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Thl« kim it filmed at the reduction iiiJo cheeked below / C* eeeumtnt t and then pass out into the worid to foifet our pleadings and those for whom we have been pleading. But true intercettioo lies on the tool day and night. Intercession wadet deep at knre. When we truly intercede we put the pattioii of our wills into the prayer, and the names become realities, and we pass as far as we may into the needs and sorqws and struggles of those whose cause we have espoused. The Man the Cross, the Intercessor on the right hand of tL:^ Majesty on high, was called to His work by God, and so are those who share in His intercessory woriu They also are called. ' I sought for a man among them that shouh ake up the hedge and stand in the gap before M .' IV We proceed briefly to apply these principles to our present circumstances. In the first place, it is our business to piay for 10 PRAYER IN WAR TIME victory in the battlefield. Many are leaving our churches and chapels sore at heart because there has been no direct appeal to the Throne of Grace for victory to o".r arms. We are commanded, or rather invited, in everything to make our requests made known unto God. There is no desire more strong or more righteous among us at the present hour than the desire for victory. And are we not to express that desire and to plead it with all the forces of our will ? We believe that we are fighting for freedom, for righteousness, for the defeat of the enemies of the human race. And are we not to pray for these things ? Each day comes with a fresh proof that we are at war with Anti-Christ. The destruction of the Rheims Cathedral is a spot on Germany which can never be washed out whilst memory holds her seat. All the centuries to come cannot undo this deed. To commit this sacrilege and defend it is to re- nounce humanity and to defy God. Most of the forms of prayer that have been published at this time are so limp, so nerveless, so faithless, so cowardly that the mere reading of them depresses. We want no forms of prayer for our Free Churches. What we do want is the proof that those who lead our ser\'ices are prepared to put before God with solemn pleading the supreme, the ♦ PRAYER IN TIME OF WAR 11 agcmising desife that victory should eome, and come soon. We say deliberately tiiat it would be fax better not to attempt prayer at all than to show such a practical and measureless disbelief in prayer as is involved in the refusal to ask God's blessing in a victory. We must also pray for our soldiers and our sailors, and pray i» far as it is possible for each by name. The Churches have an opportunity such as very rarely cmnes to them. There is a strange breaking down of the barriers of custcmi and cmivention. Tlie nation is drawn together, and is at unity with itself. Let every church and chapel that has sent fortii men to fight for us hang a roll of their names within its walls, and plead for them at every meeting. Let us pray that if it be possible they may be spaml to ecme back, though many must die, and let us pmy that every death on the battlefield may be a death in grace. But it is lawful and it is right to pray that their lives may be spared. Indeed, this is ahnost the only prayer which many a one can make. There has been little sunshine in the house since the dearest went away, and there is a burden which weighs like lead upcm the lonely heart. Let this lonely heart be ccnofMted and cfae»ed by the thought that otiiers are praying for ^ote 12 PRAYER IN WAR TIME of whom they keep thinking aU the day and night. The intercession we have asked for wiU seek out every home from which one has gone and do its utmost lo comfort, to strengthen, to reKeve. We are confident that oar people wiU see to it that those left in poverty by the absence of the breadwinner shall not suffer from want. But Ihere is a trouble much harder to bear than that, and in that trouble also the sufferers must be helped. And they will mainly be helped by mtercession. The great matters of hfe and death and eter,' -ty are before the national mind as they never were before. Woe unto us if we are deaf or disobedient to the calls that are ringing in our ears. Let those who are hazarding their Kves for our safety and peace have the comfort of knowing thdt their dear ones are guarded and beloved, and that they themselves aie never lorgotten where the people of God assemble. Next we must pray for our eneniies also, remem- bering that the first cry of the Immaculate Lamb from the Altar was, ' Faf her, forgive them, for they know not what they de. ' A CALL FROM THE BATTLEFIELD Addrtt deiivartd at tke City Temple Jntereet$9rg Snvke on October 23, 1914 ' Pray for us : for we trust we have a good conscience, in all thing* willioir to live honestly. Bat I heeeeeh you the rather to do this, that I may be vettored to yon tbe ■eon«r.'--If'.4nucws xiii. 18, 19. I BRING you to-day a message from those who an fighting for us on land and on sea. They tat sajdng to us in the homeland, * Pray for us : for we trast we have a good conscience, in all thmy willing to live honestly. But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to yoB the sooner.* I They have a right to our joayen, for they have the ri|^t to daim a fp»od conscieiice and a williiig- ness to Kve honestly in all things. They have ' a good consdenee,* for th^ have hasaided all in the cause of ri^itecmsiiess aad peaee. We have too much forgotten that in the latt resMt we are entirely and wholly dependent on em neiiMen tmd stakm e q > eci ally on ^ote who have tiie almost unbearable leqfwnnbility of leading them. We have wisdom and eoonsd, we have n^t tmd li 1« PRAYER IN WAR TIME money and great resources, and with these we can back our brave men in the critical strug^e. But without them we are helpless, and all that we possess and all that we do will not bring us to our goal. How precious, then, and how near our hearts, must those be who are facing the actual and awful realities of war ! They have a good conscience, for they are doing all that men can do for the honour, the safety, and peace of our Empire and our civilisation. It is they who stand between our women and children — ^between them and death, or worse than death. They have removed themselves beyond all challenge, for they have withheld nothing. It is we men who remain at home and refirain from actual intervention in the fight who are on our defence. It is we who have to answer to our conscience, fo our country, and to our God, that we are out of the zone of fire, and are in the enjoy- ment of our homes. There are, of course, very many who have a good answer to the chaU*?nge. They are debarred by age or physical > aoiesr^ from taking their place in the ranks. The day may come, however, when even they may have to do the little they can. The e are no doubt very many who ought to have obeyed the summons, who have the quaUficati(»i8, and who for varioi» A CALL FROM THE BATTLEFIELD 17 reasons are holding back. We may hope that the conflict goes on they may see the path more plainly. It is as certain as it can be that multi- tudes are not of good conscience in this matter. But we who are not recfccmed amMig the fit must do what we can for those who are. We cannot make our absence good. We cannot sacrifice what those in the fight are sacrificing. How glorious is the record of men who have offered themselves willingly in all ranks of Hfe I How many who were rich in possessicms, in love, in youth, in hope, with life opening sunnily before them, have quietly given their lives, unboasting and unfeaiing! How many have met death without a murmur or a pang 1 How meekly and how devoutly have their stricken ones taken up life afresh, as those who were sure of a nMeting t Have they not a right to ask for our prayers ? They have been in all things 'willing to Uve honestly.' We have many stories of our soldiers and sailors, and they all testify to their gaiety, their courage, their kindness. They have smiled in the face of death. They have grown brighter and better tempered and keener under the harshest conditions. War is war, but they have done what they could in mercy and in pity. N<^ one case of outrage or needless cruelty has been 1 18 PRAYER IN WAR TDIE m§dt good agtinst any soldier of our British troofM. We thiill with pride when we think of them— of what they are, and of what they have done, and what they are doing. n What ean we do for our soldiers and sailors ? Mai^ things ; but not the least thing is to pray fcHT them. What do we mean by prayer? Do we mean by prayer a simple, hopeless out-breath- ing, dying away in filse and fieeble resignation ? The author of the Epistle to the Hdbfews took no such view ot prayer. Ferfaaps his was the most subtle and beautiful mind among all the inspired writers of the New Testament. He unquestion- aUy regarded loayer as a power. *I beseech you the rathn to do this, that 1 may be icttored to yon the soonef.' Our sol£ei« and sailon, in their long days and nights, go on cheerily with their woric, but who among them does not kng to be baefc, erowned with vietoiy, and in the anns of his own f Fkay for that. Fny as those who bdieve that your ptmya may make a dilfer^ enoe. There is such a thing as the suppliant ahaii^tiness oi pmytat, God does not mean our lamyers to be m«e «ght of aoqmeseeiief. He loves to be entreated, {beaded with, wresHed A CALL FBOM THB BATTLBFIELD 10 with. He does not wish to break our wills, but to make them. We are to put will into our prayers. 'Ask and ye shall receive, seek nud ye shall And, knock and it shall be opened unto you.' What I mean is that we should pray with all our might for a speedy victory. Is there one of us who does not long for it ? Is it conceivable there should be a single human being in this city or in this land who would, if he could, prolong this war by a single day? I cannot believe it. Well, then, if we desire this we must pray for itt If we are not ready to pray for it we have no right to desire it. But we desire it, and we prav for it, and we pray as those who believe that it is ot the same thing to God and man whether we ^ay or no. *That I may be restored to you the sooner.* The day of the return of our victorious fighters — oh, what a day that day will be I I never longed so much to live for anything as to live to that day. Oh, the rapture and the rest and the thank- fulness and the gladness that will fill every heart when again there is peace on earth — ^a righteous peace! They will not all come back, and many of us will have to go through our Gethsemane — a fierce conflict, a submission, a strengthening angel. But still, they wUl return, the vast so PRAYER IN WAR TIME "Mjofity of them, erowned, as we believe, with glory. Wdl, then, let us pny for it with the whde intensity of our hearts. Oh, if we only beUered that our prayers would bring them back sooner --if London believed it, if the Churches believed it>-instead of having hundreds present this day we should have had thousands, and no place in Lcmdon would be able to contain the pleaders. But there are many of us who do really believe it. Let us go on with our praying, and make it, if we can, more earnest every day. There is prayer all over the iroOd, There is prayer on sea and knd. Every soldier in the trenches puts up his prayer at night. A recent visitor to Russia wrote iiome, * I have come htte to see a nation on its knees.* Our country » not yet on its knees. When it is we shall see the light bieak. m An American writer has said that what we want to see most of all is good pray-ers. It seems as if there were not many left to us. Perhaps the throng and fever of our modem dayo inciqpacitates men mad women for that continual siege of heaven whkh is involved in true jmyer. It is hard to eoaeaAoAe one's A CALL FROM THE BATTLEFIELD 21 enetgy on prayer and to obey the oomnuuidincnt, * Phiy without oeMing.' But it it not inpoHilile. If we pray for our soldiert and taikm the kit thing each ni^t, if we do lo at toon at we waken, if fnm time to time during the day we lift up our heartt in CHntr's name, then perfaapt, by and by, even at the dayt are tatorated with thought about the War, they will be taturated with prayer about the War. When we have prayed enough the War will end. But let at who believe in prayer tee to it that it it not prolonged by our neglect. And to I give you again the metttge horn thote who are fighting f<» ut on land and tea, * Plray for us : for we trutt we have a good eon- science, in all things willing to live honettly. But I beseech you the rather to do thit, that I may be restored to you the tooner.