Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1918-05-09
RELIGION IS NOT
O|SCRED|TEO BY WAR
Theme of Presi lent Thomas
Baccalaureate } Graduating
Class at Middlebury

J sermon to the graduating class of Middle
bury College was delivered to-day by
President John M. Thomas The subject
the text was BLESSED be the Lord my
| rock, who teacheth my hands to war, and
my fingers to fight" Psalm Hal.
| President Thomas said in substance:
| When the cataclysm of August 1914
burst upon the world it was looked upon
by many irrefragable proof of the
failure of the Christian religion. There
were many who asked, uncertainty but
fearfully. is not Christianity failure, il
after twenty centuries of preaching and
praying this holocaust OF the civilized
world could not be prevented?
Religion has not been discredted by
the war, but has evidenced its reality.
l do not recall a single book we have had
from the trenches which does not speak
of new-found faith in God, stronger
and more real, and with n certain high
quality of devotion and enthusiasm about
1t as though il came by inspiration.
Donald Hankey and Private Peat, Con-
| ningsby Dawson and Sergeant Empey
alike testify to the sense of a strange and
mighty presence which comes to men on
the battlefield. They are convinced that
God Is In the fight and that His spirit
broods over the fields of carnage,
sire 'gthening when strength has failed,
leading when human leadership Is vain,
and receiving to Himself the spirits of
the fallen.
| The war also will lead to revise some-
what our catalogue of virtues, giving
| stronger emphasis to some of the plain
and elemental qualities of manhood and
s,,1.r
of the more cultivated graces. Our stand
ards of virtue have been composed too
largely by men in sillsen gowns and
| academic robes, in the quiet of libraries
| and away from the stern, harsh tur-
MOL of the world. We have judged men
| too much according to the advanta ges
| they have had for learning manners and
not enough by the service of their lives
| in the better world God is making. Men
who risk their lives for comrade
without a moments hesitation, men who
spring eagerly to volunteer for a VEN
ture of great hazard. men whose grit
and courage holds after days and nights
without food sleep and with death
thick about them, men whose only pain
in the last great sacrifice is the sorrow
| it brings to others and their grief that
their last shot is fired-such men are en-
| titled to some consideration when we
make the list of those whom the just
and merciful God shall acknowledge and
approve. Love is the greatest Of the vir-
tues, we believe on good authority. and
greater love hath no man than this,
that he lay down his life for his friends
We have a right to call God to our side
and to fight with the strength of His
mighty stretched-out arm. The basis of
this claim is not that we call ourselves
60. =
and worshpped Him, that we have built
churches and offered prayers, that we be-
lieve and assert with all faith that God is
on our side. The Kaiser Of Germany
claims God for his very own and with
great JUNCTION proclaims victory in His
name. But the God Of justice and truth
is not won over by violent proclamations
nor are men or emperors heard of Him
for their much speaking. God fights with
those who fight with Him and we have a
right to believe that it is His cause we are
now defending.
The fight against Germany is n fight
against force the sole arbiter between
peoples of the earth. 1t is n fight against
the creed that war is biological neces-
sity, doctrine to which the entire nation
has committed itself, the doctrine that
man after centuries of civilization, after
All tne prophets anu martyrs Oh tne tnTlss-
tan religion, is subject to no other con-
troll than the bestal instincts Of tigers
and reptiles. If that doctrine is true. mans
world is a jungle and we are better thar
the brutes only in our cleverness ant
skill.
This is the conflict of ideals which i:
being waged in the fields of France. 1t !:
no mere strife among political methods. a.
some of our popular phrases might leat
us to think. We have no great care owe
mere forms of government. We are no
, greatly stirred as to whether one nation
or another of like qualities has precedence
, in the trade Of the world. But we do hav
care that nation which aspires to
dominating position in the world, an
which essays to dominate by might alone
) shall be throttled in it's purpose.
We have assumed as the object o
f human endeavor among all peoples tn
general betterment of the world, the in
9 crease of human happiness. the securit
of all men everywhere in the rights O
Y life and liberty. We have looked upon tn
world as a family of nations, a brother
a hood of peoples, with men striving every
c where for the increase of human good
for the advance of knowledge. the sprea
. Of virtue and pure religion, and the sup
K Justice and oppression and evil of ever
II sort. We have dreamed of a parliamen
& of man, a federation of the world, 1
:. which all should strive together for tn
IS uplift Of humanity and the coming of tn
II kingdom of God.
= The victory of the German arms woul
s scatter all these hopes as the idle vision
d of impractical sentimentalities. The worl
= would be divided into hostile camps eac
70 watching to see how IL might take ad
~ vantage OF the other and relentless whe
!, the opportunity offered to gain the utmos
II that it could regardless of justice or RICH
: If Germany wins, the present German
10 with power lust in its soul, there will !
no more philanthropy, but only calculatin
30 husbandry Of man-power within nations
v boundaries for the purpose of force fC
50 the next conquest
o. 1t is n high privilege to fight for &c
~ with all ones trength when the issue
>" plan. The present issue is clear as Il
g sunlight. Returning soldiers tell Of vision
," over yonder--of Joan Of Arc again on h,
pale charger riding before the poilus
resistess attack--of figures of the Chris
seen undoubtedly by thousands of men
IT. a time, with drawn sword toward Il
hostile ranks and hand OF protection al
as benediction over those who face them
Mt do not doubt in the tumult of the bait
t. they have seen such things-least of ,
adj do / doubt the reality for which Il
81 visions stand. For how can the righteo
r. sons of men and who blessed the lit,
oh s,ta ,,I .tlx