The presentation of colours to a regiment is always an imposing ceremony, as with prayer of consecration, martial music, and stirring address they are delivered into its custody, but the bestowal of the old colours in some honoured place of safe keeping is yet more impressive. In the one case there are the hopes and dangers of the future, while in the other the hopes have all been abundantly realised, the dangers triumphantly passed, as the tattered colours--storm tossed, torn by shot and shell--are borne in honour to their last resting place, where, strife for ever over, they rest in peace in the Sanctuary of God, a memorial to all men, until their last shreds fall to decay, of duty nobly and fully done. Visitors to Canterbury Cathedral will scarcely fail to have noticed the flags therein suspended. The colours of the 1st Battalion of the Buffs (the East Kent Regiment) there find fitting resting place, and the last of these were added so lately as October, 1892.[52] On their entrance, with imposing military ceremony, into the {67} Cathedral, they were met by the clergy and choir, and a hymn of thanksgiving for victory and of safe return from war was sung, commencing-- "Grateful, we bring from lands afar, Torn, shattered, but unstained, Banners that Thy servant blessed Ere the stern conflict came; Lord, let their fragments ever rest Where dwells Thy Holy name." After a short service of prayer and praise the Dean of Canterbury addressed the great congregation. It might be asked, he said, why they, who were the Ministers of the Prince of Peace, should take such interest in these military proceedings. It was because they recognised in them the greatest force for peace that there was in our land, for it was through them that this country of ours had not been trampled for centuries under the feet of any foreign foe, it was through them that the _Pax Britannica_ prevailed, and that everywhere where the British Flag was present it carried with it peace, and tranquillity, and justice. It was through the help of the army that the peaceful people of this country could carry on their avocations and serve God and do His work in peace; and therefore the clergy gratefully acknowledged their services, and hoped and prayed that everywhere the colours of each regiment might still be not only unstained, but covered with laurels in struggling for right and for justice.