DAY OF PRAYER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 101, 28 March 1942, Page 4

DAY OF PRAYER.

To-morrow, at the request of His Majesty the King, his people through his vast Empire will pray for strength and guidance in the days of trial that lie before them. The King himself will broadcast a message to them. There is a sustained and well founded belief that the great testing time for the United Nations is now approaching. On land, sea, and in the air the enemy will make the supreme effort for victory that .1942 must bring if the Allies are to be shattered and the forces opposed to liberty, truth, and justice arc to reign. To defeat the enemy in this critical year will call forth the greatest effort the world has yet known, for the conflict must reach a height unparalleled in warfare. On other days of prayer we in this country were well removed from any scene of conflict : now we are in the front of battle and preparing to defend our shores from the enemy’s -assaults. With other parts' of the Empire we need strength and guidance for the tasks - that lie ahead, and it is right that we should approach the source of Divine guidance to renew and strengthen our confidence in the cause to. which we are pledged. It is fitting, too, that this cause should be taken before a Christian altar, for- Christian civilisation and the religion that has formed and guided it down the centuries are very much at stake in this war. Spiritual strength is one of our urgent needs, and the more vigorous we can make it the better we will be fortified to meet whatever trials face it. The King’s words spoken in May, 1940. come as a reminder of a solemn duty. “At this fateful hour we turn, as our fathers did before us in times of trial, to God Host High. . . Let us with one heart humbly but confidently commit our cause to His aid so that we may valiantly defend the right as it is given us to see it.”