The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-12-23

the Gracchi, the barons, the royal WASH
ingtons, the brave O'Connells and the in
spired Martels that rescue the race from
oppression. Men who feel in their soul,
Gods inspiration for the right, men that
can trace and feel their descent from God,
men whose souls are responsive to God's
whispers, can give their lives and powers
to every forward movement of the race;
and, in our crises, these are the souls that
we rely upon for fidelity, self-sacrifice and
victory. The people who trace their descent
to monkeys, and strive to feel the honor OF
such a noble ancestry. never face death
for the right, never carry heavy burdens
Tor humanity. never encourage struggles
for highest aims. "Without God and with
conscienceless, and able only to sneer at
the heroic efforts of ambitious souls for
spiritual and moral achievements. The
scene of the Bethlehem massacre must
have been awful. jeremiah says that
Rachel wept for her children scattered
over all lands and enduring many miser-
les. The same Rachel must have wept on
the banks of the Nile when she
saw the Hebrew boys drowned by
officers of the cruel king. AS
Niobe she wept for the children
whom Apollo and Diana slew with their
arrows. The innocent children in Bethle-
hem suffered for Christ. They were put to
NO6pI III LIS SdhC3 VII cttOullts 1hOy
died for Christ, but He did not die for
them. They bore the sins of the world.
They died for the sins of the world, on ac-
count OF the sins of the world, because
there we're sinful men in the world, just as
Christ died, and as everyone has done
whose name is in the book of the lamb,
slain from the foundation of the world.
Everyone would say it was wrong to slay
the innocents and everyone would say that
it is wrong to hang an innocent man for the
crimes of a murderer. Would we praise a
judge that would punish innocent people
for the sins of his favorites? But the pull
pits for fifteen centuries have declared that
it is right to punish the sinless and blessed
Christ for the sins of others, and there are
millions of cowardly, cruel and immortal
souls ready to accept salvation on just
these terms. The railroad strikers caused
the deaths of innocent, feeble and sick per-
sons on the desert to punish a man that
was enjoying himself at the seashore 5000
miles away. Many Rachels are still weep
tives who lost their lives on ac-
count of that strike, and many
mother has hungry children
and is weeping bitterly now because she
has no bread for them. In our country
now, in the north as in the south, are many
Rachels weeping for the brave men who
lost their lives in the civil strife; and yet
war. both in England and in our own coun-
try, for war that mercilessly butchers
fathers, brothers, SONS, for war that destroys
trade and demoralizes finance, for war
til 1t breeds poverty and immortality and
filthy disease, for war that burns cities and
homes, for war that would make barbarians
of Englishmen and Americans. And those
men who shout and pray for war, making
prayer that even the demons in hell would
not make, call themselves Christians.
They claim they are followers of the Prince
of peace, of him who loved and prayed
for his enemies and executioners, of him
who said ''by this shall men know We are
my disciples, if We have love one for
another" of him who said to his two
disciples who wanted to kill Samaritans
with thunderbolt, ''the son of man is
come to save life and not to destroy it,
The newspapers of both countries reveal a
spirit that is utterly anti-Christian, spirit
of hatred, revenge, and all uncharitable-
ness. We are highly civilized people. Are
we? And yet it seems that civilization is only
skin deep; for, if a fancied insult scratches
an Englishman or an American. behold, we
find savage. Now is good time for the
women of both countries to lift up their
voices on behalf of peace and civilization,
and to demand from their brothers that a
high court of arbitration be established be-
tween the two countries for the settlement
of all difficulties of an International ma
ture, and to insist that both nations must
in all cases submit to the decisions of this
court. The nation that will back down
rather than bring about a bloody and use.
less war will deserve the applause of Chris.
tauity. The nation that is touchy and
readiest to fight is not SO honorable and
noble as the one that stops and thinks and
refuses to do wrong for the sake of military
glory while the other one shouts coward.
The wise men of both countries will pre-
vent this dire disaster after the superfiuous
steam of national vanity will have been let
off in the papers, and Rachel will not have
to weep for more children because they are
dead. We pray that the gentle voice of
Christ, the bravest and truest Prince of
peace, will be heard above the roar of hui
man passions, and that His word of might
will stop the winds and calm the waves of
Anglo-Saxon madness.