Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1914-12-18
Shall We Stop Seeking
for World Peace?
(By Charles R. Erdman. D. Do

men should decry and seek to destroy.
This proposition has been generally
admitted, and its truth and import
ance have been emphasized by the hor-
rors and savagery of the present Eu-
ropean war. Yet in many minds the
outbreak of this unparalleled conflict
has reopened the question as to the
wisdom of making efforts for interna-
tional peace, and has suggested very
different answer. All endeavors for
the abolition of war are considered to
! be futile, first, in view of present fail
ure; second, in the light of inspired
prophecy.
This failure is much more real and
significant than most advocates of
peace are willing to admit. Only the
most fatuous enthusiast can be blind
to the irony of the situation when
what was regarded as the most power
full of peace conferences, assembling
at Constance in August, was dissolved
by the outburst of the most calamit-
Gus war in the history of the world. IL
should be admitted that our best eff
forts have not been crowned with sue
cess, and that the roots of war are too
deep to be eradicated by church con-
ferences or international compacts.
While jealousy and DISTRICT and hat
red and lust of power and thirst for
revenge are allowed to rule the hearts
OF men, the best efforts for peace must
surely fail
Will This War Be Cure for War?
However, many are saying that
there has been no failure. "This con-
fict has been step in advance; for
this war is so terrible that in can
never be followed by another; men will
be convinced by this demonstration of
folly and madness, and will agree
upon universal peace" The optimism
of this popular conclusion is admir-
able, but its wisdom is less apparent.
OF course the nations now warning
will be so depleted in strength that
for a generation some of them may
expect that the war will not leave
behind it the bitterest of hatreds,
overweening pride of power, and the
deadliest of rancor? Instead of pre-
dieting that this war will end war, it
would seem to be of such peculiar
character as to strengthen all those
sources from which war springs. War
as Il cure for war has never proved n
successful remedy in the past, nor
is it more likely to show its beneficient
power in the present.
Let us then admit the failure. Let
u Def rank enough to acknowledge
the fact that peace congresses and
conferences have not achieved their
purposes; and let us not try to deceive
ourselves into believing that the pres
ent awful carnage is movement to-
ward established and abiding peace.
Let us admit the failure; but shall
we therefore cease to strive? Is that
the wise conclusion in any sphere of
moral endeavor? Shall we abandon
cur ideals just because our ideals
prove difficult to attain? Even in per-
scnal experience we know what it is
to meet with defeat; but we do not
Despair; we do not cease to battle. The
present failure of all efforts to secure
international peace does not suggest,
therefore, that we are to abandon
these efforts, but that we should re-
new them with greater energy. 1t may
however, intimate somewhat differ
ent direction of these efforts. 1t NAV
Show that we should seel. to do a less
superficial work, and should endeavor
tc destroy war in its deep origins, in
the hearts and motives of men. We
must not underrate the value of con-
1efences and conventions and treaties
Tut we should cease to put our conf
Gence IN them as able to secure peace
among nations whose citizens are not
submitting themselves to Christ, and
whose governments are not controlled
by his Spirit and his laws.
But does not prophecy plainly pre-
Dict the continuance of wars during
the entire course of the present age
Shall we then endeavor to bring about
Il condition which the Bible declares is
not to exist? Are not the efforts for
international peace worse than futile
lhere are many who are seriously ask
ing such questions, and accepting the
implied conclusions. Shall we not an
swer, however, that if the prophets
predict war, they also predict peace d?
Wars are to continue, but they are not
to be continuous. 1t is true that, at
the very end of this age, when Christ
returns, he finds Jerusalem beleag-
ured by hostile armies; but his return
Us hers in an age of abiding peace. The
Master has told us plainly that
wheat and tares are to grow together
until the harvest" but this is no rea-
son why we are not to continue SOW
ing the seed, and rejoicing in the
growth of the wheat. We do live in
an age of mingled good and evil, but
Tor this very reason we should the
more eagerly defend the good and OPP
pose the evil. We are to see peace i'm
periled, and at times overthrown; we
are none the less to seek for peace.
and to strive against the evil of war.
We are not then to deny the proph-
ecies of Holy Scripture, nor to at
tempt to empty them of their mean
ing. They do evidently teach that per-
manent international peace will not
precede the coming of Christ. By his
glorious appearing he is to destroy
the "man of SIM" the "beast" who
with "the kings of the earth, and their
armies, gather together to make war;"
Such a final conflict has not vet
arisen; before it occurs other wars
may deluge the earth with blood; but
whatever the present may bring, or
the future may hold, it is ever the
duty of Christians to labor for peace
end to expect its ultimate triumph in
the earth.
Here again we may draw a parallel
with our experiences as individuals.
| Wn In hone 20