The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1918-03-07
THE WAR, THE CHURCH.

men unto me" GOD has been
calling the church members for
two thousand years to hold the
Christ up to a lost race. We have
ignored the call and now must
pay the penalty. The power OF
God unto salvation of an individ-
ual soul. The power of God unto
salvation of a nation. The power
of God unto salvation of lost
race. All of this we say we be-
lieve, but do we really be-
lieve it. If so, let us put it to a
test. This is testing times and
conditions. God expects and
pleads with his people to test the
power of His spirit in controlling
the affairs OF life. 1t has been
tested and proven thousands of
times, ever since the first man
was slain on earth; yet, we stand
in the midst of a great world
struggle unprepared. The power
Of God is as strong today and the
church as pure as it was
the day that Christ said on this
rock | build my church. Yet it
seems that wei are at loss to
know just how to go to God for
His assistance. The attitude of
the church towards God today.
The church is standing with it's
back turned to the cross and it's
face to the White House at
| Washington, looking to our
great President and Cabinet
! for power to save our boys, los
ing sight of the sad fact that
our boys may be eternally lost
before starting to war. We pro-
fessed followers of Christ, hav-
ing the firm of Goodness and
denying the power thereof,
preaching to the heather ma
tons that there is power in the
blood of Christ, to end all word
ly struggles, and at the same
time so many of us proving to
them with our system of life
that we have not that power.
Yet, we must not ignore the fact
that the church has and is doing
a great work among most of the
nations of earth. still it must be
awakened to a proper conception
of Gods power to control the
affairs of life. We bring our
troubles on ourselves and we may
be sure our sins will overtake US.
We are created a divine being,
free moral, permitted to do as
we please and we have pleased
to leave the divine law. God tells
us when we were created that
we would grow into a condition
that would make war inevitable
|if we did not stay in divine con-
nection. He also tells us the very
habits and system of life we
would be living before such
trouble wonld come. We have
seen it all along life's road being
fulfilled; yet we are unprepared.
God is calling church members to
fight out this battle with in their
| own hearts. Will we continue to
refuse the call? | believe not.
The rod of chastisement is upon
US. Our whole system of life is
wrong and must be changed. We
have commercialized the whole
| life. The devil is loose in the
world and must be conquered if
Fit costs the life of every man in
this country. We are not mad
with Germany and not fighting
it so much as we are the spirit of
the devil. We are fighting for a
cause. There are only two forces
in the world, good and bad, God
and the devil; and the blind can
see which of these forces is con-
trolling the affairs Of life today,
and we must realize the fact that
most of us are guilty, and if we
will and turn our faces to the
cross and repent, God and us can
and will end the war with in a
very short time. The same God
has the same power today that
Jonah had to preach to Ninevah.
They heard the message, repent
ed and saved their country. This
| is the power that has always
brought victory. This is the
power that will bring victory to
this nation, but it will never
bring victory until it brings the
reformation in the church which
| it is destined to bring. We
| are great nation and have at
the head a great President. plan
ming and studying the welfare of
every soul in this nation, max
| ing great material preparedness
which must be done for faith
without works is dead. But with
| all their efforts it is powerless
y;fho,,t tho rravnre IF thn church.