The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1918-10-10

boast be made. 1t NAV end in 4
general exhaustion of both sides. that
will make possible the recurrence of
war In the future and another one there
VIII surely be, unless this one continues
ard merges into the great war proceed
ing the OF end time, for which there is a
growing expectation on the part Of the
masses. Nothing can bring permanent
peace to this war scared earth. but
the return of the Prince of peace to
establish His kingdom, which shall be a
universal one, when all the kingdoms
OF this world shall be His.
The masses of the Allied soldiers
probably feel that they are fighting to
end war; fighting to deliver the children
OF the future from the curse of war
May this be true! May their dream be
realized. But the question arises has
the church been true to her orders? Has
she been out and out Christian. One
lesson the nation should have learned
before this and that is we cant be half
Christian with any degree Of success.
As Henry Drummond well saiG, "the
Whole cross is more easily carried than
the half. - The church can't preach
oae gospel to the Individual and another
to the state.
She must not be blind to the moral
issues involved. She must not stand
aloof nor affect a snoOoish neutrality
toward the great issues. She must be
quick to help the needy, TO lift up the
fallen, to rescue the world from the
awful effects of sin.
As one writer puts it, Whatever
greedy riyalries lay concealed in the
darkness Of antecedent diplomacy. the
war is steadily becoming d conflict be
tween progress and reaction, humanity
and sayagery, freedom and tyranny. "
Freedom-civil and religious hangs in
the balance
The church stands for freedom in It's
widest and truest sense. The Christi
anity that she inculcates. stands for
liberty of the highest form. Satan and
his forces may combine against this:
may, indeed they have united their
forces to overthrow this, and establish
world monarchy of the absolute kind,
with the Kaiser as the ostensIble ruler,
but in reality the devil directing the
affairs of this Kingdom.
This is the aim, and We are left to
choose which We will nave and the de-
cision sounds louder than the roar of
all our guns-it is liberty or death.
We must awake to the sense of the
greatness of our opportunity. Things
will not be after the war as they were
before it. The old civilization will be a
thing of the past. We shall enter upon
a new era. The greatness of the task
/ before US is suggested by the awful
cost Of the war. Up to Oct 1917, the
money cost alone had reached the enor-
nous amount of oyer 100 billion dollars,
while the number of killed wounded
and missing was oyer Is million. The
year now closing will add immensely to
| this total. We must look, therefore, fog
commensurate gains for the race. Shall
this unreasonable sacrifice be for
naught? 1t must be for the greater
good of men and the glory of GOD Sup
pose the church In Its devotion to the
cause it has espoused and in obedience
to the command of her head, Christ, had
! been willing to put into the effective
carrying out of her commission to evan
gelize the world. the amoont Of money
the war has already cost as-or even
one fourth that amount, what would it
have meant for the progress Of the race
Does she grasp the situation, and has
she proper sense of the magnitude of
the crisis or of the opportunity involved
She is the trustee Of spiritual interests
that can not be calculated; of freedom
of conscience, of faith IN God; of the
conviction of the value and sAcredness
of the person, and of the Christianity of
Christ. In our next We may notice
some of the things involved in this
trusteeship
JoANNES.