RELIGIOUS WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, 14 June 1919, Page 10

RELIGIOUS WORLD

THE HIDDEN" HAND, "f ' T would go forward, stumbling through, the dark, • After my wayward will; A hidden hand withholds me Firm, Strong, and still I would go back to what I left behind— The laughter and the night; The hidden hand which grips ma turns me round ' Towards the light. I feel the red wound in its beating palm; And, though I cannot see, I guess that somewhere that deeg bitter scar Was borne for me. For me, or such another as myself, Wounding and pain, and loss. So I go forward, all the way of , Lowe, Led by a cross. <--Lauchlan Maclean Watt, ia the British Weekly, # THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION.

Religion has a great part to play in the work of reconstruction. The Gospel of the Resurrection ia more than a record of a historic fact. It is the proclamation of a principle that is behind all history, all Nature, and all life. It proclaims the law of resurrection, and it is that proclamation that the world needs to-day to give it hope. What the Gospel of the Resnrrection did for the ancient world it can do for the world again to-day. What a difference it would make to us if we raelly did believe? If we believed that those boys, whose bodies lie there in France and in Gallipoli, are not dead, but living, a cloud of witnesses around the amphitheatre of our world-task, beckoning us to make haste and complete the work of the dead. If we believed in progress; that truth must come at last. If we believed that God has enduring purpose for the race., That man has a future, and that his future is bigger than his past That he has an immortality and aa eternal destiny that must win and must bring him through even the chaos and mire of to-day. Come, my friends; 'tis not too late* to seek a newer world, Some work of noble note may yet- be done, Not unbecoming men that strove with gods. Though much is taken, much abides.. And tho' We are not now that strength which in' old days Moved earth and heaven—that which, we are, we are. One equal temper, or heroic heaxts Made weak by time and fate; but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. Chpaain Crotty, N.S.W.

PRAYING GENERALS.

The pronounced religious tone of the leading officers on the Allied side is a quality that matches itself with the justice of their cause. Our readers have already seen how devout a man is Marshal. Foch. That the head of the American forces as well as generals of the British are praying, men is one of the personal factors noted by the Congregationalist (Boston), which sketches the scene on Thanksgiving Day at Chaumont, the American headquarters in eastern France, where a formal service wan held under the auspices of the leaders «i the American Army with many dignitaries present representing the Allied nations: "The commander of the American forces made an address in which the serious and religious note was dominant. Here are some of the striking words with regard to recognition of the Divine help without which even the superb valor of our troops might not have been crowned with success. " "Victory was our goal. It is a hardwon gift of the soldier to his country. Only tho soldier knows the cost of the gift we now present to the nation. As soldiers inspired by every spiritual sentiment, we have each silently prayed that the success of righteousness should he ours.

" 'Great cause, indeed, we have to thank God for trials successfully met and victories won. Still more should we thank Him for the golden future, with its wealth of opportunity and its hope of a permanent universal peace. '"With thankfulness,, we humbly acknowledge that His strength has given us the victory. We are thankful that the privilege has been given to us to serve in such a cause.'

"These words -of General Pershing recall the remark credited to that stern , British soldier, Lord Kitchener, when the news came to his London office in October, 1914, that General Joffre had thrown the Germans back at the Marne. 'Somebody has been praying.' Marshal Foch's wellknown custom of taking a portion of every day for, quiet meditation and prayer and the devout spirit of General ; Alleaby, the conqueror of Jerusalem, must also be noted in this connection,

"That men of iron like these military leaders in the cause of freedom have all through these terrible months realised that "if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, then \;he proud waters had gone over our soul,' should carry a. powerful lesson to the whole world."

SPIRITUAL WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 1 (Heber H. Votaw.) Oat ofthe sky a voice was heard. Five miJes away, a mile high, an aerial fleet was manoeuvring. On the ground a dozen of us heard the commander say, "Squadron formation," and watched the planes take their positions. From the field they came toward the Capitol at Washington, D.C., and when nearing it, this order was heard, "Turn slowly to the right," followed a little later by "Left glide," Number 3 was ordered to leave the squadron, and, "All follow the leader," was the order for the others. At the word of command one plane did a "nose dive" for a thousand feet,'and promptly obeyed the next command, "Climb back up," by rising almost perpendicularly to its former position.

Not only did the fliers hear and obey the orders given from the airplane of the squadron commander, but a colonel in the Division of Military Aeronautics stood on the ground by our side and talked—his voice lower than the ordinal y conversational tone—and his every command mut an immediate response in action by the airmen. ' I was witnessing the wonders of wireless telephony, of which, all have heard, and I confess to a feeling such as never possessed me before. No other experience of life ever impressed me so much. This was not due alone to the wonders of the invention, for I had read of speech being carried on by the same means for hundreds of miles, but was due rather to the spiritual vleuQßaf ; rapidly to jjnfad.

First, I thought, infinite man can find as means, by which he can speak without rwire connection to another man five, ten, ■ twenty, a hundred, a thousand miles distant, why think it unbelievable that the infinite God can hear the call of his chil-' dren? As commands were given and promptly obeyed, we were told that this was all duo to the fact that each instrument for receiving and sending message's was perfectly attuned to each other. The operation of the great naval wireless telegraph plant at the time we wero listening, did not interfere, because there was a difference in the rate of air vibrations between the two systems; and this fact caused me to realise that if we would receive guidance from God wo must be "in tune with the Infinite." The words of Christ in the parable of the good shepherd seemed so fitting; "When he putteth forth his own slieep . . . the sheep follow him; for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow ....

for they know not the voice of strangers." Even the noisy whirr of the motors, which one would expect to drown all sound of speech, could not do so, for nothing below a certain pitch affected the> instruments at all. With this I thought of the power of the "still small voice," penetrating, insistent, and so easily heard even with the noise of earthly things all about one. As one air pilot was bidden to> da one thing and another something else, i thought, He gives "to every man . his work." The unhesitating military obedience; the performance of things fraught with danger; the readiness to place life in jeopardy by each pilot, caused me to ask myself, "Is it the work of God or is it self-interest that is first in my heart?" After the demonstration closed I listened to the enthusiastic officers &4 they told how this invention had given aerial supremacy to the forces of the United States. Then this thought came and lodged in my heart: "When the people of God accept and fully use the means of communication established between heaven and earth, the age-long conflict with sin will come to a sudden close. The hosts of our great enemy will be compelled to acknowledge defeat. The victory of the children of God will bs complete."