The Dominion. SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1918. THE CALL OF THE KING

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 87, 5 January 1918, Page 6

The Dominion. SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1918. THE CALL OF THE KING

Tke other week the eiectric cable carried round the, world a special message of our King.. He requested that throughout our Empire on the first Sunday of this year special thanksgiving should he rendered to Heaven for our successes in this war and special prayer offered up. for the help that will enable us and our Allies to possess the endurance, wisdom, courage, arid spirit of sacrifice that will crown our conflicts with a victory founded on justice. The lunq-"s message is' marked by sanity, sincerity, and spirituality, and, above all, modesty and meekness. -It is the. message of a man who has the assurance, that he is "thrice armed" because his cause is i just, and.so without hypocrisy he can appeal, and urge his people to appeal, to tho King of Kings for guidance and for victory. There probably never was a great world war where the moral issues were so clearly seen as in this war.. There have beeu civil, wars ''over great moral and spiritual principles, but few-great world wars such as this. It is a, war at bedrock for freedom against despotism, for honour against dishonour,'; for conscience and right against brute force, fov Christianity in its reality against Materialism'.and , Atheism. The Kaiser' has canted the name of 'Christ to the disgust of the world,-' but he trariip'le'ct underfoot every Christian ideal when he endorsod Bismarck's method of empire expansion by "blood and iron" and not by moral and spiritual forces. To-day the real god of the Kaiser' and his war lords is Odin and not Christ, for the words of Treitschke really express their creed: j "I say unto you, blessed ■ are ' the , war-makers for they shall be called | not the ohildren of Jehovah but the children of Odin." This war is thus a phase of the eternal conflict, "Jehovah or Baal!"

It is given to the nation as well as to the individual in a- life-and-death conflict to learn that there are other forces than those of the earthly and the brutish. In a moral crisis the battlers for the right have a clearer vision of the Almighty Power that makes for justice and for victory, and the spirit of dependence thereby engendered goes out in prayer. ' Our Kino's call at this time is an act of sound reason. It is a call to organise the spiritual forces of the universe on our behalf. It was no windy pulpiteer, but a profound thinker, who sang:

"More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice Kiso like a fountain for mo night and day. For what are men tetter than sheep or goats, That nourish a blind life within the brain If knowing God, they lift not hands in prayer, Both for themselves, and those call them friend? For so the whole round earth is every Bound by gold chains about the feet of God." There is -a Divinity that shapes the fortunes of nations as well as those of individuals. Disraeli used to say that the "unexpected always happened." The statement contains a measure of truth. Many pages of history record tho story of the "unexpected." In'the contests of peoples, where some great moral question was at stake, seemingly overwhelming material ■ forces have become strangely impotent. In the American Civil War, which at bedrock was one of principle, a Southern general* elated at his superior numbers and at tho hopeless position of his enemy, said: "I have them in the hollow of my hand," but before the sun was set he was defeated and shattered by the small Northovn Army. In tho sixteenth century Spain was overwhelmingly stronger than England in sea and land forces, and when her 'great Armada set sail to crush England, England's doom seemed almost certain. ' But the winds and the waves seemed to fight for England, and a spirit of incompetency possessed the minds of Spain's naval commanders, and disaster came, to Spain and victory to England. The story of the rise of the Dutch Ke-public is that of the. victory of the seemingly vanquished. The story of. tho deliverance of Leyden by tho "sea beggars" of William the Silent is one that is only intelligible by tho explanation that a power higher and wiser than tliafc of earth was fighting on tho side of a little nation that stood for truth, freedom, and righteousness. The. mysterious is not absent from this present war. Why Germany with her forty years of preparation and her colossal armies did not beat to their knees the partiallyprepared armies of .France and the insignificant army o£ • Britain within six months from tho beginning of tho War ' is one of the strange thiligs in the history of our time. "The race has not been to the swift nor the battle to the strong" even in this war, and the explanation may be that higher forces than those of earth have been at work, and it is because these forces exist that our King has sent forth his solemn appeal. This call of.the Kino will without doubt find a response in tho hearts of immense multitudes in an Empire over which the sun never sets. . The response will answer in a measure to the description given by Tennyson in the lines quoted above. The earth will be girdled by the gold chain of prayer. The churches: will respond to this call, and may be led to a deeper belief in, and. a more diligent use of, tho spiritual forces they profess to possess. •■■But-the appeal will find I a. response also in the hearts, of I many to whom tho ecclesiastical Christianity of to-day has appealed in vain.' 'Patriotism can nncVno nobler way oE wishing well to our Empire in this war than bv re"snondiwr to the call of the King. This call sincerely responded to will, mean the fostering of the spirit of greater_ sacrifice. .The religion that substitutes selfishness for sac-

rificc and profession Tor practice is a_ deadly form of infidelity. The Kino's call is not one that would substitute prayer for work, but one that means prayer as an inspiration for greater and nobler work. Tho road to victory is -the road to sacrifice, but it is the only one wc can tread. There may be reverses, but there can be no defeat to those who arc warring on the side of righteousness.