The Washington herald., 1920-11-07
Unity of the Spirit.

among church men today arising
from their differences as citizens
The great Mohammedan world is deeply
stirred by the political transformations that
have been wrought by the war and by the
Paris treaty in the Near East.
Much of the friction between Japan and
Korea grows out of differing conceptions
of Korean loyalty to Japan which exist be-
tween the Christian converts of Chosen and
Japanese officials who are non-Christian.
In Russia there is an anti-religious aspect
to the Soviet regime which casts against
it fhe conservative forces of the Greek
Church. the monasteries of which have been
invaded, its churches rifed of their treas
ures and its priests killed.
Europe is Witnessing return OF anti
pathy to the Jew that is rejecting not only
racial prejudice but also Christians animos-
tiles. The problem of Irish independence,
fought for by the adherents of the re-
public, is complicated by age-long religious
antipathies that have been famed into fame
by the militant policies of the rulers and
the ruled In this country in an effort to
promote "Americanization," steps have been
taken in some States that are arousing the
old fight between secular public schools
and schools maintained by Lutheran and
Roman Catholic churches.
Noting such facts as these it is easy
for the advocate of peace among the great
ethnic faiths and the subdivisions that ex-
ist in each group, to become pessimistic.
He may fall into the mood of thinking
that the war has had one of its worst eff
fects in thus renewing controversies that
had begun to die out. And up to a certain
point he is justified in so thinking War
often sets loyalty to race and to creed
above loyalty to humanity, unless there
goes along with it a display of remedial
love off-setting the use of physical force
Now it is the glory of the late war that
while political, military and economic greeds
have had their chance to assume terrible
proportions and have called for unpre-
cedented losses OF life and property, the
war also showed humanity at its best sue
coring the wounded, the dying, the diseased
and the impoverished. In doing this work
Christians may have been more numerous,
had ampler resources OF men and women
and wealth, and shown greater organizing
and administrative skill. But in the es-
sential work of proving that there are still
Good Samaritans in the world, there have
been splendid witnesses among the seed
of Abraham, the followers of Confucius,
Buddha and Mohammed. Face to face with
death and being witnesses of human need
they have sunk all their differences of ethic
and of theology and have set about doing
good.
Tba - At.
it gave to those who brought it to pass
may be obscured just now by controversies
for which statesmen and not warriors are
responsible. But the historic fact remains
that a great idealistic cause brought them
together, and later they will return to
amity even though they now are in a state
of friction.
The Christian public opinion of Great
Britain and France will not permit the lead
ers of those countries to stir the Moslems to
Holy War" Roman Catholic, Lutheran
and Reformed Christians of Europe will
not let Poland, Germany and Austria make
Central Europe the scene of an anti-Semitic
pogrom. Pressure from the public opinion
of the United States and of the Dominions
will force Great Britain to deal with Ire
land so that the south that looks to Rome
and the Ulster that looks to Geneva may
be brethren in unity. And the United
States is going to work out a system of
education for its youth that will enable the
church and the state to cooperate with,
and not fight each other in giving the
coming generations sounder training in
-ethics than the present popular system of
education gives.
Humanity struggles toward unity of spirit
in matters of religion and ethics, if not
toward uniformity of polity, theology and
ritual It is trend that cannot be re-
versed by any catastrophe, even though it
be world war. The ways of approach
over which men walk to this goal are many,
and some prefer to go one way and some
another. But the goal never changes. One
God made all men. All men therefore, if
He be Father, are brothers; and brothers
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