New Britain herald., 1918-01-28

has not been fully tried. It does not matter how good a doctor I employ or how perfect are his medicines, if I do not follow his directions, I cannot blame either him or the medicines. If, then, men have refused to follow Christianity, and if whole nations have actually turned their backs upon it, who can say that Christianity has failed? It is true that Christianity hasnot destroyed war, and that, as Dr. Eliot has said, we have had war the greatest majority of the time since Christ, and that war
 has been not only condOned but used
 by organized Christianity. But 1t IS an encouraging fact that men every
 where are today seeing the inconsis-
 tency between Christianity and war
 and insisting that war must be done
 away with. Just as men came to see the inconsistency of slavery and de- termined that slavery and Christianity
 could not live together, so are men today determined that Christianity and war cannot live together and that war must go.
 Now this sermon is an effort to show the solution that Christianity of- fers. Let me take the following pas
 sage of scripture as a, text. It IS found in Matthew 22. verses 37 to 40.
 A lawyer stood up before Jesus and
 asked him what was the great com
 mandment, and Jesus answered, Thou
 shalt love the Lord, they God, with all thy heart and with all thy soul
 and with all thy mind. This Is the
 great and first commandment. The
 second like onto it. is this thou
 shalt love thy neighbor as myself
 Upon these two commandments hang
 the whole of the law and the pro-
 phets.'
 These teachings form the corner stone of the Christian religion. Right ly understood and rightly followed these commandments are sufficient for
 the worlds needs. All virtues spring
 from the fulfilling of those laws and all evil, if followed to it's root, will be found to be in disobedience of one or the other of these laws.
 There are really three laws here instead of two, corresponding to the three personalities of life, God, my neighbor and myself. The three laws then are, thou shalt love God, thou shalt love they neighbor. and thou shalt love myself. for if a man is going to love his neighbor as him. self and have it amount to anything,
 his love for himself must first amount to something.
 "These laws are inter-dependent. The man who does not love God in the true sense will not long love him self or his neighbor in the truest sense. l On the other hand, the man who does not love his neighbor certainly can not love God, and the man who has l no love for himself in a noble and un- 1 selfish way does not love God. And, as 1 I intinated a moment ago, love for ] neighbor and love for self are de- pendent on each other.
 Tt will be seen also that these laws ! form a check on each| other,-they ] balance. Love for God checks the other two. It forbids love for self from becoming conceit and self-sufficiency, and thereby engenders reverence ana humility; it forbids love for neighbor becoming a creed Mems lives cannot 1 be defined alone by what they do, they
 must bbe defined first by what they l are. Men cannot say they have full l filled their duty in charity and social 1 service alone. Works of mercy are ] but part of the Christian religion. "Then you can very readily see the | CnSCk DelN cell the kWO (OilIIlduuSr
 love for self and love for neighbor.
 Love for self, balaned by love for | ones neighbor, give us self-respect.
 Love for self. balanced by love for 1 love for self gives us self-devotion-- 1 two splendid virtues. But relieve the | check on either end and we have evil, ] Take away one of these virtues and 1 the other immediately puffs up to ex- | tra ordinary size and ruins the pro-
 portions of life. Respect yourself, but 1 do not think more highly of Nour- sel than you ought to think is the 1 word of wisdom. Love your neigbbor, l serve him unselfshly, but do not neg
 feet to perfect the gift God has given l to yon. There is a selfshness which 1 is Christian. Ii is that higher sell fishness which endeavors to do the l best with the talents God has given
 to you.
 Now these principles have a direct | bearing, I think. on the issues of this
 war. In order to get at what Chris 1 tianity offers in solution of the world
 problem, let LIS first ask ourselves 1 what. caused the war. Let Us try, as
 the physician, to diagnose the disease l before prescribing the medicine. Of , course the immediate cause of the ! war was the ultimatum delivered by 1 Austria, but the world well knows 1 now that this was not the real cause l This was but an eXcuse-the real l cause was much deeper and more
 fundamental; deeper even that all of