RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 36, 10 February 1917, Page 14

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

THE MISSION OP OU» RACE. (Sermon preached in St. Peter's, Tabapima, by the KEY. W. a. MCLNCKION, Sunday, January 28, 191.7.) "And all nations shall cntl you blessed; for ye shall be a delightsome laud, salth the Lord of hosts. ,, —.Va.achi iiV. -. !-• .These words were apokesi to the Hebrews, and contain the prom a c of God i:ie nation if the nation would but turn -s) Him and oboy His precept* , - But tiiey are also th« pruuiiee of God to all nations tiiat love L'uii and keep His commandments and fuJlil GoJ's in the world. For every nation hai , a mission in the world, and in proporti» in as it carries out that mission so doe 9 the blessing of God re3t upon it. ThY Jews were called upon to keep alive the . knowledge of God, the Greeks to inform ' the intellect of man, the Uoui-Jne to pro- ' mote justice on the earth. Each nation ( failed in turn—the Jo»\s when they gave ■way to idolatry and fonnaJisni; the Greeks when they massacred the inhabitants of Melos and set out on the iUstarred Sicilian expedition; the Romans | when-Pilate sought to subordinate justice to the will of the rabble. And so each nation found its house left unto it desolate. What then is the mission oi : our own r;-L-e, and how are we fuiiiiling . it? In the dim ages of the past that ' land which we enil home was cut off I from the continent and niude an inland, | and to it came in turn all the sea rovers i of the north—the Saxons, tiie Jutes, the | Angles and the Danes. Rouph seamen, ■ maybe, but all fired with that free, ad- i venturous roving spirit that was later to giv-e ns such men as Drake and Raleigh, and lay the foundations of ouri maritime supremacy. But more wus | needed. Liberty unrestrained might i easily degenerate into Jirenee, and ao we ' saw the coming of the Normans with ■ their strong sense of iaw and orJer and their chrvairous instincts. Thus was o.;r land slowly far' ' mod to be tuie cradle of liberty and .c home of justice and •. free institutions. Our mission was the I mission of bringing to others the blessings we enjoyed in such rich measure. And we have, by the tn-ercy of God. keen true to that mission. Not always, and to our failure much of the pre>«Ml Btruggle in Europe is due, but on the ■whole and in the main we have striven i to do God's will for ns in the world. I Let mc try and illustrate this by a few references to the history of Europe in the Jaet hundred years. The history o> the last century is the history of the interplay of three great forces —the force of democracy, the force of national ity, and the for.-es of reaction. Thi' French revolution, representing the force of democratic impulse, came under Kapoleon into eonilh-t with the force of nationality, or the desire of man to live in community with those of his own kith and kin. We fought the despotism ot the greet Corsiean, and for some time we fought it alone. Those who may be tempted to despair may well take hemt from the hietory of England in 1797. Austria, the last of our allies, had deserted us, the Fleet had mutinied at Spithrad and Sheernees, Ireland was in revolt, and there was grave disaffection in Scotland, and we stood alone against the victorious armies and th-e inexhaustible resources of France. But the national spirit rose to the occasion, and our steadfastness rallied tlurope once again, till at Leipzig and Waterloo Ch*. power of Napoleon was finaliy crushed. in 1826 we upheld Portugal against .Russia, Prussia, and Austria, who were trying to crash the Constitution granted to hia people by the kinaf. and we cemented our friendship with what Can ning railed "out oldest ally, , ' and Pcrrtu ga! in turn has come to our aid to-day. Together with Russia and Fran<e we liberated Greece from the yoke of the Turk and so gained those treaty rights which have stood us in suoh good etead in regard to our occupation of Salonika and our dealings with L'onstantine. It ie doubtful whether we intended to fight the battle of Nararino, in whiuh the, navy of the Turks was overthrown, and a chance incident sefins to have started the fight, but our sailors were infuriaf.ed by the crueilty of the Turks, and we met the Turkish demand for an apology by referring to the battle as an "untoward event" in the next speech from the throne. When the liungririan* were fighting for indepen-lrnce under riosauth ■we could not actively interfere fn the interna) affaire of Austria, but the English p pie gave Kossuth a great welcome in London. We riupporti'd the Sultan in his refusal to deliver up the refugees who had fled to Turkey, and the incident of General Hayuau showed on wihioh side our sympathies lay. In suppressing the revolt Haynau had flogged several women with merciless severity. When he visited England the droymen of Barclay and Perkins" brewery tied him to one of the drays and gave him a flog ging to let him sec what it felt like. Austria was fririoais, but the English Government refused to take any steps unless the general came back to England and pointed out the men who had arnaulted him. This he was afraid to do, and Austria threatened to withdraw protection from Englishmen travelling in her territory, which drew forth the retort that when they found an English man behaving aa Haynau hao done we did not desire prote<jtion. To-day there are thousands in Hungary who remember; our action then, and who pray daily for the success of our arm-s. \Vhen Italy was struggling for unity and independence, and Garibaldi sot out on that eeeming-ly cray expedition known afl, the "Expedition of the Thousand.' , British cruisers <rave him indirect assistance both in landing in Sicily and iv embark ing a.g-.un for the mainland. Hundrc-is of Englishmen fought in his ranks, and w» showed our sympathy in a dozen other ways. Italy has not been forgetfuJ and she has ranged herself with us today on the side of liberty. Though we -did not give active he.'p to France in IS7O, yet after the war we brought pressure to bear on Bismarck to reduce the indemnity by £40.000.000, and in 1375 we protected her from the rage and gTeed of the German. There are countless other incidents that will oeaur to your minrle of the part we have taken in promoting the liberty and happiness of t>he European nations. I hpve only men-tion-ed a few. God bas called ue to continue that mission in a grimmer struggle than the past has ever seen; the nations Jean on us as on a rock; all the weaJc and oppressed of th« earth are looking for protection to that mipiht of the sea with which God haj endowed us. And if we are true to His purpose God's promises will not fail, but all the nations will call us bless-pd, and our land will be a delightsome land to dwell in saith the Lord of boets. Additions are being made to the Salvation Army's Home at Russell for aoldiere , boys. A rather interesting sight was jbeerved recently, when the little ones from the honW; laddies from four years o* age up to ten, were busily employed carry ing the timber required fo* their Qome*