Tárogató, 1943-1944 (6. évfolyam, 3-12. szám)
1943-12-01 / 6. szám
14 TÁROGATÓ fl and will He be no more intreated? Is His mercy clean gone for ever, and is His promise come utterly to an end for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious, and will He shut up His loving kindness in displeasure? And I said, It is mine own infirmity; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most Highest.’ “So his mind goes back to the moment when to all human calculation destruction must have appeared inevitable. Before was the sea: behind was the pursuing Egyptian host. But where no way was, and where when they had gone through no trace of their passage could be traced, God led them to safety. “ ‘Thy way is in the sea and thy paths in the great waters and thy footstep« are not known; but thou leddest' thy people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron.’ “It is in days of hope rather than of perplexity that we now recall with thankfulness the saving of our country beyond all probability or calculation of worldly wisdom. But times of hope and confidence have their own dangers, too—the danger of effort prematurely relaxed, the danger of vigilance no longer maintained, but, above all, ,the danger of forgetting Him on Whom at all times we utterly depend. Let us then use this day of thankful commemoration to impress upon our minds, so easily inclined to forget, how great is our debt to those who saved us in the critical days three years ago, how complete our obligation of gratitude and service to God Who used them as the means of a deliverance rightly called miraculous. “And then we must ask, why should God thus preserve us? We may not suppose that He has some special favour for us above all other members of His great family. Our knowledge of ourselves is enough to assure us that it is not because we are conspicuous above all others in moral desert. But we may and must believe that He W7ho has led our fathers in ways so strange and has preserved our land in a manner so marvellous, has a purpose for us to serve in the preparation for His perfect Kingdom. In the tradition of our nation and Empire we are entrusted with a treasure to be used for the welfare of mankind. That we still enjoy it is clue to God’s preservation of us from the enemy whose triumph would have destroyed it. To Him we owe all service which as a nation and as individuals we can give; so long as that service is our endeavour, we should never be baffled or disheartened by any perplexity that may arise. Faith has reasons of its own, and one of these is memory of hope sustained when circumstances urged despair and vindicated when the hostile odds were overwhelming. For our faith is in Him Whose way is in the sea and His paths in the great waters, and Who, though His footsteps are not known, yet leads His people like sheep by the hands of those whom He raises up to be their leaders. “Thanks be to God Who preserved us from destruction; to Him for evermore be pledged the service of our lives.” BRINGING THE CHURCH TO THE ALASKA HIGHWAY On November 20th, 1942, at Kluane Lake, in Yukon Territory; the official ceremony of opening the Alaska Highway took place, officials of the American and Canadian Governments participating. In the meantime the Canadian Protestant churches were concerned for the men in the civilian construction camps strung out along the lonesome miles of this new road. Through the Inter-Church Committee on Camp and War Production Communities they had already given attention to Wartime Housing areas—now there was a new field.. Early in January, Rev. Donald Amos, granted leave by Sydenham St. Church. Brantford, left for Dawson Creek. He was going as a representative of the Inter-Church Committe for a period of five months tQ work in the name of the Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian and United Churches among the men in the camps along the Alaska Highway. Dawson Creek is some S00 miles north and west of Edmonton- just inside the British Columbia boundary. Up the line over the first fifty miles to Fort St. John, Mr. Amos visited the seven Canadian contractors camps which were still on the job. At his first service in an “office camp,” there were five States of the Union and four Provinces represented in an congregation of thirty-seven. At his first camp “get-together” only fourteen turned out. Later, scores of men gathered to spend winter evenings together in the cookhouse, enjoying musical numbers, readings, watching movies and often joining in hymn singing and prayers together. No evening passed without a word of encouragement and
