ANZAC DAY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 18, 26 April 1916, Page 3

ANZAC DAY.

LOCAL CELEBRATIONS. MEMORIAL SERVICE IN THE TOWN HALL.

A memorial service, conducted by tl lo Revs. Tinsley, Pattison, and Adjutant Cook, was held in the Town Hall last evening in commemoration of An/.ac Day, and the building was about half filled. The music was sup-! plied by the combined choirs. The ‘Rev. Mr Tinsley offered up ! <, prayer for the boys, who hard lost thenlives at the front, and those who are still in the fighting lino. J After further prayer by. Rev. Mr Pattison, Adjutant Cook read a portion of the. Scriptures. | ; j. Rev. 'Mr Pattison expressed their regret at having omitted to invite the. military.

In the course of a short address,, Air Pattison said those present;,bad met on a unique and: momentous,.oheasion, viz., to eelehrate the landing of the New Zealand forces on Galli-; poll. Just a year ago, in conjunction, with our Australian Allies, the troops' in the face of great difficulties secured a footing on the Peninsula. Con-, fronted by wire entanglements and laud mines, and in the teeth of rilloi and artillery fire from the enemy posted on the heights, the men. with grea t bravery and great loss advanced j and dug themselves in.. The teat was well-night impossible, and oxpoivts, doubted whether it could be. aceoni-j pii shed." The enemy thought it could not be one. Rut the Anzae^ : tlu> impossible. Now the world celebrates their splendid daring,and in-! vincible courage, 1 at has .to consider j the “sacrifice,(they madojfor us.” The. men gave. - not- .their money only, or their, good wishes, but gave iocs. Why? j For love of adventure? For, a desire for romance,? “FoF ;a wish to i see something of the' wbrl'd? No ' These motives may have mingled :u them, but the chief inducements voro j more worthy. They made- the great sacrifice for fathers and mothers, , wives and lovers. They heard the call of Country, the call of the Empire, the call for men who would light for right rind liberty, and they obeyedWho are they? .Hur follow citizens, the pick of men, most of , them from good homes, men of high principle and clean lives, our sons and brothers and friends. Thinic of _tho large company from the Stratford district win, had fallen—Colonel Maiouc, Privates Anderson and v and .others known to the afidienie. They had to gratefully remember that they laid down their lives for us. These men shared with us the belief that precious as human life is. there is something dearer than life. Rather than stand by and see international treaties thrown to the winds, weak nations crushed under the heel of the strong, France stripped of her colonies, bled to death by indemnity, and placed under military domination ;than see Russia overrun and depleted of her territory and her resources; than see our Empire- imperilled, our liberty in danger—then our young men, the young men of Australia,New Zealand, other colonies, and the Homeland,, came forward and voluntarily laid down their lives. But theirs was not the only, or, perhaps, the greatest | sacrifice. It often cost more, for the j father and mother to. give up their j son, than for him to go. There are j circumstances when it means a greater j sacrifice for the wife to remain at j home and-take on the care of busi- 1

ness and the family,, not knowing whether the husband would return. The Auzac celebration should mean a solemn dedication of the people to the task for which our soldiers gave their lives, and which they left unfinished. The goal ior winch they fought and died had not yet been reached, ft was still a long way to Constantinople and Berlin. Rut,

please God, the country fertilized and made sacred by their blood must he won back again. It would have to he our inflexible determination that no alien hostile flag should wave over the soldiers, graves. -In order to attain this end, it was necessary that the people should remove all moral hindrances out of the way.' There were sins in our national life that should lie put away. The people had hoped that the war would hay^ ; turned the heHgf-s of the people to U|Ml. Rut there would seem to he anymore:;so of frivolity, of gambling, ami impurity. In France., the sale of certain alcoholic drinks was forbidden; ip Russia, by one stroke of the, pen, .the Czar had given his people-prohibition. One of the Chaplains who came hack to Sow Zealand on Christmas Day, records his impressions:—“l was amazed and saddened as I walked through your towns to see the gaiety and luxury, the ease the lust ior pleasure that obtained in every street. The scene was nothing less than an outrage on my feelings; for I had come from the midst of your sons and brothers; men broken, bruised, mangled and crushed, and blinded while fighting tor your liheH'ies and comforts, and I said to myself, 'New Zealand dbhs not resile : wlltft’ ; ifilH war is.’ ‘You afe ‘asleep a „ dream. . . . You ‘think you' hove ■'■V •-•■* , . . 1 •' WMW'MIiIiivMWHI •«. r’hpi, giyen your donations-. - 1 tell you inis war has not yet the hearts or the pockets of pefpile 2 l)f 4 this' Dominion.’ Picture valley and glens in the Homeland where not a young man is left. Look into the factories ami see women at work. See, long line..; of trains bringing home the' sick am] wounded, and you see a. nation that i;ealjses to the full that wo are.engaged in the most ruthless war that evjer has cursed the earth. But while united, in the unalterable determination to continue the great struggle to a successful issue, we should conduct it without bitterness, amt in a spirit of Christ.” A Minister writes:! “1 have on mv table letters i -••me-" , from almost every camp in England, , ■ f 1 ’I *■».;> 4 | 111 ’Ui n . ■ : . ■ I from Scotland, Egypt, and fbe Front. . ’nue ~ i ■ u.. • , 1 I,search in, vain fpv one outer or angry word a|a/i}st Germany. T’he nearest, approach is tbpMiojVe of one that ,)ya mav soon be sent across, to strike a

