The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-07-26
Wars New Crusade,

1927.
wars New Crusade.
As a crusade, the present war far
outshines the crusades of the Middle
Ages. Not only is it vaster in ex-
tent and in its forces. but it also has
greater goals and nobler inspirations
.It is the will of God!" shouted the
soldiers marching to Palestine to re-
cover the empty tomb of their Lord
from the Saracen. With less clamor.
but with purpose fully as deep, rev.
erent and holy, the armies which nave
foregathered in France from The ends
of earth. struggle toward the re-es-
adjustment of the regnancy of right
eousness, the will of God upon earth.
The might, of this lofty motive is
just what the ambitious central pow
ers cannot understand, tho it is the
force which has sustained the allies
turnout four bitter years, and the mo-
tive which drew America into the war.
Underlying the service by our SOL
diers is the spirit of devotion to the
will of God. There is much talk of
the German higher command in the
papers; but the Higher Command
which millions of sallied fighters rec
ognize is the Law of God, q power so
sacred that life itself may not he more
nobly spent than in its support and
vindication. Hearts are made steady
and nerves strong by the knowledge
in battling for the ideals of Jesus and
their fulfillment on earth.
What the Soldier Knows.
diers in France is well aware that they
are not swash- bucklers or profession
al fighting men. They do not love
war; they hate it. There is no lust
to kill in their hearts. All the old
poetical Pigments about the warrior
4 fnr hof
war-horse, are simply absurd. Our
men are in this thing because a high
and holy compulsion has banded civ
ilization together to save the world
from an evil force which many Bible
students call the Anti-Christ. These
men who have crossed the seas and
the channel to France are Crusaders
in behalf of the will of God-thas
holy will which DEGREES righteousness.
justice, liberty, peace and brother
hood. Even the most irreligious of
our soldiers is sure, in his deepest soul.
that he is obeying God.
This Is the one clear and supreme
conviction of the allied armies They
are lacking in what may be called the
refinements and intricacies of religion:
sometimes they show a shocking dis
regard for churchly conventionalties.
Theological subtleties are a matter of
indifference or of Jest. Petty paro-
chialism will never again claim them.
They would not give a button from
German prisoners trousers for the
divisive- claims of decentralization.
Many of the things that engross the
parsons back home interest them less
| than ever. But the holy will of God
elists thor rifles and their hearts
They have an expansive sense of unity
with the divine purpose in their pres
ent mission. Freely they give them
selves to danger and death, because
| they believe that their cause is at once
humanity's cause and Gods cause.
Singers I'm the Trenches.
Several noteworthy volumes of verse
and hundreds of fine Individual poems,
| have come out of the trenches. Most
| strike the spiritual note. The soldiers
are thinking about God and the great
| ideals Some of their utterances are
exouisitely Christian. The introspec-
| tive mysticism of the Middle Ages has
produced nothing finer than this
Prayer of a Soldier in France" by
| a well known New York poet, Joyce
/ Kilmer. who is now a private in the
| 165th infantry:
| NY shoulders ache beneath my pack,
(Lie easier. Cross. upon His back.l
march with feet that burn and smart,
(Tread. Holy Feet. upon my hearth
Men shout at me who may not speak.
tIhey scourged Thy back and smote Thy
I may not lift handyto clear
My eyes of salty drops that scar.
| (Then shall my tickle soul forget
Thy agony of Bloody Sweat:l
| Ny rifle hand IL stiff and numb
| (From Thy pierced palm red rivers