A NEW NATION.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 257, 9 March 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

A NEW NATION.

THE RIGHT REV. J. E.C. WELLDON, D.D., DEAN OF MANCHESTER, DISCI'SSES THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR.

Tho effect of war on the Briti-li people in general is a lareg theme. It touches the life of the nation on many sides, and in many forms and degrees. But there can lie little doubt tb.it it deserves and commands consideration, in view of the time which j>liall come after the war.

The war has produced, and is producing, a new sense of national unity. Little more than two years ago the nation was divided, if not distracted, by the rivalry of various sects, parties, interests, and ambitions. There was a bitter antagonism of politicians, both, without and within Parliament. There was an aggravation of niisuiiaeistanding and ill-feeling between ti.e rich and tlie poor, between the employers and the employers, between labour and capital. There was an imminent danger of civil war in Ireland. But in the crucible of the war the nation has felt itself to bo one agai'n. Tt is ready to hear the noble warning of its own great poet:—

. We are a people vit, Though all men else their nobler dreams

forget, 0 Statesmen, guard us, guard thfe eye,

the Soul Of Europe, keep our noble England

whole, And save the one truo seed of freedom

sown Betwixt a people and their ancient throne."

LESSONS LEARNT IN THE TRENCHES.

Men have learnt in the trendies lessons which they would not, or could not, have learnt elsewhere. There, tho youth of high rank and lordly wealth, with civery opportunity /if rase and pleasure and luxury spreading before him, has flung his life away as though it wero a common thing, for the Nation and tho Empire. It has been stated that as many ;ie a hundred heirs t.i titles have fallen on tho battlefield' of Europe and Asia. But there, too, the private soldier, who but the other day was the man in the street, with nothing as it seemed, of light and lustre, of distinction and elevation in his story, has, although no glamour of notoriety dawned upon his vision, yet fought and suffered and died without complaint, but with a sublime and simple heroism, it is not long since I heard a wellknown representative of the Labour party picture to an audience of working men the young aristocrat "the toff,"' the "dude," as he called him, sauntering down Bond Street in London with his gloves, spats, and 1 cane, as though tho world were all his own, and he never needed or meruit to do a stroke of work in it; the speaker called him "Algy"; and, having so described him, ho drew himself up, paused for a moment, and then, in ringing tones exclaimed, "Where is Algy now?" "He i> in tho trenches," was tho answer which he gave to his own question: and the working men burst into round upon round of applause. It is impossible, that men who have been so intimately allied in war by the solemnities of life and death should not after the war, show one another a deeper respect and a kidlier courtesy. They will think less, far less, of social distinction; they will tiling more, far more, of the common heritage which they have saved, though as by fire. They will come home prepared to eo-oporate before, for the safety and dignity of the State.

CHI'RC-H SHOULD FOSTER NEW PATRIOTISM.

It is inevitable that a certain elevation, both public and private, should issue Irom the war: Tfie men who have I ecu patriots in war w ill not cea.se to lie patriots in peace. They will be impatient of the ungenerous selfishness which lia.i bidden them, in time of peace, to strive, and to strive only, or chiefly, for their own interests. The motto of their lives will lie no more, "What can I get from the State?" They will net, indeed, always reniemlier it, or always act up to it. But 'twill come home to them, as a solemn thought, that every great permanent benediction upon earth is unattainable by self-pleasing mid self-seeking; the price of it is, and must ever be, selfsacrifice. It will be the office of the (.'lunch (anil I use the word Church 111 its broadest sense) to guard the new spirit- of self-sacri-fice ; to see that it does not wane and at last die in the process of the years; to see that it tends to the accomplishment of some definite and noble purpose; for as the soul of man ascends to a loftier height, like some mountain climber in Switzerland, he loses sight by slow degrees of the inequalities and of the valley which lies bene Ith him; and all the houses and lottaircs of the little village lrom which he. set out merge into one whole. So in tho Chur.h of Christ too. the elevation which the war brings will gradually obscure the sen-so of differences of worship; and Christians will draw near to tho realisation of their Divine Master's prayer that "they may he one."

