146 QUAKER ASPECTS OF TRUTH 



Fear not therefore ; ye are of more value than many 

 sparrows/' Every individual, being a child of our 

 Heavenly Father, must be equally the recipient of His 

 love, and of infinite value in His sight* But even apart 

 from sucli high idealism how senseless was this slaughter ! 

 The men whom we have been mowing down like grass 

 were not the German War Lords . They were for the most 

 part simple, kindly folk like ourselves, and, equally with 

 ourselves, children of an All-Loving Father in Heaven ♦ 



And now I must leave the question of the lawfulness 

 of war and go on to consider the question of its expediency* 

 And here I feel bound to confess that I approach the 

 subject with a very prejudiced mind* I cannot help 

 doing so for the simple reason that I have faith to believe 

 that which is right must, in the end, prove to be that 

 which is wise ; whilst that which is wrong must, in the 

 end, prove to be that which is foolish* It is only our 

 shortsightedness which leads us to think otherwise* 

 Indeed to believe that that which is wrong is expedient, 

 seems to me to be atheism pure and simple* And war 

 is atheism* We say ''I believe in God the Father 

 Almighty*'' But if we really believed in Him, why our 

 Army ? Why our Dreadnoughts ? Why our Allies ? 

 We often sing '' Sufficient is Thine Arm alone, and our 

 defence is sure," but to take such words upon our lips 

 is little better than canting hypocrisy* You may answer 

 me, as many have done, that ** God helps those who help 

 themselves*" But so might argue the thief who robs 

 us of our goods* It is one thing to do right, and to trust 

 God to help us* It is quite another thing to do wrong 

 in order, as we think, to help God* God does riot ask 

 such help as that* 



But notwithstanding my prejudice, it shall be my 

 endeavour to take as broad a view of the question of 

 expediency as I can* 



Many will remember the wave of materialism that 



