The Washington herald., 1918-08-11

''he looked about on them with an
ger" Again. who can read without
shuddering the Masters fierce denun-
ciation of the Scribes and Pharisees
in the 23d chapter of st. Matthew.
Woe unto you" Woe meant dam
nation" He ends his vials of wrath
in these words: I'VE serpents! Ye gen.
GRAFTON of vipers! How can ye escape
the damnation (the woes) OF hell?"
But note the difference between
those whom Christ thus hated and
those whom We hate and the way in
which we hate them. We resent per-
sonal insults and injuries. Christ did
not. His indignation was only
aroused over the abuse of others. Our
wrath is selfish. His was not. Jecus
was never angry at private wrong.
never resented a personal injury. He
prayed His Father to forgive those
who nailed him to the cross. We have
no record, however. OF his praying
God to forgive the Scribes and Phari-
sees. Toward them his goodwill took
one form of hate, that is righteous in
dignation, adherence of evil treat
ment OF the children of God. He had
a capacious and violent moral indig-
nation. He hated evildoers tremen-
dously because he loved the people
whom they were mistreating. Christ
did not hate his personal enemies. He
prayed for them-had goodwill to-
ward them. So the Christian should
not hate his personal enemies but for
give and have goodwill toward them.
Goodwill Is not a desire for the
pleasure, the worldly happiness of
ones enemies or the enemies OF the
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wicked includes the will that they
should be punished until they repent.
To forgive before there be repentance
and conversion would be to encourage
and increase evil. God does not so
forgive until they repent. He makes
them suffer for their sins. Our high
est conception Of punishment of GRIM
inals Is that Of a remedy for reforma-
ton rather than a torture for vindic-
tiveness. Goodwill in God and man
thus includes the element of righteous
indignation and reformatory punish
ment. We should pray for our enc
mics and the enemies of mankind
that they may be brought to repen-
tence and a better mind. This in
cludes a prayer for all the punish
ment needed to purge them of evil
and convert them to good. The pious
Erasmus was won't to pray for the
devil, for his re-conversion to being
a Son of God. In the best sense all
fighting against the devil is a fight
for his conversion, that God may be
all in all. and His kingdom over all.
The devil and his angels, the enemies
Of the kingdom Of God on earth. we
are to hate with the righteous indig-
nation of the Master Himself. Today
that means the Kaiser and the whole
Potsdam gang and the whole mill
tarism Of Germany.
II one has any philosophy Of history.
any faith in the progress of mankind
In real freedom; IL one holds to one
increasing purpose running through
the ages; IL one believes in the evolu-
ton of the higher out of the lower; II
one traces the ascent of man out of
the brute through the countless ages
of struggle, then one can, one must
view this present war as a veritable
Armageddon of the hosts of evil
against the attained moral results of
this struggle. The moral values of
the race are at stake. We should
have Christ's own hot righteous indie-
nation. We should have his good will
for the "damnation of helr' for those
who are so ruthlessly destroying these
moral values. we cannot pray God to
spare their lives We must kill their
tools. the German soldiers. We must
strip them of their physical existence,
though we may pray for such purga-
torial punishment in the other world
as may lead them to repentance.
The war Is the one great moral issue
of this day and generation. No moral
man can be neutral or a pacifist. Arm
for the fight. Send son, brother, hus-
band-all who can go and kill! XIII
till they repent and cease their crimes
against humanity. their wrecking all
the hard-won moral values of the
ages. XIII, not only for the good of
others. but also for their own real
good. Love them with the ethical
love that wills not their persistence in
evil, but their salvation from It In
It all have an intense will for the real
good Of the great German nation-for
its restoration to leadership in art,
literature. music, philosophical that
viii make her again the leader in
idealism.
Have o righteous Indignation; hate
their present brutal atrocities, their
worship Of the god Of physical force.
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