Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-10-16

that they underestimate the force of
ideas and over-estimate the facts of
force. But ideas rule the world, making
wars and bringing peace, inspiring con-
flicts and settings cortentions.
The saying of Thomas Carlyle that "a
book is often more decisive than bat
tle," is therefore, most true.
One of CiceroS dtsputations, in which
the great Roman orator justified and
glorified death by ones own hand, pro-
duced a shocking crop of suicides among
his contemporaries.
The truths which Paul. the Apostle
to the Gentiles, proclaimed in the Jail
at Phillip, stayed the suicidal purpose
of the jailer, set Christianity on its
path of power in Europe, and still in
| fluences for good a war-worn world.
Religious ideas are the most potent or
| all; they take hold of the spiritual ele-
ment in human nature which is the su-
| preme element. Whether such ideas be
true or false, they sooner or later, set
up, or pull down, social and political IN
situations, and make or mar civilization.
when once they are accepted by men or
| nations.
The tenets of Mohammedanism have
made the cruelist superstltions and the
| bloodest wars. The martyred nation
of Armenia is dying today because the
| false prophet preached his diabolical
doctrines centuries ago in Arabia.
These reflections are especially APP
| plicable TO the origin and methods OF
the awful war which Germany has fore
ed upon the world. Mankind stands
| aghast at the hideous conflagration. 1t
| is attributed to Prussian milttarism. to
| the jUnker faction, and all that; but
! this explanation of the case does not
explain. These fiery forces are results
| of deep religious forces; they are not
| the ultimate cause of the war. Back of
| them, and giving rise to them, are the
teachings which have prevailed in the
| German universities. especially in the
| University of Berlin.
| In those centers of education and in
! fluence has prevailed destructive ra-
| tionalism, which has destroyed faith in
| Christ and oVerthrown belief in the Holy
Scriptures
But the human heart can not do with
out some sort of religion. The religious
| instinct is deathless and when it is
| deprived of the nourishment and salts
faction of a true faith it turns to the
false Hence, skepticism generally ends
in superstition, and the reaction of pro-
| longed unbelief is credulity.
| The leading minds of Germany having
| lost faith in Christ have reverted to
| paganism, and from their paganism has
issued barbarious etchical standards.
| This seems almost incredible, but never
| theless it is true.
The leaders of German thought and
! the directors of German policies have
turned back to the worship of Thor and
| Odin, the gods of their barbarious an
| cestors. They have retained some of
| the Technology of Christianity and they
continue to conform to certain Christian
| ceremonies, but under these DISCUSSES
the old paganism of the Teutonic tribes
has returned to curse the world.
l. In Longfellow's Saga of King Olaf"
the ancient German war god, Thor, is
made to speak in lines like these:
| Force rules the world,
Has ruled it, will rule it,
| Weakness is weakness,
| Strength is triumphant
Over the whole earth;
| Still is 1t Thors day."
These sentiments are identical In
| substance with the teachings of
| Treischke and others who have filled
| the German universities with this doc
/ trine DEVILS" General Bernhard, in his
shameless book, Germany and the Next
War" appeals to these authorities for
support of his heathenish contentious in
that treatise. Poets, historians and
philosophers of Germany have echoed
! and re-echoed the same sentiments dur
ing the last fifty years.
Forty years ago, Felix Dahn, the Ger
man poet, revived the mythical legend
of Thor, the war god of the ancient
Germans, throwing his hammer from
the FORESTS of the north to the faI
south and asserting his right to all the
world, and Dahn sang these barbariou,
lines:
"Since then tits the joyous German
right
With the hammer lands to win.
We mean to inherit the worldwide
might
AS the Hammer-Gods kith and
kim"
And Dohn's words have met a warm
response in the heart of the German ma
ton. II is a mistake to assume that the
German people are not heart and soul
with the kaiser and his war-lords in ali
their schemes and policies. These pagan
principles have been inculcated in the
minds of the German people by the edu-
Gators of Germany since 1910, when
the University of Berlin was founded
Several generations have been brought
up on such intellectual diet until it has
entered into the very blood of the ma
ton and colors and controls it's life.
| These evil principles and this savage
spirit of paganism have filled the minds
of the mature men and fired the imagi-
nations of the youth of Germany.
1t was scarcely year before the out
breaking Of the present war when the
Young German Association published
the following savage utterance:
l. WAR is the noblest and hottest
) expression of human activity. For
us, too. the glad great hour of bat
tie will strike. Still and deep in the
i German heart must live the joy or
II battle and the longing for it. Let US
ridicule to the utmost the old wom-
|, en- in breeches who fear war ana
deplore it as cruel and revolving.
No! War is beautiful. It's august
sublimity elevate the heart beyond
the earthly and the common. In the
cloud palace above sit the heroes,
Frederick the Great and Butcher,
and all the men of action-the great
, emperor, Moltke. Room, Bismarck are
there as well. But not the old wom-
, en- who would take away our joy OF
war When here on earth a battle
is won by German arms, and the
faithful dead ascend to heaven, a
} Potsdam lance-corporal will call the
} guard to the door and old Fritz
springing from his golden throne,
will give the command to present