THE eleventh day of November, 1918, will be remarkable in the history of mankind. On that day an armistice was signed, and hostilities ceased between the German and the Allied armies in connection with the greatest War that the world has ever witnessed. The happy news, that the long-desired peace had come, was received with overflowing satisfaction and delight in all the towns and villages of Great Britain, as indeed in almost every part of the earth. Many wept for joy, and we are sure that, while natural thankfulness was everywhere, genuine, spiritual gratitude to the God of peace and Father of mercies rose up in the hearts of all who “love His blessed name.” They ascribed the glory to Him that sitteth upon the throne and liveth for ever and ever. “Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth” (Ps. xlviii. 8-10).
It was gratifying to observe that the Prime Minister, after he had intimated the armistice and cessation of hostilities, moved that the House of Commons immediately adjourn, and proceed to Westminster Abbey to render thanks to Almighty God for the great deliverance He had wrought, and that the House with unanimous consent adopted the motion, and adjourned accordingly. We have also felt much pleasure in noticing, in connection with many of the utterances at Thanksgiving Services, held throughout the country, that there was less praise of the creature instruments who had brought about victory for the Allies, and more ascription of unreserved praise to God for His wondrous mercy, as the supreme cause, than has been hitherto common at War services. It would be well if His goodness at this great crisis would lead us as a people to godly repentance and spiritual reformation.
There are one or two special chords of thought and feeling that are touched at the present moment. The first is that of profound sympathy with those who have lost their near and dear ones in the terrible conflict which has come to a close. Such persons must of necessity feel a pang of pain at their hearts, amid the general rejoicings, when they look back and think of the brave spirits and bright faces of husbands, sons, and brothers that shall never return to their hearths and homes again to cheer and comfort longing friends, but have gone beyond recall to the eternal world. Ah, the sadness of it all, as the result of the cruel devastation of a War, which was prompted by the cursed pride and unholy ambition of the human heart. What a lesson as to the fact and consequences of the Fall! But remembering again that nothing has happened apart from the government of the all-wise Ruler of heaven and earth, we pray that those broken-hearted, desolate ones would be led to humble themselves in self-abasement “under the mighty hand of God,” and seek and find in the Lord Jesus Christ the healing balm for their deep and painful wounds. He is the only physician that can do broken, helpless sinners good. He welcomes such to His feet, and tenderly and powerfully applies His heavenly balm to His souls. If the losses and sorrows of the present time do not lead men to the Divine Saviour, all the Lord’s sharp smiting and pruning during the solemn time that has passed will be in vain as to spiritual and eternal profit. How deplorable a result to contemplate!
Still again, we have another feeling of joy and thankfulness, in sympathy with those whose dear friends have been preserved by the merciful hand of God throughout all the dangers of the War. We desire to rejoice with those who rejoice, as well as to weep with those who weep. Such persons, however, if rightly exercised, will not attribute the benefits conferred by God’s gracious hand to any superior merit on their part. This vain, proud thought will be strenuously resisted, and they will ascribe all the blessings they enjoy to the sovereign and unmerited favour of Him who doeth according to His will among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. It is certainly permissible for them, in strict accordance with God’s truth and promises, to recognise merciful answers to many supplications, presented in Christ’s name, before the throne. The Lord is still the hearer and answerer of prayer, although in His deep and inscrutable sovereignty He does not grant all the petitions, even of His own people. But it is to be feared with regard to a vast number of persons that they have no right appreciation of God’s goodness towards them in the preservation of their friends from a thousand imminent dangers during the recent tremendous conflict, and that they regard the present deliverance with light and frivolous hearts, plunging into all manner of vain amusements. Such are to be pitied in a degree beyond expression. When the divine goodness in its most striking manifestations is “the savour of death unto death,” there is marked evidence of the presence of spiritual blindness upon men’s hearts.
In conclusion, we observe that it is very plain that there is great and widespread need of a day of the Spirit’s power in our own and other lands, to make God’s severity and goodness both produce their proper spiritual results. Nothing less than the divine word of truth, applied by the omnipotent Spirit of grace, will subdue and melt hard and stony hearts, and cause true repentance and living faith to spring up therein unto everlasting life. We rejoice at the dawn of a time of peace, but we long for “the dayspring from on high” to visit the nations, “to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,” and to guide their “feet into the way of peace.” True, “the dayspring” has already visited the earth in the coming and work of the Son of God as Redeemer, and in the proclamation of the glorious gospel of His finished redemption, but the Holy Spirit is required in His powerful influences to take of the things of Christ and show them unto the children of men, on a larger scale than hitherto, in order to the extension of Christ’s kingdom, not in name merely but in truth and power, to the ends of the earth.