* m FIRST RIGHTEOUSNESS-THEN PEACE FIRST Ri GHTEOlJiNESS— THEN PEACE Addrett deHvered at the City Temple Intercestiory 'Service on October 30, 1914 * First being hj interpretation King of righteousnMs, and after that also King of Salem, which ia^ King of peace.' — Hebrews vii. 2. We hated war with a steadily growing hatred and abhorrence. We hate it more than ever, and look with longing for its end. A great and | powerful movement for peace was at work in the world, and has not been defeated though it has \ been stayed. But we never said that all wars were to be condemned. We knew too well that huge armaments were being piled up. We be- came familiar with the language of menace and hate. We had to say, ' I am for peace, but when I speak they are for war.' At last the storm burst upon us, and found us but partially prepared, while the enemy had prepared by all means — ^fair and foul. When the time came we calmly took our side. Never in any previous war was the nation so united and so steadfast. We had not renounced our quest for peace» but we saw that some thing 26 PRAYER IN WAR TIME came before that. That something was righteous- ness. Our Lord Jesus Christ is first King of Righteousness, and then King of Peace. I First, righteousness. Had it not been for that we might have had a kind of peace. It would not have lasted long unless we had become so craven as to fear a fight in any cause. It would have been a selfish, ignoble, and cowardly peace, bought at the price of open and cynical treachery. We might have renounced our plighted word, our honour, our obligations. We might have torn up the scrap of paper and left little Belgium to her fate. But it could not be. It would have been a peace which would have made us the scorn of the whole world, and left us without a friend. Such perfidy and such ignominy would have been many times worse than war. While the battles rage our hearts are often anxious and heavy. They will be for months to come. We shall have bitter news as well as joyful news. Our endurance and our faith will be tested to the uttermost. Consider how much more wretched we should have been if we had been out of this war, if we had been watching the ruin of our Allies and remained passive. Better war, we FIRST RIGHTEOUSNESS— THEN PEACE 27 say ttom our hearts, than the tame acquiescence in the dum of the 6«man miUtamm to dmninate the worid. But Jesus is first Bong of Ri|^teousness. Is this an antiquated phrase covering a dead thought f Nay, verily it is the q>ring of life's hope and of its highest joy. Righteousness is the keyword of Christianity. It is the granite foundatii<»i of our faith. The idea of ri^teousness is not a simple rudiment of the spiritual schods. Who* ever understands St. Paul's intense conceptih ome a peace never to be bnto FIRST RIGHTEOUSNESS— THEN PEACE 81 more. There is much in the New Testament to suggest that He will come through the ragings and convulsions and earthquakes of the world. As Charles Wesley wrote, in those lines which Charlotte Bronte has quoted :— * Oh I who can explain This struggle for life. This travail and pain, This tremblinir and strife ? Plague, earthquake and famine. And tumult of war. The wonderful coming Of Jesiu declare.' He will come again to this old, weary, blood- drenched earth, and then will be the reign of peace. Then will all the wild tumult be laid to rest, and instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. IV • ABIDE WITH US : FOR IT TOV^ARD EVENING ' 'ABIDE WITH US: FOR IT IS TOWARD EVENING ' Pubtkktd Map 4, 1816 The risen Lord, after Hit pieeious and victotiotts Passion, after He had broken tlie ban of death, went with two disciples from Jerusalem to Emmaus. * And they drew nigh unto the TiOage whither they went : and He made as though He would have gone fiurther. But they oonrtniaed Him, saying. Abide with us: for it Is towaid evening, and the day is fiir spott. And He went in to tarry with them/ If we consider the passage eareftiUy we shaO see that the prayer of the disdplet, *Abi«te with us, for it is toward evening,' is generally mis. i ^terpreted. This misinterpretation pervades one cherished end beautiful hymn femiHa r to the Christian Church. The hymn takes their request as meaning that they, for their sakes, as the day was darkling, pleaded fat the ecanpany of Hhn Who had mastered the torocs of the ni^ But when we look at the verses we see that it was of His plight and not <^ their (rwn that tiiey were thinkmg. He was, so fiur as they kmrw, without M PRAYER IN WAR TIME shelter, and their hearts, still burning with the words He had spoken to them by the way, went out to Him in a rush of sympathy and com- passion. They asked Him to abide under their humble roof and to partake with them of their simple fare, because He had demeaned Himself as He had done, because of a kind and human feeling. Nevertheless, there is truth in the common understanding of the petition, for whenever Chbist becomes the guest He becomes the host. Be sure that thty found it so. Thus we may linger a little on the prayer that has gone up through all the generations from many a believer who knows the Christ more truly than they did. They did not know fully that this Man was a refuge from the wind, a cover from the tempest. They did not know that the wind and the storm had driven pitilessly upon Him. They were walking at best in twilight, waiting, wondering, wisTul, praying even when it seemed that they were utterly un- heard. New glories were to break upon them. They were to discover that their guest was to be their host indeed, that He would in the end take them to abide wi* ■ Him in the true courts of the House of God. ABIDE WITH US 97 I * Abide wHb for it it towMi evwinf/ It is espediUly a pmyer for ^ow wlw «• old and for those who are giowiog old. Tiw eveniiiff of life is often a tiaie of gbon and ddU aad kmc liness. It is the very grqr November montt of the year. The Umg rtn^ of life has bioi^ low the suppUant'i strength. Broken by weari- ness, weakened by ittnfts, weigfatcd with soirow, and crushed with eaie, ^ ht ar 'oi^ for the Presence that will not pass ; tor tite iStici^til^at is made perfect when the vlfMV of nitmu fidis ; for the Love that npato ap for the bmh^ lores that are missing — ^for a while. Never, perhaps, in the history of the w<^ was this prayer faltered o^ laore earnestly. A fa^ sensitiveness which oyr so-called eiyihsatioii has developed makes the horrors of war even more terrible than they used to be. When it is toiraid evening with us we have little h<^ of fiving tffl a brighter day dawns. Afl tmible is the shadow of death. It remmds us (tf it. It is like it. And it helps to bring us toward it. Such seemfty as had been painfully built up against eotam iBi vanishes away. The provision made a few quiet yean at the end is beii« porasd a «8 PRAYER IN WAR TIME bottomless gulf. So there are many in the even- ing of their lives who are perplexed on every side. They have to live through fightings without and fears within, and they have to watch day by day the gradual dimming and quenching of hopes they hardly wish to survive. They cannot control the wild forces that have broken loose in the world, and they do not understand how they can be controlled. The world is too much for them. They are assailed by evil tidings, and every day brings its own share. What then! Are the people of God forsaken ? Nay, verily, for Chmst abides with them, and it will be enough for us if we have the sense of His fellowship. He is able, if He cannot as yet dry all our tears, to keep us fighting the good fight of faith and laying hold of eternal life. And this is all we ask. n But, of course, the first meaning of the prayer was different. The disciples were asking Him to abide with them because it was evening to Him. It was evening to them, but it did not matter, for they were at home. He was in worse case, for He was a stranger, and they never dreamed of the resources that were in His power. So tlie lesson for us is that we must make room ABIPS WITH US 89 for Christ. He spent His life in this worid seeking room and being denied it. When He deigned and consented to be bom theie was no room finUIim in the inn. Wbea He was wearily seeking us He was not always sure of a roof to cover Him, for He said, * Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.' He came unto His own and His own received Him not It was nevor His manner to force His oompaay . It is for us, in the midit of a foitldsti and permse generatioD, to testify tiwt tiie tmhs we have preached are not dremns, that we know Vihom we have beUeved and what we have taken 40 PRAYER IN WAR TIME in hand, and that we are confident that He Who has begun a good work in us wiU carry it on to the day of the Lord Jesus. Wc are very far from pretending to read the mysteries of Providence, or the precise meaning of the worid-situation. But two things are certain. 1. Is it not true that before the war we were losing Chbist out of our national hfe ? A steady drift was carrying us -way from our true goal. We were forgetting God, and what that means we are beginning to understand. Christian had his fight with Apollyon in a narrow passage in a place just beyond Forgetful Green. ' And indeed,' says he, * that is the most dangerous place in all these parts.' CSiristian ministers have been find- ing thdr woric more and more difficult every year. The attendance at places of worship, and even the numbers of Sunday school children, were showing over all a steady decline. The conten^t for the Lokd's Day seemed to spread. Professing Christians in eminent positions were to be seen on Sundays on the golf course. We do not seek to apportion blame, and we do not foifet tdt a moment the staunchness and fidelity of many Christians. But still, it remains true that ideals were waning. A quiet atheism was ABIDE WITH US 41 the temper of the times in many drdes. There were portents of monstrous growth. The very foundation truths of moraUty were ridiculed by a cynicism as putrid, prvrfSnne, and heartless as any that has ever appeared in the wrald. Certain who have the ear of the public seemed to delight in making sport of the sweetest certainties. There was a devouring passion for luxury and amusement. Social reformers were ahnost hope- less as they witnessed the prenxscupation of the young with games. They were not ^ laying games, but watching others play them. On the part of the privileged there was a passionate resistance to any lunitation. The vast teeming populations were ahnost hopelessly divided, and were able in consequence to make little headway. But they were seething with discontent, and it locdced sometimes as if our society would be torn in pieces by civil strife. A very acute ob8«v» at our time says that the great characteristic of the last ten or twenty years was restlessness. We did not find and we did not seek true rest. All this means that Chbist was knockuig at the door in vain, as of old. 2. Can we say that a generation which was going amain to hell has been set round again towards heaven? Are thore any sjgna tiuit we 42 PRAYER IN WAR TIME are reaUy caUing Christ back to our hearts again? We vehemently wish that we could say so. But there are not many reassuring signs, though there are some. We beUeve that there is a great intensity of private prayer. We beUeve that in many quiet places disciples gather together and pomr out their hearts before God. But in many churches the attendance at intercession meetings is most disappointing. We would not bring a railing accusation against ministers, for we bdieve the great majority of them are doing theur best. But there is not that urgency and intensity of prayer that we need to see before we can be very hopeful. Nor is there the spirit of humiBation which befits us in