(By an Australian Writer.)
THE amount of interest you will take in the subject matter of this appeal depends entirely on how much you think it really affects you. The fact that conscription existed in European countries very little affected us, but when it was discussed and legalized in this country, how, deeply it interested us, because it touched directly or indirectly every individual.
Every man’s interest in this great matter was intensified because of the imminent peril in which the country stood.
How boldly and loyally have millions of men offered their lives in the service of their country, and how many of these lives have already been sacrificed at the call of their King and country.
Your special interest in their sacrifice lies in the fact that you, too, may be called to do the same.
It may be you have already become so used to the daily news of comrades, kinsfolk “gone” that it has lost some of its significance to you.
It may be you are inclined to believe things that you have heard concerning a crown of glory that awaits those who die in battle, and that the sacrifice that they have made is to be rewarded by life for evermore.
Now I would ask you to think for a moment. If this is so for the British or Allied soldier, it must be equally true for those who have laid down their lives for their Fatherland across the Rhine; and would you like to believe in a God who can dispense crowns of glory alike to all combatants who fall in the day of battle?
Are men who have taken the life-blood of thousands of innocents, who have violated every recognized law of modern warfare; are men who can drive their fellow-men to sure and certain death: are these, I ask you, when they die in battle to receive a crown of glory from the hand of a benign and almighty God?
No, no, let us not be deceived. No such crowning day awaits any soldier―British or German― however bravely he may have fought, even though he has made the great sacrifice of dying for his country.
God’s way of salvation has not altered because the Germans and their Emperor coveted Britain’s sea supremacy and colonial possessions.
The good news of salvation was sounded far and wide into the ears of perishing men long before either of these countries were world powers at all, and nothing can alter it.
In the Gospel of God which the Lord Jesus instructed His disciples to go into all the world and preach, we find that God offers sinful people everlasting life.
It is indeed the good news of salvation proclaimed far and wide.
Faith in what He has done is the only thing that can ensure us the blessings of the gospel.
All we can do for King, country, and our fellowmen, can never atone for those sins which we have committed against our God and our Creator. His judgment must fall upon us on account of these, unless we listen to and believe the good news of salvation, that has been proclaimed to us so expressly and so lovingly.
You may ask, “What must I do to be saved?” The answer is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)).
C. C.