32 WILL CHRISTIANITY SURVIVE THE WAR? 



Similarly, those who wish to acquire a sane view of the rela- 

 tions between man and God would do well to read Winwood 

 Reade's Martyrdom of Man. 



(3) Must not the training of coming generations be based 

 on science and reason rather than on speculative beliefs ? 



Decidedly. The value of all teaching must be tested by 

 its applicability to the interests of Man. On this basis I am 

 sure that essential Christianity will survive, expand, and 

 become the religion of the human race. 



IX 



BY H. DE VERE STACPOOLE 



I THINK too much has been said as to the effect of this war on 

 the mind of the human race as regards its view of the Future 

 Life. The thing that comes easiest to man is forgetfulness, 

 and nature has ordained that forgetfulness of disaster is one 

 of the chief necessities of the mind of man. 



I was in Paris as a child after the Commune ; we spent 

 the winter in the south of France, and returned next spring. 

 Paris had completely recovered. She had forgotten. 



I am writing this eight hours after a Zeppelin raid, and 

 already the thing has become shabby in my mind. Ten years 

 after we have beaten the Germans the Great War will be the 

 Great War, beginning to get hull down on the horizon. 



I do not think it will have much effect on man's view of 

 the Future Life. It will elevate all men except the Germans, 

 and the pro-Germans, and the neutrals, simply because to 

 fight for liberty is elevating to all men ; but I cannot see 

 an Agnostic changing his opinion, or a believer in God 

 changing his belief, because of this war, which differs from 

 the Napoleonic wars only in size and the brutality of the 

 enemy. 



Science and reason are splendid things, but I do not 

 believe that this war is going to fill the children of the future 

 with any more passionate desire for them than was possessed 

 by the children of the past. Engines are the children of 

 science and reason. Men are the children of men, and I 

 foresee that the children of men may very possibly revolt 

 against the tyranny of engines. This war is, in fact, a war 

 between engines and men, as all wars have been since the 

 invention of the flint arrow-head. 



