The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1916-12-08
THE BASIS FOR
PERMANENT PEACE
Conditions That Must be Brought About
If We Are to Escape the Wrath
OF An OUTRAGED God

SLdteilGul IGSIo WudgSNSA Va hoHO w
may entertain for a permanent and
satisfactory peace when the present
war is over. Before the terms Of
peace can be wisely discussed the true
nature of war and the reason for war
must be acknowledged. If you read
Bernhard or Prof. Crambe you may
conclude with them that war is really
blessing to people, developing their
courage, self-sacyifice, etc. am
willing indeed to agree with them
that war is blessing but for the very
different reason from the one they rec
ognize.
A loving father has a willful, dis
obedient son. After all other meas
ures of correction fail, the father, as a
last resort, applies the rod. A good
sound threshing will do more for that
boy than hours of counsel and ten
der advice. The result proves the
wisdom of the father and the lad
grows into a worthy man. War is
nothing more than the punishment Of
God upon wilful, disobedient people
who will never obey until they are
compelled through suffering to turn
the souls last resort, God. The pun
ishment may entail rivers of blood
and oceans of tears, but the means
are justified by the end, at least in
this case. Furthermore, no other
means have ever been found adequate.
Illustrations without number can be
given of the truth of this statement.
The one hest known is found in the
history of Israel But close ANALYSIS
Will show that the statement is true
Of other wars.
The problem before the nations is
To learn what God intends by this most
terrible war in the worlds history.
And now we have arrived at the point
where we begin. viz. that the teach
inos of the Galilean are sound. God
sent His Son to teach men how to live.
a am come that they NAV have life
and that thew NAV have it more abund-
ontlvn And what does He tell us about
living? That the underlying princi-
nle Governing all our relations with
eocb other Is embodied in that one i'm
mortal saving: "Thou shalt love thy
neiphbor as thy eslf."> Many exper-
iments have been made to test the
wisdom of this command. Have they
heen successful and does the rule real
" annlv to EVERYDAY affairs? How
nhouf humanitarianisrn SO much talk
cd of of nresent and which is one Of
the strong, leading tendencies of the
present generation? Certainly hui
manitarianism is the direct applica-
ton of the rule. Does humanitarian
| ism work. is it sensible or visionary,
is Il a sound policy, does it tend to
neace. or is its influence for discord,
does it make the world any better +?
To ask the question is to answer it.
Every other test of the command has
resulted in like manner. In short,
| God knows what is best for man, and
Christ made no mistakes when He
stated Gods laws for man.
Objection will be made that war is
often the result of ambition, revenge,
greed. ETC., etc. These indeed are sec
ondarv causes, but what more do they
amount to than failure to consider the
rights of other nations as equal to our
own rights? Again, objection will be
made that if war is a punishment
from Cod then the punishment is a
failure. for war has existed from the
earliest times and therefore Gods
chastisements are unavailing and man.
( kind will continue to the end of time
much as it is now, Partly true and
nartlv false. and like most compounds
of truth and error utterly misleading
One generation quickly forgets the
experiences. the tragedies, the senti.
ments of an earlier generation. One
of the puzzles of life is that we al
i most never will learn from others ex
perience. The teaching of history il
clear about the luxury, the weakening
of moral sentiment, the final decline
of the splendid Roman Empire, bu
MANY nations since then have gone o.
are going the same way. No, Their,
is nothing in history that will con
trovert the assumption that war il
Gods way of bringing nations ant
races to a proper understanding of tn
fact that this is His world and if kings
princes. rulers and peoples will no
live in It in accordance with His law
but insist upon infringing those laws
bv the yerv nature Of the case retri
button must follow. The more Sc
we're the punishment the shorter
NAV be. The horror of the presen
war has never been eoualled. But tn
I