Dear Mr. Editor—On reading the article, “A Day of Violence,” by Mr. James C. Trench, in the November issue of Scripture Truth a sentence arrested my attention very powerfully. Referring to the present calamitous European war Mr. Trench says, “Christians, too, will do well to consider their ways, and see what God has to say to them through all that is taking place.”
We are familiar with the statements as to the wickedness of the nations, and the ensuing governmental dealings with them by God. Doubtless this is all true, but I do think Mr. Trench calls attention to a side we have greatly forgotten.
In connection with it three Scriptures came to my mind.
1. “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1 Tim. 2:1-2).
Most evidently we Christians are not receiving an answer to prayers offered up on the lines of this Scripture. The Christians in Germany—and there are many of them—are not leading a quiet and peaceable life. Many are forced into the firing line; many have been killed, and many of our sisters in Christ have been made widows. Christians in Belgium, in Poland, etc., are not living quiet and peaceable lives, nor in London and the East Coast of England, where death may be rained from the sky at any moment, and where all over the land death has been rolled into thousands of homes.
We, Christians, have broken down in our prayers. And are we learning our lesson? I fear not. How many homes have no family prayer! How few the numbers attending the prayer meeting! How little special intercession there is! In this connection how weighty is the article, “The Function of Prayer,” in the same issue of Scripture Truth as Mr. Trench’s timely article.
2. “Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men” (Matt. 5:13).
Salt is preservative. God’s people are the salt of the earth. Doubtless, if we were more distinctly salt there would be more persecution, and we should realize the force of the beatitude, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake” (v. 11). On the other hand, if the salt preserved its saltness, there would be a distinct effect upon the world; but instead of that Christendom is in the front rank in this terrible war; and the greatest offender in aggression and brutality is the one who the oftenest has the name of God on his lips as the One who helps him and approves of his truly frightful course. How terrible all this is!
3. “And he said, Oh! let not the Lord be angry and I will speak yet but this once peradventure ten [righteous] shall be found there. And He said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake” (Gen. 18:32).
How significant this is of the place a godly person has in the estimation of God. Here was this big wicked Sodom; its sins too terrible to speak about, crying aloud for vengeance from heaven, and yet if only ten godly persons had been found in that welter of sin and iniquity the guilty city would have been spared. But not ten were found, and the few in it were thrust out—four persons in all, and one perished just outside its walls, and so the city was destroyed.
Just in the same way does not this terrible visitation tell a similar tale? Is it for nothing that Christendom has jettisoned the inspiration of Scripture, the deity of the Lord Jesus, the atoning value of His precious death, the virgin birth and even in some cases the very resurrection of our Lord? Is it for nothing that we witness the entrance of a notorious denier of Christian truth into the State Church, and scarcely a protest raised, and no action following protest? Is it for nothing that a Bishop of the same church can go to the Front and tell the soldiers that their death on the battlefield will win them heaven? Oh! apostasy! Apostasy!! And one feature of the hour is lack of courageous exposure of what is going on.
Broadly speaking, we see where things are travelling to, and that most rapidly, but our place is on our faces in intercession, and God will come in in answer to our cry. May it be intelligent and in the current of the Spirit, for never was there a more powerful call to prayer than now.