The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-04-22

be maintained at any price. We listen | to their arguments; we respect them | for their whole-souled devotion to great cause. but we cannot be persuad- I ed into thinking that the solution of
 the world problem is quite so simple | as they suppose. If men were what | they ought to be-but men are not; if
 nations were what they ought to be- but nations are not. Herein lies the difficulty, and it is one that the eager reformer too easily overlOoks. Practi-
 cal men who have to do with the ad-
 ministration of affairs in business and 1 politics may and often due, have a deep appreciation of the ideal, but they
 know that it must be approached by
 slow and painful steps. Peace is to be
 attained, but first foundations of justice are to be laid.
 l It may be that some will contend that
 the New Testament, and especially the
 teaching of Jesus, is against this prin-
 ciple established by the text, that right
 eousness should come before peace.
 Does not Jesus teach that men are to
 have peace at any cost, that they are
 to refuse, under all circumstances, to fight? Is not His teaching of non-re-
 sistance to evil the very key, as Tol- l stoy supposes it, to the gospel?
 Let me answer by reminding you that Jesus in this teaching was speaking of l the individual and not of society organ izad into nations. I do not mean that His teachings have no national signifi-
 canoe. I mean simply that He was not dealing with the problems of govern- ment, nor with the administration of justice. Even so uncompromising an interpreter of Tolstoy as MT. Ernest Crosby admits that Tolstoy is wrong in making the word enemy as used by Jesus, apply to nations rather than in diyiduals. The most careless reading
 of the sermon on the mount must con-
 vince one that Jesus statements nave
 purely personal application.
 Again, Jesus does not deny the right
 to oppose evil for the sake of others, or
 in the interests of great cause. He would not fight for Himself but He would fight for the oppressed. When
 the cause was that of His Father's s
 temple He did not hesitate to bind up
 the whip of cords and to use 1t. Not
 to pursue this phase of the subject too
 far let me say briefly that unlimited
 yielding to wrongdoing-u l have
 wholly misread the New Testament--is
 to violate not alone the teaching, but
 the spirit of the great Master as well.
 Divest these passages in the sermon on
 the mount of their oriental symbolism,
 take inhto consideration those to whom
 Jesus was speaking, and His purpose
 in addressing them, remember that His
 words were for guidance in individual
 lives and not the statement of laws for the control of society-do this and you will find that the first principle of our text that justice has the right of way,
 that men are to seek to establish right eousness even if they be compelled to declare war in so doing-that this prin- ciple is the foundation of all high : achievement in national life.
 l think the, way is now clear to pass to the second statement in the text And they shall beat their swords into ploughsilares, and their spears into pruning hooks" This Is to be the out come of the long struggle stretching it. self across the ages Where righteous ness shall be, established peace will be assured. All the energies that have gone into war and the preparation foi war will at last be turned into peace : ful occupations What I would have you notice here is the statement thai the very weapons of warfare are con verted into the implements of peace The prophet does not say that the peo' 9 pie will give up making swords an( !, begin to make ploughs; they vii change the swords into blows Th' same metal that went into tGle speal l will go into the pruning-hook.
 I Here is a thought that takes us { long way, if am not mistaken, in thu consideration of our subject, The New 7 Ideals of Patriotism These ideals art to call out in men the same qualities O s character, develop the same virtues, al
 did the old contests at arms. All O manhood that was associated witt th' o sword will be associated with the blow I, The heroism of the spear is to be trans n mitted into something finer yet, If tn I old virtues that came, confessedly, ou 0 of the bitter strifes of war were to de t part from the earth when armies wer u disbanded and navies fell into decay r then we mig1t well pause in our world < wide endeavor to establish peace. Bu z these virtues will not depart Tn
 struggles of citizenship, the call to so l. cial justice, the endeavor so to chang e the existing order of things that d men may have a fair chance and re Is ceive a square deap'- -all this will as Il sure a development of manhood beyon l. anything that the wars of chivalry ca is show Let us not shame our own his 'e tory by indulging in denunelations c 'e what has been in the past. Let u is frankly acknowledge that war has con Il ferred many benefits upon the rac' e. Out of it have come courage, devotio n to great causes, unselfishness and sac d. rifice. The world has not been who'll 1e wrong ill crownng the soldier a nert ie It is not, however, with simple heroisr
 that we are now concerned, but wit I- the highest heroism; and l put fort 1t the claim that there are fields of dan I ger that call for a higher courage tha er that displayed upon any field of battlt )r would not withhold due praise t 10 those who have charged into the fam It of death, who have lost themselves i l. the war of cannon and musketry. le would not have our boys and youn y men forget the deed of Leonldas an is his Spartans. I should not like to thin
 that they could read with steady puls l. the story of those English soldiers wh IT fired their last shell and then stood t [, order, singing the national anthem a