The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-05-17
GOD OR TYRANTS
 TO RULE NATION
Moral Principles Must Be Invoked in National Life
 Says Dr. Walker

Religion, the Christian religion, has right to be heard' stated Rev. pr. John c. Walker, Second Congre- gational church pastor, yesterday morning in his sermon entitled, That This Nation Under God
 pr. Walker said in bart:
 It will go i'll with us and with the nations of the world unless moral principles are invoked, religious in- sights are given their fair weight, when the treaty of peace shall be written. What William Penn said long ago has been underscored by the history of the last twenty five years, Mankind will ultimately be governed either by God or by ty- rants" Grass selfishness, fragrant injustice, brutal intolerance, open denial and disregard of the moral law, lead as certainly to disaster in the family of nations as they do in the lives of the individual human family. Ten years ago Jan Christian Shuts, Philosopher, statesman, field marshall said, eff you ask me what is wrong with Europe should say that the moral basis in Europe, the bedrock of the Christian moral code, has become undermined and can no longer support all that superstruc- ture of economic and industrial prosperity which the last century built up on it." What the Field Mar shall said of Europe was true of the whole international world and no small part Of the cause of the stead fly disintegration of international relations during the tWenties and thirties was due to the realism, the cynicism with which the last peace treaty was written.
 It Is too much to hope that those who write the next peace will be an- imated by the purest possible mo tives and that they will give us per- feet justice. What we do ask is a peace which will give us the larger measure of justice, that will SOW as few dragons teeth as possible, that will be in essentially dynamic peace, peace that will give us and all men some new hope and promise for the future. It has been pointed out by Sir Norman Angell that what we call the Treaty of Versailles was really the second Treaty of Yer sailles the first having been imposed by the Germans on France at the end of the Franco-Prussian War. To all intents and purposes Hitler wrote third teaty of Versailles by rf,,1I IAfN the provisions of the second treaty. Do you want another Versailles, written in the same temper of re- venge or do we want to break the fatal chain and begin to write new kind of treaty? We cannot afford to punish Germany according to what might seem her just deserts in the light of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. We must think in terms of future justice and en- during peace.
 Yes l think religion has right to be heard. We have no right to ask for hearing at the peace confer ence If our pourpose is to further the interests of our own denomina- ton or communion. Churchmen have no special claim 10 a hearing if they speak as Catholics or Pro- testants but they have every right to be heard if they speak in terms of humanity, if they speak in the name of Christ. On the notice board Of church in Ohio there appeared these words, This church has B members in the armed forces and 530 mem- bers praying for a just peace" In so far as that is the spirit of a church or synagogue, its members have the right to be heard in the councils of state and at the confer ence table of the nations.