DAY OF PRAYER.

Evening Star, Issue 23382, 27 September 1939, Page 11

DAY OF PRAYER.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir. —In connection with the forthcoming day of prayer. I would like to suggest to all those responsible for the conduct of the churches that, if the prayer is to be of the full effect that We and they must surely desire, some-

thing more than one day’s petitions are surely due. Is there not a danger that we shall feel we have done our duty by the Sunday’s observance? Is that one day’s quiet full payment for the unprintable carnage that is being waged in Poland, from which we New Zealanders are going scot free? Once a year on Armistice Day we all halt in our tracks and stoip all business. We silently acknowledge the debt to the thousands who died and were maimed in the last war. Would it not be right to halt for two minutes daily during this one? If one day’s prayer will be enough, then what are we fighting for? If we are going to uphold the high principles that King George set out and have been adhered to since by every leading statesman, then we need to be reminded daily of the sacrifices being made by the thousand on the field of battle and the sacrifices that are our due in consequence. We shall not conquer militarism by militarism, hut by using a higher power to overthrow the thoughts behind it all. If our prayer is to be for anything, it is to be for that, and if it is to have power it is to be one of daily practice. Can we not as a community hold our daily silence at 11 a.m.? If the whole. British Empire shut down its business for those two minutes and sent out thoughts of help and brotherhood to the German nation that we have no grudge against in any way whatever, who can say what effect that must have on the duration of the war or upon the terms of peace that must ultimately be established? Let all Christian people think this out for themselves.—l am, etc., Two Minutes’ Silence. Auckland, September 25.