THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 258, 1 November 1932, Page 8

THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN

UPHOLD THE TRADITION. In reading the tollowing inspiring words of the Earl of Scarborough, it is to be remembered that th e Order of St. John is a Military Order. During the Crusades, for six and a half centuries. the military, side of the order completely predominated, and first in the Holy Land, and then at Rhodes, ; the knights of St. John poured out their blood fighting for the Christian faith. To-day, the Venerable Order of St. John remains a military as well as a charitable order. The chief aim of its members to-day is to “uphold the tradition.” as District Superintendent Sleight last week reminded ihe St. John Ambulance Brigade in Wanganui: in other words, to reproduce and perpetuate in our modern life, the tradition and spirit of those ancient knights, honouring, and wearing as badge, the same eight-pointed cross as thev wore. At the general assembly of the order, which was held in London, the subprior (the Earl of Scarborough) spoke as follows:

'‘As regards the ancient order from which we have our origin, I suggest that it might be likened in its inception to a first attempt at an unofficial League of Nations with two ideals—'Pro Fide* and Pro Utilitate Hominum. ’ I.nfortunately in those early days and -n the centuries which fol-

lowed, ‘Pro Fide’ meant perpetual warlitre and political strife, and when in ihe Napoleonic era, so far as the order was concerned, the warfare and the

struggle for temporal power ceased and nothing was left but the hospitaller work, it is rather sad to reflect that ds character a< an international and

| sovereign organisation practically suf- ; fered extinction. Its revival in the British realm, so far as our main activities are concerned, stood for ‘Pro Utilitate Hominum' which takes us Lack to the earliest ideals of the ancient hospitallers—‘For the good of mankind.’ That is what the Grand Priory stands for to-day, and it is on thia basis that we appeal for public support and approval. It is the ideal that we are striving for in these modern days— to reproduce all that is best and most true in Christian chivalry. It is an ideal that even* in the confused davs in which we live is unassailable and unchangeable, and it is an ideal that appeals alike to our brothers and sisters overseas, and also to nnrs<*lves at home who are working under the eight-pointed cross, as thev are, in the service of others.”