EMPIRE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 122, 25 May 1937, Page 9

EMPIRE DAY

SERVICE AT ST. PAUL'S

KING & QUEEN ATTEND

THE NATION'S PRIDE

(United Press Association and British Official Wireless.) (Received May 25, 1 p.m.) LONDON, May 24. j Empire Day was favoured with brilliant sunshine, enabling witnesses of the Royal visit to' St. Paul's Cathedral, to watch in perfect comfort the customary observances. ' A congregation of 4000, including 20 members of the Royal Family, the Prime Minister, members of Cabinet, and many Dominions representatives, attended the service in the Cathedral. Four cantering mounted ' constables preceded the .Royal carriage, which was drawn by four greys ridden by two postillions, with scarlet-clad outriders at back and front. The King wore morning dress, and the Queen was dressed in lilac blue, with a fur collar. The Lord Mayor, Sir George Broadbridge, greeted their Majesties on the steps of the Cathedral! and as the bells spread their joyous sound the head Grecian "scholar of St. Paul's School presented an illuminated address to the King. The service began at noon an,d lasted for an hour. It was fully choral. It had the double significance of being regarded as an occasion for thanksgiving for the ' Coronation as well as an Empire Day celebration service. SERVICE TO GOD'S KINGDOM. In his sermon, the Archbishop of York, Dr. William Temple, said that the grounds of pride they felt in the British Empire were the freedom of fellowship \which united the self-gov-erning Dominions in the freely-offered loyalty to the Throne,' the tradition and ideal of equality before the law for the many races composing it, the maintenance of even justice throughout its borders, and the ready co-operation with others -in the common tasks of civilisation. Both as patriots and as. Christians they ■. should take a . pride, in the aspects of the Empire which qualified it for service to God's Kingdom, and should eschew the kind of pride which made of an Empire an instrument .-of self-assertiveness calling forth the resistance, of. others till it perished in the \ conflict it provoked. The Empire had its place in Divine Providence, and its very existence constituted the holy vocation of its citizens. Nevertheless, it was only too manifest that the world at present was not effectively subject to Divine authority, nor was God's .. sovereignty acknowledged, His law obeyed, and His purpose fulfilled.