SUNSHINE NEEDED IN HUMAN HEARTS, SAYS ARCHBISHOP.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18615, 17 November 1928, Page 6

SUNSHINE NEEDED IN HUMAN HEARTS, SAYS ARCHBISHOP.

TRACES ANALOGY AT HOSPITAL CEREMONY.

The analogy between sunshine and work for the sick and suffering was traced by Archbishop Julius this afternoon when he dedicated and unveiled a sundial in front of St George's Hospital

It is a very handsome one. in brass, on a marble stand. “ Light and shadow by turns, but love always,” are the words that run round the dial. It has been placed there by the hospital executive. The object is explained by the inscription: “St George’s Hospital, in appreciation of the zeal and generosity of Thomas Chapman, Esquire.” Archbishop Julius said that during his long life he had been asked to do many things, but never before to unveil a sundial. He was very pleased to be allowed to do it. The sundial was a very ancient institution. It told the people the time long before they had clocks and watches. It was found on mary ancient buildings, on the walls of charches in the Old Country. It had given good service for centuries. It was old-fashioned, going back to the beginning. In that respect, it was like thp work that was done in St George’s Hospital, as that work was no new thing, but was a continuation of the divine work and purpose through the ag The sundial was simple in structure. It needed no winding up. It never made a fuss; it always was there, to do yhat it was intended to do. People thought that their clocks and watches told them the true time. They told only artificial time. It was the sundial that told the true time. It told the truth, and telling the truth was God’s work. For those reasons, he loved the sundial. Years ago, when he was in Somersetshire, a Quaker showed him a magnificent sundial erected in his garden. The Quaker said that it would give him Greenwich time. The speaker replied: “ It will not give you Greenwich time, but the true time.’’ The sundial was useless at night. It was responsive to the spreading a shadow and telling the time. St George’s Hospital had arisen in response to the sunlight in human hearts, [t could not have been built without human thought and human brains and : human hands; but behind it all were zeal and generosity created by God s 1 sunlight in human hearts. It shone in the hearts of the workers, of the donors of gifts, of the visitors, the doctor*. the wstus, the nurses, down to the humblest attendant who attended to wounds or washed the dishes. Their work came from the sun of God. It shone upon them, and they sprang into life and usefulness. Without the sun shining upon people, they were of no more good than a heap of bricks They never knew what they were made for until they felt the warmth of the sun of God. They felt how bright it shone, and were nobler and richer for it. Mr Chapman had put his hands, into his pockets and brought them out j with thousands of pounds. It must have been a good hot ray of sunshine that shone upon him, a ray that resulted in a magnificent gift. Mr Chapman w’as a happier man for the sacrifice he had made. “ God’s blessing on him for what he has done,” the Archbishop concluded. The antiphon at the ceremony was: “And God said, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good; and God divided

the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Amongst the hymns sung were: “Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun Doth Darkness Light,” and “Sun of My Soul.” Archbishop Julius was asked to perform the ceremony by the Rev C. A. Fiaer. Amongst others who took part in the ceremony were Canon Wilford, Canon Mutter and Mother Alice, Lady Superintendent of the hospital.