The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-05-24

profanity, blasphemy and treason.
The Wesleyans of Central Hall did
not intend any of these things. Their
sincerity and devotion are entirely
above the question, But their prayers
do little justice to either, and none
at all to their intelligence. Brains,
Wesleyans, brains! For Gods sake
in this hour of peril. let US have not
only your piety, but your brains.
PACIFTSTS AND PRAYER.
I fully expect and indeed already
know, that an attempt will be made
to prove that the prayer in question
meant somthing less and perhaps quite
other than say; but lest there should
be any unworthy effort to escape
from the only illogical Interpretation,
look at the terms of this second Pc
tition, which agree with the spirit of
the first and carry it to it's natural
conclusion: That God will give us
a peace that will not mean the break
ing down of any other nation, nor the
destruction and humiliation Of any
people.
We have sinned, and as the just
punishment of God, we have suffered
Let us not, therefore, seek to break
down, destroy, or humiliate the in
struments of Gods revenge.
Now, here is the authentic voice of
the shallowest and most mischievous
"pacifsm" that masquerades under
, the sun. If believed that the Wes-
! leyans fully REALIZED the whole dan
eerous and damnable disloya1ty of it,
should say Though some of them
+ no wrong, shall die on the battlefield
and our little children, and the child
rem Of our brother-nation across the
ocean, shall be drowned in the open
, sea-
> THE HUN AS GODS INSTRUMENT.
$ Oh, L well know with what theolog.
: ical conjuring and juggling certain
:, TYPE of the religious mind hal
l throughout the Christian ages made
d effort to escape from such NANTES
i deductions. There is no escape from
them.
If the German is Gods instrumen
= for the chastisement of our sins, VIII,
= should we resist him? If the war
;, Gods punishment OF our transgres
= sions, our duty is to submit to it, a
the Christians of the dark ages sub
:, mitted in helpless blindness to famin
= and plague. 'tMea culpa" should b
. our only cry.
To charge the war to our nationa
=, sins, and to pray for deliverance fror
= them as a means of propitiating tn
Almighty that He may end the hor
q ror, is to belittle God, to degrad
70 man, and to weaken our will to over
= are among my lifelong friends) tha
their proper place, in this world
travail and agony, is not the Centrs
- Hall, but the inside of an internmer
= camp. cannot believe they do.
Is THE REIISION OF THE SWORD.
re The surface meaning of the word
p of this second prayer is almost er
in tirely without value. No sane mai
r, as Mr.. Balfour said, desires to brea
&c up and destroy the German nation
< No rational being expects that, VIVA
ever victory comes to us, we shall l.
able to carry on the world in futul
as If one hundred millions Of OF
1e fellow-creatures did not exist in It, {
ut existed only under our feet, and 50 IL
OF we are all pacifsts as the Founder
a our Faith was a paci1st.
IN But what we do desire and expe
SIS is to destroy the evil system whic
Il threatens to destroy humanity, civi
ms iation, liberty, morality. religion, ar
every thing we hold dear. That ev
If thing is gathered up and embodie
as in the German military system, whic
UT (as the Germans, Goethe, shows) TAX
Id a good man and turns him out a bru
Id which encases society in a coar
in shell, which transforms justice in
tie harshness and cruelty, which eI
as thrones braen necessity as the on
of goddess to be worshipped, which Sc
us force above faith, and Corsica abo'
ne Calvary, which blunts the impulse
v mercy, and, reduces the conception
", humanity to ruin.