River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1902-09-25
international Peace

a hSSiCSlSO aspect OF This IuGllG
is the peace of Christian nations.
But you may say truly that this is a
m1snomer. That there are no
Christian nations. This we frankly
concede. But there is large num-
Der of people in every great nation
who profess to be Christian Real,
ultimate Christian is utterly oppos-
ed to war. Many of our wars are
not the last resort of Christian
patience, but the early resort of
jingo politicians, commercial
schemers, and military tyros. 1t is
amazing that Christian people are
so Indifferent to the peace question.
1t is an unheard-of theme in most
of our churches. The only anti-war
sermons the writer ever heard were
those he himself preached.
During the last five years our
church papers have been full of all
sorts of articles on military charac-
tiers and war. But it has not been
Our good fortune to see many on
peace. There has been a painful
and suspicious silence in nearly all
our papers and pulpits on this
theme. The man who dared, dur
ing the imbroglios of the last few
years, to really speak out for peace,
would have been hero-if he had
not been hung Gin efigy) as trail
tor. The nations have been sadly
intoxicated with the war spirit of
the last few years. Militarism is
abroad with it's deceiving but de-
stroying toggery. The protest of
the churches against war is faint
and feeble. AS in regard to many
other evils, it is more formal and
sentimental than practical and po-
tent. In an i'll defined theoretic
sense we are opposed to war. But
when the tocsin is sounded many
Christians and ministers are among
the earliest and most intense bellig-
erents. Who can explain such an
anomaly? Why is it that the great
peace cause is left to few Quakers,
the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, and feeble peace society?
Some of the secular magazines have
recently published articles that just
1y denounced the low motives to
war as we'll as it's cruel barbarities.
Why do our great Christian journals
not do the same?
But we do little better in times of
peace when the advocacy of such
theme would not provoke discus
sion, and seem to border on dis1oy-
atty. Even if it did seem disloyal-
ty, that were better than criminal
silence and surrender. We cannot,
at the peril of our souls, approve
the iniquities of the governments
under which we live. We do little in
times of peace in any direct way to
instruct in the principles and foster
the spirit of peace. If we do, it is
SO fragile that it is shattered at the
first boom of a cannon.
There are churches and prayer
meetings which were largely militia
ry barracks for months at time
during the quadrennium past. They
were made to echo the latest reports
of the press and the street. There
was unbrotherliness in the heart,
and the smell of powder in the air
How could the spirit of Christ dwell
there? We have some ministers
who are always ready to ride the
hobby of the hour. If it happens to
be bloody warsteed it is just the
same. The time has come for the
church 10 exhonerate itself in this
regard. How? We must dethrone
iniquity from office. We must be
more radical factor in public affairs.
We must check the ambitions of ma
tional pride. We must protest
against false policies. We must
study public questions. We must
know the dangers:of war. We must
study and cultivate the conditions
of peace. We must exhaust every
rotional and Christian agency to