[Lynn Landrum, in the Dallas Morning News, Texas]

Prayer can no more be defined than love or light or life be caught and put into a bottle. But this we know, that prayer is meditation reaching out reverently for the hem of God's garment in the hope of finding there mercy for our shortcomings and healing for the ills that vex and thwart and scar our souls. In that sense, all men ought to pray. . . .

What is the ultimate evil of war? Is it not the hatred back of bayonet and bomb, rather than the wreckage wrought? Is it not the ill will between race and race, rather than the clash of physical force which is the product and the expression of that ill will?

When you pray for peace, what seek you? Are you asking for something which God has withheld? Or are you seeking grace to the end that good will may abound in your own heart? . . .

Consider what peace would be without love. Peace fed upon hatred is inconceivable. Yet, if we are not careful, we will find ourselves asking the Almighty today to stay the hand of human vengeance without expecting ourselves to do anything whatever for the furtherance of human justice in the world.

God is neither the author nor the sender of war. But if we look deeply into the proposition that peace without love is in the antechamber of war, we will find where the responsibility lies. . . .

Just as there can be no peace without love, so can there be no lasting peace without justice. Before you drop to your knees this day, make sure you are ready to do justice to red and yellow, black and brown and white.

[Dr. W. B. Selbie, in the Christian World, London, England]

One of the outstanding features of modern theology is a marked revival of interest in revelation. . . . All through the Old Testament, God is the great protagonist, active in creation and giving constant evidence of His power and goodness. Here there is no such thing as religion without revelation. . . . Of this the prophets are a notable example. These were conscious mouthpieces of God. The Word of the Lord came unto them and they were compelled to give it utterance. Often it was a difficult and distasteful Word, and in estimating it allowance must always be made for the personal equation. So we find three men like Amos, Hosea, and the first Isaiah, almost contemporaries, all speaking in different tones and with a different emphasis, yet all prefacing their message with a "Thus saith the Lord." They believed themselves to be called, commissioned, and directed by the Spirit of God. and they spake as they were moved. Wherever there is a living belief in revelation there will always be prophets—men whose spirits are attuned to the Spirit of God and in whose bones the Word is like a fire. They may begin by saying: "Ah, Lord God, behold I cannot speak." but once the Word is given them they cannot keep silent. The pity is that men are so often content to repeat stale traditions and outworn dogmas, forgetting that there is always more light and truth to break forth from the Word of God, if they have but ears to hear. . . .

God's Word is no bolt from the blue crashing in on our indifference and compelling our assent. Rather is it an appeal to that best in us which is capable of discerning it. It makes its claim on our reason, our affections, and our wills. . . . The readiness to do God's will, and to submit to His guidance, the open eye and mind for things eternal and unseen, and the heart that answers to the message of His love—these are the means by which revelation becomes real. As we say of the wireless, there must be good reception, otherwise the message will be blurred, distorted, or altogether missed. Hence the strange warning that God hides from the wise and prudent what He may reveal to babes. It is the childlike spirit, sincerity, and purity of heart, and a simple submission to God's will, which open to men the mystery of His Word. . . .

The astronomer and the average man see the same stars, but what a different story they tell. So we are told on the best authority that it is the pure in heart who shall see God. What can this mean but that vision, the is the revelation, is to those who are duly prepared to receive it? . . .

Prayer creates the atmosphere in which it is possible both to hear the Word of God and do His will. In prayer the divine in us rises up to meet the divine above and beyond us. By the very act of praying our desires are purified. As has often been said of Jesus himself: "In Gethsemane's agony he prays for his cup to pass from him. He leaves the garden with no other wish than that God's will be done." . . .

It is to faith that revelation is made, and by faith that it is verified in action. It is a sound and healthy impulse that bids men turn away from their much speaking and seek to listen quietly to the voice of God. The faith which says, "I will hear what God the Lored will speak," will surely meet with its reward. The revelation will come to those that have eyes to see and ears to hear.

