The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-12-20
THE MEANING OF
JESUS FOR PEACE
LESSON THEME
Sunday School Leader
Claims War Can Be
0utIaWed.
The International Uniform Sunday
School Lesson for Dec. 81. The Mean
ing of Jesus for Peace. Luke $500.
BY VIM. e. GILROY, d. ID.
Editor of The CengregationaIist

AuStVA VI AuC NeuEIckotOud1tSt
Discussions Of peace have new
status in the world since the sign
ing of the Kellogg pact. BY that
Kellogg pact, in which almost all
the nations of the world have
agreed to renounce war as q method
of settling international disputes,
the world has definitely approved
an ideal, even though the world
still may be rather far from it in
practice.
The cynic and the thoughtless
critic may see in this futile gesture
of nations still at bottom very mil
itaristic in spirit. He may even go
so far as to regard it as a piece of
hypocrisy while the nations spend so
enormously upon the maintenance
of armament and military establish
ments.
But all progress comes through
the contemplation and pursuit OF
unrealized ideals. Men see some
thing as desirable end today that
tomorrow or the day after they will
come little nearer attaining. It Is
not without meaning, therefore, or
without value that the nations have
set before themselves the ideal and
goal of the outlawry Of war.
Laws Are Not Enough
But war cannot be outlawed
simply by the passing of laws and
by the making of agreements on
paper. The outlawry of war and
the agreements may emphasize
the desirable ideal and set stand
ards of action, but these only en-
phasize all the more the moral
and spiritual work on behalf of
peace that must go on in all edu-
cational and religious enterprises.
Nothing happens in the world
without adequate cause, and if
men desire world peace. they
must establish the conditions that
make it possible and net make it
necessary.
How are these conditions, to be
established except through the in
f1uence of the spirit of Jesus
Christ? 1t Is not by chance that
He has become known through
the ages as the Prince of Peace.
Here in our Christmas lesson the
story of His birth is set In a drama
of peace and good will to men.
The glory that is to God in the
highest is inevitably associated
in all the life and teaching of the
Master with peace on earth.
1t is the quality of the peace
that Jesus gives and that He en-
joins through His teaching that
it enters into all aspects and re-
lationships of life. It has its rise
and beginning in the love that
creates a peaceful attitude in in
dividual hearts. Love seeketh
not her own" says Paul; "is not
easily provoked" Love is the
antithesis of the hate and greed
and lust of power and dissension
that through the ages have occa-
stoned war and violence.
Need Spirit of Jesus
It is necessary today that we
should link the spirit of Jesus defi-
nitely with the movements of peace
in the modern world. Are Chris
tians going to be Indifferent, or
backward, or blind, in an age when
the very institutions of the world
are turned toward the quest of the
goal that Jesus pre-eminently has
set for human relationships?
There will never, perhaps, be
complete unaninity among men re-
garding the issues that exist in a
world of nations still enthusiastically
organized in which the higher and
purer ideals are seeking expression
and attainment. There will be
those who feel that the ideal itself
must determine action who will take
the attitude Of personal non-resist-
ance and of willingness to suffer
and die rather than to participate
in war.
There will be others who, seeing
and pursuing the ideal and working
for it by practical ways mad meas
ures, will not feel that the Chris
tan conscience entirely forbids the
use of force against force. They
will take the view that certain
Christian warriors have taken in
the past that force itself can be
consecrated to purposes of peace
and righteousness.
Two Types Of Peace Lovers
The debate between these types
can never be fully adjusted, but
it would mean a great deal if all
who profess the name of Christ were
definitely devoted to the attain
ment of peace. 1t is certain that
only peaceful dispositions and
peaceful attitudes can establish a
peaceable world.
In the great cause Of peace in
America there have been men like
William Penn and John Woolman,
who took the extreme pacif1st po-
sition, and there have been men
| like Abraham Lincoln, to whose lot
it fell to assume the chief re-
sponsibility in time of war. Both
types are still found in our land. No
one can doubt the beauty of the
ideal to which Penn and Woolman
gave their personal witness. Nc one,
or the other hard, can doubt that
essentially Lincoln was q profound
lover of peace.
We can not all agree upon the
method or the philosophy of prac-
teal action, but we can all con-
secrate our hearts and lives to the
God Of Peace and to the task of
peace. He who does less than
that has never understood the
meaning of the Christmas story or
brought the reality of it into his
OWN life.