The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1901-05-31

physical aspects of war Human rights
and human justice are thus wrung, as it
were, out of war, with its carnage and
blood. 1t is thus that war has been
said to possess a mediatorial function.
The soldier takes his place in the great
law of sacrifice; that the state may be
saved he. the individual sinks into
oblivion, as the snow flake that falls on
the waters; he lays down his life will
ingly, without murmur, on the altar
of sacrifice.
Thus war is not, in every aspect of it,
evil, and because of this very element it
furnishes noble examples of virtue. So
our religion and the Holy Scriptures
treat with respect the profession of a
soldier. There is no disparagement of
it in the New Testament, but on the
other hand certain men of military rank
are treated with high distinction there.
This is because in the soldier the Holy
Scripture sees many things in harmony
But granting all this the question
must ever come up, is not war some
thing to be gotten rid will not the
time come when it will cease 1t is a
natural and proper question, but one
most difficult to answer. 1t would seem
that it can only cease in one of two
ways, either by setting up a govern
ment of nations or by such deep and
widespread leavening of the world with
Christian principles as to make it NOR
ally impossible for nations to go to war;
AS to centralized government over ma
tions, that would mean universal en-
pire and that is physical and geogra-
phical impossibility. 1t was the dream
of the Caesars, of the Church in the
Middle Ages and of the great Napoleon
The same idea comes out in effect in
system of arbitration which would be
modification of the autonomy of ma
tions A high court of arbitration
would be in sense a government over
nations. But the difficulty would be
that it could have no compelling force,
for if the sense of justice of any nation
was violated it would hardly be willing
to submit its case again to such a court.
So then we are brought back to the
Christian idea. The taunt is made
why does not the Church compel peace?
Why has it not so leavened human so.
ciety as to make war impossible? Sim
ply because as some one has said, Chris
tianity is only remedial with those who
receive it. 1t is in a hostile world. In
its own sphere war would be impossible.
For war to cease would imply univer-
sal change in the temper of mankind,
and that stage has not yet been reached
We do not blame the Church because it
has not been able to do away with courts
OF justice and the police, why should we
blame her for not doing away with war,
for war and the machinery of civil jus
tice are intrinsically the same principle?
But while Christianity does not hold
out in any vivid way the hope of abso-
lutte cessatio of war, it does seem to prom
Use that the Christian spirit as it spreads
will make war more and more rare. 1t
looks to time when "men shall beat
their swords into plowshares and their
spears into pruning hooks" and "shall
not learn war any more" 1t does not
say when that time shall be. In the
meantime it recognizes that war has a
dualistic characterized and darkness
mixed in it, order and disorder, heroism
and diabolism. so it does not hesitate
to grapple with the problems which it
presents. 1t stoops into the dust to lay
hold of the precious moral elements in
the soldiers life and to consecrate
them; it comes in as a last consider of
the sufferings which war entails and of
the sorrow that follows IN its train; it
ministers to the individual in the camp
and in the field and it is ever present to
witness to higher state of things here
and to a strifeless world by and by.
And the Church goes farther than this:
it finds in the profession of the soldier
something to initiate. Some of the
qualities of the soldier should also be the
qualities of the good Christian. And
the first of these is devotion to a COM
mander Great generals have always
been distinguished by their power of
commanding and inspiring the attach
ment of their men. So readiness to fol-
low their leader and single-hearted 10y
atty aud devotion to him is one of the
chief virtues of soldier. SO this is one
of the deep secrets of the Christian life.
Devotion, loyalty to Christ the great
commander in chief. Not vague sem
timent, not devotion to a system of
theology, or to the Church, or even to
the Christian cause, for Christ is Chris
tianity. He deserves our allegiance, for
He has been through the battle and
wears the scars which tell the story OF
the fight
And the second thing In which the
Christian can initiate the soldier is
in courage The world respects the
brave man, and this makes us forget the
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