[Rev. Dr. Albert Buckner Coe, as quoted in the Standard, Syracuse, New York]

If we as Christian would be of some earthly use, we must refuse to hate, we must strive earnestly to understand the problems of those who differ from us. . . .

In the first place, we can, as individuals and groups, refuse to hate people. We disapprove of Japan's going into China, but we must refuse to hate the Japanese people! We disapprove of Italy's going into Ethiopia, but we must not hate the Italian people.

The Christian Scientists do not hate. The Quakers do not hate. If these . . . do why should we give way to hatred? Jesus called on us to love our enemies. He himself had every reason to hate, but refused to hate.

A second great contribution which we can make to the world is to say, "I intend to understand."

In our consideration of the world's problems today, do we know the irritations which underlie the national life of various peoples?

A third way in which we can be of use is to be sympathetic. . . . Why not broaden out just a little? The Spanish children also are our neighbors. The Jews driven out of Germany, or now suffering in Austria, the children in China and in Japan—all these a are our neighbors.

[Rev. G. E. Griffiths, in the Christchurch Parish Review, Bournemouth, Hampshire, England]

When a man begins to pray seriously he will soon discover that it is not the words he utters that are of first importance, but the spirit in which he prays. We sometimes tell children that prayer is "talking to God," and, while this is quite true, it is not an adequate or complete description of prayer.

Prayer is something far deeper than talking. It means primarily to realize the presence of God. It is to bring heart and mind into touch with God, and that means much more than mere words. ... It is possible to come into the closest of relationships with God without uttering a word. "Be still, and know that I am God," says the Psalmist. . . .

We can see this quiet spirit of prayer in the example given us by our Lord. When he was asked how to pray, he said, First go into your inner chamber, shut the door, and pray in secret. He was not thinking so much of solitary prayer as insisting that prayer means to lift oneself up out of the everyday world and seek God's presence quietly. That was his own method. It was his custom to leave the rush and bustle of life, and retire alone to seek God's presence. . . .

Our Lord's example shows us that we may find untold strength and peace when we seek God quietly. Day by day in our private prayers at home, or in a few minutes' quiet spent in a church, we have an inexhaustible supply of God's strength. Persevere in prayer and you will find that God will meet you more than half way.

[George Matthew Adams, in the Journal-Herald, Waycross, Georgia]

Nothing is truer than the fact that we are influenced in health by the very thoughts that we think, and by our attitude toward life, played in a cheerful and hopeful spirit. I cannot be said to be a Christian Scientist, though I have never met one who didn't breathe the very air and rediate the very spirit of hope and spiritual confidence. . . .

If more of us—if everyone—would travel hopefully during these troublesome days through which the entire world is now going, there would be furnished, in larger measure than any one of us thinks, the courage and vision, and the highminded physical and spiritual forces sufficient to right the great wrong of the world. . . .

To travel hopefully it is essential that we . . . get on His [ God's] side.

[Sumner Welles, Under Secretary of State, as quoted in the News-Post, Baltimore, Maryland]

The loss of religious faith in many sections of the globe is the greatest ill from which the world is suffering.

I believe that without the reassertion of religion as the supreme factor in the determination of human destinies, mankind will revert to a world in which the passions and the appetites of the animal will reign supreme and the divine light of the spirit will be quenched.

The doctrine of hatred for the moment is paramount. Injustice and cruelty breed injustice and cruelty, as surely as day follows night. And those who sow the wind as inevitably reap the whirlwind.

[Thomas Hastwell, in the Park County News, Livingston, Montana]

The idols today are not made of iron or wood or stone, but they are just as real as though they were. They receive, as did the idols of old, all of the time and attention and the resource of men, and turn men's minds aside from God and the real things of life. Some make idols of petty little worldly things and some make idols of bigger things, but large or small, they shut out God from men's lives as surely as did the idols of old. God's command, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," is made to men today the same as it was to the children of Israel.

[Rev. H. J. Powell, as quoted in the Kent Messenger, Gravesend. Kent, England]

Worship and meditation are not luxuries for eccentric people. They are necessities for us all. A well-known doctor said recently, "If my patients prayed more I should have fewer and see less of them."