The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-01-07
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

| l may be wrong, put l uo not peleNe that Christianity has ever faced such i a crisis as 1t is now facing since the day when the Mohametans were turned back out of Europe at the battle of | Tours.
 It looked then as if the bloody Mahom- etans who made converts at the point of the sword would sweep Christian civil 1 lization out of Europe and set up the blood red crescent of Mahomet over the i pale cross of Christ. It was then as It l is today the doctrine of blood and iron" pitted against the d0ctrin3 of "brotherly love"
 l To me 1t is in a. very large sense religious war. I do not mean that it being fought out to set up any special type of Christianity as we see it broken up into varying creeds and sects as embodied in the many communlons ana churches; but I do believe that under | lying the many causes which created the conditions which brought about the con flict was the age long struggle in the  with those of Mahomet
 | I know of no stranger or more rep rchensible thing in all history than that the man who stood at the head of Ger man professionalism tn Germany, and who constantly professes to believe in Chris tianity, and who claims that he rules | by divine right should be willing to cruelty his savior afresh if thereby he could win bloody victory by allying himself with the butchers of Europe and the inveterate foes of Christianity the abominable and unspeakable Turks, of whom Gladstone well said; They ought to be kicked bag and baggage out of Europe"
 1 And yet in this twentieth century after the coming of the promised deliverer. the I Christian world stands aghast as modern Caesar, well named the Kaiser, imprints a Judas kiss on the Savior s cheek while he sells him to the Sultan of Turkey, not for 20 pieces of silver, 1 for he is a better bargainer and tra der than the treacherous apostle of old, but with the spirit of a Shylock demands an empire that shall reach to the Orient even though untold thou sands of men, women and children of helpless Armenia shall furnish the pounds of fesh wet with blood to cement the ! damnabe trade.
 T confess that I cannot write without bitterness when I think of what a pro- fessed follower of the lowly Nazarene has done in order to find a pic in the sum-" I do not want to be flippant, I do not desire to border on irrever- ency. do not want merely to try and say smart thing, but if the Kaiser does not find hotter spot than "a place in the sun" for all the misery he has brought on the world, then hell has no meaning, and it's useless to talk about future punishments.
 It Is said that in early days of life insurance when many thought it con trary to religion to take out a policy, Henry Ward Beecher was asked by a timid member if he thought it was con sistent with Christianity to be told by the great preacher that he doubted if a man was a Christian who could afford to do it and failed to do so. That's the way I feel about the conscientious ob- jectors in this country who claim that they cannot have any part in fighting the Kaiser. To me it is unthinkable that a man can claim to be a Christian and not be willing to fight to preserve Christianity for if the war lord of Ger many wins, then it will be good-by for a time at least to the prince of peace. l
 As a protesting Christian, and as an humble minister of the gospel of peace and good will toward men," I am en- listed for all am worth in the army oi my Lord against the great overlord oi German, who seeks to set aside the teachings of the Master, and would throw on the junk pile as outworn idealism the Sermon on the Mount and replace the beatitudes which breathe the spirit oi humanitarianism with the stern maxims underlying German kultur which tells us that might is right, and that the bold shall inherit the earth, and then goes out to prove it by the sword
 Let us get it ingraned into our inmost thinking that so far as America is con
 cerned this Is a holy war if there evel was any such thing since the world be
 gan. MT. Harrison, who made the no, table address at the Rotary lunch tol6
 of how a man, soldier. had confidet to him that there were left in his daily
 thoughts only three things: My home, my country, and my God. It Is blessed trinity, but I would reverse the order and put in this wise: To me there are three dominant thoughts in my presen
 life: My God, my country, my home. This Is said not in the way of captious criti cism of the tribune motto, but to brins
 out the fact, that if God be for us
 our country will be safe; If our country lis safe, then our homes will be secure
 Yes, let's make 1t holy war by in
 scribing on our banners: For God, anc country and home."
 By so doing we will be living up tc
 the principles of our worthy forefath-
 CTS who purchased our freedom witt
 their own precious blood.
 .H0.<NlIh lN.A.