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SEPTEMBER, 1915'
The Commoner
An Urgent Call to
Earnest Prayer
The following appeal was issued
from Washington by Bishop Earl
Cranston, in behalf of the Board of
bishops of the Methodist Episcopal
church:
"To the Ministers and People of
the Methodist Episcopal Church:
In the Divine ordering df events it
has been given to American Method
ism to develop and occupy the world
parish claimed by the daring faith of
John Wesley when Methodists were
a despised people. The Methodist
Episcopal church, now firmly planted
on every continent of the globe, must
therefore recognize at this crucial
period in human affairs her honor
able and responsible relations to all
races and conditions of mankind. The
tenure of her own spiritual life and
leadership is at stake in her attitude
toward this sacred obligation. From
the beginning Methodism has con
ceived of the kingdom of God as a
universal brotherhood founded in the
spirit and teaching of Jesus Christ,
with God as the One Father, love as
the supreme law, and all people and
peoples eligible on equal terms to all
its benefits for time and eternity.
Whatever obscures this vision of the
kingdom of God bars the way to its
glorious realization.- The prayer,
"Thy kingdom come," has therefore
ever been the first petition on all hu
man tongues consecrated by the hal
lowing of the Father's name. But
now, to the horror of angels and of
men, the vision is for the time lost
by the one continent that has been
beyond all others santified by the
blood of Christian martyrs, and the
voice of God silenced in the councils
of its embittered nations. Europe is
engulfed in unutterable woe, and the
world is filled with an agony of
dread. Christian soldiers are daily
passing in multitudes to judgment
with the blood of fellow Christians
on their hands. On every wind the
wails of widowed mothers and or
phaned children are mingled with
the groans of mangled and dying
men.
"Under such conditions your chief
pastors can be no longer silent, nor
can they meet their duty by a per
functory exhortation to formal pray
ers for Divine interposition. Not un
til we realize that, beneath all that
appears, this war, with its awful
carnage, is but a struggle for com
mercial supremacy, can we under
stand how alien to hereditary dynas
ties is the thought of the universal
brotherhood of man. JUvery tradi
tion and every instinct of imperial
sin is in constant friction with the
rule of Christ. The jealousies and
hatreds of kings and neonles are not
born in heaven. Let victory rest
where it may after millions of brave
hearts have ceased to beat, the vas
salage of human souls to material
wealth and power will remain the
sure harbinger of other wars, of in
creasing deadliness as suborned sci
ence adds to the machinery of de
struction, unless God shall mightily
intervene by unseen forces, whose
strategies we may not discern, but
"whose existence and efficiency we
dare not doubt. What we do know
is that willing, loving, obedient hearts
are the conductors of these divine
forces in human affairs. There are
enough praying. souls in America to
call down a truce on every battle
front if once they felt the agony of
Christ-like intercession. That our
country is as yet free from the mad
ness of the strife, should the more
move us to importunate and unceas
ing petition that God will make His
voice to be everywhere heard again
on land and sea. Only thus, at such
a time, can we witness our faith in
God and our love for men. Only
thus can we restrain amonp nur ,
people the latent spirit of war that
is already conjuring every untoward
incident abroad into an intended in
sult at our flag. Only thus can wo
subdue the rising resentment of our
own hearts against unjust foreign
criticism of our nation at this crisis
in its history. So the Spirit of our
Lord pleads with us by every con
sideration of peace at home, as well
as of humanity the world over, to
follow Him into tho Gethsemane o
prevailing prayer. Somewhere tho
song of the angelic host must still be
heard. Somewhere the sun of peace
must continue to shine, whilo Eiirnno
is in eclipse. From somewhere must
blow the kindly currents that shall
cool the fever of hate and revengo
that is consuming our brothers be
yond the sea.
"Therefore, your chief pastors
have commissioned me, as their voice
to the Church, to call every mem
ber of our communion to sympath
etic fellowship with the Savior of
men in His unceasing intercessions
with the Father in behalf of His err
ing children, and in the soothing of
tne angered hearts of men unto pa
tience and compassion toward all
their neighbors, to the end that the
rulers and peoples now at war may
cease to kill, and learn to love as
children of the One Father in heaven.
"Not once a day only, nor merely
when convenient, but in our every
thought of God, in every pang that
comes with tidings of fresh horrors,
in every secret prayer for self and
home and country, as well as in ev
ery public service, every session of
Sunday school and Epworth League,
alone or in companies, let the cry of
our hearts incessantly ascend for the
peace of Europe and the world. Let
prayer be added to prayer and peti
tions be multiplied, until their volume
of faith and fervor, mingling with
like incense rising from the altars of
all the church i, shall fill the sky,
and charge all the overhanging at
mosphere with love ana peace and
good will, to be wafted, by the com
passionate currents that flow ever
from God's loving heart, to the heal
ing of the deadly hurts of His people.