our present state. Say what we will, the sins of the nation have been great, and it may well be, as Sir David Beatty lias said, that we shall not begin to gain victory till we are brou|^t to our knees in suppUcation. If it were possible to see a great turning of the heart of the nation towards God, we might be reconcUed to much and look with the greatest b^inness to a better world in the future. It is with God that we have to do. We may multiply our munitions and our sddiers. We may caU in new counHkm and leadens, and yet nothing will ABIDE WITH US 48 avail us if we leave Chbut out. He is the Captain <^ our sahraftioii. It is under Wm that we must attain victory. He must be at the head of our ranks to lead us. Are we thus led forward? Are we thus led on ? There have certainly been some things to make us very thankful. Dr. Jacks says in a thougfatf^ essay that the war has brought to Eni^d a peace of mind such as she has not possessed for genom- tions. He thinks that the mind of the natiim is ^ much cafaner than it was before the war. Be- reavement» the cruel anxieties, the immense miseries, the grave uncertainties of the ftitaie, 1 strike hard. But those are calmest vdio are making the greatest exertkm and fmdng the greats sacri&ot for the common caittc. Th^ say that there is something to hve for now. The soldiers and sail 1816 We have read strange objections to the a{q»oiat- ment of a Day of HumiUstion and Fteyer. It has been urged that, while pmy«r is an undoubted privilege and duty, we have no need to ImmiHate oundves. We have, it is said, been Ibieed into this war ; it is a righteous war ; we have Ibi^lit it bravely ; it is for the aggressors to humi&ifte themsdves, and not for us. Now, while we have believed, and do believe •s intensely as any, that this coofliet was fbieed upon us, and that we could not in honour evade it, and must continue it with our whde strength till the goal is attained, we also believe that we have much for which to be proud and thankftil. We believe also that thoe is much for wfaieh our portion is shame and c(»ift]sion b. merciful to ...e, a lUne «. prayer, for high day, and «l fcr „^ e»Utation, of the ^reryday prayer i. the prayer „, not p»y. bat .imply demand, his due. I„ efferthe to God, • Pay me that Thou owest.' '* "hat the «»w«wdlbe. We do «* pray at all until we i»»r i. contrite. There k tn« p^ *^ P~y« whieh i. "SH »ot deepi*. Wfce« the heart break, with ^UnceH <^ ^ ^ ^ , J'^^ rf.n^'tJ^'" *«" that the whole he«i i, but a .t^ betwea. ». «rf derth and nothing left for u. but to ple«l the Phdoa, «<^, .h"^ l»Teeffect».Bypl.«i«l P«r »one but he "»-«»«^ tb. «*i«««t charity of cfo ' ™« fa DO tme «rf p,eviUB„g p^^^^ ^ M nUY» Of WAR TIME not recojpfnise that to sin ngsinst iSoD if tlie tfite and damning treason. We ^ we hmvm sinned, all of us, foully, against our neighbours, and God forbid that we should make lifht of sucii transgression. B -t lo sin against our neighbours is sin against fellow-subjects of the King, and il is sin against flu- Kn ^ that is oi he very esamm of sin. How, tiifMi, ecome- us earnestly to strive after true devotion and reality in our penitence. It njay well be feared tl, t we often offer the petition, ' Forgiv< us our trespasses,' without any adequate or sincere realisation o what transgression means an.i of what pank«^ means. In view of days of humiliation it > well that we should be frank with ourselves. Con- fession is nothing unless it is sinr re, deliberate, and offered up with the full consent of tlie hmt and mind. We see dangers in this r .spect. In the first place, there is a te rible Hanger of our confessing with great uiicJiiom wimi we aie Christians in opposite IT^llfLl^' ^"'y uncharitably. At • tfaiie tte ttes they are prone to say that their ^wfesed, l» cei sins of which they tli^siehres are fi«^ W#. will « * • . but Oil can supply the. for « r a ,re r schievous phrase X « c« be no such thing as our OM-n sins that Z^tTJl' ■"•»*'^'<"*- Part of the sin. of temptations whie) ,ve . ^ fc» » in Ibe Imd. No doubt t , ^ ku wqaieMaiee is part of our , w, » ■ » fc, B. to confess it and deplore it ZTT'^^ Go.. Oh. how excel- r * Ptople I How reluctant we are ^J^tt on h^i now keenly we ean ontK. ™« ««i»irH»ortU., and how slow we are f« let oar own ■imkM'-ij ,„j Thebn.I»— iK^^T^ "nd gnevous errors! of " """niliation We«,o«e. Tfce myrterioo. «*d.rity of humia S2 PRAYER IN WAR TDfK life makes us in a sense responsible for the sins of the body. Let us take our failure to bear this responsibility as part of our own iniquity, and let us confess it and humble ourselves before God because of ii. But we are not called upon to repent, nor is it possible for us to repent, sins in which we have no sliare. Further, it is necessary to say with great frank- ness that our confession will be utterly insmcere, and therefore profitless, if we tell falsehoods Against ourselves. There is a kind of abject iindiscriminating humility which has no truth behind it, and which passes easily into the grossest and most loathsome hypocrisy. More than one of our great secular writers has held up this humility to a deserved scorn. Again, we say, let us be real m our. confessions and confess nothing tot whieh we are not responsible, and of which we have judged sincerely. We must be like the Psataust, who humbled himself before God, but would not plead guilty to the false charges of mMi. * Mine enemies speak evil of me,' he says, Iwt he says also that he has not done that which they ehaige against him. So far as their charges Me eommied he is innocent and pure. We do right to defend ourselves, if need be, against *l«ideri. We have enough to answer few, God HU ULIATION A PART OF PBAYBR M knows, witiKNit aiUUng to the list of our falls. In our picaait dwomstaiices. fw example, we are not free to admit that we dciwd war, or that we mtentKmaUy provolod war, or that we cherished enmity to o«r foes. We did none of these things. Thereare enemies who bring such ehai^es against »«. but they aie fiUse diarges. We repudiate them, while at the «mie time we humble ourselves m pemtenee over the ehaiges whidi our own hearts make against us. UI We piopose to return to this subject, for we Me very deeply convinced that if we aie to eme»e victorious from our oideal. if we aie to see an end of this homWe anardiy, we must fiir more •«i«««ly as a nation and as mdividuals give our^ sdves to lawyer. ft»ym win gwiA battles. He who prays weU, flghts well It if the im^essive and reiterated teaching of Sct^rtuie that askinir IS the law of the Kingdom. Wrthout askingwe can accomplish nothing. The rule is not lehaed even for the Heir of all things. To the Son He saith 'Ask of Me, and I wiB give Tliee the heathen for Thine inheritMiee and ^ uttetmost part of the earth for Thy posssssfen.* We, too. must ask, and we mmt go on asking, ft » «* PRAYER IN WAR TIME perseverance that is crowned. There arc so many things to pray for, so many things to ask for our- selves and others. The Son accepted the law and asked, and we must arm ourselves with the same mind if we are to be victorious. We ask for victory, and we do not ask with bated breath. Anything that concerns the kingdom of Chbist and the glory of God we may pray for, and we may be sure that in God's good time it will come. After each petition in the Lord's Prayer we do not need to say, * Not my will, but Thine be done.' We ask for victory, the victory for justice, the victory for freedom, the victory for humanity. That Avill come, for God is behind the fighters in that cause. But whether He will accomplish this victory by means of us who are fighting is another thing. If we do not ask, if we are careless and prayerless, it may please Him to cast us off for our unworthiness and to win His victory through others. We must, as the awful drama unfolds itseh", betake ourselves more and mow to prayer. If we do we shall see the morning light of salvation. Christ will break forth upon us aU at once in His holiness and love. But before that can be we must take Him into our life and every incident of our Ufe. As one has said, * Before every action we must breathe a prayer. HtJMILUTION A PART OF PRAYER 55 and during every action we must farenthe a prayer, and after every aetion we must breathe a prayer/ But how far we are from this I How haid may be the discipline through which the loving Father must lead us ere the end is reached. The very beginning of our hc^ is in humiliation before God. Thus shall we come to know ourwdves. But how many bands must be snapped ere we are free indeed I VI PRAY WITHOUT CEASING PRAY WITHOUT CEASING Publithti JwM 16, 1916 A WELL-KNOWN s<^o]ar, writing of the great decrease in congregatioiis at interceBsion services, says: *That rush has long ago ceased, and of those who persevere how many are reaUy depre- cating on behalf wew this may be. the duty of believers w«f«njdear. To them it is written, ' Ye shall Mk. Whatever oUier people do or fail to do. ye shdl asfcj If others fail ye shaU continue. shaB adt.* If others will neither ask nor •eek nor knock, ye shall do so. The one hope for a c^tiy lies in the true believers who dwell »««B. aiid. be they many or few, these believers save their fellows. Th^ mtoeessofs left to us wiU prevail. They ''^ not be eonfiued by sophisms about the laws nature, and miredes. and the divine decrees. ^ win give heed to the inward and outward ;j«eei that smnmon them to the throne of grace The fktth that has overhung and surrounded their wnls a. a dweffing and a refuge will not be pulled ~P««». For our own part, we believe that th«e IS more prayer in the land and on the field than em there was in the history of the world. It « sotdy needed, and we should hasten the ad FRAY WITHOUT OBASDiG ei of tUt weny and awftd itrifb if we reinforced it. We need am and wonien who will pray, and we •reflBdiiigtiMni. Now tiiat we are in this pass we need the masters in the kffe God, and we need also the frailest, the hnmUert, the most ignorant. An American wiitw haa said that the lupieoie necessity of the Ouneh and the worid is a eompany of great Fkay-en. It h true. But we want, in addition to the great Phiy-ers, those who have just begun, ^ staamer at their flrat attea^ who can iMidly, if M aS. find woids in whieh to express the yeaniqg that fib their loiils. To the ranks of Afagr-cn thcfe have been added many who never Vnytd beioie, and who aie now hi the face of daOfov of death, of befeavemcnt. Ifo matter liow broken their snppheatioB has been, it has been noted and annaonoed on high—* Behold, hepimyeth.' WeB may we study the ooBmumd- ■M«t, *P*ay w^MNrt oeaiii^' «t this time when everything often seems to be sinking frt>m under us, and our sweetest cap« are full erf bittemess. I Thoe are, first, the great and prolonged wiest- IbV God in de s perate nlTniiiianmn, We 4enot beheve that many Christians pass thnaigh «* PBAYEH m WAR TIME Ufe trithout one experience at least parallel with Gwrt Coumel. vVe might reverently think aho «fe«h«»n«» and our Lohb's great Agony there. »* the» .re shadows in Gethsemane whieh ^never p.« away from mortal eyes. We shall taow, as Che«t did, what it is to be afflieted T* « «™ of Uke passions with our- Jit"!" ""^ 'here wresUed • with hm until the break of the day. Thi, '1 °" admonition, upon whom the end, worid Me eome. In sueh wrestUngs the W mujtbe alone, and the world must be in Te« me. 1 pray Thee, Thy name,' was th« f^Tkl ! T'"*"*- • Whore. th^ thou dost ask after My name f ^2^djdh.«k, Because for him and those «r»Zl^^ » hour when k.