The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-01-12
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

| I
 cia! talking and careless writing about Christianity having failed to make good on account of the present war, the un- deriving idea being that if 1t had been alive and yirile 1t would have in some way prevented 1t.
 I hold and claim to be able to show 1 that Christianity was never more pow erful than at present and that instead of it's being decadent 1t is being born ane" and playing a greater part than ever be- fore in shaping the destiny of the world. They who maintain that the preacher and his religion belong to a dead past misread present conditions and fal 10 discern the signs of the time as to It's future.
 Those who are preaching the death or religion are a bit premature, for instead of it's being dead, it is in the throes or new birth, in spite of the anti-Chris- tian tendencies of the world war which to the minimizing spells the doom of the churches as being hopelessly out Of date and wholly unrelated to. the needs or twentieth century men and women The immediate occasion for such lamen- tations Is born of the war, but before Mars got on the march various schools of skeptics and agnostics were busy try ing to undermine the pillars upon which the church had been erected and set up in it's place temple dedicated to science and throwing out all religion as litter and dust of past ages, forgetting that France made the experiment in setting up a shrine in which the Goddess or Reason was worshipped.
 Those who are now clamoring against the failure of Christianity are bereft Of the historic sense, and unable to alag nose the stream tendency of the day, Tor out of the war infidel France has redis- covered God and the religious wave that ! Is sweeping the nation to its knees IS l one of the strangest evangelical transror- nations in the entire history of chris tendon. Those who summoned the un- dertaker to bury Christianity were bit lprecipitate. It Is a very healthy corpse. |
 The Kaiser himself Is the victim of | "deliramentum' mad dream that l Christianity had failed and that its doc tr;ne of right was a mistake and that he would set up the newer gospel or might. The modern Kaiser like the Cae- sars of the past will learn that in spite l of his armies that in the end the pale Galilean will win" This is to De the underlying message of the war for future generations, until the militarists shall have it engraved beyond the hope of eradication, ''that they who take the sword shall perish by the sword"
 To listen to some of the prophets or the downfall of Christianity you would be led to conclude that the church had limmea surably failed to live up to it's op-
 nortunities and shown its impotence by not stepping in and preventing the war, l and that the ministry had totally mis- spent it's time in talking pious platitudes and sheer nonsense. The hyper-critics have put the churches and the preachers together and abused both with equal un- intelligence.
 r Christianity had not failed. neither has jis been discredited by those who seek to
 preach d universal skepticism, corrosive
 of religion and morality. do. not see
 how any one who is not in bondage to
 overmastering prejudice against the
 teachings of Jesus can fail to see that lthe allies are battling to save the 'beati-
 tudes' from the ruthless hands of a Kaiser who, under the false pretense that he and God are coworkers. is doing everything in his power to make man. kind believe that not the meek" but the strong" will inherit the earth.
 Lets delve deeper. Christianity was nc destroyer of ancient civilization, as we are often told; on the contrary. we owe to it what survived of the culture of the
 ancient world And now get this: Chris ltianity is going to be the preserver ol
 true twentieth century culture, by Tor
 ever discrediting the bastard and spu' , rious made in Germany brand that the Kaiser seeks to force upon the whole
 world at the point of the bayonet. Chris. tianity is not dead, but Christianity is fighting for it's life, and that is why
 am so bold to claim that this is a holy
 war so far as the allies are concerned1 [ I am called in question because I an
 continually using this column to urge
 those who read 1t to get into the figh' and not be fooled by any talk of the pa 1 cifist or conscientious objectors, wht | think it right when Christianity is i'm periled to stand aside from the great con flict because they are Christians and de lnot believe in war. Yet I notice thai these pseudo Christians are willing to lei
 others fight for them and die for then while they stay sheltered at home witt their pious and hypocritical winnings.
 1 %
 As long as I have voice and pen ex lpect to do my best to show the unen , 1 listed that this Is Gods war against in
 Justice, aild that the spirit of anti-Chris is incarnated in the Kaiser, who is using his power to overthrow Christianity, and | that as Christ died to save men, so it 1. Christ like for men to help crush the Prussian miltarists. It Is the duty o
 every God-fearing man to do his best te . help the allies win the war.
 If you are a Christian, get into the
 fight. Jesus was the manifest of men
 | and they betray him who prate about their "conscieutious objections" fol Christianity has no place in it for the , coward and the shirker.