PRAYER BOOK AND WAR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18887, 11 October 1929, Page 10

PRAYER BOOK AND WAR.

To the Editor. Dear Sir,—The best answer to the remarkable onslaught of the Rev Rhondda Williams on the compilers of the Revised Prayer Book will be to quote the actual prayer inserted by the compilers of the revision for use in time of war: “O Almighty Lord, who art a most strong tower to all them that put their trust in Thee: Be now and evermore our defence; grant us victory if it be Thy will; look .in. pity upon the wounded and the prisoners cheer the anxious; comfort the be reaved; succour the dying; have mercy on the fallen; and hasten the time when war shall cease in all the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” Surely it is an astonishing judgment on this prayer to say that the only words in it which are Christian are the concluding words! * There is another prayer, the old one, so antiquated in language that no one but an antiquarian would ever be likely to use it; but still a prayer for saving from our enemies and not their destruction. It remains as it was in accordance with the agreement that the old (the present) Book should remain intact. No word of it encourages war. but treats it as a calamity from which to be delivered. In the special prayers for use by those in the Navy, there is one for those about to engage in a fight. The appeal is to God to judge between us and our enemies and to save—not a word for the extermination of the enemy, but only that he may be driven off; the daily prayer in the Navy is that they may be preserved from “the violence of the enemy.” The Thanksgiving Prayer after a victory glories, not in the slaughter, but in God’s decision in our favour. And, if the cable did justice to the reverend head of the Congregationalists, how came he to ignore the two new prayers inserted by the compilers, one for the peace of the world, the other for God s blessing on the League of Nations—both praying for the kindling in the hearts of all men of the true love of peace?—l am, etc., H. O. HANBY. Oust, October 11.