The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1917-10-18

come up 70 INC s'ahnaf"S s''
selves profess.
In fact you can take almost every
thing these modern prophets say and
find that the truths they utter applies
Just as pertinently, yea even more
practically TO times Of peace, than
they do to times Of war, for war is the
abnormal and peace the normal eondl-
ton Of man.
But why do not these truths, tins
actual condition Of affairs in times OF
peace arouse men and call forth their
courage and determination in the one
case MS much as in the other? How Is
il that good men have sat quietly by
and let the subtle forces of evil creep
into our whole body polite, into our
industrial and social life, until men
and women and children have become
the wretched victims of these ruthless
monsters?
Why haven't these good men locked
horns long ago with every form Of
vice and crime? Why haven't they
looked facts squarely in the face and
realized that moral cancer has been
quietly eating into the very vitals OF
modern society here in Christian
America Why have they not needed
the call Of Jesus that sounded forth
/ loud and clear long before the Prus-
sian guns startled a sleeping world y!
Why haven't men shown in practical
ways the courage of their convictions
and thrown themselves into the con
aict between material and spiritual
forces with as logged persistence
and with as heroic courage as men IN
the trenches at the front show?
Alas it is true strangely, tragicaliy
true as young Dawson writes; the
stupendous terrors Of Armageddon de-
mand less courage than the uneventful
terror Of the daily commonplace
There's something splendid and exhiI-
arating in going forward among
bursting shells. The big immediate
thing is much easier TO do than the
prosaic carrying on without anxiety
which is the game Of the average mar
in times of peace"
! And this latter is the task that
awaits most of US, friends, in these
DAYS when the very flower of oul
youth are called into the more excit-
ing. the more Immediately dangerous
conditions of actual warfare. There Is
lust as much need Of our being brave
and loyal and stcadfast in our ordin'
airy everyday duties, in the thoughts
we cherish, in the utterances we make
in the ideals we foster, as there is fol
our soldier boys to be true and noble
and dependable in the training camp
and on the battlefield.
And there is greater danger that We
fail, than there is that they fail, FOL
we must realize that in the absence Of
bursting shells and the "big immedi
ate thing" there is grave danger OF
flabbiness creeping into the blood anc
even the best of people. And do yol
J., know it is this danger that has lee
|, some prominent men to confidently
assert that occasional war is essentia
for conserving the best clements IL
the human race. But are they right il
their assertion?
Is this the only way that man, made
as the image of God, free, mora
agent, is this the only way that III
can maintain himself at the highes
level? By becoming an active partici
pant; whether he wishes to or not, il
all the frightful carnage, in all tn
wrongs and cruelties inflicted upon in
nocent victims of all ages, in the If
reparable loss in money, in treasure
in lives, and in truly Christian ideal
i that inevitably follow in the wake o
I modern warfare?
r | cannot believe it. | will not be
4 lieve it. If it has seemed so in tn
S past, if anyone honestly thinks so a
A the present time, it is only because hi
G vision is frightfully distorted and hi
= thought of God is strangely perverted
r Surely no one can catch such con
: ception of life and its deepest meaning
S from the writings of these moder
r prophets. The only way to make thi
war holy, says one Of them, is by max
ing it so thorough that war will b
: finished for all time.
: And this, take it, is the onl
: ground, the only justification for tn
Allies demand that the war must cor
Z tinue until--not the German peopl
r with their many splendid qualities
n their wonderful initiative, their effec
Il tive ways of doing things, not tn
n German people as whole, but unit
4 Prussian militarism, that cold, heart
n less, ruthless, Goddess hydra heade
,,.nnetax ebaIl ba xrinod off tho foca \