ANZAC DAY.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 17944, 1 May 1928, Page 13

ANZAC DAY.

A SUGGESTION. (By the Rev. P. Gladstone Hughes.) The observance of Anzac Day as rHoly Day, brings home the fact that, whatever the habitual attitude of pur community to organised religion may be, the vast majority of the people are in full sympathy with the corporate recognition of the spiritual in human life. The invitation to the Ministers’ Association to co-operate in the arranging of the Anzac Service is a virtual challenge to th? Churches to .discover and take their stand on common ground. Surely, it cannot be without significance that the challenge conies in connection with the desire to. commemorate the supreme sacrifice of those who laid down their lives in the Great War.. Sacrifice is no isolated fact in human life. It is, in fact, the mainspring of all progress. It was through incalculable travail and sorrow that the generations of men moved ever forward. “Dying to liye,” is the universal principle of life. The world “breaks the unity of the family because it'wants man to look further than the family. It interrupts the peace of the tribe, because it desires man to see beyond the tribe. It destroys the boundaries of the nation, because it would stimulate man to a wider altruism than even the life of the patriot—an altruism which' shall seek elements foreign, to itself, and find, a-place in its heart for every country and kindred and people and tongue.”

Now, a little more imagination would lead us to associate together the heroes of war with those of peace. Why not commemorate also the heroes of Science and Industry and the un-named heroes of the humble walks of life? The spirit qf sacrifice is the same, whatever form it may take. In it is to be found the heart of Christianity, howeyer much the Churches, may differ in doctrinal statement. Sacrifice links the ages together.

“tip from undated time they com e The .martyr-soul's" of heathpndam, And to His Cross and Passion bring Their fellowship of suffering.”

Why not, then, associate the memory of Anzac with the recognition of the spirit of sacrifice down through fhe ages? Good Friday, a day- hallowed by sacred associations, would seem to be the one day marked out for the corporate recognition of the sacrificial element in Jijte. Linked to this the memory of Anzac and its more sacred associations would ever remain green.

Even if this change could not be brought about, I think thqt the Churches should combine on Good Friday, to assert before the whole community that sacrifice, is the essence of the Christian faith, and that it is the heart and kernel of all that is spiritual in life.