The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. [volume], October 23, 1918, Page 3, Image 3

About The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1909-1931

Image provided by: Library of Virginia; Richmond, VA

                
a Methodist minister, and just to the rear of
the Methodist minister was a Congregational
and a U. S. A. Presbyterian minister, and not
very far away was a Quaker college professor.
The course is a strenuous one, and unless a
man is 100 per cent, man he will not remain
through the whole three weeks. Out of 143
in the September class 128 finished, and not
all of these will hold out after getting into
the army camps, for the work of a <4Y" sec
retary is very strenuous, with plenty of hard
work and long hours.
The daily exercises commence with Calisthe
nics for thirty minutes every morning at 6 :30
by electric light in the open air. This is fol
lowed by breakfast, then chapel exercises, then
Kible study, next History and Principles on
Association Work, then War Work Methods,
next Historical Background of the War, then
Religious Leadership, next is dinner, then lec
lures on different days on the care and oper
ation of the Ford, care and operation of the
movie machine, the Delco light plant, and
care and operation of the building, next mass
and group athletics. This is followed by out
door playing of the games studied each day.
After this for the first week, study and prac
tice of song leadership, and the second week
this is substituted by lectures on first aid to
the injured. Then supper at 5 :30. Every stu
dent has a week's laboratory work to do in one
of the " Y" b'lildings to which he is assigned,
so as to get a practical knowledge of the work,
so these students go on duty at G :15 to 10 P. M.
It is needless to suggest that this course is
a full day's work for six days of the week.
However, the fellowship of such a splendid
set of men as these students usually are and
ihe splendid faculty of exceptionally strong
professors all contribute to make the course an
enjoyable one, and a man finishes the course
stronger spiritually, physically and intellec
tually, and it is really a treat to be in the
school. At present less than 20 per cent, of
the Y. M. C. A. Secretaries in the Southern
Department have not taken either this course
for the course at some other one of the train
ing schools. The Y. M. C. A., like the Army,
is very strong for efficiency, and in the last
week of the course the men are selected to
do the work that they can do best, and every
one is given special training in the branch of
work he expects to enter after finishing the
course.
Many of our churches will get some splen
did leaders among the laymen after the war
is over and these secretaries return to civil
life again, and many of our ministers are go
ing to get a vision of the greatness of the
Lord's work and how to deal personally and
directly with men that is going to tell in in
creased activity and efficiency in their pastor
ates.
Dermott, Ark.
GOD AND THE GREAT WAR.
By L. E. Morgan.
In connection with the national day of
prayer recently observed in the United States,
I noticed a cartoon on the front page of one
of our great dailies, showing Uncle Sam on
his knees, with clasped hands, in prayer.
This is as it should be. A nation so obvi
ously born in the Providence of God, and so
plainly guided and directed by Him during
its entire subsequent history, should, in its
greatest hour of national peril, turn to Him
for help and succor. At last we are putting
first things first. Carried away with the ar
dor of preparation and preparedness, we have
adopted various national slogans, such as,
"Food Will Win the War," "Ships Will Win
ihe War," "Aeroplanes Will Win the War,"
etc., until at last we are beginning to realize
that there is something of far greater impor
tance than ships, aeroplanes, food, munitions
?and men, important and necessary as these
are, and that our national slogan should be,
"Trust in God Will Win the War."
As we study human history we readily see
how many of the important battles of history
making wars have been decided by providen
tial events, usually weather conditions : It was
so in the battle of Crecy, and also of Hastings,
and also in the deciding battle between Gus
tavus and Wallenstein, which saved Europe to
Protestantism. A terrific storm destroyed the*
great Armada and saved England. Two heavy
rains just at a critical moment saved General
Greene from Cornwallis, and but for this the
American Revolution would probably have
failed. A heavy rain the night before Water
loo prevented Napoleon from moving his artil
lery until too late the next morning, and in
more recent history it is a well-known fact
that weather conditions were a potent factor
in the battle of the Marne and success of the
Allies. We can thus see God intervening in
human affairs at critical periods, using the
forces of nature as influencing and deciding
factors ? a thick mist, a heavy fog, storms*
rains and mud ? these things have repeatedly
changed and shaped human history. "God is
on the side of the heaviest artillery," said the
Corsican, but only a short time after God's
little snow-flakes, beating down upon him and
-his doomed battalions, sent him down to fail
ure and defeat.
