The daily Alaskan., 1904-07-25
SUBSCRIPTION RATEA
THE DOCTRINE OF WAR

The sermon of Bishop Hamilton at the Methodist church last night was timely. In these days of "wars and ru- mors of wars" the doctrine preached by the great deyine should be echoed and re-echoed from every pulpit m every Christian land. The spirit Of militarism is abroad, and it is reeetv- ing the encouragement of men in high places in many nations. This is cru eiaI time with the followers of the. Prince of Peace, and pity 'tis there are not fewer who follow from atar and that there are not more Bishop Hamil- tons to fearlessly exalt the Precepts of. Him who came to bring peace on earth.
 Just the other day in a national con vention a great orator in placing a man in nomination for the chief magistracy of our nation said:
 ,'The fate of nations is still decided by their wars. You may talk of order ly tribunals and learned referees. You may sing in your schools the gentle praises of the quiet life. You may strike from your books the last note of every martial anthem, and yet out ID the smoke and thunder will always be the tramp of horses and the silent rigid, upturned faces, Men may prophecy and women may pray, but peace will come here to abide forever on this earth only when the dreams of childhood are the accepted charts to guide the destinieS of men,
 This is the doctrine which furnished a guide to Alexander, and Julius Caesar, and Napoleon and its barbarism is pro claimed by the ruins of the countries of which they were at the head. To ad- vocate it as a course for those at the helm of the American nation is to urge
 
 that we turn our faces backward 10 the paths that lead to organism and obitv- ion. The United States have become great because of the victories of peace, aud if they are to endure throughout the ages they must adhere to the Prin- ciples of righteousness and truth, the adoption of which caused their birth as a nation and the following of which has caused optimists and advanced thinkers t5 point them out as the institutions of a people who have based their hope as an organized nation on those better things which Christian men and women have accepted as the proper rules of conduct for individual men. The danger tha. the United States will final " fall, as all the other nations of the past have fallen, lies in the danger that they will be induced to fOresake the principles of Christian civilization and to accept those which caused the col lapse of each of the pagan nations that have gone before. The life of every military power has been but a span and if the United States shall exert their strength to conquer with arms, their end must be that of Macedonia and Rome, of Spain and France.
 There is no re ason why nations should adopt a standard of right and wrong for themselves as entities that is lower than that which they require of their individual citizens, andhe who breaches the doctrine of national righteousness at this time, when there seems to be a disposition to turn again to the prinei- ples of force and might, teaches the broadest patriotism.
 Of course no one will deny that the national duty is to provide against the danger of attack, and the country's need of an army and a navy is as great at the present time as is that of the mu- nicipalitiss for policemen, but they are required only as instru- menrs for the national defense and to insure peace and not as a means toward unwelcomed agrandizement of domain or commerce.