Norwich bulletin., 1914-10-03
SUNDAY MORNING TAEK
SWORDS AND PLoWsHAREs.

President Wilson's noble call to | prayer for peace is in refreshing con- trast to some rather bumptious ap- peals to God that have emanated from | various royal sources across the water. l It is hard to see how anyone can re- fuse to accede to its calm, earnest and | really devout suggestions. It impress es one as being at once good states | nlanship and good religion. Bearing in mind that
 More things are wrought by prayer
 Than this world dreams of he is both a Christian and a patriot who joins his fellows in supplicating the Almighty that He vouchSafe His children healing peace again and re- store once more that concord among men and nations without which there can be neither happiness nor true friendship. nor wholesome fruit of toii
 and thought in the world"
 [ had rather sign a proclamation
 like that than to order a hundred reg
 iments of machine guns to start fight
 ing. It is a finer, more heroic service
 to induce men to pray than to com
 mand them to fight. It is harder but
 higher work to be peacemaker than
 to 'oe a warmaker. When history
 shall write it's final verdict the names
 of those who brought good will among
 men shall abide in letters of light
 while "the captains and the kings de-
 part There is a sentence on the
 splendid mausoleum beside the Hud-
 son erected to the memory of one of
 the worlds greatest soldiers, a senti-
 ment by which his countrymen will
 love to rInember him after every
 sword has trusted and every musket
 has crumbled into dust."Let us have peace"
 It is said by those who assume to know that the present war was inevi- table bound to come later if not now, and that it must be fought out de- cisively. Be that as it may we can not be quit of responsibility to do all that we can to make the end come quickly. If a man believes in God. be
 he Jew or Gentle. Catholic or Protest ant, he must beseech Heaven to stop these hellish conditions in the Europe of the present day.
 For what are men better than sheep
 That nourish a. blind life within the
 If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
 Both for themselves and, those chat call them friends?
 At no other time since these shores were peopled might one say with firm CT pride: '1 am an American It is | not alone on any prospect of future commercial leadership of his country | but on its present moral leadership | that one may reflect with solemn gratitude. If civilization seems to break down in Europe if the lust for | blood inheritance of the ape and tiger. l seems to have reappeared in primitive force, with moral impulses submerged | by brutal passions, there is all the more impressive need that America remain sane, humane, Christian | One thinks of the once smiling fields l of Europe, strewn now with dead men | and sickening carnage. of the black | ered walls of erstwhile prosperous | cities of the crumbling ruins of noble | churches;- one contemplates the fu- | ture generations of suffering, poverty, ness that loom before our kinsmen | across the sea. with such sentiments | of hatred of war as would make it l hereafter. if the mood could prevail | wholly impossible on this planet. ] Let us believe that the Almighty | of which our own is but a faint sug- | zestion. Man made this war and by | 1t the world of men Is being punished | for it's sins of selhshness of lust, of harbored and stimulated jealousies. A | day of fasting and prayer Is not only | an appropriate observance but a moral
 demand of our time. Would to God it then. you who believe in divine Prov I idence. Let us supplicate tho AL mighty to stay this present scourge l and bring men into that millennfal mood when they shall ''beat their | swords into plowshares and their I spears into pruning hooks and learn | the frightful arts of war no more. l THE PARSONr