Prayers For Peace

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 3, 28 September 1939, Page 11

Prayers For Peace

Sir is good to see that, at the outset of this conflict, the Church has called all men to prayer. One trusts that October 1 may be a turning-point' for the world, and that the spirit ini which men go forth to fight may be one which shall uphold right through high principles, such as have been evidenced' in the King’s speech and the public' statements of our various statesmen. '. Brayer, however, is not a thing to be clutched at in time of material need;! that is if we are to expect it to have; any useful effect; and Little good can; come out of one day of prayer alone.l We have, too, first to decide what toi pray for, whether a just peace or merely] a victory. It has to be the real re-] flection of “the soul's sincere desireuttered or unexpressed.” and whether, it is to prevail by force of arms or by less bloody means must be left -to the One petitioned. Once a year on Armistice Day the' whole of New Zealand gladly stops’ short in all its works and remains silent and bareheaded for two minutes. That is our silent acknowledgement for the lives that were given, the bodies maimed, in the last war which lias failed to .accomplish its aim, Peace.' This time we must work on higher lines, on a better plane of thought, and now that thousands are falling daily in Europe whilst we remain in safety, is it not right that we should give two minutes a day silent sympathy and prayer for those-in the fight, both sides alike, that a true peace may come out of the conflict? Let us extend thoughts of help to the German people who themselves have to overthrow the Nazi yoke. Can we honestly expect an answer to prayer on a less effort than this? Is two minutes a day too much when others are being torpedoed and blown to pieces? If the British Empire honestly shut down business for two minutes daily, and the guns were silenced as an earnest for the right, who can deny that a Power would 'be loosed for good as against evil, against which no military power could prevail? Out of it should come th e peace we want based on mutual respect, justice and spiritual understanding of the rights of human kind; the world over.—l am, etc., TWO MINUTES’ SILENCE. Auckland, September 25..