Can Victory Be Wrought By Prayer?

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 211, 6 September 1941, Page 6

Can Victory Be Wrought By Prayer?

By Rev. C. W. Chandler

f)OES Satan tremble when he sees the British Empire on its knees? I ask this question in all seriousness, because if he doesn't, then we are little more than pious humbugs rushing to the House of God on State occasions.

A lot of the praying that goes on 011 these National Days of Prayer is of the type indulged in by those who squat or kneel, cover their faces with their hands and peep through their fingers. Frankly, it lacks earnestness because it is so spasmodic. If we really believed in it, even as much as we do in the doctor's physic, we would engage in it more frequently, say, perhaps "three times a day before or after meals."

Within the Empire there are, of course, many more non-Christians than there are Christians. The Mohammedans within the Empire who far outnumber us place much greater stock upon prayers to Allah than do we their conquerors on prayers to God.

Furthermore, it must be said that a great deal of insincerity is associated with many things that are said about the glories of Empire. Patriotism can be a very fine thing, or it can be just a shallow effervescence.

It can be based upon the rock of character as exemplified in the lives of Empire builders, or it can be filled with idle boasting. It can be spoken about in the terms of vast possessions upon which the sun never sets, or it can be dealt with as a bond that binds the people of various races, customs and creeds into one heterogeneous whole. It is in that last respect that I wish to deal with it on this occasion. There have been other Empires in the past, such as the Egyptian, the Phonecian, and the Roman Empires. Search Our Sonls As a vast Commonwealth of nations, what chances have we of enduring any longer than have similar Empires in the past? What passport have we, above those which other Empires have possessed, that entitles us, under the hand of God, and in the face of our enemies, to endure?

With a full sense of our utter unworthiness, I suggest that prayer is that passport. Some of our deeds in the past make very sorry reading. We pushed opium on to China at the point of the bayonet, and we have allowed glaring social anomalies to exist in India that might well cause us to blush with shame, but (and there is a but) we are not unaware of our own wrongdoings. There is far more hope for the man who is aware of his folly than for the man who goes blithely on, oblivious of present wrong and of pending danger. One of the glorious things about the British character is that it will allow the utmost freedom to its most vigorous traducers. As potatoes we know we're speckled. That's our saving grace.

To-morrow the Empire will be at prayer. Granted a fair measure of downright hypocrisy will be mixed with our devotions, at least it must be acknowledged that we do acknowledge God, and so far as economic circumstances allow, we do desire that His law should be established in our hearts. Let the heathen rage as they will against our placing any

reliance upon Divine aid, but let them try to make this world better to live in without having recourse to such an inexhaustible fountain of strength, and nothing but failure stares them full in the face. Reliance on Higher Powers As well trust our future welfare to the vain endeavours of soothsayers and astrologers, as leave it to those whose calculations lift them no higher than the mean ievel of economic theory. Deep down in the Imperial conscience is the feeling that reliance must be placed upon higher powers than tanks and high explosives. The utter bankruptcy of such painful expedients is amply demonstrated in our determination to seek the help of God.

Now, there are two main apE roaches to the Almighty, and these ave been perfectly portrayed in the familiar parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. We can assemble tomorrow with proud assertions of our superior merit and of our prior claim upon "the Author and giver of all good things," or we can gird our loins with the sackcloth of humble repentance and smite our Imperial breast in deep contrition as we acknowledge the guilt we share with other nations for bringing the present calamity upon mankind. This is the only manner of approach. We have no merit of our own. We are no better than our fathers have been. Financial interest, far more than compassion or sympathy for the downtrodden has dictated our policy in the past, and we deserve the worst that God can give us if we fail to make that humble approach. Un-j adulterated human nature is proud and sinful, and a more hopeful aspect will be in evidence to-morrow, when the Empire falls upon its knees. Only to-day someone said to me, "You know these Old Testament stories of the conquests of Israel read like chunks out of our own records of the Maori wars." Man's dealing with God and God's dealings with man have not varied through the centuries. That being so, let us consider Solomon's prayer as contained in I Kings 8:— "If thy people go out to battle against their enemies, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the Lord toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house that I have built for thy name: Then hear thou in heaven their prayer and supplication, and maintain their cause?' Just how far the God revealed in Jesus Christ squares up with the God of the Old Testament I dare not say, but this much, however, is certain, that our conception of God on such occasions as to-morrow is very much of an Old Testament conception. There are many things that "through Jesus Christ our Lord" we dare not ask God to do, which Soloriion With a perfectly good conscience -Could have asked. This is precisely why, when singing the National Anthem, we orriit the second verse. Some finer instihet informs us of the tolly of calling down fire and brimStone on ail those whom we account ouir foe£.

<- ,If on the Day of Prayer we confiuev,lfride and refrain from so much aschinting how superior we are, then andr "only then can we expect a blessing. - Because as an Empire we do acknowledge God, our responsibility. is-jalPthe greater. We must refrain at-jall costs from adopting the "I'm teningyou" attitude toward God, aiid tho less is of pomp and cefemohy, and' the ijibre there is of 'humble repentance about our observance, the; greater is the blessing likely to^b?.