Someone has suggested that it is rather mean and unmanly for a nominally-Christian Nation to turn to God when faced with a colossal tragedy such as confronts the world today. It is thought to savour somewhat of the Chinese proverb "When not in trouble, incense is not burnt; when misfortune comes, the arms are thrown around Buddha." But there is another way of looking at this. It was pointed out by Luke, himself a doctor, who wrote: "They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick." A healer of souls, God longs for men and nations to come to Him. He goes further than this; He comes to them in Jesus Christ seeking them out in their haunts. "I come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
When one ponders on the subject of an Empire observing a Day of Prayer many questions are raised in the mind. Since God is omnipotent and knows what we need before we ask Him, why ask Him? Why should it be necessary to put our desires into words? If God wishes to help mankind, why should He wait for our prayers? Why should we need to pray at all? It would take a lengthy treatise to answer all the queries that thoughtful people could raise, but there is one consideration that ought to be emphasized in such a crisis as the present. It is that, before He can give us the help He is waiting to impart, God needs our prayers. God declines to be a dictator. He will not compel men to be good. The door by which He enters our life opens from our side, and prayer is the lifting of the latch. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." He will not force an entrance, but when the knocking is heard by an individual or a nation and the door is opened. God will come in and He Himself will be at once haspes anque epulum host and feast'—the giver of the feast and the Bread of Life. But if we do not feel the need of Him and are not willing to wait on Him, He cannot do as He would, A famous violinist had a daughter who went to learn music from a stranger. Someone asked the father if he would not like to teach his daughter himself. "There is nothing I would like more," he said, "but I must wait till she asks me. There are things I cannot impart to her till she is ready for them and comes to ask for them."
Our world has gone astray because it has neglected God. Let us pause tomorrow and humbly wait upon Him. In doing so we will be following the example of many of the greatest workers and helpers of mankind. It is said that during the last war Admiral Beattie wrote home from the Grand Fleet that we should never win the victory we needed and hoped for till the people gave themselves more earnestly to prayer. Earl Haig never missed the Sunday morning hour of worship, and in the dark week of March, 1918, when in his famous dispatch he declared "our backs are at the wall" he at the same time acknowledged that he sustained his heart by the last Sunday's text, "The battle is not yours but God's, Foche also, the supreme commander, was of like mind. It is told of him that passing a wayside shrine he asked his staff to give him an hour of quiet. They thought he had gone in to sleep, but on the arrival of an urgent telegram they broke in upon him and found him before the altar on his knees in prayer. "The humblest soul can help not only the world but God Himself by persistent and undiscouraged prayer." "Wait on the Lord": said the Psalmist, "and he shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.