The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-11-05 00:00:00

CANON FARRAR ON PEACE.

Canon Farrar preached the annual sermon to the
London and Westminster Volunteers (23rd Middlesex)
at the Abbey, Westminster, on Sunday afternoon.
The volunteers, mustering between three and four
hundred strong, assembled at the Duke of York's
Column at a quarter past two, formed in marching
order under the command of Lieut.-Col. Routledge,
and proceeded, accompanied by their fife-and-drum
and brass bands, to the Abbey.
Canon Farrar referred to the presence of the volun-
teers at the very outset of his discourse, and spoke
of the permanence and vigour of the volunteer move-
ment as facts of which we might well be proud. In
the course of an eulogy of the volunteer movement,
he expressed a wish that every young man who had
the opportunity would become a volunteer. There
was a deplorable dearth of means and healthy exercise
and vigorous amusement for the youth of our great
cities, a dearth which he regretted as a national mis-
fortune; and even as a means of healthy exercise he
knew nothing better than volunteer training. Advert-
ing to taunts of our military weakness, he exclaimed,
"Weak for aggressive purposes may we ever be! weak
for righteous self-defence we never shall be so long as
we are training for God and for Christ, and the true
manhood, all our sons." Condemning war-fevers he
asked whether it was not impossible for England, to
the eternal blessing of mankind, to do something to
hasten the day of universal peace. If in India our
rule were more secure than formerly, he asked if
this were not due to the fact that by bitter
experience we had both nationally and as in-
dividuals learnt more of the laws of mercy and
of justice? If at last in Ireland a day of brighter
hope were dawning, was it not due to our desire to
allay past injustice, to undo heavy wrong, and to let
the oppressed go free? Our success in winning hearts
so long alienated was slow; but when nations in spite
of every cheek and every disappointment, still walked
faithfully in the path of justice, they would in due
time reap if they fainted not. Quoting Mr. Gladstone's
now famous peroration beginning Justice is to be
our guide," Canon Farrar anticipated that under the
invincible method of Christian justice the heart of
England and of Ireland would still yield to common
sympathy and be bound together in a common hope.
Turning to America, the preacher alluded to Eng-
land's submission of the Alabama claims to arbitration
as likely to be characterised hereafter as one of the most
memorable and blessed acts of a Christian people • and
dwelling at greater Ilpnrith on the sympathy manifested
between the two nations on the death of the President
and at the Yorktown celebrations, he said
"0 friends, brothers beyond the sea' never
more be words of strife or hatred uttered between
us! By all those common sympathies which make
us weep when you weep, and rejoice when you rejoice,
be an alliance sealed between us for us and for our
children till time shall be no more—an alliance
between Christian citizens against a crushing prepon-
derance of military despotism—an alliance for the
people's progress, for the blessing and evangelization
of mankind I " The lesson enforced was that the best
efforts of each and all of us ought to be directed
towards furthering peace on earth, and that we should
be guided by a sense of justice to all mankind, without
distinction of religion, colour, or caste.

In the course of the sermon Canon Farrar made
eloquent allusion to the British heroism brought out
by recent calamities, and paid special tribute to the
heroic conduct of Captain Strachan, of the Cyprian,
who gave his life-belt to a stowaway, and saved the
lad's life at the expense of his own.