Newspaper Page Text
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