The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-07-19

to which God called them. and in
hitch He has a great stake. and for
which they may count upon His CO.
op> lon. Their. faith is 'tself a Pc
tition. They offer up their lives as
| flaming act of worship and suppl
cation, as the Russians offer up can.
/ dies.
pray" comments one. True: but it
is only the prayers of those whose
purposes square with the clear will
of God that may expect an answer.
In a vivid, tho rather gruesome
sketch, French writer, Julient Fla
ment. sets this forth { as summarized
in God and the Soldier.") He de-
picts the German emperor, clad in his
grey cloak. ''flecked with blood"
| bowling his helmet before the Crib.
J He adil -sses the Divine Child:
Thou art on our side, o Lord: I am
| Tn. lieutenant Thou wilt
share my triumph Lord God
| of the German armies. bless Thou the
German emperor"
l. The Christ-child, silent. seems only
to grow pale. The kaiser prays again.
He promises to place the ruins of the
world: Thy cross and my flag" Still
/ the Child is silent, and the kaiser with
/ trembling voice, asks: Have I not
done and Suffered enough for Thee?
Millions of my soldiers lie dead: the
ravens are weary of their feast" AT
last the Christ-child softly and sor
lrowfully makes answer: Il would fain
bless thee, but I cannot. In Belgium
last winter I lost My way. I took
refuge beneath a hedgerow from the
icy blast. Some drunken German SOL
diers sprang upon Me. 1 had no
defence but My smile and My tears
F; -. To punish Me they drew
their swords -. How can bless
thee without My hands. the little
hands of a child which they
cut off"
| THAT visualizes the truth that
/ hands red with innocent blood are
raised in vain to a holy God" COM
ments the author of "God and the
Soldier" When a man prays in his
own name, and not in Christ's name;
when he uses prayer merely as an in
strument for the qualification of his
own pride. and the realization of his
earthly ambitions; when he desires his
will to prevail over the will of God,
and that his arm of flesh should WELD
the power of thes Omnipotent. such a
God, not to God of indulgence fash
toned in his own image. The grant
ling of such prayer would mean that
Gods wilf>would never be done. For
such prayer there is within the eter-
nal glory no voice nor any that ans
wers. The very soul of prayer is: Thy
will be done on earth as 1t Is in
heaven"
| The Winning Sword.
! That same volume, ."God and the
Soldier" has many true words that
are pertinent to this Sunday school les
son:
Prayer is the very sword Of the
saints said Francis Thomson. The
age of the church's victories has ever
seen its swift flash from out the scab-
bard. If in the last days the words
of prayer had become almost CONCEAL
ed on the lips of multitudes. there
has now come upon US a new day
when prayer has again become a real
| ity. Men and women who had ceased
to pray for themselves have been
driven to the feet of God in an agony
of supplication praying for their
loved ones. They cannot help it. We
have in these days of scientific en-
| lightenUent great deaf of discussion
about the efficacy of prayer, wrote
William James, and many reasons
have been given why we should not
should. But in all this very little is
said of the reasons why we do pray
The reason why we pray is
simply that we cannot help praying
I'VE have, I'm very truth. come to
I the day when we cannot help pray
ling. In the moment of extremity the
appeal to God, conscious or uncon-
scious, springs from the heart. They
are at their wits end, then they cry
to jehovah is the testimony of the
Psalmist. And even the funk prayer
is heard, for he adds. And He bring
18TH them out of their distresses' What
1.-THE cloudless day cannot do, the hur-
ricane effects. T have been driven
many times to my knees by the OVER
lwhelming conviction that I had no.
where else to co. wrote Abraham Lin
coin. My own wisdom and that of
iln for
the day. And so it is now. The state
man in his cabinet and the soldier in
the trench are at one in the day when
all earthly refuge fails and God alone
remains. had not prayed for years
but 1 prayed them is the testimony OF
many man.
The Great Reason for Prayer.
"Th>re is in the world something
greater than law, and that is person
ality. We Ourselves know how the
human personality can mould and
shape Interchangeable law and make
it do his WILL If gravitation DEGREES
that water shall run downward, mer
can decree that it flow upward to the
level OF it's source. If electricity car
rend the heavens and spread disaster
and death in the destroying lightning
man can take its laws and so combine
them that II drives his machinery
makeA his cities bright almost as day
and send his messages round the
earth. If law imprisons the stone and
iron and marble in the everlasting
hills, men by the same law can rea,
st. PauPs anG hang the iron bridges
high in air over the chasms. Instead
of Interchangeable law making progress:
impossible. it is the fact of law making
being Interchangeable. and thus to be
depended on, that makes all progress:
possible. By it the aeroplane mounts
| to heaven and the shell screams oyeI
head. And man can thus mould Law
to his will who can dare say that Hs
who is the source of all law is help
less ind imprisoned? What is law bu
the ordered will of personality? Law
is unthinkable without a law-giver.
The only expression of the source
of all things is a Personality shaping
the univer: to His will. The refa
ton of men to God is thus a persona
relationship-the relationship of thu