ANZAC DAY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XIII, Issue 1359, 27 April 1920, Page 5

ANZAC DAY.

I SUNDAYS .SERVICES. The fifth anniversary of the landi ing on Gallipoli was not observed in any official way in Te KuilL In the various churches reference was made to the great event, but the lack of any joint effort to mark the day, and the absence of any memorial service by the returned soldiers, was the-subject of a considerable amount-of comment and criticism in • the Borough yesterday. The Returned Soldiers' Association, at its conference, discussed the matter, and a' programme, drawn up by the president Dr Boxer, was favourably received, and it was expected that something along the lines of last year's gathering would have been arranged. ANGLICAN CHURCH. A special service in commemoration of Anzac Day was held in the | Anglican Church on Sunday morning. j The Rev. G. R. Barnett conducted the service, which was well attended by returned soldiers and civilians. Mr Barnett took for his text the words, "I am among you as a servant." In the course of his address i the preacher dwelt upon the need | for service in memory of those who I had made the greatest of all sacri- | fices on Gallipoli. The keynote of every-day life seemed to be selfishness instead of service, yet no life could be better spent than that given up to the service of God and the people. Those who served at Gallipoli would never be forgotten, but unless the people continued to justify that mighty sacrifice by their own service the great deeds that were remembered that day would in a great measure have been in vain. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH The Rev. F. M. Beattie preached in the Presbyterian Church on Sunday evening to a large congregation. Mr Beattie said the landing was memorable, in that it helped the people of New Zealand to live as free men and women to the glory of God. History would record the efforts that the Huns had made in order to gain world-empire, and though it would not record many of the terrible things done in the ] war, it would enable the people to tell their children how the nation prepared to meet the foe, in order that they might be free. They had good grounds for rejoicing, as also for sorrowing, on this anniversary. They had been delivered from, an alien tyranny. They were victorious. The Anzacs had left behind them a name which the Germans longed to have they had kept their hands clean. Deliverance came because God remembered them, and if anything should bring them nearer to God it was the memory of this 25th day of April. The story of this and of other great battles, which left the nation with a clean sheet a nation's honour, greatness and dignity undiminished—would be handed down to their children. The service concluded with the singing of the National Anthem.

METHODIST CHURCH. At the Methodist Church the Rev. Hedley White, of Taumarunui, preached a special sermon in commemoration of Anzac Day, basing his remarks on the text "What mean you by this service?" The speaker the meaning of the word Anzac, pointing out that it had a much broader meaning than the combined initials indicated. The object of the commemoration was the recalling of the sacrificial act of those who took part. The word Anzac meant that day, to many great suffering and sorrow. The bereaved and the maimed were among them. War loans could be repaid. There were other debts they could not repay, but which they must attend to. The Government had a greater duty than merely to settle the returned men on the land. They must be settled on a clean land. Men died for an ideal during the war, and those who remained should live for that ideal, by cleansing the country from social evils. They were on the eve of the birth of a new era. The earth was ploughed for the sower's grain. The battlefields of Europe were now ready for the seed of reconstruction, and the Church must take its place in that work. The Cross stood for sacrifice. Instruction and construction went together. The economic classes were started among the soldiers as soon as the Armistice was signed, to teach the soldiers the reconstructive life rather than the destructive. The popular reason for the war was to make the world safe for democracy. The Church must now see that democracy was made safe for the world.