September, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



721 



that the time has come when the United States must 

 enter the war. Tlie United States has entered the 

 tlie war; and the question is, How shall the Christian 

 witness in war bear his testimony in the great 

 Christian Enterprise? 



1. In the first place, he hears his testimony by 

 fighting from a Christian motive in face of strong 

 temptation to fight from a lesser motive — Jnj fightinii 

 for a better world. He feels that by fighting he will 

 help to create a situation in which the common 

 fatherhood of God and the interniitional brotherhood 

 of all men will find more perfect expression. The 

 statement that it is democracy against monarchy is 

 perhaps only part of the truth. The present war 

 may turn out to be only a large item in a great world 

 movement, the introduction of an era of internal 

 revolution and class conflict that will include all na- 

 tions, and more or less baptize all nations in blood. 



We must not forget that entering the war to se- 

 cure a better world logically commits us to the se- 

 curing of a better America. The establishment of 

 the Christian world ideal will involve changes in our 

 own land. It means the purifying of American life 

 from the gross social and industrial injustices of 

 which we are this day guilty. Pru.ssia designates 

 not simply a geographical territory, but a disposi- 

 tion — a disposition which is found in all parts of the 

 world and from which the world must be utterly 

 purified — the disposition of the strong to override the 

 weak. Our gross traffic in the daughters of the 

 poor, our unjust treatment of the negw), the indus- 

 trial wrongs inflicted on those who have no effective, 

 orderly means of protest, are to be put away from 

 American life as this rising tide of the less privileged 

 classes surges on around the world. 



2. The second note that sounds out from the 

 Christian witness in war is invincible love for the 

 enemy in face of the temptation to hate him. 



This brings us to the great paradox of the Chris- 

 tian life — the Christian friendly to the man whom he 

 must regard as an enemy, friendly to the man who 

 has set himself resolutely against the good for which 

 the Christian man resolutely stands. And yet it is 

 this paradox that is so clearly found among the 

 central assertions of Jesus : 



Te have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love 

 thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy; but I say unto 

 you, Love your enemies. 



The Christian witness in war asserts himself reso- 

 lutely against the enemy with an invincible good will. 

 He brings all the force of his being, physical and 

 spiritual, to bear against the enemy, with an un- 

 failing good will. Force is absolutely non-moral. It 

 is no more good or bad than is electricity. Moral 

 quality appears only in the disposition of the man 

 who uses force. Force may be applied to the mutila- 

 tion of the body, as it is by the s'urgeon, or to the 

 destruction of the physical life, as it is by the 

 executioner, and there is no immorality in the act 

 so long as the disposition of him who performed it 

 is free from all ill will. 



The Christian soldier, in friendship wounds the 

 enemy. In friendship he kills the enemy. In friend- 

 ship he receives the wound inflicted by the enemy. 

 He keeps his friendly heart while the enemy is kill- 

 ing him. His heart never consigns the enemy to 

 hell. He never hates. After he has wounded the 

 enemy he hurries to his side at the earliest possible 

 moment with all the friendly ministrations possilde. 

 The Christian in war looks forward with an inde- 

 structible hope that some time and somewhere he 

 and his enemy shall find common ground and move 

 forward shoulder to shoulder in some great -enter- 

 prise of God. 



3. The Christian witness in war bears his Chris- 

 tian testimony by the daily practice of immortality in 

 the face of death. If the life beyond is to be a 

 vital reality, we must conceive it in terms of that 



which means most to us in the present life. We 

 look forward to a social immortality and not merely 

 to an individual existence. 



We look forward to the future life, not as a per- 

 sonal bliss conferred as a reward of merit, not to 

 unalloyed happiness, but rather to a new and larger 

 opporlrunity to work with others at great enterprises 

 for the common good — enterprises which will present 

 many perplexing problems and lay heavy responsi- 

 bilities upon us. The truly Christian man, the man 

 fit for immortality, has long found his chief satis- 

 faction in working with other men in all possible 

 ways and at any cost for the common good. In 

 entering the army he has put himself in readiness 

 to make a supreme sacrifice for the common good. 



The Christian testimony to the Great Enterprise 

 is borne in war by fighting for a better world in the 

 face of temptation to fight from some lesser motive ; 

 by invincibly loving his enemy in face of temptation 

 to hate ; by the daily practice of immortality in the 

 face of death. What is before us, we do not know. 

 The war upon which we have entered may be over 

 in a few months. It may, thru some unexpected 

 shifting of world conditions, be entering upon a 

 longer and bloodier period than that thru which it 

 has already passed. If it shall be soon over, God 

 grant that the experience we are now passing thru 

 may teach us in peace to apply ourselves with all the 

 energy and self-sacrifice that we would show in war 

 to the prosecution of the great Christian Enterprise. 



^V^lether this great war be near its end or still near 

 its beginning, the birth pangs of a new age are upon 

 the world. The call is for men and women with the 

 light of a new age on their faces. This light is on 

 their faces because Christ their leader has shared 

 with them his vision of a day when all men in the 

 day's work everywhere find in God their father, in 

 all men of every race their brothers, and in human 

 life the beginning of immortality. 



Please notice in the fore part of the 

 above the expression "fighting for a better 

 world." I believe that is exactly what our 

 United States is doing. Not only are we 

 enlisting in the war and fighting for a better 

 world, but we are fighting particularly for a 

 better America. There are things besides 

 intemperance that are injuring our nation 

 that ought to be righted. The shameful 

 riot against the colored people at East St. 

 Louis recently is an instance. 



We now come to the point of our two 

 texts — can one go to war and fight when he 

 has love for the enemy he is fighting'? The 

 illustration about electricity struck me 

 forcibly. There is no such thing as good 

 or bad electricity. Electricity is a force. 

 It does not have a soul. A surgeon when he 

 cuts and mutilates a human body does this 

 cutting in love. It may be a member of his 

 own family, but it must be done to save life. 

 The same is true with the executioner. Let 

 me digress a little right here. 



Once in my life I saw a man hanged on 

 the gallows. I knew him quite intimately. 

 It seems he was something of a gambler. 

 One night while he and three or four others 

 like himself were playing cards for money, 

 he lost all he had, and it seemed he was mad 

 about it. One of tlie crowd succeeded in 

 scooping the whole pile from all the rest. 



