NO MIRACLES.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 February 1918, Page 2

NO MIRACLES.

GOD AND THE WAR. VICTORY ONLY BY FIGHTING. The truth of a remark by one of the' apostles, "tlmt faith without works is dead," was emphasised -by Professor Dickie, of Knox Theological College, Duneuin, in the course .of hia sermon at St Paul's Presbyterian. Church, Christchurch, on -Sunday. The subject of his address was the question of direct Divine intervention in the present world! struggle. The Professor made it clear that victory, even in God's righteous caiue, has to "be fought for, and that is no Divine promise of victory being easy, speedy, or bloodless. He deprecated any expectation of a win through a miraculous agency—victory would come to the right cause only through a capacity for fighting and sacrifice.

A question which was being asked by many people, said the professor, was: Was it possible to believe that an allwise, all-righteous, and all-powerful God was ruling the world in love and kindness, when the. very gates of hell -s.eemed to gape open,' and hundreds of thdtisnnds of our beet and'bravest were falling? Would G"<l give a visible guarantee that His hands actually held the reins of the universe? These questions were as old as history itself, and the present problem was far from being an isolated one. God did interfere in the. affairs of the world, but always in His own way—He was behind all the happenings of our lives. His glory and the well-being of His children were not separate aiid conflicting purposes. God respected the liberty of tlio individual anil the world, and would not for.;e His will or law on mankind. He must win their obedience—and obedience was the condition of thp coming of God's kingJoin on earth. The justice of our <cause alone does not guarantee our victory—we were never promised an easy, quick, and bloodless victory over evil: We must do our part to bring victory about, and show, by our spirit of sacrifice and other qualities, that we are worthy of our caiise. Unless wo >yore able to. defeat the Central Powers, tlie military spirit of their people - would bp taore firmly enthroned than ever, and the best we could expect Would be a- few years' respite before another appeal to arms. It was a mistake to think, that German democracy entered the war ;.«n----willingly, at the command of t-heif loaders They entered the War in a spirit of joy and'gratified priide,". believing that in a short time they would be the masters of the World and the arbiter of the future destiny of civilisation. - Speaking ■is one with a Knowledge of the German people, lie could say that they were united in favor of the war, and it was that spirit which we must be united to vanquish, so that war might "be swept'from the world. He was not one -af'those who believed that the! knell oF tire British Empire had sounded. The'liation was awake, and its forces of' justice and liberty were arrayed against' of absolutism and lmital'force. Would'the ; nation prove worthy of being the chosen means for the furtherance of God's k'ingI«m on this earth'? ITe'prayed 'tliat God would give use grace ami strength to endure and enable the Empire and' its Allies to vanquish the force:? of evil.