«.»ir^ n>e answer comes, but it nerer ftH T^**^""^'""- F^n. that time ~« eqx^iHm There must be some new ™™ooo of the flad> and its affections and lusts. ^"^ ---^ «««tliesoul. TWre must be another haltiiig PRAY WITHOUT CEASING m — • iMltfaig befixre temptation. The victorious wrestbr mmt no longer be caught by the lures of thewoild. They murt low tlieir power to interest, to ewite desire, to exaet compliance. Notwith- •^Mdiqg. ' I wiU not let Thee go except Thou bless me.' Tliis is the q^t in whieh such struggles awrt be oontiimed aod ended. We must go on tai we hmre obtdaed the blessinff, let the time be never so kmg, let the night be never so dark. n Thwe are great ht&tvtn who not only have regular times for prayer but are abo able to pray for proioiiged periods. We read in the lives oC the saints abo^ their praymg for horns every day. We read in tiie life of the Master that after jffis •ultry noonday toMiiinf He w«t to the moon- tMM in the midnight that He might pray to God. He needed ptnyer^Oioa^^ is strange for us to think so. He had not to plead in tears and diame»asisoiir]otsooften. Hehadnottoeo^bsa tbe sins of the day. He had never to weqi befim Goo beeaose of some gnat transgiTssitai. He never had to wage our ig^ to sobchie a siatei end rebeffious nature. The piinee of this world <»ae and had Bothinf fai Hfaiu AndyvtBewat the gnatest of Ftmytn, and Ks dw^ nevw. \ i PMAYSR IN WAR TDIE ^J"' ' ''"^^ ^^^^ they said, Lobd, teach i» how to Xhoie ioenes of extraordinary devotion are ^ wwdoftU. Oiir Lord sought the solitude !^ f **** "fountain. Amid the iiills, •nd WW, the long shadows cast by the moonlight on the twwd, in the sacred house and temple of ^iTL -. ™" " H« prayed aloud, though •M the damov of the world was stilled. Th«Pe hm been those who, up to their powers, hve •Her the iMBe manner. They can go on for l»«w Paying with profit. Perhaps there are «a yw nfcM been wisely suggested that we do ^ TZJ^ "^^^ accomplish for ourselves ^J^^^^^'^'^'^y''' We do not We do lj^»dy «md the.e we«y earth-bound years. ^»«»»iy be provideatW indications of the times Z^^K^^ for this kind of supphcation- SZ?^ ^f!l "^^^^ ^^^^ i° our ^^^'^.tT " "^^^ We might th« do nWy «id weU to continue all ni^t ia PBAY wnHcwT cmmm $5 IWWP to Ckn>. We know that those who have «oe wch tliiQgt hmre great power. They ask thiy win and it is done unto them. Some «BW have poMCMed and possess this sacred awful fin. in Bttt we desife chiefly to encourage those for iudi endeavoon after God are too hard. 1^ Scriptow deal very graciously with those f-r wIkmh praya it difficult. They give great to thote who can only send up tt«r t^^idkatkms framed in a few words. Of t^told was the prayer d Nehemiah. offered ^^ween a qneetion fro n his King and his answer. So I piayed to tiie Gv;> o heaven.' This ha. »^ealled ejaculatory prayer, that is. prr r whidi lunk a dbrt-difeeti it. and is done. k payei. a» po«arfe to all of us and in all eircum- •^necfc We can tarn to God at all time, and in fjir* •* ^ in the slightest tei^»tatioii. Am St Bemmamd says : ' 'his kind of ^yw aeeds i>o d»u«A. oo altar, no sacrament.' It»^ be o««ed ill aileace and in speech, in ^•ndiawrt. ft -ay be uttered in every "^a^ta^ in cmy fragment and nRoofMw. We do wen to appoint seasons for PBAYER IN WAR TIIIB prayer and to keep them. But in addition to this we should go ttu-ough our work constantly pray- iiig. We diould be saying. *Lobd. help me,' Lord, bless me,' »Lobd. keep me.' 'Lord, fMgive me.' At eveiy turn this dart may be ttrown upward. Throw it when you are handling the letter wWdi may contain fatal news. Throw It when the image of some loved one grows clear to your mind. Throw it when you are sorely tempted to passion or pride or despair. • Lord remember me whai Thou comest into Thy king- dom.' That is an ejacuUtory prayer. 'Give Thy poor, blind, wandering servant wisdom, give him tLe key to this lock '-is a prayer which is socm offered in the soie perplexities which more or less trouble us all Ejaculatory prayer is sui»emely the prayer for the battlefield. There ni*y be no time and no opportunity for stated prayer, but a man in need can concentrate every- thing mto one great call to the mighty God. So we would have this prayer more and more ^'^'^'•S^ Bnd moK ttoditd. Such prayer always brings the gift the Holy Spirit. What ^ do we need? He is the Spirit of Wisdom, on« (716) 288 - 5989 -Fm 78 FRAYER IN WAR TIME much light that the darkness is endurable. The appeal to faith is irresistible, and the sad heart hears it. The day is not far off when we shall have fought our last battle of grief and fear, and then we shall see no longer in a glass darkly but face to face. Meanwhile we are content to have, not merely our own dim reading of God, but the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Also we possess the past with its treasures. The kindness of youth, the helpful love and holy example that were given to us to succour us, the disclosures made to us from the beginning of the true kingly character of the Christian— how many are these benefits of the Lobd. We cannot re- count them. For the means of grace and the hope of glory we are to be thankful. We are to be thankful because the supernatural life abides m us, that life which seems sometimes on the veiy point of dying and yet does not die. It is best that our behef in the future world should not be a faith that helps us on special occasions, but a calm and settled habit of the soul. It is weU if we are driven to this assurance by some great sorrow. But it is better that we should nourish the hope and the love and the faith that looks beyond the grave, and know that many battles are not decided here and now. •BUT RATHER GIVING OF THANKS' 79 IV Let m give thanks also in this war. It is a stupendous catastrophe, and yet the hand of God is in it. We have cause to give God our pom thanks for wakening us to reality, fcnr many &i i» feel that we have played at life till now. We thank God for the miracles of mercy and deliver- ance which He has vouchsafed. We thank Him for the unity of our nation. We thank Him for the heroism ci our sddim. We thank Wm ibr those who are facing death feaikady wfth the odds against them, for those who have teken duty as their guiding light and have thrown their i»edotts lives with no niggard hand into the bdaaee. As for those who have abeady giv»i their lives, we remonber continually the saying of the saint * I would lament for you if I daxed.* Nor in the darkest days has the aation evw lost hope. We have had our heavy icveises , and we have rallied from them to eurfy on the fight, and so shall to the end. But to interpret the ways of God is too hard for us. All will be dear wbim tiie solcaiii tiittiks- giving of the redeoned to God whids up the drama of human hi^oiy. vin HAND OF GOD IN JUDGMENT THE HAND OF GOD IN JUDGMENT PnhUtktd Julf 9, 1916 Does God send judgments to the nation ? Does God send judgments to the individual? After wc have used all the lights we have, and all the Ughts God sends us in revelation, the problem remains full of mystery. We can faintly trace the purposes that are being accomplished, but we can do no more, and when we decide, as we must decide, wf ill locms, and dinna min' what 's said to ye. Skt *t come to an ill hinner-en' I ' The people of the neighbourhood were moved to a study of the prophecies : ' Those who read their Bibles, id idiom thtfe were many in that region, took to readinf thf prophecies, all the propheci^ and scfoedy any- THE HAND OF GOO IN JUDGMENT 85 thing but the prophecies. Upon these every man, either for himself or following in the track of his spiritual instructor, exercised his individual powers of interpretation, whose fecundity did not alto- gether depend upon the amount of historical knowledge. But whatever was known, whether about ancient Assyria or modem Tahiti, found its theoretic place. Of course, the Church of Rome had her due share of the appUcation from all parties ; but neither the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, nor either of the dissenting sects, went without its portion freely dealt, ea b of the last finding something that applied to aJ the rest. There were some, however, who cared less for such modes, and, themselves given to a daily fight with anti-christ in their own hearts, sought ' 'Hey, too, read the prophecies — ^to fix their r v . on certain sins, and certain persons classed accoitling to these their sins. With a burning desire for the safety of their neighbours, they took upon them the strongest words of rebuke and condenmation, so that one might have thought they were revelling in the idea of the vengeance at hand, instead of striving for the rescue of their neighbours from the wrath to come.' Many of us are like the people in the little town of Glamerton these many years ago. 86 PRAYER IN WAR TIME I It it Tain for uf to mtUmpt the ptoUeni of the tnigiii of cyiL All the thoughts of men tat con- •umed hi that bunung fiery ftiniMe. Somethings, however, we must bdieve or die. We must beliere that the universe is under the administration of God the Father. We must Hft our hearts up against a desolate atheism and against an equally desolate fatalism. We must seek to trace the hand of God, •nd we must believe that the hand is working in wisdom and hi love, however strange, however dark its dealings may be. We must cling with all che •twflfth we possess, with all the strength we can win, to the faith that the Lobo is working, ev en when all we can say is, 'It is the LoBD, let Him do what seemeth Him. good.' We must hold that to individuals and to naticms God appoints their portion, and that this is done in righteousness and in love. n It is wisest to begin by what comes dose to us, with the expoienoe we know. We should eon- »der deeply the reasons for the afflictions that have marked our own lives. We must trace all our trials to our God. * 3% wrath Ueth hard THB HAND OF GOD IN JUDGMSNT 87 upon me. Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves.* All suffering of any sort or kind e«ply that w<»d, * Whom tiie Lobd loveth He chasteneth.' But for oursdves we should be willing to search our hearts as the sfMes searched Canaan, and to taH down in humiliation at the feet of God. But against such inquiry into the hearts of others we are expressly warned. It is one of the last and most evil numifestati aad le pcntawce i Would that each of ua could settle into an earnest prayer that we may not be rdbds against tiiewiUof God. IX RTDNATE PRAYER V IMPORTUNATE PRAYER PubHthed jufy 27, 1916 Much of our prayer is not impratuiiate. Xa ordinary circumstances it is languid and fonnal. We put litUe wiU into it, Uttie energy < f deare. But now many have c pass. This eop^ brimming with tribulation, draws nearer and nearer to reluctant and paling lips, and the spirit is affrighted and calls to God. Fathers, mo&ers, wives, lovers pray that prayer, and wonder how it is with their dearest in these vall^ and hei^tts of death. Oftentimes they are stricken and bUnded by receiving the tidings that this one prayer, the nearest to the heart and the dearest, can be uttered no nuwe. Each name on the long list on which our eyes fasten every morning means the stilling of an importunate prayor, often of many importunate prayers, which Uft mtOu and months 06 PRAYER IN WAR TIME and years have been lifted up to God. It may be helpful that we should consider the place and power of importunate prayer as our Lobd has taught it. I The teaching of Christ, so broad and bold, seems at times to guarantee the almightiness of importunate prayer. He has Himself told the story of the widow who, by sheer importunity, prevailed over the unjust judge. Everything was apparently against her. She was praying to an unrighteous judge who cared for nothing but his own ease and boasted of his own contempt for God and man. She had no claim upon him. She was without, a friend, for her many journeys had to be taken alone. She was without the right of access, and must have forced her weary way with many to oppose her. She had no promise. Indeed, she had less than no promise, for she was encountered with rebuffs every time of her pleading. Yet she prayed, and in the end her prayer was answered. Contrast her phght with the place of the children of the Resurrection. They pray to the Holy Father, Who is Love. They pray to Him Who spared not His Son, but delivered Him up to death mPORTDNATE PRAYER 97 for us all. They pray to a God Who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever belleveth in Him should hiive ever- lasting life. They pray with a mighty Frirad and Advocate to help them. This Friend ever liveth to make intercession for them. They pray as those who are bidden to pray. It is not only that they have a right. They have more th»n a right. They are plied and exhorted with many arguments to take their weariness to the Throne of Grace, which can