The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1960-09-09
Why No Peace?
Lesson for September IL, 1860

people the same question: If you
could have, tomorrow, an idea.
world, a world made to your or
der, what kind Of world would il
be? You might get ten or a hun.
edred different answers, but it is
safe to say that one feature
would be found in all Of these
ideal worlds: it would be world
in America, nobody anywhere in
the world wants to live in a
warning world. Everybody is in
favor of peace.
Why We All Want Peace
Turn to the Bible and you find
the same thing. Every prophet
who looks down the long vista of
time to Gods Golden Age, sees
a world at peace. Some Of the
best-known passages from the
Bible are those from Isaiah Sc
lected for this week. So if human
beings want peace, at least to
this extent they are on Gods
side.
Why we hope for peace is plain
enough. Reasons may vary from
low fbad) to high (good). The
prophets reasons are certainly
high ones. The reason why war
is bad is what it does to people.
Nowadays. of course. war means
total destruction; but even when
that is not true, war means the
slow or swift degeneration Of hui
man beings. "All's fair in love
and war is not true but most
people think it is, and the longer
war goes on. the more people be-
lleve it. Lying, cruelty, theft,
murder, adultery become COM
monplace. The enemy looks to us
less than human (and SO do we
to the enemy SO that we make
excuses for our beastly treatment
OF him by calling him a beast.
Why We Don't Get Peace
Now, why is it that something
we all want, and that God wants,
we don't get? The history of
western Europe. and of the
United States. is one long series
OF wars. We scarcely get over
one before the next one comes
off the assembly line. If it ism t
a hot war it's a cold one-and
the "cold war" is no goth cen
fury invention. Only the name is
new.
Of course one reason we don't
get peace is that we want it for
wrong reasons. One of the COM
monest Of wrong reasons is that
we want peace in order to estab-
llsh our own nation Whatever
nation that Isl as top dog"
There have been such periods of
peace in the world, when Egypt,
or Macedonia, or Rome, or the
British Empire. just sat on the
rest of the world and maintained
peace by threat of force, main
tanning its own position at the
top OF the heap. The trouble with
that kind of peace is that nobody
likes it except the people on top
OF the pile. Sooner or later the
people who have been sat on de-
cid they've had enough MN and
the fight starts all over again.
Things That Make for Peace
There are other bad motives
for desiring a world at peace,
but you can think of them with
out too much trouble. Let us look
at another point. We do not hear
OF Jesus weeping often; but one
OF the rare occasions when he
did cry was when he looked on
his own capital city and wept
over it. He saw in his minds
eye 1.-THE days when your
enemies will surround you
and dash you to the ground"
Tx. 19:41-44. And why 1.-THE
things that make for peace are
hid from your eyes" Peace does
not glide down from heaven on
a moonbeam. Peace has to be
made and kept.
Prince of Peace
Nations neglecting these things
are going down the road to war.
But the most important thing re-
mains to be said: The nation
that neglects Christ is shutting
itself off from peace. while the
nation that is Christian is
strong force for peace. This is
not just matter of theology. It
is not saying that if you believe
articles one, two, etcetera, you
will never have a war. 1t is say
ing that the nation with an in
creasing number of citizens
whose lives are truly Christlike,
who honor him and follow him,
is nation which is more and
more able to lead other nations
in the way of peace.
Based on outlines copyrighted
by the Division of Christian Edu-
cation, National Council Of the
Churches Of Christ in the U. S. A.
Released by Community Press
Seryice.)