Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-07-17
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PROGRESS.
BY Cyrus Townsend Brady.


Beat your plowshares into swords
and your pruning hooks into spears; let
the weak say, am strong. iii. 10.
And he shall judge among many
people, and shall rebgke strong nations
afar off and they shall beat their
swords into plowshares and their
spears into pruning hooks nation shall
not lift up sword against nation;
neither shall they learn war any more.
Micah Nv. 8.
In the texts cited there is as fat a
contradiction as you will find in the
scriptures.
In the world, at least since it be.
came sufficiently civilized to cultivate
the fields, to build houses and to
clothe itself, there have always been
two armies, an army of workers and an
army of fighters. The former generally
against its will has supported the lat
ter. The interests of these two ag-
gregatlons of men have been set off one
against the other; more soldiers, less
workers; more workers, less soldiers:
more swords, fewer plowshares; more
pruning hooks, fewer spears. The
struggle of the ages has been between
the industrial and the military armies;
the one to shake off. the other to hold
down.
Does the Bible give US no choice be-
tween these? Has it no counsel which
may not be balanced by other counsel
to enable us to decide? Is it a matter
of indifference in the scriptures whether
the weapon shall be forged into the
tool or the tool beaten out into the
weapon? 4~-s.-,
There can be but one answer TO
these questions. In the first place, If
we balance text against text we learn
that the preponderanee of authority is
In favor Of the survival Of the tool,
for the word of Micah Is repeated by
Isaiah In substantially identical
language, while Joel stands alone.
Therefore. the weight of evidence, even
In tie Old Testament, is as two to one.
Joel was probably the first of the
prophets; Micah and Isaiah came af-
terward. They represent higher states
Of spiritual development, therefore, If
we are to postulate the operation of
the law Gf progress in divine revela-
ton as In everything else. And the
estimation In which the two are held
may be shown if in no other way by
the citations in the New Testament
from these two ancient writer's There
is little quoted from Joel that bears
upon Christ; there is much from
Micah and much more still from Isaiah.
so that the unconscious spirit of Him
who included the peacemaking as one
of the cardinal works of His religion is
more accurately set forth and typified
in the newer prophets than in the older
one. The fierce zeal of the ancient re-
liglon is tempered, without the loss of
any of its intense energy, by the gentler
spirit of the new. And, judging
the teaching of Christ fairly, while He
did say that He came not to send peace,
but a sword, everything in His life and
death exemplified His own injunction
blessed are the peacemakers, for they
shall be called the sons of God" That
last, by the way, was His own highest
title.
Perhaps the realization of that
prophecy is not yet apparent but its ac-
complishment is absolutely certain in
the end. So-called Christian people are
really only f-Christian now, and /
am doubtful as to whether even the
low ratio claimed may net be too
great When they are further adj
vanced In their appreciation of the
Master, regiments will be mustered out,
ornaments will disappear, battle ships
viii be laid up on the scrap heap, rifles
will be stacked and packed il the arm
cries and the men who are now drawn
from the producing class and supported
by the forced toll of others will enlist
in the great host of those who earn
their bread in the way which makes 1t
taste the sweetest, by the sweat of
their faces.