never be moved. They have exceeding great and precious promises, for the Bible is studded with encouragements to prayer. They have a Priest at the right hand of God. Their Priest is a Son over His own house, Whose house are they if they hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. They have experiences behind them which are sacred and assured. No believer has ever been able to tell, with anything like completeness, what he has known about the power of prayer. But many know so much that they have never been able to understand the doubts and difficulties of those who do not pray or who pray reluctantly and rarely. To the true believer aU life has been an answer to prayer. Many of those answers are f » visible, so quick-coming, so surely the w<»k oi M PRAYER IN WAR TME God, that to doubt them would be to doubt every- thing. Sometimes they arc almost inclined to believe that even erring prayers have a strange power whereby God exhorts His diildien ever- more to plead first that the Holy Will in*y be done. Also there is the record of the woA of God for His redeemed people. When faith and hope are low the spirit is strengthened by falling back on the long story of God's grace. n We know very well, however, that the promises which attach to prayer do not and cannot attach to every petition. We know that not all of our prayers can be granted. Not every one can ccanc back whole, or even wounded, from the battie. Even while they know this the bereaved must encounter days of des^latioor-days when they seem to walk m darkness and to have no lif^t. The house is still and the diair is empty and the great hard desolation settles down and seostt at if it would never lift. The frail spirit fears that it may never reach the happy goal at aU. It is as if it were left a prey to the enemy and robbed of all that made life sweet. The thou^ will not come. The words of comfort scan to be spoicen without meaning. Hie petitions, if they are IMPO&TUNATE PRAYER 99 oHend, go up wftboiit heart. The poor and drear life that •tietehet out before is not worth living. Tbe old intimades of faith seem to have ended. Their days are as a dream. The sufferers cannot enter into the Sanctuary of the Lord's Fftssian. They eannot feel themselves set as a seal 00 Hifi heart, as a seal on His arm. But the eomfort is that Cbust is there even when His presence is not realised. 'When thou feurett, God b nearett' Maey wept at the sepulchre for her Lord, and He was staiMiing beside, her. The disciples sat in the room with closed doors, and the Lord was among them. The travellers to Emmaus said, * We trusted that it should have been He which should have redeemed Inael,' Uttle knowing that tiie true Redeemer of Israel was the companion of thdr journey. It was meet and ri|^t to go on praying for the beloved life while the time for prayer was. But it is not pRmused that importunate prayer for the earthly life win be answwed. Christians are cnniitg to understand better than they did for a time that true prayw concems itself most deeply with the spiritual gifts which it is God's will we should possess. Once it was thought a sign of 100 PRATER IN WAR TIME the Divine favour to attain success in business. We know better now. Are all our millionaires Christian ? Some are open scoffers, and yet everything they touch turns to gold. What then ? Why, nothing. It was appointed that our Lord should for our sakes become poor, and His greatest disciples have been poor, and the time may come again when poverty shall be accounted the mark of a Christian. No; what we are taught to hope for is the children's bread. Some may solace themselves with the crumbs that fall from the table, but there is room for each believer at the table, where he shares with the rest. The children's bread has never been the bread of great earthly prosperity. The children's bread has always been mingled with tears. The heirs of salvation have had appoir' i to them the experience of sorrow. If the experience of sorrow comes to us it is a proof that we are among the sons and the daughters of God. m What, then, are the bereaved to hope for and to pray for ? Above all things they are to pray for the inward calm of faith and love. They are to pray for a true vision of immortality. They are to ask the assurance that the Everlasting IMKMRTCMATE PRATEB 101 Love keeps them and their dear ones safe for aM another, though Jordan rolls between. They are to comfort themselves with the certainty that higher work has been found for their beloved in A better country, that is, an heavenly. They arc passed first to the new morning, and there they wait for those who have been parted from them for a time. And it is for those who remain to live as those who know that they are the heirs of immortality, and to seek to reach the spirit-land unsoiled and noble. IV But the importunity need not, and must not, cease. We must be importunate in prayer — importunate for that answer which God is always willing to bestow. "What do we ask for when we pray ? In the end of the day we are asking, whether we know it or not, for power — power to endure, power to labour, power to trust, power to fight temptation, power to keep the faith. That is, we are praying for the Holy Ghost. Give us the Holy Ghost to lift up our life to the Divine thought, and all is well. An eminent thinker of the last generation, whose creed was in some respects defective, said in his old age that his * whole inner life had been one long self-distntst 109 PRA/ER IN WAR TDfE and conscious need of a power beyond my own.' He believed that he had received that power and was upheld by it through his long pilgrimage. What do we need beyond the direct life with God, the personal intercourse with Christ, the im- paitation of the strength needed for the day, the power of vividly realising the Divine life and fellowship? The immediate action of God in the human soul — this is the answer, the auper- natural anewer to the prayer of faith. But true prayer, though it begins with self, will not rest with self. We are to pray for those nearest us, and we are to go on praying to the very last of life, whether we see our petitions answered or not. We are to nray for the coming of the kir^'lom of God, and to care for it, and to offer saci e for it. We have to pray with importunity for the victory of that cause to which so many of our beloved have given their lives, for we believe with them that it is the cause of r^^teouanera, of liberty, and of peace. All such prayers are to be importunate prayers, to be oHered till they are answered. Those who pray in that manner may often die with muiy petitions unfulfilled, and yet with an inner assurance that they will be fulfilled, that God will grant their requests and gather them to- MPOBTUIUTB FSAYER IM gether at last. So when the earthly tabernacle clatters to the ground, a mass of boards and ruins, the sacred priestly soul that has long ministered there will hear a great Voice saying, * Come up hither.* * THE ROCKS ARE NOT BURNING ' •THE ROCKS ARE NOT BURNING' Published July 29, 1915 In a very beautiful and suggestive speech delivered at the Weskyan Methodist Conference, Dr. Rendel Harbis most aptly brought before his audience the lessons of the Epistle to the Hebrews as they bear uron the present time. He reminded his audience tha*; the inspired author wrote when the passing world and the permanent were thrown together much as they are now. He was able, in perhaps the greatest crisis which the Christian world has ever faced, to look down through the flames in which Church and State were beiuj consumed tc^ether, and to signal back to us the observation that the rocks were not burning, that they showed no signs of passing away, that the situation was not a call to fear, but a call to faith and a call to the reception of grace, of fresh grace, and new grace, whereby we may under new con- ditions serve God and adorn His gospel. It is verily true that this is a time of fears and tears, of agony and bloody sweat for many, and of heartache for aU. The war shout» which wc Iff 108 PRAYER IN WAR TIME thought had fallen silent, waxes louder and louder. Never was the world at war like this. We have not merely that subtle, implacable smiting of the black waves of change which is a concomitant of all hfe. We have undreamt-of and inconceivable earthquake and catastrophe. The very earth seems to reel under our feet. The foundations are destroyed. The world is deluged with blood. The kingdoms are going to rack. Earthly fortunes are being altered in an hour. Those whom we thought would outlive us, through whom we had some hold of the future, die before us because they can fight and we cannot. Truly we live in an inverted order, and it is not wonderful that multitudes, even of the faithful, are wearied and worn with sorrow, distracted by dark forebodings that will not down. In the mist a mysterious sadness gathers over the youngest and the lightest hearts. Profiting by Dr. Rendel Harris's hint, we will review the picture of the changing which is drawn by the inspired writer, and then set over against it his picture of the permanent. I He begins by telling us that the old sacrificial wder, so dear to those he was addressing, so bound up with their inmost thoughts and feelings, rever- 'THE ROCKS ARE NOT BUBNIN6' 100 enced from the beginning of life, had to pass away. Earthly priests had to go. They were made priests after the law of a carnal commandment which was in force no longer. There was no need now of the priests who offered daily sacrifices, first for their own sins, and then for the sins of the people. There was no need of the old taber- nacle and of the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of the heifer sprinkling the unclean, and of the divers washings and the carnal ordi- nances that had existed for so long. The priests who had infirmity, who, when their time came, had to yield to the inexorable, were to have their place no more at all in the Christian Church. Thus the old foundations were shifted, and the old homes of religion fell, and those who first read the Epistle were almost broken-hearted, for they lived by these and for these. Even the illuminated were in fear of so vast a change. Nor is this all. The whole structure of earthly society was shattered and brought to the ground. Worldly possessions were taken away. Instead of riches there was poverty. Life was maintained on bare necessities. Christians endured the great fight of aflliction. They were made a gazing stock by reproaches. They were spoiled of their goods. Even tUe strongest and the si]ii|>lest faith 110 PRAYER IN WAR TIME had to be ralUed to meet these aqyeriences. Nor did the writer hcdd out any hq>e ci more peaceful and stable times. On the contrary, he tdd his people that chastening and scouiging were to be thdr fortune. He spoke even of a time when the stable earth and heavens should wax old as doth a garment. He whose v<»ce cmce shook the earth fh>m the mountain that might not be touched had promised, saying, * Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also the heaven.' What does this mean? We cannot tell. The poet writes about these *ruinable skies.' Ruin- able I Is everything therefore insecure ? Are not the heavens themselves safe and free from fear ? U For all these the blessed writer has an answer, and it seems as if he lingered with a certain joy over such words as * same ' and * continue ' and ' remainest * and * unchangeable,' and, very speci- ally, ' rest.' All that was of God would endure, unscathed by the uttermost violence of tiie storm. The rocks were not burning, fife b^(ins very grandly where he ends, and that is with Go--. * Goo who at sundry tin^ and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He 'THB R S ARB NOT BURNING' 111 hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.' It is to the Eternal Son, who, being the brightness of God's glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power — to the Son who has by Himself purged our sins — ^that the throne is assigned. ' He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.' Thus we deal with Christ whose kingdom shall have no end. Unto the Son He saith, ' Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.' Earth and heaven shall perish, but Thou remainest. ' Thau art the same, and Thy years shall not fail.' There shall be an end of His enemies, for they shall become His footstool. The Epistle is concerned mainly with the gospel of the priesthood. But the offices of our Lord cannot be divided. He is Prophet, Priest, and King in every action. He is the eternal High Priest, ^ i riest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. rh.