DUTY OF A SOLDIER.

Press, Issue LXVIII, 31 December 1912, Page 9

DUTY OF A SOLDIER.

SERMON - TO SCOUTS

Tho Scout cadet "tamr* at Mr J Johns's farm, on the "Waimakariri, wa visited on Sunday by a number o; members of the C.E. M.S. horn Feudal ton, and a'church paramo was held, tin service being oonducted by the Rev T. A. Hamilton, vicnr of Fendalton. In the courso of his sermon Mi Hamilton said that a good soldier wiv ready to follow his leader, to endurt hardships, to please his captain, and it disengage himself from pleasures ant amusements. The preacher refer red t: the old custom of'armiiig all men, ant he mentioned, that a new system wa. 1 afterwards organised by -which boclie; of men wcrxi set apart as. a standing army. The hulk-of the nation, heiiu engaged in civil life, forgot their warlike habits,, and the fibre of mnnkinc took in the germs of dry-rot when tin exercise and discipline of arms was in longer required tfs a duty, the force ol the disease being only partially arrester by the passion fir national games. The profession of arms would be confined now to the officers and non-com missioned officers who would have a complete knowledge of military defence, and would weld masses of men, year after year, into perfect discipline. Tin preacher went on to say that it was not our ships or guns which would he our defence, but the heart and spirit of the manhood behind them. Persons who declined the task of self-training, fo'.f-diseipline, and self-sacrifice, in the interests cf the nation, and- wlio gaw entirely to self-indulgencr ami* pleasure were, he said, rightly termed '"rotters" or '"useless aud inefficient persons."' The preacher concluded his sermon by pointing out the dangers of modern lifeand temptation.