RELIGIOUS WORLD

Evening Star, Issue 15906, 11 September 1915, Page 10

RELIGIOUS WORLD

THE SOUL OF THE NATIONS

DRUM-HEAD SERVICE AT ST. PAUL'S.

Sunday, July 25, was observed throughout London as a day of intercession on behalf of the King, the nation, and the land and sea forces of the Empire. Services, were held not only in the churches, but in the open air in each of the rural deaneries of the diocese. More than 3,000 London Territorial troops attended the service, which the Bishop of London conducted on the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral, and beyond the troops a great congregation of people filled one half the circle of St. Paul's Churchyard and spread in mass down Ludgate hill. In spite of the rain thousands of Londoners turned out to see the procession of the troops from the Embankment to the Cathedral. The Strand, Fleet street, Ludgate hill, and the streets which lead into these thoroughfares have seldom before been so thronged on a Sunday afternoon. The whole route was lined by people, standing as tightly packed as the usual open umbrellas would allow (London's fine days are few). Women seemed to be in the maiority. There was no cheering. The procession as a spectacle was robbed of some of its effect by the miserable weather. Its main purpose, how ever, was not to make a parade of martial splendor. There was no rattle of rifles or flash of bayonets. The display was of men, not arms; and though bands, brass, bugle, and fife, played them on their way, it was impossible to forget as the men marched along that they were going to a solemn service of intercession. • The troops formed up shortly before 4 o'clock on —e Victoria Embankment, with the head of the column at the Trafalgar square end of Northumberland avenue, and the rear of the column near Waterloo Bridge. Half an hour later the Bishop of London arrived by motor car at the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Field. Under the portico wore wailing a dozen wounded soldiers, in blue hospital uniform; and an escort of the sth Battalion London Regiment—the London Rifle Brigade—of which Dr Ingram is chaplain. The Bishop spoke to one or two of the wounded, and then, preceded by the Rev. Hugh Matthews, ca-rrying the cross, and the Rev. Eric Hamilton, carrying the crozier, he walked to Northumberland avenue and took his place near the head of the procession, which marched by way of the Strand. Fleet street, and Ludgate hill to the Cathedral. At 5 o'clock when the troops took up their places at the foot of the Cathedral steps rain was falling in a heavy perpendicular shower. The drops danced and splashed on the flags, and the men, who had paraded without great coats, must have been wet to the skin. The Bishop and the clergy'who walked with him in the procession were also wet, but they escaped the most drenching 10 minutes of the downpour. Just before the half hour the rain ceased,.and the dazzling sunshine which follows a summer shower suddenly flooded the churchyard. The Bishop took his place behind the piled drums of the regiments, and Bishop Bury, the other clergy, and the officers grouped themselves around him on the steps. Below the drums, in a wide khaki semi-circle, stood the troops, and densely packed all around was such a congregation as few preachers could hope to gather together to hear an ' appeal. Before the address the hymn 0 God, our Help in ages past,' was played ' by the massed bands under the ] direction _ of Sir George Martin. The troops joined heartily in the singing. —The Bishop's Address.— The Bishop's text was "For what is a, man profited if he shall gain the whole world and" lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul." He said that the most striking - cartoon he had ever seen was in the pages of our ' greatest comic paper six months ago. It j was when Belgium had been ravaged up j to the last town. A dark figure said i sneeringly to the King of Belgium: "So you have lost everything?" But with a! noble pride instinct in every feature, the j King answered back: "Not my soul.'' It was a great answer and a true'one (the Bishop continued); the soul of a nation is more than its material possessions. What does it profit a nation, if it gained the whole world and loses its soul? Belgium in her poverty to-day is far greater than Belgium rich with the rubber trade from the Congo—for she stands pure in soul, unconquerable in spirit, untarnished in fame. She has lost her wealth; she has found her soul. So with France. Those who have come recently from France stand entranced before the change in tho nation. There was a time when the antagonism to the Roman Catholic priesthood_ seemed degenerating into a hatred of religion; Paris was the home of gaiety and the fount of fashion. But there is a new France in the world to-day—ab-solutely one, with a passionate patriotism which is like a flame; all pleasures are flung aside—she pants for the day when the fair provinces taken by the enemy shall be restored, and the fangs of the wild beast which have been fastened in her shaken off. There are no great national resources in France available for comforts for the soldiers. Paid their franc and a-quarter (about Is) a day, out of this the wife saves enough to" send some little comfort to her man in the trenches. Purified by a fire of trial of which we have no conception here, France has found her soul. J —The Patient Soul of Russia.— And what shall we say of Russia? Those of us who have visited Russia have always loved the great soul of Russia. To Palestine every vear, for every 10 pilgrims from other countries, there come at least 1,000 from Russia. Beneath the vodka habit, behind what often seemed a lack of mission spirit in the church, behind the old mistaken political methods which produced so many revolutions, a great soul breathed, and at the touch ot the purging fire it has been revealed. In a week the vodka was flung aside, in a day the nation was unified under its leader; within a month freedom was promised to the nationalities under its sway; the religion which breathed beneath great State functions was seen to be genuine, and the great patient soul of Russia was revealed. Let us pray to-day as we never before prayed that, Warsaw may be saved. But whether Warsaw is lost or not Russia will not be conquered. Russia will never be conquered—while the world lasts; not only because of the extent of its territory, but because of the soul of the people. They may be pushed back and back, but they will burn and suffer, and suffer arid burn as they go—they may lose the whole world, but they will keep their soul. The Church has come out to-day to give a message to the soul of our nation. Have we got a soul? Who that knows the history of the English people can doubt it ? It is a soul which gets overlaid, like the soul of other nations, with love of material comfort, with arrogance, and with worldliness, but the children would not be springing from all over the world to the mother's side if the' mother had no soul. If there had been no love for freedom, no belief in honor, no care for the weak, no contempt for the merely strong, then there would have been no glad loyalty from thousands and tens of thousands who have rallied round her flag. Can we admit for a moment that the soul of the nation which won Agincourt, which flung back the Armada, which withstood for many years, and finally conquered, the armies of Napoleon, is not as great as the soul of other nations? Rather we believe that in this equally balanced contest on the Continent it is the soul of England which is once again to free the world; no calamity can be pictured more awful than if at this supreme crisis in the history of the world England should fail. —A Nation on its Knees.— But if /we are to rise to our vocation the first essential thing is that as a nation, not as a f«w groups of pious individuals, but as a nation we should turn to God; the only power which can save Europe to-day is a nation which, while it_fight3 and works and serves and saves without stint, is also a nation on its knees. Do we really believe in God's strength? Do wo believe in an Almighty God at all? Or is prayer waste of time?Do we really believe in the promise,

Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" ? It is for that reason that I have summoned London, as the archbishops have again and again summoned the nation, day and night to pray. But to pray with effect we must pray with a good conscience, and that, is the real significance of the Church's call to repentance. .Repentance is not a weak whining on our knees to God because we are in a difficulty; it is a noble laying aside of all that makes us unworthy of working with the Great Friend. It was said by a well-known Atheist, "The 'Great Companion' is dead." The answer of a believing; nation is that He whom tho Atheist ventured to call "The Great Companion" is not dead, but that He can only work with those who keep His laws, and obey His will, and share His mind, and refuse to do evil that good may come. Can we as a nation say that we" have always done this? Do we not know that again and again we have ignored His day, neglected His worship, and -broken His commandment ." to keep our bodies in temperance, soberness, and chastity"? To win this war, then, to liberate the spiritual powers in heavenly places which are at our disposal, we must repent as well as pray, and amend as well as repent; it is only a new England, which has come back to her best self, which can gave the world to-day. But with the penitence and prayer must go a spirit of service which must impress the world. We have had a call addressed to the nation by its responsible leaders for " universal voluntary service." It is the greatest call which can be addressed to a nation. No other nation - believes it possible. Everyone knows it is the last time that wo can afford to leave tho call voluntary, but. if it can be given. | voluntary service is the noblest form of ; service. "I am among, you as He that Lseryeth," cried the great Captain of salj varion, and it was voluntary service of which Ho spoke. "By love serve one another," in those old words the Church calls to tie soul of the nation to rise to this great vocation, and from the highest ! to the lowest to offer itself for service, with the single-hearted cry : " Here I am,' send mo." —The Home of Freedom.— But there must he something more even than service, and I am only putting in a fuller form what I have written in my letter to the people of London, we must also save No one yet. realises the chance-, which this war is going to make to all°of us; a financial expert told us the other day that many rich men living in large houses would be living in cottages a*'ler tho war, but the tesi of whether the soul of the nation is rising to its. vocation is whether it is ready to bear this cheerfully, so long as it has kept its honor unta.r™l aTlcl fully achievefl great aim When we are fighting for the- freedom of the home of freedom, for the liberies of the world, far international honor, for Christ upon the Cross as opposed to the revived pagan doctrine that right is the Church calls upon the nation to °sav that no sacrifice matters if you win. No easy hopes or Iks Shall bring us to our goal, But iron sacrifice Of body, will, and soul. Wo summon then the raul of En<-lr,nd to arise in all its erandeiu- and strath at tins crisis of the day of God. Come from the four winds, thou Breath of the bpint and breathe upon this great people that hope and faith and love mav once again revive and the world bo saved a,<*ain by the " Soul of a People." ° t -f n T & C a^- rcss the ]l 3" mn > '0 Lcrd of late, to lhee We Cry,' was sung, and then came the most solemn pea-iod of tho service. Minor canons of Ike Cathedral recited lo intercessions. These were numbered on the printed form of service and as they were intoned, and the people joined in tho responses, corresponding numbers were shown on cards front the steps. There was a wonderful quiet o'ver the great gathering of people as the intercessions were made. The troops stood firm in their lines, heads bowed over the service papers;; men in the crowd beyond removed tJieu- hats. At the end of each pravcr the murmur of voices uniting in the supplication, \\ e beseech Thee to hear us, r-ood Lord, rose for a few. seconds and°fell away to cilenee as tho canons slowly "-.'recited tho succeeding petition. Above 'the troops, the pigeons which haw their home about the Cathedral came circling around in the sunshine. Tho sen-ice closed with the Lord's grayer, in which everyone joined, and the singing ot the National Anthem.