CHURCH SERVICES

Evening Post, Issue 98, 27 April 1936, Page 11

CHURCH SERVICES

THE FACT OF SACRIFICE

VICEREGAL PARTY AT

ST. JOHN'S

His Excellency the Governor-General

accompanied by the Viscountess Gal- "- way and their family, were present at '"[ a service of remembrance in St. John's ' ■ ;; Church yesterday morning. ';' • The lessons, Isaiah liii and St. John

"" 11, 47-57, were read by his Excellency. '■■"r'The soloist was Miss Helen Langton, '"'■* who rendered with delicate artistry * T"-'V and: restrained fervour, "Hear ye, "•""-■lsrael," from "Elijah." Mr."Lawrence

Haggitt presided at the organ, playing ' the lament "Coronach," while a.wreath '•' was placed on the Roll of Honour, and ;■ dismissing the congregation to the ■•'■■ triumphant • strains of Guilmant's •-march on Handel's "Lift up your Heads." "The remembrances of these days remind us of the fact of sacrifice," said the Rev. J. R. Blanchard in a brief address. "It is a fact which underlies . the Whole :of life. We live in a world -'where the very constitution of life itself or physical evils in the natural order or moral evils in the human • order create situations in which some " "make sacrifices in order that others

might.benefit. Not one of us but is a beneficiary under that fact. That bes.r ing so, we have to face the question— On what terms and in what spirit can • ■.'• we honourably accept the sacrifices of .'.■ -.others? It must be clear to everybody ; ; , ; that it can never be right to exploit -..-,,.'..such sacrifices. Neither can it ever be " right simply to take the sacrifices of ■■■-■others for granted. The sacrifices -.■-which others make on our behalf ■r- .should certainly be explored. We have

• „.-,,.n0 right to" accept the sacrifices of '"■' Mothers if such sacrifices can be render- "" "ed unnecessary. Neither have we any '.. .'■ right to accept them unless we are " living sacrificially ourselves. It is only as we are giving the return which is '-'-" possible'to us through the advantages i:.""!'we have that we can honourably ac- * "•. cept the sacrifices which others make "by which we go free from ill or reap ro some goodly gain. '.' v.~ ".Most, "of us give all this our assent ' and resolve to live accordingly. But we have often to confess that the resolve has not been kept. So many things in our hearts and in the world conflict with it and sometimes win the day. What we need is some constant fact which will focus itself upon our resolve and keep it alight in us. God has supplied that in the supreme sacri- .. fice of all time—the Cross of Christ. "'; That Cross makes us feel the sense of .' v a debt that we can never pay and in ■." gratitude and love to Him Who died '"• x' there we are moved to give life up to - • Him day by day. As we place each '"-■' day in His hand to direct for us we :" shall accept no sacrifice which others " ■"' make for us on any terms or in any ": spirit save those that are honourable. What we cannot manage for ourselves He manages for us, as we let Him. And • the life' thus managed comes to have

a joy of which no man can deprive it and to possess a peace which, be- ? '• cause the world did not give it, the world cannot take away."