A BLESSING ASKED—

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 49, Issue 2888, 31 January 1940, Page 3

A BLESSING ASKED—

“ GOD DEFEND THE RIGHT ”

VICTORY OVER OUR HEARTS

“‘God defend the right!” is the prayer that God may win the war. Tre war will be won when ‘Hitlerism’ has been destroyed. Without hesitation we ask God to bless our cause. But we must at all costs avoid the temptation, subtle and insurgent, to make a partisan of God. “God is not neutral in respect of that for which we fight, but God is the equal Father of us all, and He must win’ His victory over our own hearts as well as over Germany. Here lies our great spiritual peril, that we shall suppose ourselves to be righteous because our cause is righteous, that we shall thank God that we are not as other men are, not even as these .neutrals.

“ I suspect that the great peril of neutral countries, in proportion as they, are big and strong, will be likewise to thank God that they are not as other men are, more especially as these 'British. On the contrary, the ecumenical Church of Christ must see this war as a judgment upon a civilisation in which we are all involved and for which we all must take responsibility. “ It is the victory of our cause that matters, not the Victory of our arms. But only the German people can make our cause victorious apart from a victory of our arms. We are left, as we believe, with no honourable option but to fight. We must recognise, however, that the victory of our cause cannot be won by victory of arms alone. God’s victory is over the hearts of men, over our hearts and the hearts of Germans.” —Dr. Micklem, Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford.