The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1918-08-29
THE PEOPLES FORUM.
Crises In Life.

familiar with the history OF Henry
Fawcett, the Young Englishman, who
when hunting with his father, wet with
an accident that would have crushed
the spirit of any ordinary man snd
broken his nerve as well. He said, 81
made up my mind within ten minutes
after the accident to stick to my main
purpose as far as in melay." He worked
his way through the university. became
professor of Political Economy there;
was elevated to be Postmaster-G General
of England and gave to the British peo-
pie century ago the Parcel Post that
we in America have but lately achieved
for ourselves. He took hold of his case
with will and met it as a challenge to
his strength and not an excuse for dis
heartenment. We are in the midst of a
gigantic war; but we are facing the
outlook before US with feelings of dis
may or maybe despair. What shall be
the conditions after the war? What
will be the social status? Certain it is
that we shall not fall back into the old
way. Men are trying to reason their
way out of the muddle and are trying
to decide whether or not they shall be
social pessimIsts.
Some are asking what will be the po-
litical aspects; or what of the financial
and military interests, while some are
asking what is to be the fate of our re-
ligion, and what shall be the attitude of
faith. That will depend largely on the
kind of religion we have. There is
quite bit of religiosity in the world,
which may look we'll but has not the
meat inside. Mere forms of religion
may be demolished, and faith in phan-
toms may vanish, but Christianity-the
religion of Jesus Christ the Son of God,
and faith in Him as the Saviour and
King, will never fail. Nothing can de-
molish them. On the contrary they
shall outride the storms of life; they
shall carry US through troublous times
If we are truly anchored to Christ.
Some, indeed, are growing dubious of
the social outlook and are giving up to
practical skepticism the faith they
would not surrender to speculative
doubt. They are staggered by the hor-
rors of Verdum, the mangled bodies of
Belgian boys, the bleaching bodies of
countless children left by the Russian
soldiers on their retreat through Poland,
by the vast army of wounded boys in
the hospitals of Europe. They stand
aghast, Mortified, almost paralyzed at
the thought of it and say how can we
keep heart. or maintain faith in the
face of all this
But is Christianity failure because
it did not prevent this? If so then we
must count as failures all those agencies
on which we depended to prevent the
catastrophe. Then education is a tall
ure. From a religious viewpoint we
may properly condem war, but from
the standpoint of intelligence it Is
foolish beyond all doubt, and the uni
yersities of the world have been in ex-
istence long enough to have taught men
the foolshness of war. But the schools
of Germany, from universities down.
have for halt century been teaching
the righteousness of war, on their part
q nd A 90
country has been largely responsible
for this bloody war.
If Christianity is a failure how about
commerce.
1t promised to bind the nations in a
unit so that what happened to one would
happen to all and thus the race would
be one family. 1t was thought this of
its self would demonstrate theumprotita-
bleness of war and so make it impos-
sible. But these economic bonds have
proved to be a cause of strife. For
years past the social idea has been gain
ing ground, and though not socialists in
the technical sense, yet we counted in
the socialist brotherhood uniting mil
lions of workmen in all countries in a
league pledged against war. Yet the
voice of the socialists has been sur
prisingly weak against this awful war.
international law tied its hand and in
its conventions guaranteed to Belgium
her neutrality. What of those guar
antees? They are not worth the paper
on which they are written. Military
necessity knows no law, and so has torn
to shreads the finest work of the best
international lawyers of the world.
Must we then conclude that all of our
ideal agencies have failed, and shall we
cast them aside? There will come period
of reconstruction-it can't come too soon
for most of US, "a period when men will
be compelled to rely on these same
agencies that some are ready to de-
nounce as failures now. They are the
best hopes of humanity. there is no
occasion for dispair concerning them.
We will only understand them better
and make finer use of them. Christi
anity, especially, will arise out of the
debris, with brighter. purer things and
IL