South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-08-16
BLAMES PEOPLE
FOR GREAT WAR
Rev. Howard Clifford Says
Strife in Europe Not Due
to Failure of God.

THE great war Of today even
though 1t may be the greatest war
ever known TO civilized nations is not
due 10 the failure OF God and His
works but due to the failure Of the
various countries to accept Him and
not work for their own selfish motives
but for Him. said Rev Howard Cliff
ford, associate pastor OF the First
Presbyterian church at the Grace
NJ. r. church Sunday evening in his
sermon on the subject. That In All
Things Christ Might Have the Pre-
eminence."
we are told today that this awful
carnage in Europe, this fury OF force
and ruin and death, prove that Chris
tia nitv has failed. That IL no longer
Is taken into account and is a spent
issue.-of no moment IN human at
fairs Jesus Christ is a back number.
I'VE see this terrible cataclysm of
blOOdshed, this sacrifice OF human
life-the great increase Of care and
sorrow and tears and suffering for
generations 10 come. We also see the
dreadful hatred and national enmity
already engendered. instead OF the
love and pity enJOined by Jesus 10
His followers. But whether from the
Christians, / cannot see whore Chris
tianity has failed, or indeed has any
responsibility for the whole CHASTITY
tragedy.
THE whole system Of diplomatic
activity has failed, undoubtedly. How
can it be otherwise. They are without
God have no thought OF Him or His
purposes.-make all their decisions
without thought or reference to His
will, and have blOtted His name out OF
their correspondence altogether, I'M
til their failure causes them to cry
out on the verge of war,-GOd' s
Cause,-GOd is with us. Fight under
His banner and so forth. The whole
machinery Of international business is
carried on on nuTely selfish principles.
lin legislation as we'll as IN treaty
making throughout
IF Jesus Christ had been given the
pre-eminence. L declare unto you that
the friendliness of nations. and the
peace of the world would have been
secure In spite Of the outrageous acts
of any or all assassins.
Again, what greater failure than
the theory that to have peace we must
prepare fOr war. Nations have been
preparing for a quarter of "a century.
Surely If there had been any essential
truth in that particular theory now
was the time for its manifestation. For
the nations had Obeyed the spirit of
this expensive doctrine to the very
limit OF possible preparedness.
1T is true that this frienzied group
% materialistic GreamerS never ap-
pealed for support to the teachings of
Christianity-sO that il can never be
laid at the door of Christianity for the
failure of military preparedness to
guarantee peace.
And so with the methods and the
cries OF the educationalists of our day.
For so years or more science and
scholarship has done all in their DOW
er to destroy faith in Jesus Christ. so
that people are filled with q strange,
unbelief the world over.
Teach men TO think for them
selves Let the refining power of Gull
ture take possession Of their hearts
as the remedy for those awful elemen-
tai passions that have swept over the
unregenerate hearts of past genera
tons
IF instead of this estrangement
from the source Of living water. men
had never tried to hew out for them
selves Cisterns, broken Cisterns. that
can hold no water,-if in knowledge
and horticulture, Jesus Christ had
been given the pre-eminence. seeking
TO direct and control the nature of
men with the spirit of love and I'M
selflshness revealed in Him,-all this
appalling strife and enmity would have
HEGH UNKNOWN.
There are those also who teach
that man is Independent and free to
direct and control himself apart from
divine aid. They recognize no king
or temple. See no need of sacrifice.
or for loving God, or His son Jesus
Christ. But the highest development
Of mankind had come only i'm and
through the teachings and spirit OF
Jesus Christ-when He has had the
pre-eminence.
1--WE used to hear great deal of
Christian socialism. Then the mask
was dropped and il was given its pres
ent name. How fine their theories
and purposes were in truth, in discus
sion and denunciatiOn, but when this
storm broke, in no land was their or
SANITATION so powerful or loud both
in politics and government. as in Ger
many. while in France 1t said 10 be so
strong and so far advanced that even
some government officials thought
there was no need of war preparation,
because OF the ability and determine
ton - these ardent reformers TO pre-
vent such a thing, without the help of
God and religion.
Their dreams have vanished and
remain little more than fitful MEM
ory. The house that was reared upon
the sand with such labor and shouting
when the rains descended and the
winds blew, Il fell. and great was the
fall thereof -