blow for the liberty of the nations.’ 1 The Rev. Tinsley, in a short address, said they were assembled- to do homage to the past; to remember with gratitude the self-sacrificing labours of our soldiers, and to lay on their tqmb our wreath ot humble acknowledgment. Tn the commemoration of Auzac, the Church of God bad a peculiar interest for several reasons. It revealed the inherent worth and dignity of man. They knew Dow certain it was that a body of men, numbering thousands, selected primarily for physical fitness, not moral correctness, should have in their number many whose characters, would not bear the closest scrutiny. It , was easy to understand that a Christian bouyed up with the consolations of religion would nut hesitate to give his life in a noble cause; it was harder to believe that a- self-centred, selfish, godless man would do so. And yet among the men at Auzac, thpre must have been some, perhaps many, answering to that description apd

I these were the men who helped to ! crown rlie. name oi our iaikl with Lory. This proved that there was (something iu man that was supromei|y worthy and ,instilled the lofty (conception Christ held or man. (Should the people .judge the worth ol those men liy their unholy past or by 11hoir supreme sacrifice i Surely the (dignity and worth ol tnose men was ishown hy choir dcatii and not by their !past, They must judge the value of Leu not by what they are hut hy what they arc capable oi becoming. The speaker asked ; “Are not men who are capable of such sacrifices worth saving for . God i teliutiid we not endeavour to make the conditions nf life such that their host and not their worst will be developed r 1" An-

jjsjic justified Christ’s conceptipn- <>• man and anything wl.icii would help to impress that conception upon tap world had a peculiar interest for the Church of dad. Anzae illustrated on n large scale the id^al,()!;, the .C'ross. Ift was eminently fitting that'the anjui versary of Anzae should , follory. so I close! v upon tlie anmvei.Ajy Oi 'Christ’s death. What was the ideal !„f the Cross? Was It nor self-tor-jgetting sacrifice for others? And was not that the outstanding feature of Anzae? There were some people who scoffed at the doctrine of Vicarious Sacrifice hut this conflict was one great lesson in \ ieanons Sacrifice. When little Belgium decided to pit her strength against the mighty power of Germany she ch.ofjfo, the way p,l jihe Cross. For , one., priceless, fortj'nighi she, stayed , the onslaught . of, i’G-'ermahy and cnahled the Allies fjp, ' prepare *to meet that huge thnyst ' t<(lvarfls Paris. " And when, i she , was, : ghVdrilT down under the heel of Germany, her .suffering, in . a. )( v.ory real sense, was for ai1.,,; Sl\Q saved ( th° cause, and of - hgr, it may tyidjldully be said, “Surely she hath borj|e; jour griefs and carried..our. ..^o,

also of Anzae. Did, tli.ey jthinjc, Germany wanted the British ifles, already full of people and about to be]come a worked-ont mine? Xo, she {.wanted the. vacant lands of England in the Southern Seas. Though the dads ■ fought in anot her land they fought for ns just as truly as If their life blood stained the,-grass in their native fields. Our men arc'suffering for us ; they. ai;e reflecting dm no dim light the- glorious ideal of the Cross. And the Cfiurdi of God cannot l>o> indifferent to this .modern- representation of the, teaching of a Calvary. 'AnzgjC represents the triumph of-tlie {good, and appeals only .to wbati as; noblest and best in ns. The. germs-of , cowardice are to be found in. most men. At all events every brave-man knows what fear is. The truly brave man is be who, though conscious of danger, overcomes Ids fear and acts as though it did not exist. And on that glorious day, which now wo

commemorate, the weak been mo. strong, the. strong became as giants, as with an immortal pen our boys wrote the glorious story or Anzae. And now as we look back upon it, its silent appeal comes to call,ns out 'of our smug repose and our selfishness ; comes to demand from ns ihe sacrifices so grandly made by item' I I'l'ho task' is still before us. Tne <ny ■is still for men and "more men. Sitfedy that cry, the cry or our dear dead, will, not be uttered .n vai'P'. j (hiring the service ’be hymns sung were: “(Jod of our Fathers at ‘‘Whose call,” “Nearer my Cod, to Thee,” and “Lead Kindly Light.” f As a result of a colir'oi-m taken ; during; the service a sum’ of money ■ will be banded to the Wounded Soldiers* Fund.