INTERCESSION SERVICE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16992, 20 October 1915, Page 5

INTERCESSION SERVICE.

[ ADDRESS BY DEAN CARRINGTON. A service of intercession in connection with the annual session of the Synod was held at the Cathedral yesterday morning. An address relating to the war and prayer was given by Dean Carrington. j.ne speaker said that all felt today a great need of God. The war had found the nation unready. There was uothing new to say. For a whole century we had been thinking that there was no need for an army and navy. Since the storm had broken we had had to muster our forces in tho face of the enemy. He believed that God would see us through in the end, but what a disaster we might have avoided if we had been ready. The nation had drifted into the "way of doing without God. The question was often asked, " Why does God not intervene?'" Had we let God into our lives in the last year? A lot of well-meaning people did not know if they believed in prayer or not. The church had become a sort of reoreation, an afterglow. We had let religion drift. The men who had made our prayer books were wiser men in some ways than wo were. When men said " Give peace in our time, O Lord," they knew that peace could not be without battle. People a*ked if it was right to pray for victory at all? If we could throw ourselvos at the feet of God we might reasonably expect victory. There was nothing puny e bout the men wlio had fought the Armada. They believed in God with all their might.