Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-02-27
MATERIALISM is
CAUSE OF STRIFE
Continued From Page u

CONTINUED From Page ~
OF the sea. hatreds are kindled like
mountain fires and are as destructive
or lie and property, invention Is at
work everywhere to increase tragedies
and court death, slaughter follows
slaughter, misery follows misery and
parpar1c cruelties follow one another
IN never ending succession. What
the emo Will be, we hardly dare to
propnesy. And the hurt of 1t all Is
that back of all this barbarism, of all
TINS shameless tragedy are the most
nlshly civilized nations of the globe.
what IS the meaning of it all and
where does the fault lie?
Christianity Ia Unfalien.
Men have essayed to answer this
question. The materialist and the
near-materialist has found in it the
overthrow OF Christianity and the fall
OF the church which Christ purchased
with his own redeeming blood But
despite this prediction and contrary to
the materialist's wish, Christianity has
not fallen and does not give indication
that 1t will Immediately perish from
the earth. The only light which
flames up from the battleflelds of
Europe today is kindled by the founder
OF Christianity. 1t is in his name and
Tor his sake that nurses follow the line
OF battle to care for the manned and
dying. 1t is by his inspiration that
multitudes are kept from starving In
the regions where fire and sword have
desolated fields and windrowed the
dead. Day and night, over trenches
filled with water where wretched men
fight under Haunting flags, In banks Of
snow, crimsoned with the blood of the
mansled and slain, over hospital wards
where the dead and dying lay, from
the steepes of Russia to the lily COW
cred wales of France, is lifted the cross
In token of the real spirit of Christian
1ty brooding over mans inhumanity to
man. AS the trailing vine covers the
scar made by the lightning flash or the
earthquake shock so will Christianity
cover and heal the scar left by mans
uncontrolled hatred for his fellow man.
What 10 Basis of Charge.
Let us tarry a moment to see what
Is the basis of the charge that the
present war in Europe marks the fall
OF Christianity or indicates that it's
hold upon the people will be lessened
thereby. The nations engaged in it
are only nominally Christian and the
same may be said of the rulers. That
Christ In the midst of history COM
mands attention there can be no
denial, but that he has had full sway,
that he has had perfect obedience,
that all men have bowed in submits
sion to him none will lay claim. At
no period has majority of the sub
jects of any of these warning nations
made any pretense of following Christ.
And Of those who have had name to
follow him only small majority have
given him more than partial alleg-
lance. In religion the people have
made more and more of the external
and outward forms Of sensuous display
and less and less of true piety. When
ever the external has superseded the
internal, the material, the spiritual and
the temporal the eternal, the true
spirit and genius of Christianity has
oeen denied.
His Presence Indicated.
But despite all the confusion of the
hour because of the secondary pla g
which has been given the Christ and
his teachings, the world Is full If the
signs Of his presence. No one will
contend that he has had first place in
diplomacy which led to this war or
that he has had even partial considera-
ton from those high in authority On
ly when the majority Of the inhabit-
ants Of a country are sincere followers
of Christ, rs evidenced by their lives
in their treatment of others and ma
jority of those in authority are guided
by the principles of the gospel, can you
lay the blame of the acts of their par
liaments on the dominant religion.
Finding in the present war in Europe,
the breakdown of Christianity is what
it's enemies have found in every moral
and political change from the time of
Jesus until now. We maintain that,
sorely tried as Christianity has been,
working under difficulties Of every sort
as it has been compelled to do, there
Is nothing in present conditions to
warrant its enemies in saying that it
has. failed. On the other hand we con-
tend its opposite, materialism, has had
its opportunity and has broken down
at the very point where it promised
so much. Where 1t has reached as
near the perfection of it's type as at
any time since the Caesars and again
In the French revolution, it has given
Europe such blood path as it has
never known before
The speaker then discussed at some
length the growth of the materialistic
views and told of the agnostics,
atheists and rationalists existing in
those countries today, saying that the
last census showed that in France
alone, out of forty million, five mil
lions had written themselves down as
being atheists. He discussed the
great Herbert Spencer's book and its
effect upon the English, the teachings
as set forth in the writings of Bern
hardi and Emmanuel Kent's doctrines
He laid stress upon the influence,
which he declared, this movement, has
had upon the peoples now engaged in
terrible warfare.
Continuing DR.. Jeffrey said: ut
seems perfectly plain that the red
flower of Europe which reaches from
sea to sea and extends into other con-