CAMBRIA'S SONS

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19251, 5 March 1928, Page 11

CAMBRIA'S SONS

HONOUR THEIR COUNTRY. SERVICE AT THE CATHEDRAL. A largo number of Christehurch citizens who are proud to 0"" n themselves sons and daughters of Wales forgathered at the Cathedral yesterday afternoon to take part in the tenth annual Welsh service in connexion witli St. David's Day. Dean Julius conducted the service, and his Lordship Bishop West-Watson preached the sermon. Madame Gower Burns contributed the solos, "0 for the Wings of a Dove" and "Praise Thou the Lord." Mr Ernest Rogers and choir gave the Welsh national anthem. Mr A. M. Owen was organist, Mr F. Squire conductor of the choir, and Mr H. Glaysher was harpist. The following Welsh hymns were sung: "Aberystwyth," "Bryn Calfaria," "Sancteidd," and "Bhondda." Mr A. L. Jenkins read the lessons in Welsh. This is the only Welsh service in the British Empire outside of London and is held in the Cathedral by permission of the Dean and Chapter. The' Bishop's Sermon. "You arc gathered here this afternoon to thank God for the history and spiritual legacy of a small but very brave and very gifted people," said his Lordship, in his sermon. The service would also stir them up to live in the spirit of the lives and saints of old in these more prosaic and commonplace days of ours. In past days and even down to our own times there was a real danger of the special character and language of the Welsh people dyiug out. But it had been realised that it was a solemn duty to preserve for the race as a whole the special experience and contributions of different peoples. And so dying languages had been preserved and cherished, and old records, songs, and ballads saved from oblivion. The idea of cosmopolitanism, which used to be cherished by some and still is cherished, was to obliterate dividing lines and standardise the world. This was done with some success long ago by the Roman Empire, with the result that private and national enterprise and interest were crushed. It was only in the shadow of the Great War that wo seemed to be awakening to the fact that national differences were for the enrichment of the world. We existed for each other, and no member of a family of nations could be oppressed or decadent without [ the health of the whole family suffering. ■ A Long-suffering Country. "Few nations have suffered more from stupid misunderstanding than Wales," added the Bishop. Saxon and •Norman had little in common with the Celtic genius and tried to mould the Welsh to their ideals. And yet, if they had been able to realise it, each had that to contribute which the other needed. For the Englishman, with all his solid worth and kindliness of heart, his genius for order and efficiency, lacked the poetic lire and mystic penetration of the Celt. There were virtues in such a temperament. If the Saxon was not unduly elated in success he was hard to depress in disaster. But he had the faults of his virtues. He carried his matter-of-factness into his spiritual life. Poetry was not his national speech, and music was apt to bo an effort to him if it went beyond the popular and the sentimental. In his religion he found it difficult to soar into the heights and to see the invisible. And hero lay the strength of I the Coltic temperament, with its artistic, poetic, and religious gifts. Around the chair of the bard gathered Welshmen of every section, old quarrels and differences forgotten, things of earth left behind, seeing visions and dreaming dreams. If it were hard for the Englishman not to bo an agnostic it riwas hard for the Welshman not to be jja believer. A Message to Give. Surely we were made differently in order that we might help each other where one was weak and the other strong. Instead wo often made these differences a ground of contempt or hatred or suspicion. Here in this new land came a fresh start as each contributed his racial gifts to the common life. The Bishop continued: "I take it that it is not simply because you I want to hand down to your children the pride of their heritage in a land of heroes, saints, and singers that you gather here year by year, not simply to remind yourselves of grey old ruins sleeping in vales of rest and beauty, or of church or chapel where forefathers are worshipped, but because you feel that the message and mission of your country are needed still and arc yours to give." Great Welsh figures. lii our civic life and social work efficiency and regulation were not all, added Dr. West-Watson. It was not by might or by power but by the kindling of the sacred flame in the heart that great and lasting things were wrought. The great names of the past fired the blood. To a Welshman the patriotism of a Llewelyn, the fire of a Morris, the Scriptural zeal of a Bishop Morgan, tho spiritual zeal of a Charles of Bola, brought a kindling of spirit. "You are of one blood with saint and hero of the past," concluded the Bishop. "Their love and sacrifice call to you as sons and daughters of Wales."