THE COMMON WEAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 130, 4 June 1934, Page 3

THE COMMON WEAL.

MONARCHY AS GUARDIAN. REV. 11. K. ARCHDALL'S VIEWS. A historical review of tlie changed outlook of man in relation to monarchy was given in a sermon prcachccl by the Rev. H. K. Arelidall, headmaster of King's College, at a special service at St. Matthew's Church yesterday morning. The service was attended by Lord Bledisloe and Lady Bledisloe. and the lesson was read by his Excellency. The congregation was a large one and included members .of the consular service, representatives of the Auckland City Council, .Auckland Harbour Board, Auckland Transport Board. Auckland Hospital Board, Waitemata Electric Power Board, Navy League, Victoria League, St. John Ambulance Association, 01d° Boys' Fire Brigades' Association, members of the Returned Soldiers' Association, Legion of - Frontiersmen, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides and a Highland pipe band. The Legion of Frontiersmen, accompanied by the pipers, the boy scouts and girl guides, formed a guard of honour to his Excellency. The service was taken by the Rev. K. Vickery and the Rev. M. G. Sullivan, and reference was made to the illness of the Eev. Canon C. H. Grant Cowen, vicar of the church. • In his- sermon Mr. Arelidall said that it was learned from the early history of England that not only did thriving himself recognise that his own obedience to law, human and Divine, was Hie way to stabilising the throne, but he taught his people to respect those principles, and the result was. that the principle of order arid discipline was not an unfor.tunate infringement of liberty, but was the condition of the growth of any freedom worth the name. The belief that there was a common we.ll of the community had sprung from a spiritual conception of the world and human life, and of that common weal the King was the guardian. It was important to realise, said Mr. Arelidall, that since She renaissance of tho fifteenth century another and less worthy idea of the nature of sovereignty had been struggling to oust-that older conception. The new view, which had a pagan origin, tried to organise society apart from God and to base the ordering of man's life upon force. "A Christian King." "Well, I say that we should thank God that our" monarchy was not born of this .whole negative set of secularist ideas," said the preacher. "Our King is still a Christian King, and however much our society may have become infected with secularism, it cannot cross out that fact." The British monarchy was one of the people's chief bulwarks against secularism, and no community which worshipped at the shrine of secularism, which sought to organise society apart from God, could logically claim to be in line with the principles of the British monarchy, and it certaiuly could have no great future. The people had to rescue their education from the danger of secularism and not rush to material panaceas when the only cure was a moral and a spiritual one. People were all living 1:1 critical and \ perilous times, for the great culture of Europe seemed to.be weakening. J lie result depended upon the clear thought, the moral courage, the de.;;> determination and the consecrated er.deavour of ordinary mortals, and that in turn depended upon people's widespread acceptance oi the grace of God, which alone could save them from their past selfishness and moral weakness.

The service concluded with the sinking of tlie National Antlieni.