RIGHT, THEN AND NOW

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVII, Issue 9127, 24 October 1917, Page 5

RIGHT, THEN AND NOW

The Archbishop of Canterbury, in the Abbt'\j at a special service 01 uu«aessioii':— " 'J'hrce years ago! It seems like IU. Some of us iiud it hardly possible-...t0 'think ourselves back.into tJm'.pre-' war days, or revivify in visibu thosunny homes, the radiant hopes, that t£ieu": '."were ours. 'Then caiyre' thtrfifst w-e'ekV and months of war. At this anniversary time we pause, and jtake stock of the three years' outcome. Face it squarely at its grimmest and "ite saddest. Try to belittle nothing, to exaggerate notlnng., is' it all worth' while ? l/oes the-issue which shone out so clearly in those first days bold, good?' If we could have foreseen in all their dire ghastliness these - three years of Hiu'man strife and devastation, should we have acted as we did? Would -we reverse it now if we could P Ask, that question, up and down the land, and ;th.Q Answer irom almost every thoughtful man and woman would roll back overwhelmingly. AYe wore right then. We are right now. Horrible as it all is, and was, we could do no other. On us, the men and women ol this generation in the world's life, the duty, the privilege has, at a supreme crisis, been laid ol upholding, on our country's our Empire's part, the principles of good faitth and honour j and, as it seems to us, of liberty and of' ultimate peace. -We are not alone- Our great Allios have in' their own .way, and- with -us ,fche same grave task-to fulfil: Notably wo thank God for the incoming on our hide of the'great Republic oi the Western World. That fellowship, arriving when it did, 'is the surest human witness that could be borne to the greatness of our cause. It knits a strong and sacred bond, which is to outlast these tempestuous years and to weld our peoples in imperishable brotherliness of service for the welfare of the world. • On us at hdine 'the call Impatience is almost i stefmu 1 than ior those afield." , n<- <