The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1915-05-27
TO PRAYER
FOR METHODISTS
BISHOPS OF CHURCH MAKE ZAP.
PEAL FOR SPECIFICATIONS
TO BRING WAR TO AN
END.

Washington. d. C.-In. behalf of
the bishops of the Methodist Episco-
nal Church, Bishop Earl Cranston of
Washington made public today a
special Call to Prayer, appointed
to be read in all the Methodist
churches.
Not once n day only o merely
when convenient, hut in our every
thought of God " let the cry
u our hearts necessarily ascend for
the peace of Europe and the world"
a y the appeal.
The call says in part:
There are enough praying souls
in America to call down a truce on
every battle front If once they felt
the agony of Christlike ~intercession.
That our country is as yet free from
he madness of strife should the
more move us to i~mportunate and in
creasing petition that God will make
His voice to be everywhere heard
! again on land and yea. Only thus at
such a time can we witness our faith
IN God and our love for men. Only
thus can we restrain among our w
people the latent spirit of war that
is already conjuring every untoWard
incident abroad into an intended IN
suit to flag. Only thus can we sub
due the rising resentment of our own
feartswagainst unjust foreign criti-
| cism of our nation at this crisis in
it's history. So the Spirit of our Lord
pleads with us by every consideration
Of peace at home, as we'll as OF hui
mainly of the world over, to follow
Him into Gethsemane of prevailing
prayer. Somewhere the song OF the
angelic host must still be heard.
Somewhere the sun of peace must
continue to shine, while Europe is
in eclipse. From somewhere must
| blow the kindly currents that shall
| cool the fever of hate and revenge
that is consuming our brothers be-
yond the sea.
"Therefore, your chief pastors have
| commissioned me as their voice OF
the Church, to call every member
of our communion to sympathetic
fellowship with the Saviour of men
in His %unceasing intercessions with
the Father in behalf of His erring
children and in the soothing of the
angered hearts of men into patience
and compassion toward all their
| neighbors, to the end that h rulefs
and peoples now at war may cease
to kill and learn to love as children
of the One Father in Heaven.
Not once a day only, nor merely
when convenient, but in our every
thought of God, in every pang that
| comes with tidings of fresh horrors.
in every secret prayer for SELF ana
home and country, as well as in every
public service, every session of Sun
| day school and Epworth league.
alone or in companies, let the cry OF
our hearts necessarily ascend for the
peace of Europe and the world. Let
PRAYER be added to prayer and Pc
ltitions be multiplied until their vol
ume OF faith. aud fervor mingling
with like incense rising from the al
tars of all the churches shall fill the
sky, and charge all the overhanging
atmosphere with love and peace and
peace and good will to be waited
by the compassionate currents
that flow ever from Gods loving
lheaft. to the healing Of the deadly
hurts of His people. Let us teach the
little children to pray for Gods other
little ones left ~fatherless, n nan
of the homeless. Surely there are
| woes enough 10 draw HoI Ieois "
every y and o~utbreaking prayer
from the dumbest soul.
From the answering heavens al
ready m the voice: God VIII
shine forth tirumphantly. God Will
walk in glory upon thef fields plowed
~ the shells of battle, sown with the
| bodies of the dead, and watered by
the blood of those gone forth. And
the harvest will be God established
in the hearts of living men. Not since
the time of martyrs has there been
such faith as will be"