Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-04-18


After all, militarism does not xii
militarism. For the moment, it 4
true. America and Great Britain
are imposing upon the Conference
the principles enunciated by Presi
dent Wilson; but all who know
aught of the inner life of the Peace
Conference understand full wei
that the League of Nations idea, anC
all that it connotes, is winning onl.
by virtue of the fact that the Eng
disappearing delegates, supported
by some of the little nations, wielt
the most power.
Archaeology's Oldest Man
All of which means something re
ligious that is tremendous. I
strikes at the root of life. We have
ing society to its foundations
Everything has been in the crucible
Now we take the results OF our in
vestigations and philosophy to Par
is, and we find that there is no new
solution of our old riddles. The
sword has not pointed a way out oi
| the wilderness. We have broken the
power of Germany for the present
but we have not conquered the state
of mind which made Germany what
she was.
In passing, let us not overlook the
significance of the bearing of this
upon the favorite highbrow theory
that humanity will gradually learn
the big lessons, and so grow up into
an advanced state of development,
both personal and social. In Paris
we found leaders freshly graduated
from the red school of war who are
pinning all their faith for to-mor-
row upon military prowess! 1t is
vain to expect mankind to lift itself
by its own bootstraps.
One of my Paris friends is an
archaeologist who has the distinc-
ton of having discovered the old
archaeological man - that is, the
human remains representing the re-
motest known period within which
the race had progressed to the stage
of having personal possessions. "I
was much disappointed to find" said
he, that we have not advanced
particle upon this oldest civilized
man. In brain power and in phySi-
cal structure he was quite the equal
of man to-day. I had to abandon all
beliefs in human evolution as a
means of social progress. We have
not got anywhere essential by physi-
processes of development in
all these thousands of years
OF all the futile words with which
deludes the race, the
most fatuous is the teaching that
human society will evolve by natur-
al growth into a better and finally
in the perfect state. We have to
look elsewhere than to the scientist
for the message that will save the
world.
a. A. D-o.:5z.. co.a T. Do,,n
More than five thousand books
were taken to Paris by the
American commissioners. Only one,
though. is needed to speak the word
of words, which Is that power for
the new life, for man individually
and in the mass, comes from with
out and is divinely impaired. 1t is
the truth of the resurrection: the
old power of death defeated by the
risen Christ, who gives to all who
will share it his own resurrection
power to conquer evil nature and to
win to resurrection life of
strength and love and ministry.
When President Wilson was in
Rome he asked the Protestant pas
tors to meet with him in conference;
and an informal little gathering was
held in the vestry of the Scotch
Presbyterian Church. 1t lasted long
er than the Presidents interview
with the pope. A fellow believer,
the President told these ministers
that he could not have done the
work that has been given him to do
without divine aid, and without the
prayers of Christian people.
Slowly the Christian world has
wakened up to a realization OF the
truth that the Wilson ideals, which
now hold mankind everywhere in
discipleship, are nothing more nor
less than the application to present
conditions of the Gospel of the Risen
Christ. What he is now saying, in
a. language new to statecraft, is
really the message that has been
echoing from ten thousand pulpi55.
The world is being led back to the
hills of Galilee and Judea, to sit
again at the feet of Jesus, by this
son of the manse, who is a religious
teacher before he is anything else.
What the Church Misses
In the presence of the great hour
that overshadows the world, with
problems modern and ancient con-
centrated in one momentous meet
ing in Paris, the human heart in
ment and an assistance more than
human. Baffied by our thronging
perplexities, we turn to religion,
and, 10, we find the ecclesiastical
leaders of the organized church pat
tering and puttering about money
raising projects. and the other con-
ventionalities of the old routine, as
If humanity haG not been afresh in
Garden of Sorrows, and as If the
penniless Christ and his equally poor
apostles had never founded a church
upon something more worth while
than silver and gold. Church
work" has become almost a synonym
for raising funds.
1t would be a brave thing II the
Christian Church would dare to try
to get along for at least a year with
out any money-all the army of sal
aried workers turning aside to some
sort of tent-making. Perhaps such
an ascetic experience would enable
ecclesiasticism to discern how real
is the danger that we may enshrine
a golden calf upon our holiest affairs.
A few days ago the greatest of our
chaplains, as he is of English speak
ing religious leaders, declared to
me that organizations like the Y.
NJ. c. A. must divorce themselves
from dependence upon money, and
men of wealth.
Heart-breakingly, the church so
often misses her opportunity, as do
also we who are her members. She
has a spiritual gift. The resurrec-
ton message is here, and the resur-
rection power. In a time that is
dying for lack of life-panting for