VICTORIAN ERA TO PRESENT DAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18985, 3 February 1930, Page 11

VICTORIAN ERA TO PRESENT DAY.

BISHOP WEST-WATSON MAKES A COMPARISON

In the course of his sermon at the Anglican Cathedral last night Bishop West-Watson spoke of the essential differences between the Victorian era and the present day, and remarked on the spiritual influence evident to-day in the attitude that was bringing about the great conferences between the nations on peace and international problems. Bishop West-Watson, who was then at Cambridge, was one of the military guard from Cambridge. University that took part in the funeral of Queen Victoria. “We were five hours under arms in the wards of Windsor Castle before the procession made its appearance,” said his Lordship. “It was preceded by a galaxy of famous generals apd potentates from the thrones of Europe, including the Emperor of Germany, the King of Portugal, and many others. The great ones of the earth seemed to be assembled. It was a never to be forgotten, scene. It was a remarkable day. It was the closing of one of those great ages of English history such as the Elizabethan age. “The Victorian age was a wonderful age and the further we get from it the more we should realise the wonder of it. It was a very prosperous age for England, an age of great industrial advancement and an age of- great statesmen. There was, I suppose, what would be called to-day a superiority complex. To be an English citizen was to be protected no matter in what part of the world. Everything seemed possible and England’s destiny seemed assured.”

“ With that expansion of Empire went that wonderful expansion in the missionary activities of the Church of Christ.” In that respect the nineteenth century was nearly unique. Missionaries to all lands took the message of the Gospel. His Lordship said that four hundred years ago there were twenty-one bishops. This year 395 bishops had been invited to the Lambeth Conference. They included bishops from America, China and other lands.

“ The Anglican communion has become international,” he said, “ but it still looks back to Canterbury with loving confidence and respect. The Lambeth Conference, which is held every ten years, is symbolical of the wonderful blessing God has given our Church to meet the needs of an expanding Empire. “ The Victorian age was a period of a certain narrowness but a great conviction. There was a sort of sunshine over those early ’nineties. One found at Cambridge great religious enthusiasm, a great call to conviction to throw oneself into God’s work for His glory. The way seemed clear. The clarion call went forth from the student world: * The evangelisation of the world in our generation.’ “ At the present day there is a great shaking of all that confidence of the last century, a great uncertainty. The question is even argued whether England has had her day, whether she is decadent or not. What is the future of the Empire? We realise that we are not the only people that want to expand. Sometimes there is a reaction to that confidence of the Victorian age that brings us rather near to an unnecessary pessimism. “Some people think that this is an age of wasting time, of speaking instead of acting. It is true that history shows that conferences have created as many differences as they have healed, but there is a new note in these conferences to-day. How is the time to be used if it is not used in getting to know one another? The results of these conferences might not be very tangible, but they are not therefore unimportant.” , Problems to-day were so world wide. For instance, unemployment was an international problem and if it was to be dealt with it must be done by wide international action. “We are now in the preliminary stages of trying to get a new basis for life, a greater sense of family among the nations, a greater concern for the welfare of the others. Surely in that we can see the spirit of God, the birth of a new age in which the lesser loyalities are being re-discov-ered in larger ones. And so I say that surely we may feel that in this day of ours the spirit of God is working. There is the Naval Conference and now that the delegates from the great naval Powers of the world are together we pray that God will guide them to keep that vision that brought them together clean and bright.”