SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 23 September 1916, Page 6

SUNDAY READING

THE FORCES OF THE UNSEEN

SERMON PRBACfI'KD BY REV. A. 11. COLVTLK, M.A., AT ST. MARY'S CHURCH, NEW I'LYMOUTH.

'■Tlic Lord opened the eye; ot the young man, smd lie saw; and behold tho mountain was full of horses ami

''v'iots of fire."—ll. Kings, vi., 27.

W hen I saw that this striking instance of the supernatural in war came in the first lesson for this evening's service, I could hardly help fastening; 011 it as the subject of my address this evening. It has indeed been so often quoted in connection with the reported appearance of spiritual beings 011 the battlefields of Europe to-day that it must be interesting at least, aiu! may, I trust, be helpful to consider for a few minutes this evening what is meant by "the armies of the unseen.' if they arc ever visible to tlie eyes of men, and what they will do for us at this or any time of peril. Think for a moment 01 that little war of bygone times of which We get a glimpse in the Old Testament record I have been just reading to you.

The King of Syria was making war oti Israel. He was greatly puzzled- because his secret arrangements became habitually known to the enemy. Naturally lie suspected treachery: was it possible that there was a' pro-lsweiit? in his camp who was acting as a spy? He called his servants together and questioned them 011 the matter. One of them protested that there was no such thing as a pro-Tsraelite among them. It was, he said, tlie miraculous power of the prophet in isracl from whom no secrets could be hid. We do not know what the actual fact really was. It may have been a ease of treachery within the camp of Syria, an 1 perhaps the very man who said it was the prophet, was himself the traitor, and adopter; this ruse in order to escape discovery. We have had in this war much experience of the baleful possibilities of the enemy within the gates (probably we have yet to discover all the harm he has done) and we cannot shut out this explanation. We only know that Elislia, whether by a miracle or otherwise, knew the enemy'? o'ans and foiled his intentions. -Anyway, the King of Syria decided that Elisha must be capture! and so rendered 'harmless; and lie !> so much respect for the prophet's powers that he sent a great host to take him. In the night time the soldiers encircled the city.

Now Elisha had a servant—a young man who waited 011 him. This youth got up early in the morning and saw the Syrians all round the city. Naturally he came to his master, terrified. Then Elisha said a thing whi-.'h seemed to the young man very perplexing, "Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that 'be with them.'- Tins was puzzling certainly, for there were the hosts of the Syrians arid probably only the tiniest little, garrison in the city. And when the prophet prayed, "Lord, open his eyes that he may see," he must have heen more puziled than ever, for surely ho saw too much already. If the prophet had said, "Lord, close his eyes that he may not see," he would have understood that as at least an amiable desire 011 the part of his master that he might not realise the danger he was in. The next moment, lu.ivcvor, the whole scene was changed. The youth's eyes were opened and he saw another host, the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. I An army, previously invisible-, ha 1 sudI denlv become' the chief factor in the situation.

My friends, in the days before the war we should probably have regarded such a story as belonging exclusively to AN AGE THAT HAS PASSED AWAY;

but many similar talcs have been told anil believed during the last two years, and a small book by a well-known novelist has made hundreds of people familiar with them. In a: sermon preached about two years ago I alluded to one of these stories, which told how in the retreat from Mons a company of angels interposed between the small body of retreating English and the pursuing German cavalry so effectively that the Ger l man horses stampeded and our soldiers were preserved. Now, I do not for one moment wish to cast doubt on this or other similar stories of supernatural interposition in war. No one would dare to limit God's possibilities or to assert that such a revelation could not be. Tf those who are convinced of the truth o r this story find comfort in it, and an assurance that Ood preserves those who are fighting in the cause of righteousness slid see in it a prophecy of ultimate victory, I would say nothing to take that comfort from them. The more completely we trust in God and in His power at this time of peril, and the stronger our faith in the unseen, the greater the force we shall be aide to put into our players and our sacrifices for the cause. But I do want to remind you, lest disappointment come, that God does not as a rule govern life in thi3 way, and we must not think that we can "leave it to the angels'' when evil or danger threatens lis. The story of the angels at Mons may be perfectly true, but I do wish to point out that the eagerness to lav hold on the abnormal as a proof that there is a living God to help in time of need is very dangerous. There is a dan'gcr lest people assume that jod will always intervene in that way, and lose their' faith when they are disappointed. People ask the question—lf God sent the hosts of heaven to fight for the British on one battlefield, why not 011 all? Why should not 12 legions of angels bring the war to an end at once. Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane might, as He said, have had twelve legions to 'beat back His foes, but we read of only one angel who came not to destroy His enemies, nor indeed to protect Him from them, but to strengthen his spirit, that lie might go forward steadfastly to the ordeal of the Cross. It seems to me, my friends, that this is the true sense in which we may look for supernatural help at this time both in the firing line and at home. If we are really to expect angels to interfere and fight for us at every. critical stage in the war, then what is the use of talking so much about the necessity of men and munitions? But a man may believe intensely in the presence of God and of His unseen forces upholding and directing him when he lifts his rifle to fire and when he lifts his hands in prayer; and that at times he may actually see this spiritual presence is quite conceivable. God may ''open the eyes of the young man that he may see.'' (Personally, I have no doubt about the spiritual world and its reality and its nearness to us ; and who does r.ot believe that "there are more tilings in heaven and earth than we dreamt of in our philosophy/' or our experience either? Why, even science in these days is quite modest about her nowera of explanation. The stories of

are very numerous, and there must lie some truth in them. I can quite well believe in the presence of disincarnate spirits on the battlefields of Europe. VI hen one thinks 0." the millions whose 'bodies have been killed, one can so well understand that phrase,