« priests after the order of Aaron passed away. They were transitory, and their work was transitory. They were not suffered to continue by reason of death, but the Son was consecrated for evermore. Once in the end of the world He appeared to put away sm by the sacrifice of Himself, and thus He aeaomplished that work of salvation, in the full lit PRATER IN WAR TMB sense, which had not been completed before. By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Instead of the waning and ineffectual ordinances of old time, which left those who came under them so little helped, we have the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Cheist Jesus. He is set as a Son over His own house, Whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. So much for the priesthood of the new Church as compared with the priesthood of the old. But what of our hopes, thwarted and ruined as they seem to be ? What of our trials ? The answer is that our hopes are to be fixed no lower than Chbist Himself, ascended and enthroned. About hopes for this, world there is not much to say. There is no promise of the restitution of the goods which have been taken by robbers. But in heaven we have a better and a more enduring substance, where thieves cannot break through nor steal. Resting on two immutable things, the word and the oath of God, we have strong consolation. We have laid hold of the hope set before us, and that hope is an anchor of the soul. It is an anchor flung into the azure deeps of that sea which is above all heavens, in the sanctuary within the veil. It takes hold of the Forerunner who has for *IHB BOCKS ARB NOT BUBNING* lia at entered in, even Jesus made a Priest for ever. We are promised no escape from pain. All that can be said is that our pain is not like the pain of apostasy. Even if it were, the fiuthful are taught that the chastening and the soouiginf of life— grievous though they be— are neverthe- less the work of love. ' Whom the LoBD loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.' These chastemngs yield the peace- able fruits of righteousness to those who eadxut them. What of the dead ? This is the question that in the- times tries the heart more than any other. We i the long roU of the elders who obtamed a good report by faith, who achieved mighty deeds by faith, subdued kings, worked righteou-mess. stopped the mouths of lions, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. These aU died in faith, and they did not believe a lie. But there is more than this, so much more, so sweet and so wonderful, that one shrinks frtm trying to expound it. By hope and by faith we have the assurance that the faithful dead are happy in God's keeping. Hope for this writer is not the pathetic figure which a modem painter has made her, wistful, weak, and pale. Hope H 114 PRAYER IN WAR TUB to Wm i. ^t^^dUMt, nd Faith is steadfast also, «d both point one way. But there is more than thi^ fdr tt is written that ' we are come to Moun gton. unto the city of the living God. to the general ^bly and church of the flrst-bom which are written hi heaven, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.' We are near them did we know it. We have come nearer them, did we know it. than Faith and Hope can ever take us. We are with them- we ahnost join them in the new song. We a^ in fellowship here and now. compassed with darkness as we are, often so lonely, so lost-we are hi communion with the church of the fir«t-born Finany. we are approachmg a time when all the cruelty of change will end. Ere that time come we niy have to encounter much, for the word » Yet once more * means the removing of those Oungs that are shaken, but this is that the things which cannot be shaken may remain, and we receive a kmgdom that cannot be moved, eternal m the heavens. Ill The last chapter of the book is made up partly of practical counsel, but it is impossible for the writer to keep long away from the thought that rules him. We find him saying aUnost at once. 'THE BOCKS ABE HOT BI7BNIN6* lis *JltVS Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever/ Yes, he tells us, there is one Rock that is stable amid the waves and billows and ragings of the sea. Jesus Chbist is the same. Though the whole scenery of this passing world be altered, though the faces we were fain to look on all fade away, He remains the same as our fathers knew Him, the same as the Hebrews knew Him, the same as Eternity knew Him, and always to be the same. Dr. Harris points out with very fine insight how the writer says, ' Let brotherly lore contmue.' This also wa to endure, no matt.T llow the earth might rock. It was to continue and to last in all worlds and through ul\ ages. There ts a tender, reverent remembrance of the dead ministers of Christ— they which have the rule over you, which have spoken unto you the word of God, * whose faith foUow, considering the end of tiiett eonvcrsation,' which means the manner in which they died. He (the writer) was hardly consdoBS of separation, for to him the thin veil was shot through and through with gleams of light from the other side. All the book is laden with warnings agamst apostasy. There are counsels on what becomes us in a world like this— con- tentnent ith food and raiment, willingness to sacnflce out of very small means, obedience to 116 PRATER IN WAR TDfB holy teachers, and continued prayer. But the writer is always turning to our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the Sheep, as the Answer, the Consolation, the Refuge, the Succourer, the Prophet, the Priest, the King, of His tried but futhftil peqple. ' On my soul Looks Thy fair Face and makes it still.' XI TO THE QUIET IN THE LAND TO THE QUIEl iJN liiE LAND PuMuked January 20, 1916 Wb had thought of addressing this article to eountry mmisters, but it has seemed well to widen its wxipt a little and to take in the quiet Christians who are left in the land during this period of agony and conffict and strain. There are many ministers who are placed in obscure streets of great towns. There « a host of unknown workers — Sunday-schocd teachers, visiton, and others— who in their humble qp^ieres are serving the Lobd Chbwt. There are Chmtians in the h are away. He ought to see all the letters they send home. If he is doing his duty the letters will be brought to him. He should write many letters himself to the soldiers. They are made happy. 128 PRAYER IN WAR TMB •s every one testifies, by friendly letters. They are comforted by the thought that they are remem- bered and prayed for at home. If this is the habit, those who come back will cling faster than ever to the village pastor, the village church, and the God of our salvation. But that end is not primary. It is a plain duty, and it ought to be a very great privilege, to make the life of the church as much as possible the life of a loving family while the trouble lasts. Once more, we have the children, and they ought to be consideii ' as they have never been considered. Is it rigli.. that the churches should allow the number of their scholars to decrease so much and so rapidly ? Some Uttle decrease may be inevitable, through ^ e changing conditions, but we at least have 'ver heard of any well- directed movement for canvassing the children and bringing them within the range of Christian teaching. Can any one tell us of any minister who has gone with his Sunday-school teachers to visit the children outside and tried to bring them in ? We should be very glad to hear of such cases, but they must be very few. No. What our churches will do is to hold conferences, and papers will be read and speeches delivered, and in due course a decrease will be reported. It has been TO THE QUIET IN THE LAND 1S9 said that eyay minirter who .llr^ lus Sunday- ■chpoltodiiiimifhiiaihcker. TWi » undoubtedly mort unto, hecmm there are dintriets where the population ha. lai^ely decreased, but there is more tnith in the chaine than we like to think. Let the children then be watched, shepherded, brought m, mmistered unto. That is the true end of the Sunday^ook-to bring chiWren to Jesus. The communication of knowkdge is a ver> small part of the business, and it may be horribly abused. We want the ehiMren to have their minds stored with precious texts and godly hymns, and to have their hearts directed to the Saviour who sought them We ou^t to look with a new interest at the children who are to Ktc in the new worid in which many of us are to have so smaU a share They should know the solemnity of this war They should be taught about sin and redemption.' Their lives should be so cultivated and tended that they wiU bk)ssom at IcQgth into foith and love and obedience. This is the way to the heart of mothers and to the heart of fathers also. It is not the will of our Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish, and if we have to report decreases, let us make sure that we have done what we could to prevent tiwm. We hope we have said i»ough to show that the 180 PRAYER IN WAR TIME worker hM a gie»t power in tiie knd. Lather workers be remenibeiwl. It would be well if thoee of us who were Iwoai^t up in country dniidiet gave special thought to them and to their paiton. If we do so we Shan help to nuOntain within them that sense of Love at the heart of things which is the chief need of us all to-day. XII WHEN THE WOUNDED GO mm& WHEN THE WOUNDED GO HOME PMftMAprUl, 1916 We are t hinking not so much of the wounded who Me lecorering from tl^ wounds, who are being tended with the utmost love and sidll, who have beoi hooouiaUy dismissed from the fight, or are bdng strengthoied for its renewal. They have gone home, or they will go home, to sun them- selves in the warmth of devotion. But what of those who have died rrows and the Fountain of our joy. We love to hear of those who have givm themselves to the roughest and the sternest service, who have been ready to beur the very brunt of the fray. The dust and the smx^e, and the garments rolled in blood, and the svmid all hacked, and the dinted armour, and the Imiised shield, speak of a hero's work. These are good soldiers who, when they are called to advance to the attack, do not wish themselves away, who feel the stem joy which flushes the face in the light of battle, who do not know how to yield, a^ will not hear of retreating. Such men are the saviours of their country, and indeed no country can live without them. It is our busineit, mbtn the land if iiB|>eriIled, to value them as we ov^t and to hiUp laa PRAYER IN WAR TIME them as we can. It is impiety to throw responsi- bilities upon God which He has thrown on us. We need in our defence no mere trumpeters of gala days, but men to be looked for among the slain and the surviving when the furious storm of battle is over. We have seen in this war great marvels of self-sacrifice which we cannot behold without bending our heads in reverence. But it is true that among the bravest there are many who in quiet years did not Uve wisely, who had many weaknesses, and bore many stains, and were often grievously at fault. Their redemp- tion cannot come from the fact that they died well, however well they died. Are we, then, to give over hoping, to doubt their place in thp great Redemption ? No ; for we may hope much, and very much, from the very peril and awftdness and solenmity of their end. Their lives were in hazard from the first day of their fighting. Did they not know it ? Did they not breathe a prayer to the Savioue ? We take the first extract that Kes to our hand from a chaplain's report He says : — *At 8.60 the evening closes with "family worship "—a short Scripture reading and prayer by the chaplain, afte* which comes two minutes set aside tat silent praye^ when each nan has WHEN THE WOUNDED GO HOME 187 his opportunity for offering the confesnons and petitions of his own heart. This evening worship is a very striking act. A stiff rule was made at the outset that no man was to wait to prayers unless he wished to wait. They all wait. The room is always crowded, and the reverent hush during those two silent minutes of prayer is witness to the value the men place on the act.' ' They all wait ! ' Our blessed Lord has taught us, in the story of the thief who was saved in the very act of expiring, what salvation means. Whoever turns his foce to Christ believingly, though it be but for an instant before his death, finds eternal life. This is the gospel in its naked majesty. There is nothing to be added. The life may have been utterly ungodly and wicked. It was so in the case of the dying robber. But when the crucified thief turned in his agony to the crucified Christ, all his sins were instantly washed away. We can imagine the Redeemer turning His head painfully, with love in His dying eyes, to the poor suppliant, and we know that He said in His own royal way, 'Verily, I say unto thee, to-day ^t thou be with Me in Paradise.' Whoever, even at the hour or the minute of his death, believes in the LoBD Jesus Christ shall assuredly be saved. 