MITRA: Standing on guard for Canada
In the opening sentence of a biography of evangelist Dwight L. Moody, the biographer writes:
“Surely we may end as we began, with the insistence that God is the one supreme universal need of all humanity, and that need was never more pronounced than in America today.”
Would we agree with that analysis of today’s Canada as a nation as well?
Why does Canada need God today as never before?
Canada needs God because of its unparalled prosperity.
We could speak of Canada’s abounding resources, its increasing foreign trade, its expanding bank balances (or debts?) and its Gibraltar-like position in the politics of the world.
We could say there has never been a nation that has had enormous wealth or a nation that has enjoyed such unlimited luxury and so securely rides upon the top of the world as does Canada.
And, yet, we should be aware that ease, luxury and wealth have never assured national continuity.
History has only one story tell and that is about the enervating effect of a comfortable and luxurious prosperity.
The great animals — the dinosaurs, the magalosaurs, the huge carnivorous lizards — at whose skeletons we look in wonder were immune from harm and dangers.
Their lives were protected from injury by an impenetrable armour.
They lived a fearless, self-satisfied, complacent existence.
Today, they are extinct.
Luxury and an easy life destroyed them, whereas the animals that were alert to danger are still with us.
What is true of individuals is true of nations.
Life expectancy has gone up dramatically for both men and women but, it is impossible to serve both God and money.
Canada needs God because of its present unlimited influence in the world.
We are no longer a self-contained and self-sufficient people.
We have far-reaching entangling alliances with many nations.
Our prosperity and happiness are bound up with people of other lands.
In a real sense, the world of tomorrow will be what Canada chooses to make it.
We can make it an arena of military competition.
We can make it the scene of racial hatred and malicious mischief.
On the other hand, we can make this world a palace of peace.
We can make it a family of friendly nations.
We are now struggling to make it so and we must not become impatient.
We must endure to the end and the nation that clings to God can and will endure.
Canada needs God as never before because life is becoming mechanized.
The physical needs of man have developed more quickly than his spiritual appetite is able to absorb.
Technology and mechanization have expanded, but the man who drives the machines is still the same as he was before.
Instead of being the master of the machine, he is a slave of the machine he has created.
He is able to do more than his father did.
We do not know why nations rise and fall, but they do.
Historians have pointed out nations rise and fall in regular rhythmic intervals.
Prominent historian Arnold Toynbee has said there is only one chance for civilization to endure.
Nations have fallen because of inward decay.
They commit moral suicide.
To live, Canada must lay hold upon the living God.
But, how do we do so?
Let men and women who seek high position publicly acknowledge God.
Let them make some avowal of God’s place in the life of our nation.
Let us give our support to every institution that helps the nation to remember its dependence upon God.
Let us practise the presence of God in business, homes, schools and other institutions.
Let us refuse to have anything to do with any movement that seeks to crowd God out of our lives.
Let each of us say to his soul morning, noon and night: “My soul, wait thou Only upon God, for my expectation is from Him” (Psalm 62:5).
Happy 145th birthday, Canada!
May God keep you going!
narayanmitra@hotmail.com
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