WOMEN'S XOBLK ATTITUDE. Isut it is not tlie por^itimi of men alone tii,'it will lii- affected hy the -war. I'or in it, the women of Britain have played ;i noble part. They have undertaken duties from which they had been exemptei! Udoro, and, having undertaken them, tiny have performed them well. T/iey have toiled long hours uti- < oiiiplii in in <r!y upon the manufacture of muuit'ons. They have, except wllere iho curse ol drink has claiiiM d tliem fofits victims, maintained their homts and tlier families honestly and devotedly, ti tlio lu'ipe of their hushands' return. I hey have gladly ami proudly surrendered their and brothers ami kinsmen io service at the front; and when (In- news has eomo that thos-> whom they loved will never return, they have braced themselves Pi the long and h ird l»;il-l!e ot 1 ilo l ,wth hroken hearts it may he, hut uiih. wills unbroken a:id un'reakable. It is certain that, v.,.men, by their silent and spleiv d:(| service, have (lone lar mere than they cou.d evi r have th no hy wanion agitation to win ior them-.ehos the pel. II leal 11 a il"!iise. But \\ hel her t hat i,' :;i"lii-" he, or l ;( , i;«.t, the result <if iho uar. wo u ill eul r. with the -canal as-ent i,j the eriiiiiniiiiitv. upon man;, in iv lines r>f occupation wlien the

war i ; over, and the State, it may lie : i'i d. w i'l b.< relieved fro:n the t hrcal ■ e-'ing ' vil id' an cver-gro .ting dissatisfied c'a-'s in its midst.

Til!'; IMI'KIMAfi SKXTI.MKXT. TV" war. too i\ i : ! '-re ( or ecr-enf u * ■ C-o Tnitvri' 1 f-ent'im nt ia all elas?thn neo|)h>. Afanv thou- - • '■ • ' levet i ■ -t. ■ f rVf-'i'i I f -e. will 1, ,ve ■ nii;-<!i f.... iff moans n : ]A rv t and India.

They, and others like them, will havo fought side by side with the gallant soldiers of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, of South Africa, nay, of India. They will not havo failed to ask themselves how the Empire, of which these nro tho component parts, was created, and how it can ho maintained. It may to that they Will not wholly apprehend the secret o'f Empire. But they cannot be blind to tho enduring and ennobling power of those high principles upon which tho Empire rests, as it has ever rested —justice, freedom, progress, and tho respect of the strong for the rights und privileges of tho weak. If they come to feel —and who of thorn will not ice!? —that tho British Empire is the noblest and grandest secular institution upon the earth, then they may well vow that, as far as in them lies, tliov will r,spire to live not unworthily of their imperial mission. "Vain mightiest fleets of iron framed, Vain those all-shattering guns,

Unless proud England keep untamed Tho Strang heart of her sons." But tho patriotic and Imperial sentiment of British hearts will, in the future, bo the very opposite of the German spirit which, under tho title of Kultur, has threatened to sweep away the p'llars of civilisation and Christianity. For if Germans like Treitscho and Bernhardt look upon the State, and indeed upon the German State alone, as the highest object of interest and worship, and hold that 110 act which s done at tho bidding of the State can be an inhuman or immorol act, that is a doctrine, and events have shown it to ho a doctrine, false and base. For as tho family is subordinate to the State, and tho city to tlie State, so the State fails, and must ever fail of its true worth and glory, unless it recognises th.it beyond and above its own interests lies the duty which it owes to civilisation, to humanity, and to God. THE RELIGIOUS RESULTS.

Tho war has raised, and will raise, deep religions questionings in many hearts. Jn the presence of so lurid a tragedy over all the world it is difficult to apprehend that God raiy be all-holy and all-loving, and yet, if He gives man liberty, must let him do evil as well a-3 good; or that the war is the outcome not of Christian teaching, nor even of perverted and distorted Christian teaching, but of such teaching as is avowedly opposed to the mind of Jesus Christ. Yet amid sorrows a.nd sufferings man turns, as he has ever turned, to tho strength and solace of religion. There are sailors and soldiers who knew not God before but have found Him in tho lonely storm-tossed waters or in tho blood-stained trenches. In the daily and hourly presence of death they havo felt that the sou! alone is all-important, and that it wiuld not profit a man to gain tho whole world and to lose his own soul. They have felt, too, that the present life is not everything;that it is but the vestibule of the life eternal.

Tho lied Cro c s has been tho one redeeming feature of the ,*var. It has been tho promise and the token of a power which transcends the war. So, when the war is over, and tho boys come homo again, it may prove by tho blessing of God, that the new society, which has 'wen horn amid fie travailpangs of suffering, will yet l.e a hp.tter, holier society, nearer to'Chri-t and His Crow, than any which the world has ever known.

Every great- and commanding movement in tho annals of tho world is the triumph of enthusiasm.—R. W. Emerson.