188 PRAYER IN WAR TIME But are we to say that this was a soUtary, or at best an exceptional case ? By no means. It may be that most are saved in this manner. We Mill quote Mr. Sfurgeon. That great Doctor of Grace says : — ' If the thief was an exceptional case — and our Lord does not usually act in such a way — there would have been a hint given of so important a fact. A hedge would have been set about this ocoeptkm to all nites. Would not the Saviour have whispered quietly to the dying man, " You are the only one I am going to treat in this way." . . . No, our Lord spoke openly, and those about Him heard what He said. Moreover, the inspired penman has reoorded it. If it had been an exceptional case, it would not have been written in the Woid of God.' II ' When the wounded go home ' — how do they find it then ? Among all the tender and wonder- ful words of Christ there are none more tender and more wonderful than those : ' I go to prepare a place for you.' We cannot fully comprehend them. Underneath are the great abysses of the Eternal Love. How should Christ need to pre- pare a place for His people ? Is it not enough that they should join Him where He is, and behold His glory ? But if He is with them, is it not enough ? With a word He made earth fit for WHEN THE WOUNDED GO HOME 189 created man, but He does not with a word make heaven fit for the regenerated. He goes to heaven Himself as a loving host to see everything set in order against their coming. These dear hids* struck to the ground, came into a world whoe a place was prepared for them. Before they entered it many a loving thought had been given to making ready for them. The garments in which they were first arrayed were the handiwork of their motiiens. * Little caps in secret sown. And hid in manv a quiet nook.' They were received, most of them, with the gladdest and most loving welcome. So when they pass to the other side, to the new country, they are waited for. They are expected. All the things they need are ready. Their needs are anticipated and supplied, and the home of each differs from the home of every other. Nothing is too good for them. Everything must be the best. Our Lobd is oigaged in preparing and in interceding. He does not take any of His redeemed till the fruits are all mellow and the flowers are all full blown. lU Then they enter into nobler service. In a beautiful Uttle book. The Gutpd Hope, by Dr. 140 PRAYER IN WAR TIME Walpole, Bishop of Edinburgh, we read of the young soldier fallen in battle. ' I picture him still going forward, only without the limitation and hindrance that the flesh imposes on us here.' He passes immediately into Paradise, and rests from labour, but not from work. Everything is looked at from within. ' Intuition takes the place of sight, faith that of knowledge.' ' Every one feels at home at once ; there is no strangeness, no gradual getting used to things, no wondering whether you will like it, for all those old friends which, though we admired and praised on earth, we constantly found escaping us, are there in full strength.' We must copy the beautiful passage in which Dr. Walpole describes the comforting greeting of the Divine Love to the young soldier whose name has been inscribed on the roll of honour : — ' Away from thy home thou wentest, not knowing whither thou wentest, and so thou understandest My going forth to sucoour the world. In the trenches thou hadst no cover for thy head, no rest for tiiy Kmbs, and thou leamedst then the weariness of Him who had not where to lay His head. For days thou hadst short rations and hard fare, and in uncomplaining cheerful- ness didst support the courage of thy followers ; and so didst thou enter into the Fast of the Son of Man. Again and again I saw thee in the night watdies, facing the mystery of death and agonising in the oon- WHEN THE WOUNDED GO HOME 141 flict that it brought thee, and there thou didst have thy share in My Gcthsemane. And then in obedience to the can thftk Ukni knewest meant death thou didst willingly lay down thy life, and so hast leamt the secret of Calvary more surely than a thousand books could have taught thee. All this was My plan for thee, that in a few weeks thou shouldst sum up the whaie of life, and altering into the fellowship of My sufferings mightest share the rest that leads to the l^ory ai Resuneetiim.' IV For Resurrection is the goal. Paradise is a home of rest and of joyful work. But it is also a preparation for the Resurrection glory. The happy spirit in the consummation is united to the body. The Resurrection of Christ is the guarantee that those united to Him shall rise in the day of His appearing. For their bodies are redeemed as truly as their souls, and they shall come again from the land of the enemy, when this corruptible puts on incorruption, &ud this mortal puts on immortality. Death admits the faithful to a larger and more loving life. But that life is crowned on the Resurrection day of which Easter testifies. Thus has Christ our Redeemer opened wide His hands and poured forth more than gold. xni •THEIR UN-OVERTAKEABLENESS* ' THEXB rN-OVj!:RTAJ££ABJ £»;SS » AK^fe^^j^^^^ ,r saddest thoufht «# the dead is th. ^ thei un overtokaiAlcnm. They ' .fo^e. .nd we cannot m^rtmke them ^ has not at one toe or an^ , ^ ^ by that feeling ? l^e tod are "<' them. The brunt of the battle is on those soitU rs and sailors who are really engaged in the conflict, but shall we disparage the statesmen, the financiers the preachers, the business men who are freely and gladly giving their time, their thought, their energy, and their whole h^u^« in the service ot the country they love so well ? leo PRAYER IN WAR TIME We must say a ward, though it is our dear om% our possessions, our very life. We must ^ daunted by no difficulties. We must r^me to ENDURANCE give way even to what appears inevitable. We mutt, M fitf as we can, act in the behef that everjrthing that stands in the way of victory can be prevented or remedied, and ought to be pre* % inted oriemedied. n we go to wiurk in this spirit we must succeed. A cKvided heart it an unhappy heart. A heart that it whole and single and utterly disinterested it happy, whatever may befall. None of us knows tl» letervet, the inward resources, of men and wcmea when they are reinforced by grace and ealled out by duty. Devoting ourselves to the tapiane end, we shall find that we did not know what CMff full ttrength was. Nay, we shall find a buoyant inner strength welling up from deep foiifitaint of being. The spirit of the runner will the race goes on, and make all yokes easy aai •& bwdens light. 11 ^ — ■ ! eadure * at teeing Him Who is invisible.' aft Mm New Testament has it, * we must run «lkh patience the race that is set before nt, taklit waMo Juus, the author and finisher We d» iPeri^ believe that in spite of all appi^ar- tmtm iM§ ition hat hitherto been strengthened 170 PRAYER IN WAR TIME for its great task by faith in the love and in the righteousness of God. Our consciences acquit us of all desire for war, and of all intention to annex the possessions of other nations. We hnve stood for hberty and for justice, and for right as opposed to might. We have done all this, and wr !mve done it at a great price. We humbly believe that if we do our part we shall not be without rein- forcements from the higher Will that rules, that Will of God which is most clearly manifested in the life and death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That faith is nearer the hearts of our people than many have been wont to imagine. It has nerved our soldiers on the field, it has comforted the lonely and • anxious watchers at home. It has not, we hope, induced any one to believe that without doing our utmost we can attain the prize. But secretly and silently it has done, and will do, its work in sustaining the nation and in preparing it for the duties and the burdens and the sufferings that lie concealed. For Christian endurance is not fatalism. Fatal- ism, as we take it, does not mean patience, nor resignation, nor submission, but acquiescence pro- duced by a belief that a blind power — necessity — rules everything. It involves a denial both of ENDURANCE 171 science and religion. It finds an almoct perfect example in the story of a Turkish regiment sur* rounded by Greeks in an amphitheatre of hills, who sat down and died patiently of starvatum. No, we say, faith in God is a faith in righteous love. It is a faith in communiim, it is a faith in prayer, in the answer to prayer. It is sueh a faith as will enable those who hold it to go on to the last, to struggle with adversity, even when little hope remains. It is a faith that teaches endurance as an art to be acquired like any other by practice — in this case by the practice of the presence of God. It teaches men and women to rise above bodily pain, to control the useless fret and chafing against it. It makes us all like soldiers in the battlefield, who resolutely acquire the art of bearing pain as well as it can be bcane, who find a special and incommunicable joy in the victory of the spirit over the flesh. We hate and fear that form of false endurance which is a sullen submissiveness to unknovm powers, of cowering resignation under the pitiless but inevitable fweet of the universe. Minds imbued with this con- viction are paralysed. They come to beUeve that war and pestilence and murder and every form of evil will continue while the race lasts, that things are without remedy, and that to dream of MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) ^ /1PPLIED BVMGE Inc =^ 1653 East Main StrM« Rochester, New York 14W9 USA (716) ♦az - 0300 - Phon* (71t) 2aa - SSM - Fan 172 PRAYER IN WAR TIME improving human affairs is to dream of forcing water uphill. Christian endurance is quite another thing. We have defined it, but not completely. There is in Christian endurance a real element of resigna- tion. We have very often to put out our whole strength and to exhaust ourselves in passionate pleading, and, to all appearance, in vain. We have to suppress our will before a higher Power. We have to submit to the inevitable without whining. Nay, we have to rejoice in adversity and defeat, and to maintain our faith in the presence of both. But the Christian resignation, no matter how complete and triumphant, has always in it an element of activity. It is never a dead acquiescence. It is a way of coming near to God, and discovering in that approach that He means for us some better thing than that which was denied. This is the great wonder and secret of the higher life, given only to those who come with bleeding feet and with hearts that have been laden with sorrow. They know that Right must win at the last, even if for a time it may be over- borne. What is really of God may lie for a season under the shadow of the Cross, but only for a season, and he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. ENDURANCE 17a III All we are passing through teaches