I am deeply grateful that God has given to so many people a sense of His power and love.  Almost every day I talk with some one who believes God is operating the universe in accord with the counsel of His will, and life and death are in His hands—not in hands of man.  Young men who have to go into the military service, mothers and fathers who are left at home, thoughtful men who view the ferocity of angry nations,—many of these have fallen back on God and His power and love, as our only protection.  

It is a matter of gratitude that people are, by the thousands, turning away from the worship of man, and are seeing that the greatest of men can act with the utmost childishness in grave matters, when God leaves them to the leadership of wicked spirit powers.  As one person, these thousands have a feeling that this country and our Allies are in for a terrible scourging, and that this is in accord with God's plan.  They believe it will be good for us, and that the future will see the fruit of it.  

In other words, there is a more widespread recognition of God as GOD, than I have ever known before.  This is not found among the ultra-religious.  They are too much taken up with their own importance, and with their belief in God's inability to carry on without them.  This recognition of the sovereignty of God is found mainly among those who have never been in the spotlight of the religious world.  

That God is operating the universe in accord with the counsel of His own will, Eph. 1:11, is a satisfying truth to those who have learned that God is never under the necessity of giving an account of His doings.  But to those who do not concede to Him the right of absolute sovereignty, this passage cannot seem true.  Not having full confidence in Him, they cannot conceive of Him as the source of all.  Once we see that His goal is the justification of all, (Rom. 5:18), the salvation of all, (I Tim. 2:3-6), and the reconciliation of the universe, (Col. 1:20), and that everything between the beginning and the consummation is a necessary step in the reaching of the goal, we not only see that He is operating the universe, but we acquiesce in it, and thank Him for it.  

Job, the man who spoke that which is right concerning Jehovah, (Job 42:7), asks in all seriousness, "What!  Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?"  Job 2:10.  Since we learn to value good only through an experience of evil, there is nothing strange in God bringing evil upon us.  His chief aim with man is to reveal Himself.  How could any person appreciate Him for what He is, unless there has been an experience of evil?  Adam had no more appreciation of God than a hog has of the tree from which the plum falls.  This is why it was necessary for him to be brought into an experience of evil.  

Some of the most majestic words ever spoken by Jehovah are found in Isa. 45.  Yet, to the average religious person, they seem partly untrue.  Here they are: "I am Jehovah, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me.  I girded thee though thou hast not known Me.  That they may know from the east and from the west, the there is none beside Me, that I am Jehovah and there is none else, I form the light and create the darkness; I make peace and create evil; I, Jehovah, do all these," verses 5-7.  

When the sun is gone and darkness spreads about us, and we feel apprehensive, and little children cling closely to their parents, it is Jehovah Who has created the darkness, just as it is He who forms the light when the sun shows itself above the eastern horizon.  Peace is His creation, and so is evil.  He who would say God makes peace but that evil is no creation of His, is simply broadcasting his unbelief.  

There is a  future period of peace.  In this we exult by faith.  Wars shall cease and peace spread its beautiful wings over all the earth.  When this comes to pass it will be the doing of Jehovah.  But not any more so than the present evil is of His making.  Before the world will learn that wars are futile, the evil must increase.  Nations must be exhausted.  Man's fighting power must reach the bottom.  There must be untold suffering.  Thes evil will prepare mankind to appreciate the peace which will be brought to earth by the Prince of Peace.  The world of mankind had never yet wished for this Prince.  Men have had too much confidence in themselves.  That confidence must be lost in the prevalence of evil, before the world will be ready for Him Who brings peace.  

Men have largely lost confidence in the ability of the masses to manage affairs.  They are turning to leaders more and more.  Even in our own country there is a feeling of helplessness, so far as the wisdom of the multitude is concerned, and we are trusting more and more in one man's wisdom.  In other countries on both sides of this titanic struggle, mankind look to leaders more than to themselves.  This will continue until there is a world-wide confederation looking to one man to run the affairs of the world.  He, too shall fail to give men what they desire.  When the failure of the dictator is fully manifested by his ignominious defeat on the plane of Megiddo, they the world will be ready for the Prince of Peace.  It is then that He will take the helm. 

