Everyman’s Hut

Camp News, Volume 3, Issue 109, 13 February 1942, Page 8

Everyman’s Hut

The wave of the flag and the roar of the gun,

The march and the music of war! Right bravely they fought from the

rise of the sun

Till there rose at the gloaming a star.

Where the struggle was fierce, as flood meeteth flood,

The Angel of Death has passed by, The sand and the grass are all red

with the blood

Of the heroes who knew how to die.

Night falls like a cloud on the fields of the slain,

But it stills not the terrible cries, Men weep in their agony, pray in

their pain,

Each thinking of home ere he dies.

Not the “glory of war,” but the home and the hearth, Of the woman he loves far away. All brothers in pain, and all children of earth, Calling out to one God as they pray. “On earth peace,” sang the angel, “goodwill unto men,” Let it come, Oh! good Lord, let , it come; We prayed for peace once, and now it is when We should pray once again we are dumb. But be Thou our helper, Thou God of us all, Grant now that the straggle shall cease. Hear the wives and the mothers who now to Thee call, “Oh, Lord God Almighty, send peace.”

At the present time the prospects of peace appear to be very slender. Nations are locked in a titanic struggle and the exhaustion of either side seems very far away. The energies of practically the whole world are directed towards war. No matter what the cost, the call is for production and yet more production. And as one hears of the .plans for a better world after the war, one trembles to think of the huge burden which posterity must carry. The account must one day be paid. If peace were to be proclaimed to-morrow, how long would it take to produce a better order once the incentive of self-pre-servation were taken out of production and out of national effort? Would we witness again the selfishness of the past—every one for himself — bringing in its train a war more cruel more fierce and more devastating than the present one?

Any world order that is to produce lasting good has to have as its foundation the source of good— Almightly Eternal God. Any thing short of that may flourish for a time, but sooner or later the forces of evil will gain control and disaster will follow. As we cry to God now for peace,, are we prepared to depend on Him and trust Him, when we are again at peace? If not, then all the sacrifice, all the suffering of the present will have been in vain. May we learn the lessons of the present and be willing to look to Him and trust Him as our Guide, rather than go our own way regardless of the welfare of our brother men, for if we will let Him, He will lead us into all good.