Musings by the Way.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume I, Issue 6, 1 December 1910, Page 2

Musings by the Way.

[By" Mor')

Though yet, many months must elapse before the coronation of King George or Queen Mary takes place, preliminary arrangements are already being made. | Thfe coronation of a sovereign is one of the few happy occasions on which Church and State can meet 'together and arrange a truly imposing ceremony. The whole ser-vice-is one of great beauty and of deep spiritual significance, for it is the nations witness before God and man, that we are essentially a Christian nation, that we revere God, are faithful to the best traditions of Holy Church, respect and obey His Holy Word, and acknowledge that " except the Lord build the house, their labour is but vain that build it." * And like most ceremonies of the Church of England, the coronation is one of what I may call " restrained splendour." Our northern minds have never run riot m colour and ceremony as the southerners have done ; we are more staid, more conservative, more content to follow ancient precedent, and yet we leave out nothing which is truly Catholic. And as a rule, too, our pageants and ceremonies and accessories are m excellent taste. We are beginning to see more and more : clearly -that it is a good thing to " worship the King m the beauty of holiness" — not m Puritanical ugliness thereof, nor yet m the (to us) too ornate ritual of Borne. ♦ Just now we are preparing for the great Festival of the Nativity of Jesus Christ, which means so much to us and all mankind. Some of our churches will be under-decorated, and some will be made like market gardens, but m none of them (m New Zealand at least) will there be a " crib." Yet this is a very ancient practice of the Church of England-r^the building up m a side chapel, or m a corner of the church, a representation of the Holy Manger. Why should it not be seen ofteher m onr churches? Many churches m England!* have revived the .custom, and with the happiest results, and the children (and is not. Christinas essentially the children's feast-?) have been delighted and edified. The crib m the church brings home to their minds, as well as to ours, the truth and the reality of the Birth of Jesus Christ, m a way that no amount of hymn-singing can do. In our schools wq are beginning to see

the usefulness of less.theory and more practice, or rather^ofj theory fittingly illustrated so that the truth is conveyed afld struck home m a manner old schoolmaster knew nothing of. Let the Church do the same.- A simple V crib" erected m some corner, will be a good:; ohject leissoji, and with a litifcle ,care ; may be made beautiful and reverent. ' .. . ....»-. ' ... .. ..:.. . It always amazes me how some people can consent to have a church more highly decorated for a wedding than for a great Festival m honour of Jesus Christ. It. seem 8 right to make God's House beautiful for so holy a thing as a wedding, but it seems quite opposed to the eternal fitness of things to let it be more full of beautiful flowers, etc., than we allow for Christmas or Easter, whilst on Ascension Day we do nothing. In the matter of church decoration, " restrained splendour" should be shown ; particlarly is this warning needed at weddings and Harvest Thanksgivings. At the latter too often are our churches disfigured with cabbages, carrots, turnips, etc., till a stranger might well be excused for thinking he had got into some sort of market fair. A restrained use of flowers, especially of heavily-scented ones, and the use of permanent decorations such as a beautiful white frontal for the altar and hangings to match for pulpit, lectern, prayer-desk and faldstool, and two or three good banners and illuminated texts— this would be far better than spoiling stone or woodwork by a nlultitude of wreaths and floral emblems. I have seen handsome carved pulpits absolutely ruined by nail marks; and I have seen fonts so littered with flowers and greenery that a baptism would have been an impossibility. Indeed, not many years ago I saw m one of our large churches, the Lord's Table so piled up with fruit at. a Harvest Festival that the priest had to clear a little space before he could celebrate. * . ■ .. ■ So that perhaps we need not too overly pride ourselves on " restraint" and shake our heads at the want of restraint m another portion of Christ's Church.. , • .'. * In the new Liverpool Cathedral, the Lady Chapel of which was dedicated the other day, one is struck with the beauty of thought embodied m the scheme. It is indeed a "Lady" chapel— a chapel of glorified, sanotified

womanhood: It is a tHrilliiig conception and Ml of a deep reverence. The reredos over the altar is m blue and gold, whilst the window behind is filled with beautiful glass portraying the Virgin-mother with! her Royal Son.; Ttie two next lights^ ppurtray the adoration of the magi. : Then the othe£ windows) are; filled;- wi]tn holy women of all ages — Sarah, Hannah, Ruth, Elizabeth, Anna ; various Christian queens, such as Bertha, Margaret of Scotland, Helena, Werberga, and so on. Then women saints of the Prayer-book Kalendari beginning with St. Anne, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Perpetua, Faith, Lucy, and others. Next follow windows which bring the Magnificat into our own day, and these represent to us Mary Collett Christina Rosetti, Catherine |GHadstone, Susannah Wesley, Grace Darling, Ann Olough, and many others, whilst the words of the Magnificat run along and through all the windows. It is a magnificent idea, and has been worthily carried out and m exquisite taste and beauty. It is said that two of the windows — the one of the Anunciation, and one pourtraying Ruth — are the two most beautiful windows m England, and Liverpool may well be proud of the first instalment of what will be, when finished, the most beautiful cathedral of modern times. Those who have seen that bare, white Church of S. Matthew m Auckland, which cost £30,000, will be able to realise what might have been.