AT FIRST CHURCH

Evening Star, Issue 20777, 27 April 1931, Page 13

AT FIRST CHURCH

UNITED MORNING SERVICE Under the auspices of the Council of Christian Congregations, a united Anzac service was held in First Church on Saturday morning. Tho Rev. A. Mead, president of the council, conducted the service, and the address was delivered by tho Rev. D. C. Herron, of Knox Church. Mr Herron said that they had met that morning to pay tribute to the memory of men who for their sakes poured out the red, sweet wine of youth, and gave up the years to be of worth and joy. There was a danger of investing them with an unreal halo, of regarding them as supermen, which they were not. They were just ordinary men made great by a great task. They had their faults and failings, as everyone had, but they were great, as even their enemies recognised, because greatness was bred in them, coming as they mostly did of noble pioneer stock, from whom their stock of resource had been handed down. They were great because they had learned initiative and courage in athletics, notably on the football field. Above all, they were great because tho task assigned them was largo enough to call out their latent qualities. They lived in terrible conditions and suffered terribly, but they had hearts at_ peace with self. Their gladness was in in verso proportion to their comfort. Deep in their hearts they felt that the thing had to be done, and that thought gave them content. Their bravery was often of tho standing still order, holding the trenches against remorseless shelling. Tho people did well, then, to pay tribute to their memory, and they remembered them not with pity, but with pride and honour. “We felt for their parents,” said the speaker, “ but most of all for their broken companions, elbowed out in the economic competition of our time. We must never forget that they gave their bodies for us.” In days yet to come tho story of how they did the impossible would be told, and pulsings of greatness would respond. Two principles emerged from the story of Anzac. _ One was that tho interest of tho individual must be subordinated to that of tho nation. Tho spirit shown at Anzac should produce statesmen, reformers, councillors, men with courage to do and to dare. The other was that these men died that there should be no more war. Their message to succeeding generations was: “Never mind us! Get on with peace.” It was difficult to change a whole national ideal, especially a nation with traditions like those of the British Empire, yet it must be done, or the world would perish. Leaders like Lord Cecil and Viscount Grey were , always emphasising that great truth. ' War was pure tragedy, and if tho people allowed themselves to drift hack into war, then tho men whoso memory they were honouring have died in vain. They must create an atmosphere in which war was unthinkable. That was their supreme task. Special hymns appropriate to the service were sung, and Mr A: Walmsley rendered a solo, ‘ They Are Not Dead.’ Dr Galway presided at tho organ.