ARMISTICE DAY

Evening Star, Issue 20135, 27 March 1929, Page 4

ARMISTICE DAY

OR LANG'S REFERENCE Preaching in St. Paul's Cathedral recently, Dr Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury, made reference to Armistice Day. “ U is not in resolutions and societies and treaties that war is first to be abolished, hut in Dio hidden man of the heart,” he said “It is he who must seek peace and ensue it—in his daily attitude towards his neighbour, in his daily thoughts, still more Ids daily talk, about his foflowmen of other nations, in Ids restraint or prejudices about them, in his refusal to think the worst, and his readiness to think the host, of them. “ And, just because Die ultimate conquest of war depends upon the conquest of the spirit, there must be some motive. some power strong, enough, constant enough, to penetrate and possess this inner region. AVhcrc is such a motive, such, a power, to he found? “ It is idle, to trust that democracy will of itself make the world safe. History rebukes the delusion. If passion is kindled, crowds only extend the range and fierceness of the fire. And are there not somo who, in the very name of the pensile, not only defend but proclaim the use of violence as an instrument of policy? “It is idle to think that the instincts of self-preservation and the memory of the horrors of war will suffice, for memories are short and passion sweeps self-interest before it. Can we even trust to the restraint’ ot treaty obligations? Fourteen years ago we learned how ambition and fear will break them. Truly, here we cannot forgot the things ■which our eyes have seen. ‘‘ No, for a. spiritual contest only a spiritual force can avail. . . , "To the church, therefore, as to the nation, the message of this Day of Remembrance is spoken— 1 Take' heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest' thou forget.’ ”