[Cedar Rapids Gazette, Iowa]

In the far days of Queen Elizabeth—days of war when the Spanish Armada threatened England—some wise soul, whose name is now lost, wrote a "Prayer for Our Enemies," after this manner:

"Merciful and loving Father, we beseech Thee most humbly, even with all our hearts, to pour out upon our enemies with bountiful hand, whatsoever things Thou knowest may do them good.

"And chiefly a sound and uncorrupt corrupt mind, wherethrough they may know Thee and love Thee in true charity and with their whole heart, and love us Thy children for Thy sake.

"Let not their first hating of us turn of their harm, seeing that we cannot do them good for want of ability.

"Lord, we desire their amendment and our own. Separate them not from us by punishing them, but join and knit them to us by Thy favorable dealing with them.

"And seeing that we be all ordained to be citizens of the one Everlasting City, let us begin to enter into that way here already by mutual love which may bring us right forth thither."

Truly it was a wise prayer, compassionate and clear-seeing, and it may well be our prayer in these days of war. It knows no race, no frontier, no self-righteous pride and vanity of power.

It bids us ask nothing for ourselves which we do not ask for our enemies. It is aware of the unity of the race, underneath all feuds, and that all are destined to be citizens of one City.

It does not ask God to take sides, telling Him what is just and right, as if He needed to be told. It is as wise for what it does not ask as for what it asks; it does not dictate to God.

It was a desperate struggle, then as now, yet this prayer knows no fear, no panic, no hatred—it asks no retribution.

May a righteous and merciful God give us a like poise of spirit, wisdom of heart, charity of mind, and freedom from fear.

Trees are known by their fruit; men by their prayers and deeds.

[Mrs. Charles B. Pryor, in the Savannah Morning News, Georgia]

A few days ago a debate was held on the air on the subject, "Shall we hate our enemies?" Of course there are hot-headed individuals who are swayed by such feelings. But it is shocking that anyone in this country should seriously consider deliberately attempting to arouse the spirit of hatred in our people to make them work and fight harder in the war effort. We are fighting for the world's freedom, not only our own. The primary freedom is religious freedom. Where the spirit of Christianity can have full sway, all other true freedoms follow automatically. If we are fighting for the right we must be right. Jesus said, "Love your enemies, ... pray for them which despitefully use you."

If General Chiang Kai-shek and the Christians in China, who have suffered untold horrors, can pray for the Japanese, shall we, presumably a Christian nation, set ourselves to hate them? We have sufficient objects for hate ... in sin and evil everywhere, including here. We have sufficient motive for going "all out" in preserving what we have—in pity and love for the suffering and oppressed everywhere.

[Mitchigan Christian Advocate, Adrian]

At the time of his enthronement as Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. William Temple prayed an extemporaneous prayer for "our enemies, that their hearts and ours may be drawn to God the Father of all, and that they may be filled with desire to serve Him so that peace may be established on a foundation of justice, truth, and good will."

By so praying the Archbishop helps to determine an attitude with which all Christians must approach the problem of this war if the peace is to be won. Hating our enemies only lowers us to their level, and it needs to be remembered that some of them do not hate us. Praying for them lifts them and us to higher levels of living and only upon that high level can a better world be built.

The world is fortunate that the ninety-sixth primate of England is the kind that prays for his enemies.

[Marlboro News, Marlboro, New York]

When the snow melts on the faroff mountaintops and the spring rains begin to fall, then those who dwell by the great rivers watch for flood waters. What may be lifegiving streams to great parts of our land are devastating torrents to other sections. Flood control is a vital subject to those who dwell in the lowlands through which the rivers course.

The government engineers have made great strides in averting the damage of flood. They have built great walls to wall off the rivers; they have built great dams to hold back the torrents and to control their flow into other areas so they make fertile great wastes.

All this is most essential—but even more necessary today is a system of hate control.... We need to build walls of understanding to hold the hatreds out. For mutual understanding leads to mutual trust, and in trust there is no hate.

We need to reforest the scarred places in our minds—scars caused by hatred, bitterness, despair, and intolerance—to reforest them with understanding, compassion, friendliness, and love.

We need to dam back the floods of hate with bulwarks of education—education in positive democratic living, in putting into practice in our everyday life the things in which we believe.

We need to divert the stream of hate into useful channels, concentrating it on an ideology, not on peoples or races—hating only the evil act or quality.... We will not be guilty of either injustice or intolerance to any member of any group merely because of his race or creed or color, no more than we would want him to be guilty of these toward us. Thus and only thus can we control the flood waters of hate.

[Dr. Ernest Fremont Tittle, in the Times, Kansas City, Missouri]

The ills which now plague the peoples of the earth and have engulfed most of the nations in the greatest military conflict of history, have been brought upon themselves because of their disregard for humility and consideration for the rights of their fellow men....

The future belongs to the young men and women who are schooled first to regard the welfare of humanity as the first essential of a lasting civilization in which service to others is adequate compensation....

No enduring civilzation can be built upon a foundation of greed, lust, and exploitation, but upon the co-operate efforts that tend toward the creation of international unity and good will.

[Christian Century, Chicago]

On his return from his recent visit to America, Dr. J. Hutchison Cockburn, moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, raised his voice in protest against the gradual increase of incitements to hatred in the training being given to British soldiers. In this he was joined by the bishop of St. Albans, Dr. Michael Furse, who addressed a letter to the clergy of his diocese on the subject.... The bishop ... declared that "the Christian view can be summed up in the short sentences: Hate sin. Love the sinner." ...

General B. C. T. Paget, commander-in-chief of the forces defending the British Isles, has just published a letter he has written to all army commanders deploring the systematic inculcation of foul language and hatred in the training of troops and ordering it stopped. "When such language is used it is most harmful to discipline. An attempt to produce ... hate is foreign to the British temperament, and any attempt to produce it by artificial stimulus is bound to fail, as it did in the last war."

This is a sound observation, and the policy laid down by General Paget might well be made a general order to all the forces of the United Nations.

[Herald, Albany, Georgia]

We are told in the Bible to hate evil, but to love the evildoer. We are even told, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."

Does this mean that we are never to defend ourselves when aggressors rise up against us?

Certainly no sensible person can put that interpretation upon the words of Jesus, who scourged the money-changers from the temple. He did not hate them, but he hated the evil they were doing.

[Dr. Eversley Ferris, as quoted in the Gazette News, Le Roy, New York]

The "Town Meeting of the Air" a few months ago debated the question, "Is hatred necessary to win a war?" The balance of the argument seemed to favor the negative.... All the arguments, however plausible, cannot alter the law of the Spirit, that hatred brings sickness and death. No permanent peace can be built on hatred.

To be sure, good will, or love of parents for child, does not save the child from being spanked, but when the spanking is over and the child ready to be a cooperative member of society, he is welcomed back because the good will of the parents has never ceased. Christ [Jesus] bids us, "Love your enemies"—maintain this element of good will toward people, however much we may abhor what they do and whatever punishment is meted out.

Many statesmen are coming out for a United States of the World, where justice and co-operation can be found for all states, large and small.

[Dr. Frank E. Duddy, as quoted in the Boston (Massachusetts) Herald]

Jesus did not practice a love that was always kindly and tolerant, but on the contrary one that on occasion was relentless and inexorable, smashing through smug complacency, conventional respectability, and vulgar selfishness.

True Christian love is not flabby and weak and effeminate. It is stern and strong and relentless....

It was revolutionary talk to say that unless a man loved his fellow men he could not love God. It is revolutionary talk today in many quarters. But it is an integral part of the testimony of Jesus, and without adherence to it we cannot be Christian.