ANZAC SERVICE

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21146, 23 April 1934, Page 12

ANZAC SERVICE

HEROES AND HEROISM

ADDRESS BY REV. C. EATON

In the Durham Street Methodist Church, last evening, an Anzac commemoration service was conducted by the Rev. Clarence Eaton. Miss Jessie Duff sang "There are no dead" and Mr W. E. Crewcs R. L. Stevenson's '•Requiem." The choir, under the direction of Mr Melville La wry, sang Die anthem "Saviour Thy Children Keep."

Preaching from the Corinthians 16.13 "Watch ye stand fast in the faith," MiEaton described the text as a call to heroism: an appeal to every man to exhibit those noble qualities of which human nature under inspiration was capable. During the Battle of the Landing and the prolonged test of endurance that followed, men fresh from vocations of peace had shown an intrepidity and a dogged tenacity which had lifted them to those shining heights man called heroism, he said.

In all heroic actions, said Mr Eaton, one clement was ever present—the unconscious. The hero was never a hero in his own eyes. The true hero did not hold his life cheap. He never thought about his life. The essence of heroism was sclf-forgetfulness. And if heroism was something hidden from the actors, it was for the most part hidden from the spectators, too. The world would never know how many brave men won the V.C. on the rugged heights and lonely gullies of Gallipcli. Heruisin in Private Life Heroism was not .so exceptional in human lile. .is \\a>, commonly believed said the preacher. The life of man on earth was designed to produce heroes and the arena of daily life provided ample scope lor * the heroic. Ruskin had said that: trade had its heroes as well as war. and in nothing was the potential greatness of man more evident than in the discovery of unexpected heroism i• transfiguring even degraded manhood. ! Referring to the heroism of science, Mr Eaton reminded his hearers that not only by the expenditure of millions of money, and the utilising of the finest resources of the human brain, but also by the putting forth of superb courage had the destroying germs of deadly disease been driven off the track oi human progress. Side by side with the heroisms of science to secure crealure comforts and minislir to the bodies of men, stood the heroes of the Cross, whose nobler mission il was to elevate human character and recall the ! race to its lost ideals. The Spiritual Klriiu-nt II Hi.. .-|in .-■! io'i w a ; a.-l;ed: "Whence iconics thh» power called heroism?" we j must answer: "It is not native to a bulldog breed. It is not merely a matter of ai.ccstiv." Heroism had more I than a physical 'lkims: it proceeded I from the spiritual element in man: it Was rooted in spirit and life. Heroism ! was a fountain fed by many streams ! -patriotism, mother-love, and re- ! ligion.