" WAKE UP, AUSTRALIAN MOTHERS!"

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

" WAKE UP, AUSTRALIAN MOTHERS!"

King George's Call to Women. Address by Bishop of North Queensland. The Mother's Union exists to give effect to the ideals of home life, so dear to our King— so necessary to our nation. It aims" .at banding together those into whose hearts the Lord God has breathed this knowledge of what constitutes a nations strength; Listen to its threefold objective. First it seeks " To uphold the sanctity of marriage? ' A. prominent American spoke lately of the shameful and sorrowful pre-eminence gained by his country as " the divorce-habit." Divorce is a national habit easily gained but very difficult to conquer. It is a habit that may grow inAus-

traKa to the undoing of the nation. And it can best be combatted by good women. "It is impossible to note," wrote the Bishops at Lambeth, "with other than the greatest pain and the gravest condemnation the ease with which m these modern times divorces are obtained, and the frequency of the cases m which the husband and the wife are m collusion m the appeal to the Courts of Law." This is true everywhere m the Empire, not excepting Australia. So here, as elsewhere, the humiliating spectacle can be seen of men and women, who are notoriously loose livers, and are far more dangerous to the community than lepers, moving to and fro m respectable society among young girls and boys, secure because they have not crossed the conventional border line beyond which even the most lax condemns. " For the formation of a clean public opinion, and for its practical outcome m the refusal to be m social relations with adulterers and adulteresses," the Bishops at Lambeth would " most earnestly appeal to cleanliving women m all the many ranks and grades of life. Pure women are the great human power for good m this cause, and not m this cause only. They can apply a punishment which will soon prove remedial m its effect ; they can refuse to have social relations with adulterers or adulteresses." If they will be brave m this vital matter the flood of evil can be stemmed and turned.

The second object of the Mother's Union is "to aioakenin mothers of all classes a sense of their great responsibility m the training of their hoys and girls— the future fathers and mothers of the Empire." The Earl of Meath never wearies m warning us that "lack of discipline m youth tends to self-in-dulgence m later years," while "no nation can be permanently strong which is founded on the quicksands of indiscipline." Good habits are learned best m earliest childhood. Before they can walk children can most successfully be taught obedience, as they can be taught to lift their hands m prayer before their baby lips can frame their mother's words. And, once attained, such habits are never altogether lost m future years. The Japanese have realised this fact to perfection. They have framed a people with a magnificent spirit, of devotion to the public weal. But the real work of training is completed at home before the child enters the lowest class m the 1 Public School. The child has learnt to obey. The Japanese have a saying, that " good

parents are strict parents." But there is a danger, eveH here m Australia, of overstrictriess. Mr. Kipling has .a pathetic story of a little black sheep of a boy who was made by hardness and suspicion into a habitual liar, and then forced into a wilderness of childish misery. Mothers and fathers do not be hard with your children, but for their sakes, and for the nations need, do not allow them to grow up weak, self-indulgent men and women, because you have not the strength of purpose to say " nay " to their childish desires. Let the children have a strong faith m father's justice and patience, and m mother's tenderness and truth! This knowledge will be a bright beacon to guide them from one end of life to the other. : The third object os the Mother's Union is " to organise m every place a land of mothers who will unite m prayer, and seek by their own example to lead their families m purity and holiness". It is one of the most pitiful experiences of life that so much religious effort is barren of results. Baffled and discouraged by the strength of evil, men and women are tempted to give up their puny struggles for the good. May not this be because they ha.ye largely given up the conviction that prayer is a force ? Prayer is a real force, as we can test by experience if we will try to find out what God's will is, instead of vainly hoping to force Him to bend His will to our wishes. Climb up more often into the heights, and behold God's Glory and His Presence. When with angels and archangels and all the company of Heaven you have looked upon the whole earth as it really is, full of the Glory of God, you will have found the sure antidote both for discouragement and weakness. By climbing you will show your children how to climb, and your faith will be an anchor for them m the days when they are tossed to and fro on every wind of doctrine. A young artist, whom I knew when he was passing through the dreary swamps of doubt, wrote years after to tell me that he had won his way to sure grounds of faith. He said :— " It was my mother's life did it. I felt all along that her life must have been built upon truth." '':[.' ■ ■* . . Happy Ke With such a mother ! faith m womankind Beats with his blood, and trust m all things high Gomes easy to him, and though he trip and fall ..-.•:.■ He shall not bind his soul with clay. The Mother's Union is free to all. It is Anglican so far that its office holders must be full members of the

Church of England. But it welcomes as members and associates women of every phase of Christian thought. It does not ask for many meetings. Its subscription is the veriest trifle. All it demands is that those who would join, must honestly promise to carry out the objects of the Union, and must seek, at least m their own homes, to make the family life of our race and nation strong, simple, and pure. I have named this address " King George's Call to -Women." For ho has called to England to " Wake up !" and he has spoken of the foundations of national glory to an English Convocation. But I believe that women, and particularly Australian mothers who have part and lot m our British heritage, can do inestimable service to the Empire if they will follow the King's lead, and support the ideal of life so dear to him and to our gracious Queen Mary. Yet the highest inspiration for all mothers comes from Him, Who for our salvation came down from Heaven and was made man. This inspiration will not supplant, but transmute and glorify our inherent sense of patriotism so that it also becomes a duty that we owe to the Most High. The highest happiness of all mothers will then become not unlike hers who said, "my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath' rejoiced m God my Saviour. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed." A recent writer m the Church Quarterly Review has wisely insisted that it is a blameworthy mistake to speak "as if the whole well-being and religious life of a family depended on the women." If this ever happens to be the case, then so much the worse for that family. Fathers do count. They ought to be made to feel that they count. But allowing that they count, Mr. Koosevelt's dictum still holds good : " The mother is the most important person m the community. She is more important than the statesman." And men who realise most clearly their own duty, are the readiest to use Whittier's prayer for her : — Make her hands like the handb of Jesus, Blessing the little one. Make her lips like the lips of Mary, Kissing her blessed Son. HAVELOCK NORTH. The last monthly meeting for this year of the Mother's Union was held m the Village Schoolroom on the afternoon of Wednesday, November

As the Synod was m session, the Vicar was necessarily at his post there, so no service was held m the Church. But Mrs. Gardiner read the appointed prayers, and a hymn, rendered dear to every one by its use during the Mission, was sung by all with great heartiness. The meeting was a very full one, there being twenty-seven members and associates present out of the total thirty. The Provisional Council and Treasurer were re-elected, and another added to their number. The meeting then settled down comfortably to enjoy a " talk" on the Palestine Exhibition m London, by Miss Gardiner, one of the associates. The talk was a most pleasant one, and brought vividly before the audience the scenes which Miss Gardiner had been fortunate enough to see m London — the model of the villages of Nazareth and of Bethlehem, the oxen ploughing m the fields, &c. When it was over, everyone left their seats— some to chat with their friends, some to examine the various objects of interest which were displayed to Illustrate the "Exhibition." There was a strong atmosphere of neighbourliness and kindly feeling which these meetings do so much to foster, and after tea, when good-byes were being said, there was a feeling of regret m many hearts that it was the final one of the season. WAIPUKURAU. The Mother's Union met on 24th November, Mrs. Elevey reading a paper on " Florence Nightingale."