They who have a program of their own, have neither time to consider God's program, nor faith to believe He has one.  They will concede that there is, indeed, a program, but it is one God has given them to carry out.  They do not believe He has told them exactly what it is, but this only shows His faith in man's ability to devise something that is better than He could suggest!  This is why pastors spend so much time planning what to do, and how to do it.  

I have in mind a young man who, in former days, listened with apparent interest to the truth.  Now he disdains, not only the truth, but those who preach it.  What has happened?  Why, he has been given a place of prominence in the church, and on his shoulders is much of the task of carrying out its program.  He would consider as wasted, any time spent in listening to what the program of God is, as outlined in this editorial.  

Such people, if honest, are bound to know that the program of man is fast failing.  And if they are sincere, it must give them many an anxious moment.  They cannot see ahead, nor can they believe there is anything better, unless man can think of it and bring it to pass.  

But many thoughtless ones refuse to see that man's efforts are a failure.  They believe his ingenuity will yet devise something that will work.  A man preached for a seek on John's statement, "I saw a new heaven and earth."  It took him a week to show how man will not "let John down," but will really bring his vision to pass.  John said this, because of his faith in humanity, and this faith will be fully justified when man really brings in such conditions new heaven and a new earth, he assured the people.  

I want to mention an unpretentious, but most effective ministry carried on by Brother Remus Thompson of Augusta.  I am sure he would prefer that I do not mention his name, but I believe he will forgive me, for he knows my intention is good.  He goes by car from town to town to do his work, and has the opportunity of taking up many soldiers.  When he gives one a ride he preaches to him.  His "line" is about as follows: "If God has a use for you after the war, no weapon of war will kill you.  God, Who made the universe, is stronger than all countries combined.  The soldiers of the enemies of our country cannot do that to you which would thwart God's purpose concerning you.  He can and will protect you on the field of battle as much as He would do at home.  If you are killed, it is because it is God's time for you to die."  The truth of this grips almost every one, and then he proceeds to teach the grand doctrine of the salvation of all mankind, and the reconciliation of the universe.  He shows them that God is love, and that Christ is a complete Savior.  Most of them, believe it, although many of them have not heard it before.  

I wish it were possible for me to reach the men in uniform.  I wish others of the teachers of God's truth could do so.  This teaching would make them better soldiers, and would do more to raise their morale, than all the dances and other forms of entertainment that have bee devised by the government.  In this connection, I want to ask my readers to report to me, it they have sons either in Camp Stewart, Ga., or Camp Gordon, Ga.  It might be that I could contact them if I knew their names and how to reach them.  They could attend our meetings in Glennville and Augusts.  

And if those of us who travel would adopt the method of Brother Thompson, this irritating habit of hitch-hiking that has become so obnoxious, might be turned into blessings for thousands.  Brother and Sister Walter H. Bundy, in their travels frequently take up "hitch-hikers," and in many cases they are able to give out messages that may prove to be of lasting benefit.  

I am glad, as I have already said, that God has opened the understanding of so many people.  I repeat that most of them are not "shinning lights" in the churches.  They are the ones who have time to think, to seek the truth, and to meditate on His word.  Literally thousands have come to the conclusion that God is Love, and that His ultimate aim is beneficial, and that He will carry out His purpose.  

We are not unmindful of the suffering and the privations endured by the men in the war.  Our hearts bleed for them.  I think one of the most pitiful statements I ever read, are the words of David, "No man cared for my soul," Ps. 142:4.  It was equivalent to saying, "No man cared how I felt," for the soul is the sensation.  To suffer and to think that no one cares, is a very sad experience.  To know a neighbor is sick or lovely, and not try to do something about it, is reprehensible.  And the offense increases when the sufferer is a saint.  Smugness, with the knowledge that some dear saint is suffering, is a hateful situation.  

So we do care for the boys who face the enemy.  We do love them.  We would relieve them.  But we do not think the enemy can thwart God's plan concerning even one of them.  They are in His hand, and we are content that it shall be so.  If they were at home, and there were no war, they would still be in His hand, and dependent on Him.  

Let us spread, as much as we may, the grand truth that God is G O D.  

The scriptures do not say that those who were drowned in the deluge in Noah's day, went to a place of burning.  One speaks without authority when he says they went to hell. 

The epistles of Peter will seem intelligible to a reader who can imagine himself a Jew, living in a gentile country during the time of Jacob's trouble.