THE DREADFUL WAR AND THE CHURCH

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 14 October 1915, Page 3

THE DREADFUL WAR AND THE CHURCH

TO THE EDITOK

SIX, —In your issue of October 7, 1915, you tell of a correspondent who is baffled " to understand why this dreadful business of war is allowed to go on." He asks " why doesn't the Almighty stop these atrocities ?" Will you allow me to offer a tew suggestions, as there are many people all over the world asking the same question ? Long ago there lived a people who professed to be very religious. It came to pass that a cruel and powerful nation invaded their land, killing, devastating, and committing most horrible atrocities, and their victims were too weak and few in number to resist them. In the midst of their dreadful sufferings the Almighty told them He knew all about their troubles, and that He was with them and doing the best He could for them. One of the poor sufferers replied : "Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is. all this befallen us ? And where be all His miracles which our fathers told us of? . . . But now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of our evemies." —Judges, 6th chapter. It is easily understood when we remember God had told them if they kept His commandments they should dwell in the land safely, but' if they disobeyed, Crod would allow their enemies to kill them with the sword (Lev. 26); but if, when these miseries came upon them, they should repent of their sins, the Lord would deliver them (Deuteronomy 30). Has your enquirer noticed lately that the prayers of those who profess to be God's people are not prayers that God would give them the victory over their fellow-creatures, but that He would forgive and heal their own backslidings? That is right, and is in the order of God. The Lord has promised to help all who return to Him, and that in the time of greater trouble just before us, all those whose names are found written in the book of life shall be delivered—(Dan. 12). "Now these things happened unto them byway of example, and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come"—(l Cor. 10,11, r.v). — I am, etc., , George Johnson. Parkhurst, October 11, 1915.

[Free Thinkers and others by the million are now clamouring that if God is so all-wise, generous, and forgiving, how is it that He allows the massacre of thousands of Christian Armenians to take place at the hands of infidels; why does He allow the great Hun, who professes to be such a spnlendid Christian (and a . Protestant), to continue on his ruinous task of devastating Europe, causing millions of deaths (innocent blood), millions of mained and wouned, ruined for ever, millions of widows and orphans, the ravishing of women, devastation of beautiful cities and sacred edifices, and the squandering of billions and trillions of money in the present warfare ? One can hardly conceive that God is allowing all this for the good of his chosen people, or any other section of the millions upon earth, nor will they. The whole question is a hard nut to crack, thongh Kaiser Bill imagines he can do the trick through 'Mem and Gott.' All the sermons on the mountains will not appease the Thoughtful, Freethinker and Scholar, regarding the disastrous war which is now being waged against God and man, say many correpondents. -Ed.l . '""