Arizona republican., 1914-11-25

of the chief causes or war when he
 says: From whence come wars and
 fightinss among you? Come they
 not hence, even of your lusts that
 war in your members?' Although
 this is spoken. to individuals and
 churches, it will also apply to na-
 tional governments. While God is not
 the author of war and other evils, He
 may use these means in the hands of
 his enemies to aid in accomplishing the divine purpose. Even the wick edness of satan will be seen in the
 end to have worked. in some degree for good. Surely the wrath of m1n
 shall praise thee; the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain,' says one
 of the inspired writers.
 Here we are in the first quarter of the twentieth century, when many were thinking that the millenium had begun. and we behold the most gi
 gantc war in all history The advo- cates of universal peace have been holding conferences for the past twenty years. When the Peace Pal ace at The Hague was completed
 at the cost of about two million dol
 lars, it was supposed that Isaiah's
 prophecy of beating swords into blow shares would soon be fulfilled. Not long before the present European conflict began, one of our leading apostles of international peace sai1
 that another great war was an inn possibility It was a thing unthink- able This was the peace that world ly wisdom had established And while far famed orators were crying Peace, Peace," the nations of Eu rope were, as pr. Campbell Morgan says, watching each other with suspicion that was devilish and hor- rible" Then. when the pentup storm burst forth in it's fury, these reform CTS and philosophers stand dazed, wondering where the trouble is. So it is with persons who have a wrong perspective of the religion of those who follow Jesus Christ. Men have been saying, "Is Christianity failure? Has the bottom dropped out from under civilization? The trouble is that many people are confounding
 
 Laps, with Christendom This last term is simply given to that locality or part of the earth where Christian- itv is the leading religion. There have been ancient pagan civilizations little inferior to our own. True, Christianity is substantially the same
 now as in the days of the apostles, and has not failed. nor has the Eu ropean war changed the Christians faith. The real church is not d part of the world. but is composed of those who are called out from the world to be followers of Christ.
 Those who know what the Bible says, and believe it to be the word of God will have different view of this armed combat of nations from that of men who have only worldly knowledge. Let us hear what Christian philosopher has to say ol
 this subject. Crying peace, when there is no peace" is the title of an ing of the read forces down deep In the human heart, combination of which suddenly burst forth like sleeping volcano. the writer says: What were those forces? At the bottom of all was Christendoms damnable unbelief and ignoring of Almighty God and His Son Jesus Christ This unbelief has been grow ing year by year, expanding in pride and boastful criticism of Gods word, mans only guide in truth and right Added to this was general greed. love of power. boast of mechanical l achievements, materialisuc affection and self -sufficiency. These forces of evil and Satan have combined and broken forth. and we have the bloody sweat, the carnage and clash of the nations" Here in a few sentences we are led nearer to the true cause
 cf the European war than in lengthy magazine articles and whole volumes which are merely the voices of world Fly wisdom
 Postmillenarians--th who believe | that man alone will make q new earth and bring forth a perfect race-and radical evolutionists are having their l faith strained to the cracking point 1 by this awful war But they have invented a reason for the crime cf the ages" just to keep up their cour- age They tell us that this conflict of nations, with it's fearful carnage, | is necessary to teach men the abhor- l renee of war Have not all the wars of the Roman empire, the French 1 revolution and the Napoeonic wars. our own civil conflict of four years l with it's battle of Gettysburg. the | Franco Prussian encounter and final . | ly the bloody deat hstruggle between 1 Russia and Japan, taught the world 1 nothing about the horror of war Were all these the play of children
 or picnics. that this present wa
 must rage just in order to show men | that it is q wicked and cruel thing An average ten year-o old boy, it seems to me. would not employ such req
 son If all that Europe needed was q lesson on the wickedness of war, if would have been a millionfold bet ter and cheaper to have taught it by moving pictures or classes in history or the catechism. Our postmllenar- ian and evolutionist friends must make another guess.
 In the Old Testament we rea5 much of war and battle God used
 one nation to chastise another for il;
 sins. Assyra is called Jehovah.