ST. ANDREW’S DAY

Taranaki Daily News, 26 November 1934, Page 2

ST. ANDREW’S DAY

PIPE BANDS’ CHURCH PARADE. ANDREW AS EXAMPLE TO MEN. The value of an ideal and the worthiness of St. Andrew to serve as one was stressed yesterday by the Rev. J. D. McLennan Wilson during the service at St. Andrew’s Church, New Plymouth. Representatives of pipe bands in the province were present in recognition of St. Andrew’s Day, and Mr. Wilson welcomed them before he delivered his sermon. “The worship of heroes is somewhat ; out of fashion,” said Mr. Wilson. “The day seems far past when Homer could alluringly exhibit an ideal Achilles and all the youth of Greece be stirred to be of like character. Time was when our young people had their souls ravished within them by the stories of great battles, heroic encounters and grand adventures upon land and sea, accomplished by men and women of their own kith and kin. These notable deeds performed in every sphere of life unquestionably swayed and moulded the lives of older generations. “The most portentous happening in our national life for at least a hundred years, and possibly the gravest crisis in Western civilisation, began in 1914! “Look ..ack over those years; conn the Itaders in Church and State and ask yourselves how many ideal citizens there shine forth as worthy the emulation of all others. None! Not but what there were many men and women who played their part nobly; but jealousy, calumny and a mean and spoiling spirit robbed them of their high place in the nation’s Parthenon t-iey could have moved succeeding generations to unselfish service and sacrifice. “UNBLEMISHED CHARACTER.” “Possibly only one character in the Ivar period stands forth unblemished and unassailed, and that perhaps by reason of pathos as much as anything else—Edith Cavel. Of the great war leaders, French, Kitchener, Haig, Jellico e and Beattie, despite the fact that they commanded forces and carried destinies incomparably greater than any others in all history and brought the war to a successful conclusion, are even now being besmirched and belittled. The great men and women of that period should have bee nthe heroes of the present and succeeding generations, but they are not so with us.

“In other nations it is otherwise. Their present rise to greatness, the ideals and motives which animate them at this hour, are all woven about great men who rose to eminence in the last half-century. Indeed v/o cannot even think of modern Turkey without Mustapha Kemal rising before us, of Russia without Trotsky and Lenin, of India without Ghandi, of China without Sun Yat-sen, of the Central States without Masasyk, of Italy without Mussolini, of Germany without Hindenburg and Hitler. “What ideal figure have we in Britain and America or throughout the Englishspeaking world who can serve as a hero to our youth? What notable men and women are there in. the last 50. years of our Empire’s history who can kindle fervent fires, make the heart to burn and cause the eyes to brighten in our uprising millions? None! And therein lies a grave peril to any community. For where there is nothing high and worthwhile to worship, no one to kindle imagination and inspire enthusiasm, nothing to focus aim and endeavour, decadence and declension must inevitably ensue. “Unless Something is done to lift up men’s thoughts and ambitions from the gross materialisms of their ordinary thinking, living and striving we must, and deservedly so, go the way of past empires arid civilisations. Even the following of one truly great man, or one noble ideal will save a people. But in that matter, whose sons are we? What sublime person or purpose holds our glad and willing allegiance? EXAMPLE TO ALL. “If there are no immediate heroes it is perhaps appropriate that on this St. Andrew’s anniversary we should ask you to fix your eyes upon him. Not that he was unique among men, or first among the apostles; he was not so. But he is such a one as might be an example to all of us. “He was a plain and forthright fellow, without the intellectual brilliance of John, the masterful drive of Peter, or the pure and fervent flame of James. Andrew was .a mass of deep and loving nature, and generous of all he had. “Whether all those legends concerning him are true matters not a jot. He may never have penetrated into the heart, of Russia; probably never so much as a bone of him arrived at Scotland’s famous town of St. Andrew’s. It might be that even the moving story of his death in Greece upon that diagonal cross which still bears his name is apocraphyl, though we believe it to be true.

“But from all we know of him he was a simple, brave, earnest man, with conscious love of Christ in his heart, and firm determination to live a life of devotion and service to his Lord and toward his fellows; indeed, such a life as would gain the approval of his conscience and win tire well done of that God and Father of us all.

“Men and women! Lift up your eyes above yourselves and take knowledge of this man whom we honour at this time, and remember, too, this further thought. Second-hand things are rarely best, in things spiritual or material. Andrew found his inspiration, strength and assurance in Jesus Christ, whom he set before himself as Lord and Master. "Look to Christ where the human and the divine meet and mingle so inextricably that, therein, while the ideal of his godliness may appal and discourage, the perfection of His humanity inspires to follow on that we may be like him in living and serving and in dying.”