Let us teach the little children to
pray for God's other little ones left
fatherless, and many of them home
less. Surely there are woes enough
to draw hot tears from every eye and
outbreaking prayer from the dumb
est soul.
"Yes, yes, overlay the land with
the blessed calm that prayer alone
can bring. We want not prepared
ness for war, but preparedness for
Godand His peace," for the shelter
ing of our nation. We have a Chris
tian president, and about him in
council are men who pray. Let our
united faith also support their con
stant appeal to God for patience and
poise and wisdom amid the storm of
conflicting advices by which they an
beset. Their only refuge, our only
refuge, Europe's only hope, and hu
manity's only hope, is in God. There
fore, pray, pray, pray without ceas
ing! "From the answering heavens al
ready comes the Voice: God will
walk in glory upon the fields plowed
by the shells of battle, sown with the
bodies of the deaJ, and watered by
the blood of those gone forth. And
the harvest will be God established
in the hearts of living men. Not since
the time of the martyrs has there
been such faith as will be. Amen!
18 '")(
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3350ft3N oUfcfmi v. --"-i 'nine - Yiflov v grlmest war i.vwvj . as
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TWO HARVESTS J
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Do Mar in Philadelphia Record. A
- nft
THAT FURNITURE
For twenty years the metropolitan
m-ess has never let the slightest op
nr??,nitv go by to take a hard jolt
St Mr Bryan whenever they could
tZ'meZsto do bo. His motiv s
Tmve always been impuKu" -policy
U seems will last as long as
the former secretary remains in pol
itics. The smallest pretext has given
rise to the derogatory stories, many
of which have tended to place doubt
in the minds of faint-hearted support
ers. The best answer which could
be given as to the success of the de
tainers, is the wonderful personal
popularity of the Commoner which
has grown with the years. Tho latest
attempt to belittle him has come in
the shape of sarcastic articles about
his having taken the desk and chair
used by him in the state department.
The first article- accused him of tak
ing them without giving any return
for their value, which was a libel
pure and simple. When it was ex
plained that Mr. Bryan left his check
for the amount it would cost to du
plicate them, the antis were ready
with the story that any one would
bo glad to pay $350 for tho chair in
which Seward sat and other "DunK"
of the like. The truth of tho matter
is, the purchase of the old furniture
has been a custom since the time of
Washington. Whenever a secretary
left tho office o bought what fur
niture ho cared to tako and never
until Mr. Bryan happened to want his
desk and chair did tho papers see
fit to think It a crime. This incident,
though of no Importance whatever,
In the larger scheme of things, Is
just a miserable part or the miser
able effort to discredit. Who has
been the moving spirit behind these
efforts? The answer Is simple. It
Is the dishonest politicians who for
ever will be afraid of an honesty
like Mr. Bryan's. Kearney (Neb.)
Times.
BRYAN, PREACHER
During tho hour of union service
of Kearney church at Chautauqua
norv on Snndav morning. William J.
Bryan gave quite another revelation
of himself, not as a political orator
or platform lecturer, but as a
preacher of the Christian faith, and
if ia Tint fulRomtiesB nor exaggera
tion to say that a better, more con
Trinninc. or more nowerful plea for
religion and right living has never
been heard in tnis city, his suoject,
that of a now lecture which he haa
recently taken up, was "The First
Commandment." How many will
ask, "What is tho first Command
ment?" Few really know, or remem
ber. It is: "Thou shalt have no
other gods but mo." Finally crys
tallized, at tho conclusion of tho ad
dress, Mr. Bryan interpreted this
simply to mean that man shall not
place himself before God, becauso all
of the falso gods that men worship
aro simply that man's different
phases of their own lives and char
acters. Acainst tho living God which all
men should acknowledge. Bryan
placed nine falso gods, three on tho
ton shelf, three on a middle shelf.
and three on tho bottom shelf. Tho
three false gods on the top shelf ho
described as Gold, Ambition, Fash
ion; on the middle shelf, Ease, In
tellect, Travel; on the bottom shelf.
Chance, Passion, Drink. Worship of
the first three gods might result in
somo good, indirectly and uninten
tionally; worship of the middle three
was merely useless, and not produc
tive of any good whatsoever; whilo
the bottom three were destructive
and vicious, the very bottom of the
ladder in tho descending scale of
tho falso gods.
Yet all of theso were simply dif
ferent masqueraders of one false god,
Self. The conclusion, therefore,
was that there aro really two com
mandments instead of ten: The first,
"Thou shall have no other gods'
etc.; the second, "thou shall not
worship self' or that we shall not
place ourselves first before God.
Much moro could be said of this
very remarkable, logical, convincing
and irrefutable "brief" of the doc
trine of God and the faith of the Son
of God, but this brief editorial refer
ence is merely an acknowledgement
of the courtesy extended by Mr. Bry
an and of the masterful defense of
Christianity not only in Christian
ity as a faith and a hope, but Chris
tianity as a very vital thing Individ
ually and in the great world-aggregate.
Kearney (Neb.) Hub. .,
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