The Dominion. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1915. PEACE, PROGRESS, AND PURPOSE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2652, 24 December 1915, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1915. PEACE, PROGRESS, AND PURPOSE

The Christmas message of "Peacc on earth" comes as a reproach and a challenge at this time, when the greatest and bloodiest war in the history of tho world is shaking the foundations of civilisation. It reproaches us for the slowness of our progress towards the full realisation of the Christian ideal, and it challenge us to reconsider some of our traditional- views as to the relative value of things'! It seems, at first sight, to cut clean across the groove into which our thoughts havo fallen during the past year. It gives us a wholesome moral shock. It is well at such a time as th'is to endeavour to clarify oiir thoughts and ask ourselves a few_ searching questions. Take, for instance, this word "peace" about which we hear so •much at Christmastido. What do wc mean by it 1 ! Does it merely imply, absence of war? Can peaoo in its' Christian sens© be dissociated from justice and well-being'! There are people who would "mako a wilderness and call it peace," and others are for ever crying "Peace, peace, when there . is no peace." Others again seem to think that peace consists in following the line of least resistance. "Anything. for a quiet life" might well ; be the motto of some pacifists who appear to be quite content to let the rest of the world drift over any precipice provided their own tranquillity is not disturbed. A good (leal of misunderstanding may bo traced to failure to distinguish between political peace and that peace of heairt and mind which is trie result of a conscience void of offence, and which may b® enjoyed even in the midst of war. Many woll-meaning men and women have got hold of the idea that peace is tho foundation of all other virtues and blessings, and that the abolition of war would usher in the golden age. But th'is is a mistake. In-the Christian order of things, righteousness comes before peace. Until the claims of honour and justice have teen satisfied there can be no true or lasting peace. The same Voice which said, "My peace I give unto you" also said "I came not to send peace, but a sword." There can bo no compromise with injustice or oppression. The battle against wrong-doing must be a fight to a finish; but we may hope and believe that this sword sent on the earth will ultimateJyensure'tho triumph of good over evil and prepare the way for the only peace worth having—peace firmly established on righteousness. Ruskin reminds us that it is of tho Prince of Peace that it is written: "In righteousness He doth judge, and make, war." Dr. G. A. Smith, the distinguished Principal of the University of Aberdeen,_ asserts that the Founder of Christianity never pledged us political peace, and that the prevalence of war during these nineteen centuries is not proof that the Gospel has failed. In a perfectly' Christian world there would, of course, be no wars, but tho moral evolution of humanity is a painfully slow process. As long as greed and aggression, envy and suspicion, exist in tho world, it is folly to shut our eyes to the possibility of conflict. History teaches us that it is at times ncccssary to go to war in order to secure a just pease. Britain might hava kept out of tf.ku in'tioeijl. . Btrufiglc, Instead of cyikittf, ivemoa-...

dous sacrifices and risking her all, she might have made huge profits out of the needs of the belligerents. She might have betrayed her friends and remained neutral; but it would have been a shameful neutrality. An unrighteous peace is as un-Christian as an unrighteous war. It is for the sake of peace—a just peacc—that we are fighting. Du. Dale, of. Birmingham, one of the most famous Nonconformists of tho Nineteenth Cen-

tury, has left on record the emphatic declaration that lie believed "in peace—true peacc—at any price; in peace even at tho price of war." St. Augustine, the great Christian philosopher, expresses the same idea in another way when be states that those who are fighting for a'just cause are unquestionably engaged in the pursuit of peaee, even though the quest be prosecuted through blood. He held that a;\yar is just if waged against a nation which retuscs to grant compensation for outrage or injury, or if undertaken in order to repress arrogance or overweening insolence. . The Dean of Westminster summarises tho views of the Christian Fathers in rcfcre'nco to war in these words:

If tho world were Christian there would be no ware. As things are wars will always recur. Some wars unprovoked, unjust, savage; others arc just, honourable, and necessary—moro especially wars of self-defence and wars for„the protection of the- weak. A soldior's calling is perfectly compatible with the service of Christ.

Yet every war, just or unjust, re-\, minds us that the "divine event to which tho whole' creation move's',' is I still -very far off indeed. Humanity seems to make a few painful and uncertain steps forward. Then some overwhelming catastrophe comes and all that has been gained is apparently lost again at a stroke. Bfifc a thousand years is a comparatively short span in the history of the human race, and it is only when we take long ,views that we see that the world is really moving forward through tragedy and conflict to better things. The softer aspects of life—peace, joy, comfort—have exercised a far less potent influence, in the making of man than life's tragic elements—struggle, danger, suffering. The fundamental ideas of Christianity group' themselves around the deepest tragedy in history, and war has played a great part in human evolution. In a striking article in the Hibbert Journal, Professor Hugh Walker, of St. David's College, Lampeter, remarks that with the horror and the brutality of war there are mingled * elements of awful beauty, of stern joy, and of fierce delight. Browning, ho Eays, makes us feel that tho. summit of manhood is reached when

'Man stands out again, pale, resolute, Prepared to die—which means alivo at last.

We instinctively feel that tho poet is right when he asserts that a man is not fully alive—alive ill the highest sense—until he is prepared to die. It is this feeling that makes _us thrill as wo see a body of soldiers marching to war. These are the men who live dangerously, who carry their lives in their hands, who look death in tho face. _ Self-sacrifice, one of the root principles of Christianity, is also part of the moral equipment of the true soldier. One of tbe finest poems which the present war has inspired declares that those soldier graves in Flanders and Gallipoli

Where sleep those brave hearts who for others died, Tell of life's union \yith the Crucified. And new light kindles on tho mourner's eyes, Like day-dawn breaking through the' rifted skies; For life is born of life's self-sacrifice. .The path of progress_ lies through tragedy and tribulition, and progress implies a purpose and a goal.Mr. Balfour in his recent Gifford Lectures declares that ."design" is demanded by all that we deem most valuable in life—by beauty, by morals, by scientific trath. If all tho blood and tears of humanity are purposeless and count for nothing; if all our strivings are without' real or permanent value, then the universe is like "a tale told by an idiot," an unintelligent tangle of meaningless happenings. _ Tho war is bringing us back to simpler and saner views of things. Men who are iu a position to speak with authority, like Principal Jacks, of Manchester College, Oxford, express the opinion that the war has given a sharp check to th} tendency of British theologians to sit at the feet of the Germans. Tho idea that no English argument can stand without the support of a German footnote has been brushe'd aside, and the collapse of thb German' prop should make British thought more stable, independent, and original, and also more respectful of the plain man's point of view which has been so persuasively advocated by Mr. Balfour. There is something peculiarly British in Mr. Balfour's contention that the creed of common sense is probably tho sanest interpretation of tho universe. It gives us a real God—"a God whom men can love, a God to whom men can pray, Who takes sides, Who has purposes and preferences, Whose attributes, however conceived, leave unimpaired tho possibility of a personal relation between Himself and those whom He has created." In a time like 'the present, when. th© world is rocking under our feet, 'it is- well to be able to believe that good can be brought out of evil, and that man and the universe are being guided by perfect wisdom 'and infinite, power to a foreseen and all-satisfying goal. The alternative is the nightmare theory of a wild and rudderless world.