Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-03-23

SOINeu III IHe llBnL OL Lne llle diu
laws of Jesus, the accepted arbiter OF
the worlds destiny. Fortunately, al
an hour when the question of inter
national peace is absorbing the
thought of the world, we have this re-
view of the work and character and
teaching of the Master, which will be
studied by some thirty million per-
sons, the world around. Within the
three months of study have been COM
pretended characteristic utterances
and deeds of Christ; 1t is proper to
take a clear look at his personality
and purpose.
Touching first upon the livest issue
in the world, we ask, Did Jesus lay
down a program for international
peace? Are the pacifists right in APP
pealing to Him as their authority for
an immediate cessation of strife, re-
gardless of all considerations in
volved? Is there assumption that war
is the supreme evil, and the mother
of evils, based on His example or
philosophy" This is a living question.
Perhaps no other single issue has so
definitely made it's appeal to Jesus
for half century. 1t must be answer
ed by the Book, and not by any mans
mood or preconceptions or desires. If
we are to appeal to Jesus, we must
go back to the only source of His phil
osophy that is available to us.
Before we apply this test to the
overshadowing issue of the present
hour, let us recall, what this three
months of study of Johns Gospel has
made plain, that in seeking the mind
of Christ we are learning the will of
God. For, as the introduction to
Johns Book so majestically declares,
Jesus is "The Word, the eternally
existent expression of Jehovah. God
has no fuller truth to make known
to mankind than has come speaking
fIn tx.t,,e c
in John have had any message at all,
it is that Jesus is the very Christ, the
sent Son and Revealer of the Father,
AS He Himself said, in words that
would have been the summit of bias
phemy if they were not true, Il am
the Way, the Truth, the Life. No one
cometh to the Father except by me"
So we may paraphrase the sublime
declaration, Human society will new
er attain unto Gods plan for it until
it walks the way laid down by Jesus.
A peace world will be secured only
according to His program.
Peace by the JeSuS-Way
Sentimentalists are fond of calling
upon the beautiful life of Jesus, with
out always knowing what that life was
or meant. So it is in the present de-
bate upon peace. Jesus was gentle
and loving and good; therefore, say
many, He must be against war, which
evils. Well, let us see. We find that
Jesus did not talk about war or peace,
except to predict that there would be
wars and rumors of wars before He
should return again. He lived in a
militaristic world, yet never uttered a
word against the system. He told His
disciples to put up the sword, and He
also told them, on another occasion,
to sell their cloaks and buy swords.
OF personal, inner peace, He spoke
clearly, as a boon to be possessed by
{Iis disciples. in spite of all outward
turmoil. But we see that here, as
elsewhere, He dealt with the individ-
ual. His program for a changed
world was to be effected by the change
that His Gospel would make in the
lives of men and women, one by one.
BY making over the parts that COM
pose society. He would eventually
make over the whole. When the world
becomes leavened with people who
live by the Jesus law, then the old
injustices of society would disappear.
This is in accordance with the Christ
mas Angels program that peace is
to come on earth among men of good
will. There is no other way.
While lie said nothing about inter-
national peace, Jesus really pro-
nounced the ultimate doom of war by
His insistence upon righteousness and
love. According to His teaching and
practice, righteousness must be done
on earth. To that end He lived. and
to that end He died. Because He
would not take any short cuts to His
goal-which was the temptation that
came to Him at the very beginning
of His public career-and because He
would not compromise with righteous
ness for the sake of success, or peace,
Jesus was forced to offer up His life
as a testimony to the truth. Thus He
forever witnesses to the divine prin-
ciple that there are some things more
precious than life, some duties that
take precedence of self-preservation
1t is back in the Old Testament
prophets that we find the clearest pic
lures of nations at peace one with an
other, and of world from which war
has disappeared. Always, and unmis-
takably, though, that prospect is
postulated upon a reign of righteous
ness. Only by the defeat of wicked
ness can that day be ushered in. 1t
belongs TO the period when the Mes
siah will have put all things under
His feet. AS the Psalmist expresses
it, righteousness and peace have
kissed each other" Only by perfect
accord of righteousness and peace is
the millenial day to dawn. There is
not line in the entire Scriptures
which warrants anybody in declaring
that peace is more important than
Justice. The inspired men who wrote
the Book were too wise to utter any
such folly. That would be peace that
is no peace. If clear understanding
of the pre-eminence of righteousness
disappears from the public mind, it
will be because the Bible is no longer
studied. That book portrays war, and
war to the death, between truth and
error; and uncounted myriads of
saints and martyrs have died in tes-
timony that peace and safety are not
to be purchased at the price Of con-
doning unrighteousness.
AS matter of clear record, the
enervation of moral fibre which re-
CARDS social tranquility as a supreme
end of existence is vigorously de-
nounced by Jesus and His apostles.
A horror of pain and blood is not to
be learned from the Christian Scrip
lures. He who died that men might
live taught that the highest use of
life is to offer it up in sacrifice for
a great and holy cause. Some of the
sentimental horror of war is sheer
physical cowardice. And the pacifist
|who dares to appeal to Jesus as au-
thority for stopping war in mid
career. no matter what evils are
thereby condoned, should be asked to
give chapter and verse and context
Appealing to the Supreme Court
If man puts himself, in imagina-
ton, in the position of the historian
of hundred years hence He will OBJ
Gat.ya T1aDV rom ri "a 1NIa rhaSah OF fha