THE HOUR OF TRIAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 October 1915, Page 6

THE HOUR OF TRIAL.

CANON BUBTON'S ADVICE TO THE CLERGY. FASTING AND PRAYER.* Christchurch, October 19. fThc Anglican clergy of the diocese, assembled in Christchurch for the annual synod, attended divine service at the Cathedral last evening, the preacher for the occasion being Canon H. D. Burton, vicar of St. Michael's Church. Canon Burton took his text from Isaiah xxxv., 3 and 4: "Strengthen ye the weak hand and confirm the feeble knee Be strong fear not. ... He will come and save you." He said that Cod was the only hope of Britain in the present conflict. Britain's hope lay. not in Italy, not in Greece, not in Roumania, but in uos. Britain had expected a quick and easy victory, but she had no grounds for such a hope. Her army was contemptible in numbers, but what could 270,000 men do against organised millions? Then came a call to the uttermost parts of the Empire, and the men of the dominions came in answer to the call, singing as they came. But Britain had been found unprepared, and it was necessary to organise men, munitions and labor. A nation so unprepared had no right to expect' to succeed. The enemy had been preparing for fifty years for "The Day." It was a nation organised for war from infancy to the grave. Fortunately Britain's Navy did not share the unpreparedneas of the land forces. The Navy was ready, and was able' to, save the women of England from nameless evils. To-day the whole Empire was united. "We are not divided, all one body we," was the nation's watchword. The verdict of history would be that Britain was unprepared, but that her Navy gave her the opportunity to remedy her unpreparedness. The Bishop of London had recently said that it was, the duty of the great Church of England to organise the nation for prayer. He was right, but the task was as great a one as organising the Empire for victory. The preacher proceeded to depict the worldly condition of New Zealand, her people given up to money-making and pleasure-making, and neglectful of prayer. For the apathy of the people the churches could not wholly escape blame. In the schools the children were brought up without a knowledge of Christ, and the churches had let the children go into a secular system with scarcely a struggle. The result of godless schools was rampant immorality, newspapers that were scarcely fit to read, scandalous happenings brought io light in the Magitrate's Court. What would the churches say to the Master in their own defence? The great war was a sign of the speedy coming of Christ, and what could the churches say to Christ when He came? The holiest matters of Christian faith were made food for scoffers. These devils could only be cast forth by prayer and fasting. The preacher advised his hearers to pray and to fast. They must go back and begin again and become a fasting church, preaching the catholic faith. Canon Burton went on to say that the Church had not discharged her duty to soldiers in hospital. In many hospitals there were no chaplains, and men craved for the blessed sacrament in the hour of death and could not obtain it. The clergy must be with the soldiers— I in the trenches, in the hospitals, to do, to suffer and to die if it pleased God to allow them that high honor. When the clergy fasted and prayed and did their duty to the soldiers, then, and not till I then, could they say, as of right, "Be I strong, fear not," to the nation in its hour of trial.