow" within its borders. "Bright bo tho Fabric, as a sfyr Fresh risen, and beautiful within!—l tare meet Dependence infinite, proportion just; A Pile that Grace approves, nnd Time can trust With his most sacred wealth, heroic dust."—(Wordsworth.)