us that elevation, and not happiness, is the object of the grand plan. It teaches us also to hope mightily for the day to be, to hope for this world and for the next. Before the war the music of the word ' eternity ' had ceased to mean much to this generation. To many it now means everything. The new world balances the old and far outweighs it. As life nears its ending we think of the friends of long ago. Some of them are still in this land of the dying — ^buffeted, scattered, world-worn, and waysore. Some have won to the hill where Moses stood, and have seen a goodlier prospect than this earth can show. But so many have gone and so many are going in the springtide of their promise. Those on whom we have lavished our care, to whom we looked to take our places, do better than we have done the work of God in this world, are entering in before us. And what are we to say ? Why, this— that all the teeming thou^ts of life and hope which were embodied in our homes have not come to an end because the dear ones have died. There is the infinite eictension <^ thought and love and hope in the world that is not perishable. The unseoi land to whaeh we 174 PRATER IN WAR TIME hasten gives meaning to the fair but transient world of time. So we press forward to Eternity, our refuge. We press forward to meet the great realities, to grapple with them, to wrestle with them, to hold them till we know their name. Death is the entrance to Eternity, th^ giver of life, the angel of fulfilled humanity. XVI THE ACCEPTANCE OF SACRIFICE THE ACCEPTANCE OF SACRIFICE PtMtM April 13, 1916 Much is thought^and said in these days about the offering of sacrifice. An equally vital subject, which we propose to discuss, is the acceptance sacrifice. I All Christians agree that we must accept the sacrifice of Chust for our uns. We can do no other. By Wa doing and dying He adiieved for mm what tiicy eouM not achieve for tlieniM^es. In Him we have redemption through His Mood, even the forgiveness of nns. We rest upon Him Whwn God has set forth to be the propitiatbn. So resting we are free from condrmnaticm. We are tne beeMtse He was oondenaied in our stead, because He carried all our load to the Cross. So dying He was our substitute, seeuring for us defivenmee from sin in its guilt, in its power, and in its penalty. To understand this is to attain to tiiat nadbing and toudiing of Crnxmr wfeieh means sahratkm. 178 PRAYER IN WAR TIME the sacrifice and oblation for the sin of the world, we accept it in the sacrificial temper. We identify ourselyes with the Divine suffering. Each heart says Amen to God in Christ. Our dehverance does not liberate us from sacrifice ; rather it binds us to sacrifice. St. Paul, the great - cher of the Cross, after celebrating the solita ^ achievement of the Head of the body, the Church, Who is the beginning and the first-bom from the dead, says that he now rejoices in his sufferings for his fellov believers, and fills up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ in his flesh, for His body's sake, which is the Church. St. Paul «ast his thoughts to the future. He knew that much would happen to break the quiet that comes from trust in Christ. He knew that there was before him a life of conflict and suffering. He had to Sear his full part in these. He had to renew again and again his struggle with the Black Watch of evil. Every inch of the road that stretched between him and the cross whereon he was to die swarmed with foemen. He had in his soul a deep and unbroken rest, but the rest was not on the surface but in the depths. So he girded himself, as did the Heir of all things, to service and to sacrifice. He seemed to think of the sacrifice that was to as a drop in the measure which had THE ACCEPTANCE OF SAOOFICB m to be filled up till it ran over. When he speaks of that which is behind of the afflictions of Cheist, he does not refer merely to sufferings borne for Christ. He means sufferings borne for Christ and with Christ. The Church is Christ's Body» and so the sorrows of the members are the sorrows of the Head. They are shared with Christ and accepted with Christ, and they are not to last for ever, for the day will come when they will be over- past. So the holy Apostle looked forward. He remembered the Voice that called to him at the beginning of his Christian dedication, * Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me ? ' and he understood how the Master identifies Himself with His people and IS still afflicted in their afflictions. St. Paul k*" "''•at the worst would be, and he had gauged a^v . jd his fears. Great storms were out ; but i,aey could do no more than destroy the frail tent of the poor body and set the spirit free for the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens^ n We pass on to consider the acceptance of sacrifice from our fellow-creatures. The subject is not altogether free from difficulty. We are all agreed that unselfishness is the practical test of character. We may call it what we please — brotheriy kindness^ 180 PRAYER IN WAR TIME ctmntyt humanity, benevolence, beneficence, or generosity. But the sacrifice of self is a cardinal doctrine and precept of the New Testament. We do not, however, accept the watchword of the positivist philosophy, which used to be ' Live for others.* This motto was intended to supersede the standard of Christian duty. It was intended to embody the aspirations of all generous natures and to span the chasm <^ warring creeds. But while we cannot too eamesUy, too simply, too humbly, too uniesenredly tuooeg^ the sacrifice of Chbist in our room, we must be very slow in accepting the sacrifices of others. It is true tiiat the best life is the service of our felloira. The most selfish are the readiest to condemn selfishness. All the same, we must be careful to distinguish. Some time ago we dis- cussed the effect on those who consciously devote themselves to live for others — the effects that result from that devotion. We now wish to call Attention mote particulariy to the effects produced on those who are always accepting and always IcK^dng for the sacrifice of others on their behalf. We need not say much about imselfishness in the lanall details of Ufe. If people are to be happy they must learn the art of Uving together. In <»der to do this without firietkm there nmst be ghre THE A >TANCB SACBIFKX m and take. Only we should hesitate to apply such a word as sacrifice to these small everyday surrenders which are so easy to those who love. But we soon come to gi'aver problems. Parents very often make sacrifices for their children which may be beyond the line of obligation. We have all known fathers and mothers who impoverish and stint their lives for the education of their children in fashionable schools and colleges, and go on year after year in supplying to their sons and daughters what they themselves never enjoyed. There comes a point where the sacrifice should be refused. It shoidd always be accepted with a full sense of what it involves, with a careful watching of the stooping which comes to those who bear more than they can well carry. It should be accepted with profound gratitude and with the determuiation that, in so far as it is possible, it shall be fully requited. Even when this is done, we repeat that there comes a day when manifestly it ought no longer to be accepted. On the other hand, it is quite possible that children may sacrifice too much to their parents. A mother is left alone in the world save for a loving daughter, and as years pass comes to lean more and more on that daughter's service and affection. A day comes whm Uie du^^itor is Itt PBAYER IN WAR TIME ekiimed by a stranger, and all her heart goes out to meet the claim. She refuses, nevertheless. She considers that her first duty is to her mother, and she resigns herself to a lonely life, which is none the lighter because she remembers that it was by ber own choice that it continued to be lonely. We say that those sacrifices of children ought not to be accepted. One might imagine that the acceptance of such sacrifices was wholly impossible to really noble and unselfish natures. It may be •o, but any one who thinks and observes sees how nmy are wearily and dutifully carrying out a life subject to constant demands from others. There are persons who live as vampires live, by absorbing the young life that is near to them. Also, it used to be widely held that women in particular should live for others. Perhaps this belongs to the past. We hope so. One of the great preachers of altruism was James Hinton, a really good man in spite of his aberrations of thought. He imagined that his work as a writer was of supreme importance to the world, and brought his poor wife into great straits. We are told that when the family exchequer was almost empty he took to descanting on the seemliness of death by hunger, and the clear advantage he would THE ACCEPTANCS OF SACRIFICE 188 derive from being driven to dcqMratkn. AB tlMit James Himton ever wrote wm not wottii the sacrifice of a womas't Hfo for a ringle year. We need not multiply initaneei. What we have ^ do is to think over our own livee, and to tee thiA those near uf .re sacrificing as littk as may be to our tasteo and fancies. in All this bears very directly on the urgent ques- tions of the day. Many of ua— moat of us—must at the present time aoeqpt the tremcndcNis saeiiioe of o«r soldiers, our saikfs, our aviators. We do not need to give the harmwing picture of the fives t*iey are Itvteg witii such gallantry and ^eerAahiess on f > ^ very edge of deatb-jn jeopardy every hour an every minttte. We have to accept the saerifloes, but we are constrained by evtTr cou lideratioii of honour and gr«^titude to aeoe|»i ^em in a s a erHklal tenqiier. We mmst, so for as in us lies, earry out their supreme saerifiee in tte infinitely quieter and more easily endured saeiiftees of oar daily life. Are we aware of what we are dofaig in the acc^ptwMe of ^hdFsacidleea T In the HMert Jmmti for Ai»fl the editor. Dr. L. P. Jacks, has a most impresrive artide on 184 PRAYER IN WAR TIME the present situation. He carries us with him from the beginning to the end of his paper. Dr. Jacks admits that we oui^t to have known that the rulers ci Germany were preparing to attack us. We are much to blame that we had to wait for the outlnreak of the war before discovering the predatory intentions of Germany. We were amply warned. But he contends that we could not have been prquured for such a war as this has turned cmt to be. We could not have b^eved that Germany meant to overthrow the moral foundation on which Western civilisation has been built up. Nor could we have known that Germany * was ready to base her conduct in war on a code of ethks whidi has never yet been acknowledged by man nor practised anywhere unless it be in the netiimnost pit.' We were pocf^ed a little, even after the war b^n, but gradually the truth dawned upon us. The Orgy of bestiality in Belgium, the sinking of the Lnwlflwta, the bom- barding of defenceless towns, the murder of Armenians, the killing of Nurse Cavell, and other tfao^pB d^ur as the sun in heaven, set a final leid (m our ocmviction that the work we have to resist and overthrow is ttom first to last the devil's work. I^noe Dr. Jacks wrote we have read the horriUb story ci the feariid sufferiog at Wttleiribeig Gaa^ THE ACCEPTANCE OF SACRIFICE 185 When typlmt broke out the Gemm dooton fled. Beioce that they had exxqdoyed savage doft to tenofke ^ pritonen. Fk^g^^ with a rahber ifdiqp was frequent. Men wore tied to posts with their arms above their heads for hours. The men actually loolced upon the typhus, with all its borrors, as a godsend. The prisoners, starved and naked, had no help except from the heroie English doctors, two of wliom dkd ot typhus about a month after their arrival. The German medical officer in charge ot tiie can^ visited onfy on one occaskm, attired in a compete suH d protective clothing, inchwKng mask and ntbbor (^oves. A certain numbor of coffins were sent in by the Germans every day, m whidi tiie bodwi ot the dead were put. What the prisoners found hardest to bear was the |eers w^ iHiich the coffins were frequo^ greeted by the inhabitants