Important as is the need of material prep
aration, it is of infinitely greater importance
that our nation realize the true significance of
this world war ? that it is no ordinary war,
and we search human history in vain for a
precedent. A great nation has apostatized and
lapsed into barbarism ? a barbarism so cruel,
so ruthless, so dehumanized, accompanied by
such strange and startling phenomena, that
we can no longer attribute it to peculiar hal
lucinations working out along metaphysical
and pathological lines, but rather, to some
thing far more dreadful and appalling ? de
moniacal possession. This, and this alone, can
explain the cruelty, inhumanity and fiendish
conduct of the Germans during the past four
years.
Today Satan seems to be manifesting his
power and actual presence as never before in
human history. We know that during the
past four years Germany has been repeatedly
saved from defeat through the work of the
German laboratories, and we have given the
German electro-chemists credit for this. But
lias it occurred to us that there was a far
greater intelligence at work for them than
these chemists? We have seen the German
general staff meet crisis after crisis success
fully with military action of marvelous and
paralyzing ingenuity, but has it occurred to
us that between the figures of Ilindenburg
and Ludendorff has been silhouetted the
dark and sinister figure of another and far
greater military genius ? the dread personality
of the Prince of Evil? This view will explain
much that has heretofore seemed strange and
inexplicable.
We can thus understand that the present
world conflict is really one between unseen
spiritual forces, and to meet such a strange
and unprecedented situation what will avail
our material preparations, unless with these
goes trust and dependence upon God? The
battle raging in Europe is but the reflection
of the one of far greater magnitude which we
cannot see, and the final result here will be
decided, not by men, munitions and money,
but by the intervention of Almighty God. In
this connection it is encouraging to see how
so many of the great naval and military lead
ers of Great Britain and America are calling
attention to this.
A great nation, fallen to the uttermost
depths of degradation, infamy, and fiendish in
its devil-possessed fury, is being personally
guided and directed by Satan, and this is the
antagonist we have confronting us today. Are
we, apart from God, equal to such a conflict T
Consider: Such a being, unless restrained by
God, could place weapons in the hands of his
willing slaves that would end the war in their
favor almost instantly. This may seem to
some fanciful, but as sure as we live the veil
is being withdrawn and the devil is in charge
of the German nation today, and there is
something in their entire line of action that
reveals satanic possession. The ultimate re
sult of this conflict, however, cannot be in
doubt, because
God Reigns.
This we know. This is His worW and lie
has neither surrendered His authority nor
abrogated His Throne. If we today could see
as Isaiah saw, we would see a "Throne high
and lifted up," and neither earth nor hell can
shake that Throne. All the events of this war
are under His full and absolute control, and
neither Satan nor his emissaries can break
through that control. What the American peo
ple should do now is to call upon God as
never before, asking His blessing upon the ef
forts we are making. The day of prayer
should become the habitual attitude of mind
and heart on the part of our people, and in
thus coming to God, humiliation and confes
sion of sin should occupy a large place in our
prayers, because we, as a people, have been
guilty of very many great sins: Sins of ava
rice, intemperance, immorality, graft, material
ism, Sabbath desecration, profanity, which
things we should abandon, repent of, and seek
forgiveness for.
We Need God Today.
Consider what a menace and instrument of
hell the German nation is today. Recently a
prominent man in one of the European neu
tral nations stated that, while in conversation
with a prominent German official he asked
this official the following question: "How
does Germany reconcile such practices with
the fact that she is a Christian nation?" To
this question the German made the following
reply: "Germany is not a Christian nation
as you understand it. We believe with Neitz
?schc that Christianity is the greatest curse of
modern times. We look on it as an Eastern'
religion which has been fostered upon us to
our detriment, and we are through with it.
The God our Kaiser prays to is not your God,
but a distinct German creation."
We need God today, and the issue being so
plain, if we approach Him in the right way
the answer may not be long delayed. The God
that heard the prayers and so miraculously in
tervened in the ease of Gideon, Johoshaphat
and Hezekiah, bringing consternation and dis
aster upon the invading armies, is the same
God and able to do the same things today.
The world is now going through a reign of
bloodshed, sorrow, suffering, agony and death,
finch as it never experienced before, and into
this maelstrom of death onr own nation is de
scending.
From our knowledge of God in His dealings
with men we believe that retribution will sure
ly come upon Germany for its awful crimes