THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10250, 29 May 1911, Page 3

THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

SERVICE AT ST. MATTHEW'S OHUIiCH.

In his sermon to men in St. Matthew's Church, Masterton, yesterday, in commemoration of Empire Day, the f/icai* (the Rev. H. Watson, M.A.), took his text from Acts XXI., v. 39, "A citizen of no mean city." The vicar said: "St. Paul was proud of this fact. Though ho had travelled far and wide, his thoughts went hack to his home, the city of his birth, the busy seaport town on the Mediterranean, a centro of commerce and learning. He was proud that ho was a citizen of the great Roman Empire, a position which carried with it great ' privileges—privileges that lie, on more than one occasion, claimed. We appreciate this feeling. What man is there, worth his salt, that is not proud of his town and his country. We, and all English people are, and wo have a right to be, as members of the greatest Empire the world lias ever seen. Our national institutions, our national holidays, our Empire Day, all impress upon us our privileges and responsibilities as members of the British Empire.

"In this connection we a rc meet here » this afternoon, to praise Almighty God under whom kings rule and empires continue. To thank Him for past goodness, to pray to Him to continue His care and loving kindness, and to consider our indebtedness, and our duties, as members of an Empire on which the sun never sets. Let me put I before you three points for your consideration. (1). God Almighty has given us this Empire. ■ (2). He lias at; the same time prepared and qualified I us in some degree to sustain its bur-' den and responsibility. (3). It is only as wo remember the first fact and try faithfully to fulfil this trust, that our Empire will continue. Taking the first section —"God Almighty has given us this Empire." Go back to the early history of the Island home land, consider its physical conditions ; bounclecl on all sides by the silver sea, able thus to dwell quiet and secure. , A land of enormous wealth. All this helped to make her independent. Consider the many different stocks from which the British race has been reared —Romans, Jutes, Angles, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, all came in turn and have left their mark on our nation and on our character. So the i nation grew. To the homeland came, j through God's goodness, the faith of Jesus Christ, the greatest pioneer in the world. It is impossible to estimate the influence of the Church on the constitution of the Motherland. She gave the idea of a United Kingdom when Britain was divided into many different kingdoms. She, by her councils, afforded a pattern, in fact, suggested a National Parliament. She it was who made the State, not the State created the Church. The first national parliament met for nearly four hundred years in the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey. It was the head of the Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who drew up the memorable Charter of our English liberties —the famous Magna Charta. She championed the cause of true national liberty against over-reaching king and foreign Bishop. All this points to the finger of God; how He has called us out of the darkness into His marvellous light, how He has made us who were, before we had learnt of Christ, no people, the greatest nation the world has ever seen. In the marvellous expansion of our Empire we; cannot fail to see the finger of God. When Henry VIII. died the town of Calais was the extent of our foreign possessions. There is no time to trace the stages of our growth. To-day some 9,000.000 square miles (the land surface of the globe is only 50,000,000 square miles), are under the British flag. One fifth of the world's population is governed by the British Crown. Never was the increase so amazing as in the reign of our good Queen Victoria. At the beginning of her reign we owned about 2,000,000 square miles of territory, at the end nearly 9,000,000 square miles. Nothing like it has been seen in the history of the world. How has it come about ? How has this world-wide Empire arisen ? Partly by conquest—only a small part. Much has come without our seeking or desiring it. It has been said England has acquired half the world in a fit of absence of mind. Our Empire has grown in spite of ourselves. These vast tracts of land over which waves the British flag have been entrusted to us by God. "God Almighty has given us our Empire." (2). God Almighty, in his great goodness, has somehow trained and schooled and prepared us for the responsibilities of this great Empire. The British race has a gift for governing and colonising that no other race has ever enjoyed. . The French have hot this gift, nor the Germans, neither the Americans. In America there are not a hundred miles from coast to coast that has not been the scene of an Indian massacre. In Canada, where the Indians were just as warlike and just as numerous, not a single war or a single massacre is on record. What other nation would, nay, could havo held that great Continent of India as we have done, would have governed it as we have done—solely for the sake and benefit of its inhabitants, the Mohammedans and Hindus. Egypt—that desert land —is being made like the garden of the Lord, regenerated and transformed

beyond imagination by the great j scheme of irrigation. God has given us certain qualifications for Empire building, and a genius for colonisation and government. (3) Only as we remember this, and strive faithfully to fulfill the trust, shall our Empire continue. The study of history is instructive and profitable ; history repeats itself. That fact in itself should make us tremble. Every great Empire so far has had its day and ceased to be— Ninevah, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. Why was this? It was because the ruling race became lazy and luxurious—enervated by pleasure feebled by vice. The decline started from within. The ruling nation fell because she proved herself no longer fit to rule. She had lost her high ideals, she bad lost her sense of right and duty. There are some who say that such signs are already evident, that the fall of the British Empire has begun! T would say no such thing. Ido say that if we as a people forget our God, forget that it is God who has given us our Empire, forget that it is God who has given us the characteristics and qualifications to rule and govern, then we can no longer hope to maintain those characteristics and the power to rule. Materialism has been the cause of every great Empire. The old Empires had their religions, they had their strivings after that which was lofty, true, and eternal. When they lost"these ideals,

when they lived for pleasure, put the earthly things first and sought only th© base, vain things of this life, then wont their ideals of duty, of honesty, of patriotism, and in the struggle of the nations they went under. We como to the root of the matte i Has the religion of Jesus Christ the same hold on tho British people that it had, or are we a people forgetting God ? It is not easy to answer such a question. But, are we not a people breaking away to an alarming extent from the institutions of Christianity ? Take public worship, or the observance of Sunday. That day of rest we owe to Jesus' Christ. Is it too much then that we should sanctify it and keep it holy? That-it should bo a holy day and not a holiday, that it should bo a day of worship, a day for thoughts of higher things, not merely spent in the enjoyments of eartly pleasures. Then there is tho training of the young. There was a time when every child r.t school was taught the message of God's love —to-day it is not so. To-day in this country tho Bible is banished from the schools. The religious training of the young is left entirely to the parents. The rightful teachers, true. But are they doing it ? Are they "ven assisting tho Sunday School teac The influence of the home is the most important of all, for if God be forgotten in tho home, He is certain to be forgotten by the nation. This is the very root of the matter. Is God acknowledged in the home? There are many homes to-day in our Empire where God's word is never opened, 1 where a prayer is never uttered, where there is nothing to distinguish them from a heathen home. Remember, the father is the head of the home —no one can take the father's place. I leave these thoughts with you. You love your country, yon are proud if your Empire. God help us to fulfil the trust he has committed to us, faithfully to do our duty and never to forget Him; for it is by Him and Him alone that kings rule and nations prosper. God help us to remember that it is righteousness that exalteth j a nation.