Middletown transcript., 1910-06-11

| tue ages, nave had one great business
fighting each other like wild animals? In
the dawning Of the dly of universal
peace, wild animals will be at peace like
regenerated manhood.
Peace means the substitution of law for
anarchy, passion, brute force and revenge,
just as peace in the individual soul
means the decalogue encircled by the
Golden Rule, supplanting lust, hatred,
beastliness and sin. Many of mankind
are praying that the burdens of taxation,
amounting to two-tbirds of all our reve-
nue., resulting from war and the costly
preparations for war, now crushing the
shoulders of labor, may be transformed
into the wings of the dove Of peace, lifting
humanity above the smoke of battle into
the realm where the eternal sunshine of
peace rests upon liberated world.
The financial load under which the gov.
ernments of the world are staggering is
not the only burden. Think of the mill
lions of noble lives lost in battle and in
hospitals who might have lived many
years to the glory of God and the welfare
o.. humanity, and for their own personal
development Think of the homes
bereft and broken, the weeping loved ones
left fatherless, brotherlessI Think of
the myriads of educated youth entering
the army or the navy as a life vocation,
schooling themselves to become experts
in the business of killing their fellows,
burning and devastating cities, destroy.
ing millions of money in battleships and
Notifications What horrible ideal is
this to hold up before the imagination of
young manhooll Think also of the un.
natural conditions of soldiers life, isolat-
ed from all business, all society and all
the nobIer aspirations of life Think
also how he is exposed to the greatest
temptations to vice and crime
God set the solitary in families. Home
is the head of the river of life and govern
ment. The nation is but an aggregation
of households, but the soldier or sailor is
without home, family or social privi.
leges, denied the God-appointed mission
OF life. He is wanderer, menacing the
peace aud happiness of the race.
How small the loss OF the thousands of
billions Of gold-worse than sunk in the
beside the loss of manhood,
the loss Of homes, the loss of lives, the
loss OF purity and the loss of bereavement.
These are the fire losses that make war a
bell on earth, consuming every holy emo
ton, burning up every heavenly aspira-
tion, leaving the soul like sacked for
tress-only the shell of its destined glory.
Ali the charities of the world are mar
tailed to save and perpetuate life and hap.
piness, but the wars, which could easily
be prevented, destroy more lives than the
of mankind can save. What
l gigantic active charity would be tie
abolition of war Let US make war upon
war. Let US make man-killing as unlaW-
ul as man-enslaying or man-selIing.
Preparation for war is often a provoca-
ion to war. The billions of money spent
n one year building navies and arming
Ioldiers, ostensibly in the interests of
oeace, if turned into the channels of char
ty, civilization and Christianization, the
world would become redeemed from the
'Vil spirit which excites war. The Al
mighty dedicated wealth for the upbuild-
Bg of the home, the state and the man
lood of the race. The lust or war has
urned thu golden stream ofmunifcence
nto destructive element, bringing waste
nd ruin, like the River Seine, at its food,
ather than constructive power, blessing
ield and home with fruits and harvest.
As Longfellow says:
Were half the power that fills the earth
with terror,
Were half the wealth bestowed on
camps and courts,
iiven to redeem the human mind from
error,
There were no need OF arsenals or forts. /"