1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



59 



Our Homes. 



[I have for some time had in mind making 

 a protest against war as a means oJ settUng 

 troubles between nations. While I knew, 

 however, that the gospel of Jesus Christ was 

 equal to tlie task of settling all troubles in 

 this whole wide world, I felt that I was too 

 ignorant of political geography to make such 

 a protest understandingly. While I was re- 

 volving these things in my mind, you can 

 imagine with what interest I listened to the 

 following sermon from Rev. B. G. Mattson ; 

 and I have, by his permission, given this ser- 

 mon in place of my usual Home talks. May 

 God bless the message If any of the readers 

 of GivEANiNGS would like copies of it for free 

 distribution. I shall take pleasure in sending 

 as many as they can use, postpaid. — A. I. R.] 



He shall judge between the nations, and shall re- 

 prove many peoples; and they shall beat their swords 

 into plow shares and their spears into pruning hooks. 

 Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither 

 shall they learn war any more. — Is.\. 2 : 4. 



It is the grand distinction of the Hebrew 

 prophet that he placed the golden age in the fu- 

 ture. It is still further a mark of liis spiritual 

 greatness that he should characterize that 

 golden age, not by the triimiphal return of 

 the conqueror, laden with spoils and followed 

 b}' a long train of captives, but by the simple 

 arts and industries of peace. 



In this remarkable prophecy of the golden 

 age to come, the seer discerns that there will 

 still be national differences to settle. The 

 world will not } et have reached that beautiful 

 dead level of non-individuality, apparently .so 

 desired by Mr. Bellamy. But these differ- 

 ences, when the}' arise, will find an entirely 

 new way of settlement. The sword will be 

 too busily engaged in cutting the soil to turn 

 aside to its obsolete occupation of letting hu- 

 man blood. The spear will be too deeply en- 

 grossed in pruning the wilderness into a fruit- 

 ful land. It will have no time to go crashing 

 through helmet and shield as it did in the 

 once barbarous l)ut now almost forgotten time. 

 No: when these differences arise, as they sure- 

 ly will, the nations shall with one accord has- 

 ten to appear before the new central figure of 

 the golden age — Him who is wonderful in 

 counsel, and who wt ars the title of the Prince 

 of Peace. " He shall judge between the na- 

 tions, and shall rebuke many peoples." 



Seven centuries passed, and the Prince of 

 Peace appeared. So much more wonderful in 

 counsel was he than even the prophet foresaw, 

 that it was truly said of him, "Never man 

 spake like this man." But did he fulfill his 

 other title of the Prince of Peace? Did he ban- 

 ish war? Two millenniums and more than 

 half of a third have passed away since the 

 prophet foretold the plowshares and pruning- 

 hooks, yet still the sword and spear are the 

 supreme arguments in the larger part of the 

 Christian world ; and to learn the trade of 

 war is still the cherished ambition of Europe's 

 choicest youth. Was the prophet wrong in 

 his ideal ? If he was, then He who fulfilled 

 the prophecy was under the same delusion, 

 for /le said, " My kingdom is not of this world. 



If my kingdom were of this world, then would 

 my servants fight ; but now is my kingdom 

 not from hence." To this he committed him- 

 self — to a kingdom within kingdoms — the un- 

 worldly kingdom running through all the 

 worldly kingdoms, and the principles of this 

 unworldly kingdom constituting the divine 

 court of arbitration before which he is to judge 

 between the nations. 



Unmistakably, if the prophet meant any 

 thing he meant that war nmst cease to hold 

 its place as a court of last appeal ; and with 

 equal clearness Jesus also meant the same 

 thing. But we Christian people have been 

 slow to interpret our Teacher. We have long 

 conceded to him authority over the individual, 

 but have only in recent years begun to believe 

 he has any authority over humanity in the 

 mass. It is from him I make my starting- 

 point in raising my voice against the arbitra- 

 ment of war. 



1. Jesus looked upon human life as a sacred 

 and precious thing, and this the Cliristian 

 world accepts in its individual application. 

 For example, we need but to remember how 

 the spirit of Christianity brought forth the 

 hospital and the asylum as means whereby 

 human suffering might be reduced and human 

 life prelonged. We need but to note the 

 righteous indignation of the Christian .senti- 

 ment of the land which has practically buried 

 dueling, and is now being exerted against 

 prize-fights and lynching as equally embody- 

 ing the spirit of lawlessness and murder. And 

 now even football seems in danger of fall- 

 ing under the ban as an outlaw. All this in- 

 dignation is directed against a common tend- 

 ency ; namely, toward cheapening the sanc- 

 tity of human life. 



If these values hold for the individual, why 

 do they not also hold for th • mass ? Is there 

 any thing in the teaching of Christ to limit it 

 to such a narrow range ? 



2. The logic of the teaching of Christ plain- 

 ly involves an uncompromising condemnation 

 of the war spirit, not only because it tramples 

 upon the Christian principle of the sacredness 

 of human life," but still more unsparingly be- 

 cause the war spirit feeds the worst passions 

 of the human heart. " He that hateth his 

 brother is a murderer. ' ' To this every Chris- 

 tian who is thoughtful enough to reflect upon 

 the deadly issues of hatred gives earnest and 

 solemn assent. But the logic of such teaching 

 presses on to the conclusion that national ha- 

 tred finds its issue in national murder. 



Douglas Jerrold says, " What a fine-look- 

 ing thing is war ! Yes. disguise it as we may, 

 dress and feather it, daub it with gold, huzza 

 it, and sing swagger ing songs about it, what 

 is it nine times out of ten but murder in uni- 

 form — Cain taking the sergeant's shilling? " 



What a frightftil train of moral evils follows 

 in the course of war ! — rapine, plunder, cruel- 

 ty, lust, and all disintegration of moral fiber ! 

 I do not say this is true of all soldiers, nor do 

 I say that war is never without just cause upon 

 one side or the other. I can not go as far as 

 do the extreme peace champions of the Qua- 

 ker faith. There are obligations of self-de- 

 fense which are sacred. These call for the de- 



