LIKE MOSES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 504, 6 November 1928, Page 9

LIKE MOSES

Primate Looks Back on Fifty Years CHURCH STRONGER TO-DAY (United Service) LONDON, Monday. The retiring Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. R. T. Davidson, preached his farewell sermon in Canterbury Cathedral last evening. It was broadcast throughout Britain. The archbishop likened himself to Moses standing on Mount Pisgah looking back through the anxious years, but be said he was certain that the people he loved and had led were destined to see greater things. Moses had marked his people’s power and promise under God’s guiding hand and accordingly had looked forward hopefuily. “I also look backward, outward and onward,” said Dr. Davidson. “I do not think I underrate the variance within the Church, but some variance is the outcome of eager life. Yet. controversies have touched the most sacred questions. We are all blameable —at least I am blameable. “God forbid that I should belittle the gravity of such a question as the ministration of the Eucharist. The solution of the variance necessitates considerable patience and abundant prayer. Such questions have been raised and solved in England before and will, under God’s hand, be solved again. It would be a graceless and a thankless mistake to regard surface differences as an outstanding fact in the Church to-day. “Looking back over half a century I am firmly convinced that the Church is far stronger and more zealous and that it has a deeper vision of God’s purpose than when my working days began. Even the Prayer Book discussions have evolved a more thoughtful spirit of unity, of purpose and of prayer.’