Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-05-06
MONDAY EVENING, MAY 6, 1918.
THE WAR AND CHRISTIANITY

Shortly after the great war began its existence and
character were often cited as evidence that Christianity
had broken down. For nineteen centuries Christianity
had existed in the world, and for a large part of that
time its teachings had been accepted by the bulk Of CIV
illzed humanity. Christianity is a religion of love. And
now. after all these centuries, the great peoples who
had protested this religion were flying at each others
Threats with all the fury Of primeval savages. and the
earth was dyed red with the blood of human beings sac
rificed upon the altar Of hate and base passion.
Thus, with variations, ran the argument. And the
conclusion reached by not a few writer's was that the re-
lision Of Jesus had been tried and found wanting, as be-
ing utterly inapplicable as a controlling influence in the
affairs Of men.
Comment of that character is not usual today. Why
is It? Is 1t because the world has accepted the conclu-
sion as inevitable. and is prepared to experiment with
something else in place Of the religion that has failed so
signally?
We believe that such an Interpretation of the pres
ent attitude would be utterly unwarranted. There is
better reason to believe that the theory Of the failure of
Christianity hass been abandoned as untenable, and be-
cause with the march of events there has come a clearer
conception Of Christianity and a better understanding
Of the meaning Of the war.
The war itself furnishes evidence that Christianity
has not failed, for while the war begun to crafty pas
sions that are repugnant to the spirit of Christianity.
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icated themselves and all that they have and all that
they hope to be to the destruction of those forces which,
If successful.. would have blotted out of the human con
seriousness every tenet Of Christianity and set up in its
place the monstrous doctrine that might makes right,
a doctrine which even the beasts of the forest have found
it necessary to modify for the preservation Of their own
species.
We have read Of the devotion of the early Christian
martyrs. of their, being burned at the stake, Of their
being thrown to the lions to make sport for the multi
tude, of the tortures Of the rack and the thumb screw
which men and women endured rather than deny their
Christian faith. We have read of these things, and the
fortitude of those who suffered has been an inspiration
to us. But when the history of these days has been
written, and students shall delve into what will then be
the remote past in order to ascertain what influences
have contributed to the maintenance in their integrity of
christian ideals, they will find that in these early years
of the Twentieth century, not a handful Of martyrs here
and there, but whole peoples, in every continent, and in
the distant islands Of the sea. understanding the cost and
accepting the risk, marshaled themselves into the great
est and grandest army that the world has ever seen in
a war which. stripped Of all its extraneous trappings,
was in, very truth for them a war for the Christian ideal.
No. Christianity is not dead, nor has it failed. 1t
lives and operates in the events Of this war, and exercises
such an influence as has never before been exercised in
the history Of mankind And because this is true, upon
every desk which Is dedicated to the teaching Of Chris
tianity there should shine, bright and clear unclouded by
sophistry and academic gymnastics, the beacon light to
sshaw that there is a gathering place for those who are
prepared to enlist their very souls in this war, and
who are resolute in their determination to endure all
things until the menace to all for which Christianity
stands shall have been wiped from the earth.