HUMILITY AND REPENTANCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 43, 30 November 1940, Page 4

HUMILITY AND REPENTANCE.

“A national day of prayer used long ago to be called also a Day of Humiliation,” said the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Lang, in a recent address. “I cannot, 1 do not think you can, feel it right to use that word now, for we are called to rise to the height of one of the noblest causes ever entrusted to a. nation. But most certainly humility, the humility which shows itself in penitence. May it not be that one of God's purposes in this war is to show what our once vaunted civilisation may become- if God is left out ancl Christian standards are ignored, and to pronounce His judgment upon it? If so, must not w§ honestly confess that oiunational life deserves some part of that judgment? You know how widespread is the neglect of God among us. Money, comforts, pleasures—these too often have been our gods. So we must pray to God, not in the mood of the Pharisee —‘I thank God that I am not as these Germans are, or as this Hitler,’ but rather in the mood of the Publican —‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’ And regret is not enough; even remorse is not enough. These must be true repentance—that is, a real change of heart and mind. This humility of repentance, brings a new release of power. It is the nation that has the honesty and courage to humble itself before God that shall be exalted.”