APPROACH TO GOD

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 179, 26 April 1941, Page 14

APPROACH TO GOD

Need For Driving Away Evil In Our Midst

POWER OF PRAYER

The need for driving away the thipgs that were evil in God’s sight before approaching Him in prayer was stressed by Mr. H. W. Milner during bis address at the weekly intercessory service held in the Wellington Town Hall. Mr. Milner spoke on the words “The prayer of a righteous man availeth much,” and pointed to the existence of evil thiugs which, must be removed —juvenile crime, abortion, illegitimate births and high divorce figures. Millions were annually spent on liquor, gambling and smoking. In Wellington, alone if this expenditure could be halved and given to patriotic purposes for five weeks it would yield £lOO,OOO. Mr. Milner quoted examples of how righteous prayer had been answered by God. Notable among these was the instance of Divine aid in the greatest crisis of the World War in July, 1918. "After Marshal Foch had done all he could he‘ took himself to prayer and was so engaged when the first dispatch rider brought word of success. There is more to it than that, however, for on July 17 Mr. Lloyd George. called the Enjpire to a special day of prayer. Mr. Bonar Law, speaking in the Guildhall, Loudon, on September 30, 1918, said: ‘The turning point of the war was' in tile middle of July, when Marshal Foch asked the Cabinet td .argree to the removal of British reserves from the point where Germans were massed to a point where he expected the real attack to come, and they agreed.” History recorded, said Mr. Milner, that from that point on the enemy had received blow after blow. But there was more to it than that. A London newspaper in 1919 published an article based on an interview with Count von Hurtling on his death bed, published by the Paris “Matin.” It read:

“Count Hertling said that every German believed in victory at the end of the year 1917. ‘We calculated,’ be said, ‘on the submarines winning the war. At the beginning of July, 1018, I personally was convinced that the Entente would ask for peace. Before September 1 we had played our last card,'

“ -The history of the world was altered in three days. We were thus expecting grave events to be unfolded in Paris toward the end of July, but on the 18th of that month the most optimistic of us became convinced that nil was lost:.’ ’