" A GREAT CLOUD OF WITNESSES." Men have had their bodies destroyed, who have left brothers and friends behind on the battlefield. 1 can easily understand that their spirits linger about the scene. Nor do I think it at all impossible in moments of great stress for men 011 the battlefield to 'become very vividly aware of ihese spiritual presences, and without doubt from them would come a great sense of strength; would be real helpers. It is surely a very beautiful thing if men, amid these scenes of horror, can realise the unseen world, and thus grow sure that death, the great scythesman, is not doing any final work, and is not the destroyer that he seems. It is also a beautiful faith that those mysterious beings that we call angels are also helpers of humanity. Our Lord speaks of them as the guardians of little children; the writei of the Epistle to the Hebrews describee them as "sent forth to minister''; innumerable testimonies remain of men receiving their help and being conscious of their protection. Some people no doubt have more power to realise these spiritual presences than have others. Some, so closely conformed to this-world, have their eyes shut to the possibilities of any otner. But I am sure the poet Whittier was not indulging in mere fancy when lie wrote: There are, who, like the Seer of old, Can see the helpers God has sent, And how life's rugged mountain-side Is white with many an angel-tent; They bear the heralds whom our Lord Sends down His pathway to'prepare; And light, from others hidden, shines On their high place of faith and prayer. Let such for earth's despairing ones, Hopeless, yet longing to he free, Breathe once again the prophet's prayer, "Lord, open their eyes that they m..*

With those eyes open men can live at peace, and though open eyes will not insure them against death in war, they will ensure them something even more important, an anchorage in God whatever may happen, strength and light and music in the soul, in spite of the noise aud tumult, the danger and the dread everywhere surround them. . TOUCHING TESTIMONY. An article recently written in an English paper by a private in the Motor Transport Section bears touching testimony to this realisation of the unseen. He was, he said, returning from the firing line, and came to a little town that had been ravaged nine months ago by the Germans. Under a grove of chestnut trees by the wayside a company of soldiers had gathered together 011 that Sunday evening. Tliev had assembled in a little circle aud were singing, "Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom.'' The sound came like sighs of a night wind in the tree-tops, and no one cculd remain silent. The shadows were deepening all around. The dread sound of the fight at La Bassce was vibrating on the night air; 110 soul was so dulled and dead but it stretched out its being towards the great God; the pica for guidance rolled up and onward to the very gates of heaven; it was indeed a song of pravev wrung' from those who felt that amid dangers so real, so near, only one Power couid lead in the way to safety. When it was over the .Major turned to the writer and said, "That was very fine, wasn't it?" "Yes, sir," lie answered, "better than Tipperary," and the Major smiled and bade him Godspeed. "Then," says the writer, "tired, but with a new spirit, I climbed back into the driving se.it, and as I drifted slowly through the shadowed streets I took with me 'a silent presence' which I could feel. Presently I came upon a little wayside shrine where 1 saw a kneeling figure, a French comrade, seeking comfort in prayer, and, 10, I felt like a little child again, and 1. too, knelt by his side. 111 prayer, just as long ago 1 had knelt by my mother's knee, and whispered, 'T.ea:i, kindly ligh't., amid the encircling gloom, lead Tiiou me 011," My friends, was not this

A REAL SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE! That young mail's oycs wore open awl tie saw. He did not see a band o{ angels, but-he testified to having felt the reality oi the presence of God; lie found the value of prayer, he found tile depths of the spiritual life, lie felt the hand of God in the night, lie saw the face of Christ in tile dark. The Lord had opened his eyes and lie saw. Let our ,irayer for our young soldiers he this—that their eyes may be opened to the power and reality of the spiritual, that they may understand that religion i> the most precious possession of humanity, and belongs to the very essence of life. That little touch in* the sol-

• was better than "Tipperarv," is significant. There is a human appeal in the "Tipperary" song, but there is also, what few people are conscious of, a religious touch in it. The witchery of that little song lies in the far-off, the long way, . the distant object, the giving of the heart to it, the willingness to take the journey, make the sacrifices, and say the farewell in order to attain the faroff object 011 which the heart is set. The point is that the soul becomes stronger than the immediate circumstances that surround it by the power of a love whose full satisfaction is far off. Now that is the threshold of the religious life. And the reason why, ''Lead, kindly Light," is bctte; than the song is that it goes deeper, and, of course, more consciously into the same truth. It sings of great sense of the reality of God now ia the midst of the encircling gloom, of the assurance that when wo have made our way "o'er moor and fen, oe'r crag and torrent,", the time will come when the night will be gone, and the morning of God will dawn 011 tlie soul. That is distant, far away, but we have given our hearts to it and will face the journey. Tennyson tells us that the words "far, fur away" had a great fascination for him as a boy. Yes; our souls were made for long 1 , long ways, out the "silent presence" will go where we go, and to see this is to see the life eternal. We may not be conscious of I the "chariots and horses of fire," drawn 1 up 'between us and our foes, 1101 yet of the angels encamped round about us, but we shall realise that everywhere is the eternal God, our abiding refuge, and that underneath us are the everlasting anus.