The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-02-03
OUR SATURDAY SERMON.


We have in the Anglo-Boer conflict +
the spectacle, which the American /
Civil War presented, of two contending |
peoples who pray for victory in faith .
that prayer is answered and invoke the |
same God with an earnest protest of /!
the rectitude of their intent. The Eng !
fish nation has been, since the South |
African war took it's bad turn, in a
supplicatory religious attitude and is
now on the point of asking the Queen
to proclaim a day of national humilia-
ton, fasting and prayer. On the other
hand those modern Covenanters, the
Beers, are always appealing to the
throne of grace and in the very midst
of battles hold such meetings for pray
er and praise as Cromwell's Ironsides
were wont to do. Here we have what
might be called, in diplomatic phrase,
a theological impasse. ASK and We
shall received" Both of the war-worn
combatants are asking. Both, as
Christian nations, have an especial
right to ask. Yet both cannot hope
for the answer they seek. Both can
not have victory. One must succeed
and the other fail. In the final analy-
sis what is puzzled humanity to do
accept the cynical apothegm of Ma
poleon that God is always on the side
of the strongest battalions, or confess
that these questions in the governance
of the world are insoluble, and timid-
| ly leave them alone?
The problem of Gods aiu N war, as
/ thus presented, is one that interests
too many millions of people to be left
in the background of religious mys-
terry. Always since Christianity be-
came vital force, it has been theme
of speculation and 1t always will be.
The theologians have written libraries
to show that God answers prayer but
in His own way; and that what seems
to be a denial of favor is oICentimes
of those who prayed for triumph al
J Marston Moor and Naseby and YET
, went down in defeat would not now
. wish to have had those battles turn ou
: differently. They realize that wha
happened was for the best good of thu
nation. 1t is the same way with thu
! descendants of the prayerful southern
s ers, who, like Stonewall Jackson, in
e voked Gods favor on the cause of tn
t Confederacy. They, too, begin to Sc
S that God answered their fathers mer
), cifully; for if the Confederate arms ha'
= won and a new nation had been found
Is ed on the principle of disunion,
d would, in subsequent days of interna
e difference, have Jared to pieces. Tri
umph would have ended in misery an
ruin; in failure was the safety Of tn
l. stricken State. If we take this Vie
h of the question, the problem of tn
n efficacy of prayers addressed to the Go
W of Battles becomes clearer, though
st does not obviously meet the promis
lie upon which the supplicant for aid an
lie favor relies. ASK and ye shall r.
es ceive," is a very explicit text whic
Id admits of few mental or spiritual re
he ervations.
w Perhaps in wiser theology It may
1T resolved that Providence has esta
lished certain principles for the goC
of man and that only they who lab
ne or battle for the maintenance of tho
rs principles need pray in the hope of b
in ing answered. A delegation of clerg
a men went to Lincoln In the dark da
Die of the Civil War and one of them sal
Ito al hope God Is on our SIDE" The 81
INT emn and pregnant answer was:
Use hope we are on Gods side"
1t is the prayer of the ''iust" m
DC and presumably the just eau
ng' which avails much. There Is
IN efficacy in prayers for what is wro
nld or vicious. If this view is taken, &C
flicting prayers need raise no questi
of metaphysics. They become in I
Tor spiritual court what the pleadings
Is litigants become in the temporal cou
las Both sides appeal with faith;
pot Judge Sits the merits of the clai
ally .-------------..-.--.---u.--.