The Leader, enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1915-1921, 1918-05-15

to fame and wealth-these have
crumbled and fallen. Men who trust
ed to them for safety have found
themselves naked and undone. In the
wreck of man-made religion and the
crush of man-made faith, what sur
wives? What remains to which man
may cling when they look into the
face of the world beyond? Today, as
never before men are looking for
Savior. They realize in these anxious
hours of the worlds need of faith
that can send men into battle with
that assurance which the world can
neither give nor which the world can
take away.
Religion alone abides in the hearts
of men. We may not understand why
God permits war, our falath may at
times falter. but the only sure anchor
to the soul is the knowledge that God
is in His Heaven and that after the
thunders OF war, He will give us to
see that in the better days before us
all is well with the world 1t will be
we'll with us because we are fighting
in righteous war With no unholy
or selfish aims, we are justified in the
confident faith that God will give vic
tory to our arms and put it into the
hearts OF men to establish here on
earth governments that promote
peace and justice freed from greed
and self-ag ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This war is challenge to Chris
tianity. There are not wanting those
whose faith in God has wavered be-
cause of the awful slaughter and some
have said this war shows that Christ
ctI-i1iZof,nt, bac fo:1aI The 81,
superficial view. But it is not the true
view. Christianity has not failed. 1t
alone is the Star of Hope. 4 study
OF Prussianism discloses that in that
country the state has usurped the
place of God, and that spiritualism
had given place to materialism. No
people could wantonly wage war for
spoils who had not repudiated the
teachings of Jesus Christ. Prussia
outwardly professed the religion of
the Nazarene. lnwardly it has for
years denied His teachings and the
fluit OF its naterialism is seen in its
brutal war upon women and children.
Men and nations may stand in the
market places and give lip-service,
hut 1t is true of nations as of indiyid-
uals, by their fruits shall we know
them
The Church is a Rock
= To-day the world in travail looks
to the church as the representative of
the living God to recall men and wo-
men to the old gospel, the only sup
port, the only firm foundation, the
only light. All other creeds have fail
ed, all other foundations have crumb-
led, all other lights have gone out. To
the glory of the churches, they have
themselves had new baptism, as
cended the mountain top and obtain
ed a new vision, and are calling to a
world resolved to preserve freedom
to new conservation. The war will
not be won by might alone. 1t will
be won by faith, by prayer, by the
courage which God imparts to all who
in their hour of need look to Him
for guidance and for strength.
Amid the tragedies of this heart
breaking war we must always keep
in mind that we have many causes
for thankfulness in this hour and for
taking courage. Let us thank God
because we have learned in this war
that if man would shoot straight he
must live straight. There was a time
when we shut our eyes to the perils
OF young men in camp. Kipling says,
Single men in the barracks make no
plaster saints We know the perils
OF the youth in our communities and
now they are increased when thew
are away from the influences of home
and tor the first time the government
has taken the lead in surrounding
these young men with wholesome en-
vlronment. We are making zones of |
safety, SO that they may not be the |
prey of evil-minded people who seek
to debauch and destroy them and |
make them inefficient for the great |
work Whereunto they are called.
we have learned that when we
shut our eyes to evil it does not dissi- |
pate evil. We must open our ewes and |
tell young men the truth that if they |
would be good soldiers they must |
keep their bodies clean, and our duty |
to them is to take away every possible |
temptation and surround them with |
every good influence. To that end the |
Protestant church have united in the |
Y. M. c. A. and the Y. w. c. A., and |
our Catholic citizens have organized |
through the Knights of Columbus, |
and our Hebrew fellow citizens |
through the committee on Jewish |
welfare work, and all are working to-
gether. These good influences are |
powerfully aided by the splendid work |
OF the army and navy commissions on |
training camp activities.
What these organized Christian |
and Jewish associations are doing for |
the Strengthening of the moral fiber |
of the men in uniform is but the con-
crete and modified expression of the |
truth preached by men of God, who, |
IN the churchae of A,,,o.:o - -,