AT THE COAST LINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20626, 26 July 1930, Page 8 (Supplement)

AT THE COAST LINE.

JHE SAILOR ASHORE.

Some 15,000 seamen of the Mercantile Marine lost their lives In the Great War. To the homes of each of these men was sent a personal letter from the King, together with a fine Scroll, bearing these words> This Scroll is written to honour that great Company of our Men who, though trained only to the peaceful traffic of the sen, Yet in the hour of National danger gave themselves with the ancient skill and endurance of their breed to face new perilß and new cruelties of war, and in a right caueo •erved fearlessly to the end. And this is written to ensure that among the rest ih&ll be ever freßhly remembered the name and service of . . . (Here follows the name printed In scarlet ietters.) A fine tribute, and well-deserved, but it is easy to remember and applaud courage and devotion to duty " when the troopship's on the tide" and equally easy to forget that the same services are being rendered in less spoctacular ways in times of peace. So, lest we forget, it will do us all good to read " At the Sign of the Flying Angel," which besides being a brief and lively record of tho British Mercantile Marine, tells how the Christian Church seeks to contribute to the welfare of sailors ashore. Origin of tho Mission. There are few ports to-day of any consequence where the sign of the Flying Angel is not known and its work appreciated. But of tho origin of the mission not so much is known. If all began orio summer's dny in 1835 as John Ashley, a young clorgyman of the English church stood on a cliff beside the Bristol Channel, and saw the great fleet of sailing vessels anchored in tho roadstead. He had in his pocket the offer of a desirable living but he declined it. He had found his life-work. " At first, Ashley worked alone, then a mission was formed of which he became secretary. If funds ran short he went without his salary but he never shortened work. No weather kept him on shore. He sailed his cutler to tho fleet and went to and fro in an open boat, collecting sailors for service in the chapel fitted beneath the cutter's deck. In 1850 ho came to the end of his strength and had to retire. He had boarded upward of 14.000 ships at sea, sold upward of 5000 Bibles and prayer books to British sailors and sent his lending library for sailors to all parts of the world." Beacon of Ooodiellowahip. But John Ashley had done more than that. He had kindled a torch lhat was taken up from his failing hands and held aloft as a beacon of welcome and goodfellowship to sailors coming ashore in all the ports of the world. The Flyiug Angel does not, as Miss Gollock points out, claim to bo tho only agency at work on behalf of the sailor, but it is the best-known. If her book serves to make it better known still to those who might assist it by work and donations the writer's task will be accomplished, for, as she truly says: "Is there a spot on earth where the saving brotherhood of tho Son of Man needs more to be incarnate in His servants than at the quayside where seamen land from ships? Is there any service which the Church can render more entirely acceptable to Christ than that of lifting up His Cross among sailors that they may be drawn to Him?" " At the Sign of the Flying Angel," by G. A. Gollock. (Longmans.).