DAY OF PRAYER

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 239, 6 September 1940, Page 8

DAY OF PRAYER

MAYOR’S MESSAGE TO CITIZENS. SEEKING. DIVINE AID. In response to the lead of His Majesty the King, Sunday next will he observed as a national Day of Prayer. In this connection, the Mayor of Palmerston North (Mr A. E. Mansford) lias addressed the following message to the citizens: “May I draw the attention of our citizens to the request of His Majesty the King to all members of the British Commonwealth to observe next Sunday a 6 a Day of Prayer. This, of course, does not mean that you have to go to church ; you can pray wherever you may be. Whilst the benefit of united prayer in a building specially dedicated for the purpose cannot be denied, still immense benefits can accrue individually and nationally from the prayers of the people even though they may not be made in a church. The main thing is that they bo sincere.

“If I may speak as a man, the experience of life confirms my belief that the possibility of some communion 1 between a Divine power and the individual is not an illusion. If that were a statement of mine, or the man in the street, you might be excused for treating it lightly, but it is a statement of one of the highest authorities in the world, Dr. William Brown, and this is lfis record: Ho received his education at. Horsham . Grammar School, Christ Church, Oxford, and King’s College, London; stood first on the list in the preliminary junior and senior Oxford local examinations; gained an open scholarship at Christ Church; in 1906 he won the John Locke Scholarship in mental philosophy, also securing first-class honours in physics in intermediate science, securing the degree of Doctor of ricienee; seven years later he became a Doctor of Medicine; during the ' Great War he was an officer in the Army Medical Corps, being a specialist in nerve shock cases, and later commanding officer of a hospital for neurasthenic cases. . “Can we, then, in the face of such an authority, also in view of what we know took place in the last war and more recently at Dunkirk, afford to neglect the value of prayer to the nation P There never was a war in which a man could join with more certainty that the cause was a just one than the cause of Great Britain and the British Commonwealth. There never was a war more plainly standing out in history as a war in defence of high ideals. There never was a war. for which a man could be prouder to have played u part, even if that part be in prayer. “His Majesty asks you 'and me to enlist in an army for prayer. Then are we not bound, morally bound, to do all we can to support our soldiers, and by our prayers seek to make the world a cleaner and happier place to live In? That is what they are fighting for, and what civilisation is waiting for, and you and 1 with the other citizens of the Empire bv our prayers can make the world a better and safer place to live in.”