"RALPH CONNOR" IN LONDON.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 132, 14 January 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

"RALPH CONNOR" IN LONDON.

DR. CORDON AT THE CITY TEMPLE. 'lie visit of the "Sky Pilot" to~t¥e City Temple in November last was eagerly anticipated. Large congregations welcomed him. As chaplain of the Cameron Highlanders of Canada, lie has been stationed at Shorndiffe for some months, during which he paid a flying visit to Canada to visit his sick son. From an incidental reference, one gathers that he is out of danger. Or. Gordon in the pulpit lias a friondlv, familiar wav oi speaking that soon makes his hearers feel en rapport with him; hence bis passing allusion to his only son (■■[ wish I had more") and his six daughters ("not one too many") seemed quite natural. It was unusual to see a minister in military uniform (small khaki jacket and tartan trousers) standing in the place occupied so long by Dr. Parker and Mr. Campbell, but the congregation soon lost sight of externals under the influence of the preacher':; intimate, searching words. In the course of the sermon not a few men and women were moved to tears. The prayer was very tender and moving. The text was Genesis xxviii. 15 ("Behold. I am with thee" i, and the heads of the sermon were: —(I) Cod is, (2) Cod is accessible, C!) Cod is with us, the comrade of our ways. What the preacher said of the Bible, that it is a series of pictures, was largely true of his sermon. The congregation sat thrilled and breathless as he reproduced the

EFFECT OF IHK WAR DIU'M "as it beats across our land." "I remember the first time I heard tho war drum, how it heat down the street, saying. Come, come, come; come on, come on, come on!" (One seemed to hear the actual Leat of the drum.) "It conies into our homes, into the family circle. We look across at each other—the father, the mother, the boy. The boy's face loses its gay and gallant carelessness, and becomes serious •and grave. And the mother, looking at him, with a horrible fear at her heart, yet says to herself, 'Thank God, he is not a coward; and he will go!' And he does go. The drum won't let him stay. The drum drives him across the seas, over the hills; no mountain tops high enough, no seas wide enough to bar him. His heart is set upon it. The drum ~,ays, Come, come; come on, come on! The boy goes. Off he goes down the street- The mother smiles a brave and splendid smile, catching Ih-M last heart-piercing look that te'ls her all at once, in one blessed, supreme, glad, agonising moment that her boy loves her; he has newr told her that in words, but he told her then, just before he went. She creeps back upstairs and into his room, and beside his bed, and fiml?— Uoi, who knows sacrifice, cross-bo.u'ing, heart surrender, agony, becuise he knows love: finds, in this lonely desert room, God, with his arms about her, God, accessible and dear; and she. ris-rs with a great content, a great courage - in her soul. Say it to the people of England, to the .mothers .and fathers, with their glor'ous. splendid sacrifice that makes a desert of their lives: This place so desolate and rocky is glorious vith the presence •.-!' God." No one who was present can ever forget the impression made by the amazingly vivid vocal picture.