THE WRITING ON THE WALL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24415, 28 September 1940, Page 3

THE WRITING ON THE WALL

Written for the Otago Daily Times By the Rev. Gardner Miller

I was caught by the statement in an article I read in a magazine the other day, “This is not just another war.” I laid down the magazine and allowed the words to sink into my mind. How true they are! If this were just another war I would use all the strength I have to oppose its prosecution. But it is not just ‘another war. True, the barbarities and senseless cruelties of war are let loose as never before. Knowing and loving the East End of London as I do. I shiver when, listen-ing-in, I hear of the destruction of people and their homes among whom I lived for years. There is never any justification for mass slaughter, but no one in his senses could say that Britain provoked this outburst of terrorism that seems like spreading all over the world. No, this is not just another war; it is a judgment.

It cannot be tolerated that any nation should trample upon the decencies of life as Germany has done, and is still doing. Even God must take action against an organised evil that seeks world domination. God uses human instruments to stem the spread of evil. And God has chosen Britain. I believe that. lam not guilty of pulling the wool over my eyes in regard to what my country has done in past years. I have a sufficient knowledge of history to make me wish that some pages of our story could be torn out and destroyed. But, in spite of that, there is no nation in the world so eager to “ play the game ” with others as the country of which you and I are citizens. Nor do I believe that God has chosen war as His weapon to stem evil. War and God have nothing in common. War is the method mankind has chosen to settle disputes. And God, in the education of the race, does not force any obedience beyond the standard mankind has reached.

For centuries, the better way of negotiation and understanding, Christ’s way. has been penetrating, like leaven, the life of the world, but evidently it is not yet powerful enough to percolate the mass mind. One day it will. Until then, God uses whatever instrument is available, knowing that one day men will realise the futility of war and banish it for ever. This is my answer to those who say “ why doesn’t God slop the war? ” For God to stop the. war by a divine intervention would not stop war for ever. It can only be stopped for ever when men really wish to banish it. War is not God’s will; it is man’s futility. And God waits for the race to grow up. Thus it is that God is in this war, helping to bring nations to that moment when the possibility of brotherhood shall dawn upon them. He is using Britain to-day as an instrument of judgment against a nation that is deliberately attempting to destroy the progress of the human race. The Moving Finger Writes’

When I .look into the Word of God I find these substantial evidences that there comes a moment when God has to step in and upset a programme of aggression. Probably the most sensational occasion—lt certainly is the most dramatic —was when God took the unusual course oi writing on a plaster wall what He thought about a ruthless, careless dictator. The story is found in the fifth chapter of Daniel. When you get behind the story you realise that there comes a moment when evil becomes rotten ripe for judgment. God cannot permit evil to go on and on, unchecked. In His patience He seems to us to wait too long, but it is a good thing that God refuses to be measured by our yard-stick. I believe the hour has struck for Germany. And. unworthy though we, may be I believe God is using Britain as an instrument of judgment. The universe is governed by intelligence and that intelligence is now taking action to stem the rushing course of vindictive ev il. . . The handwriting on the wall is plain to all who have eyes to see. Its interpretation is not difficult. Here is the judgment; “ The nation that forgets God does not prosper.” That is written on the wall to-day. and history is its proof. By a nation prospering is not meant the accumulation of property, whether human or material or both. By property is meant the* growth of the finer things of the mind, the flowering of the graces, the expanding outreach of knowledge and the hundred other ways by which life is enriched. History points to Babylon. Greece, Rome, Persia as examples of great nations that fell because in their pride they forgot God. And cannot you see judgment faking place m more than one European country today? There comes a moment when God must step in to save the world from going back to the jungle. I was very interested to read in the latest and most striking, if not most authoritative, books on Germany (“Germany: Jekyll andi Hyde,” by Sebastian Kaftner) that Hitler is prepared to shoot himself if his party breaks up. And then the author goes on to say that Hitler looks upon death as an easy way out for, as he is an Atheist, he has no belief in a hereafter. If this is true, it explains many things in that strange creature’s conduct. But after death there is a judgment. The Tribunal of Christ will confront Hitler as it will confront us all. No man can flout God and get off with it. If the things for which Hitler stands were allowed to dominate the world life would not be worth living for most of us. As it is, Christianity is unheeded in the greater part of Europe, and judgment is at the door. There may arise in our day a Daniel who will recall nations to the living God. I don’t know. But I certainly long to hear a prophetic voice in our land. No, this isn’t just another war. It is evil at its ripest, and God is using us as an instrument of judgment. Let us not break in His hands.