Article August 12, 1905 Issue

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with contributions from Arthur T. Hadley, Francis G. Peabody

In the light of twenty centuries of Christian teaching; in a more general recognition of brotherhood; in the kindlier spirit introduced through the progress of a higher civilization, it is inconceivable that Christian nations should believe war to be justifiable under any condition. There may appear to be great principles involved in national disputes, but to say that those principles cannot be maintained except by war, is an open contradiction of the very heart of Christian teaching. It is from human weakness and hate that wars and rumors of war continue through the generations, but this does not argue their justification. Whatever may be our declarations as to the desirability of peace measures, so long as we allow war to continue, we are in league with the fiercest spirits of hell. Standing in the calm of the teaching of Jesus, how strangely inconsistent for Christian nations to accept as matters of necessity the decisions of cabinets and political leaders, which plunge nations in awful carnage and strife, with unspeakable suffering and swift death. Bloody battle-fields are held in honor because humanity has glorified a hateful superstition. We condemn the murderer and consign him to oblivion. We uphold and make honorable the deadly strife of contending arms. We hang the man who shoots down his fellow-man in the pursuits of daily life; we cheer the battle-line and admire those who can effect the greatest sacrifice of life. War, what virtues do we attribute to its hellish horror! What a perversion of every principle and claim of righteousness! What folly for men who believe in peace to act as though justice could find no arbitrament except in the fierce conflict of death!

The Standard.

There must be a sense, both on the part of the business man and the politician, on the part of those who have and on the part of those who desire to have, that power is a trust and not a privilege; that life is to be valued not for what it enables us to get out of the people but for what it enables us to give to the people in the way of service. This was Christ's message nineteen centuries ago. This is the message of every true prophet. This has been and must be the message of the Church whenever the Church is a power among the people. Pres. Arthur T. Hadley. The Independent.

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