CHURCH AND WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3047, 7 April 1917, Page 6

CHURCH AND WAR

v VITAL ISSUES APPEAL TO THE CHRIST y '.'-IS OF AMERICA An appeal to "the Christians of America" against a premature peace has been issued by a group of leading clergymen, distinguished educationists, and other prominent laymen. Among the signatories are: Mr. W. A. Sunday, America's most famous Evangelist, the Rev. Lyman Abbott, the Rev. W. T. Manning, of Trinity Church, New York, the Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis, Brooklyn's best\ known clergyman, Bishop Lawrence, of Massachusetts,' Bishop Anderson, of Chicago, President Hibben, of Princeton University, and Mr. C. J. Bonaparte, ex-Attorney-General of the United States. The appeal says: "We need to be reminded that peace is the triumph of righteousness and noo the mere sheathing of the sword. To clamour for the ending of the present war without ensuring the vindication of truth, justice, and honour is not to seek peace but to sow disaster. Because, it is easy to lose sight of these essential principles we view with some concern the organised and'deliberate effort-now being made to stampede Christian sentiment so as to create a public sentiment blindly favourable to; stopping hostilities without an adequate consideration of-the issues which the war involves. "We are Christians, and as such deem that truth and righteousness are to be maintained inviolate, even at tne sacrifice of physical life. We are citizens of the United States, and as such conscious of the solemn responsibilities of our Christian citizenship. AVe accordingly venture to direct the attention of our fellow-Christians to a few vital issues, which are "making their mute appeal for final decision." There follows the enumeration of some of. Germany's: doings—ravaged Belgium, massacres-of the Armenians, the desolation of Serbia and Poland, the sinking of the Imsitania, the star- [ vation of Jews and Syrians.in tho Holy j Land, the attempt to array Moslems I against Christians, the intimidation of i small nations, and the violation of international agreements., ' •

"In presence of these pending and unsettled' issues (adds the statement) we feel impelled to .warn our brethren against those who. cry.. "Peace, peace, when there is no peace." The just God who withheld not .His own Son from the Cross N would not look with favour upon a people who put their fear of pain and death, their dread of suffering and loss, their concern for comfort and ease, above the holy claims of righteousness, justice, mercy, and truth. The memory of all the saints and.martyrs cries out against'such a backsliding of mankind. Sad isour.lot if we have forgotten how to die for a holy cause'. We solemnly declare cur conviction that\the question of all questions for our immediate consideration is. Shall our ancient Christian inheritance of loyalty Vto gr,eat and Divine ideals be replaced-by considerations of mere expediency?" CHAPLAIN'S HAUL OF PRISONERS 450 GERMANS PERSUADED TO SURRENDER. . ,/ ,' The • exploit of a Roman Catholic chaplain, with eighteen enthusiastic Irishmen, brought in "450 very thankful, if somewhat dejected, Germans," was referred to by.Sir Philip Sassoon in a, recent speech-at Folke'A '"reliable' correspondent states' that the hero of the incident, home on furlough,''hW.-iu'st; been" w;elcoined by iJie parishiouers of a mining hamlet in Lanarkshire. :

It is stated' that a party of tho Dublin Fusiliers, accompanied by the padre, 'when returning from a reconnoitring expedition, were assailed by rifle, tiro from a wood whereit was known the enemy Were entrenched. They immediately sought the refuge of shell-holes, aiid from there fired v» round of shots at the wood. Evidently the fire proved effective,-for three Germans emerged from the wood with their hands held up in token of surrender. ''

;/The chaplain advanced to meet tho 'trio, and informed 'them that one of their number could return to the wood and give the remaining Germans the assurance that: their lives would be snared if thev surrendered. The German who had been deputed to give the message to his compatriots promptly left, but ns he failed to return after a reasonable interval the -"Dubs" tried the effect of another volley. Then two more Germans came out, and a rei>etitirm of tho fire brought out'another trio. .' . . -..;.■ . "

Encouraged by these repeated evidences. of the- snirit of surrender, the chaplain decided to enter- tho wood and see the- officer in charge of the enemv. He did so, and the msult.of his enterprise wns that 450 Germans offered to surrender.

They emerged from the thicket, but when confronted -with only 18 Fusiliers —and not. an entire battalion, as they probably surmised—a number •of them sought to return to the wood, with the obvious intention of renewing the combat. The "Dubs," however, sent a bullet or two in .the direction of the retreating-soldiers and soon dispelled all notions of retaliation.

It is stated that one of the German -officer's approached the chaplain and asked that he might be spared the horrors of torture. At the same time lie significantly pointed to ;i bundle of hank-notes which he held in his extended hand. The retort, apt though it was —"We are British soldiers, sir, -and not thieves"—was' capped by a stalwart Fusilier standing near, who, doubtless chagrined to see so muchmoney unsecured by lock and key, interposed : "Give that to me, my son, and Oi'll take care of you and yer re-' ceipts." ■".•'■.' It is also stated that a second German officer handed to the chaplain an Iron Cross of the 2nd Class. MR. LLOYD GEORGE. BRITAIN'S FIRST DISSENTING PRIME MINISTER. Amid much'that has been said of Mr. Lloyd George during the , last few days, hardly any note appears to have been taken of'the circumstances that •he is our first Dissenting Prime Minister (says the "Guardian"). > Mr. Asquitb, for whom sucli A characterisation might possibly have been claimed, is understood to have become an intellectual convert to the Church of England. And we have heard of his roaming Lessons in church. If ho "disestablished," so, alas! did Mr.. Gladstone. But there can he no mistake' about the true inwardness of Mr. Lloyd George's nonconformity. ■ And ho has no like on this head among English Premiers. In Plantagenet times the' King was Premier, and Dissent was called heresy,, which had cqdso?uonces much more unpleasant than ailure to rise in the service of the State. The Tndors, too, were their o\vn Prime Ministers; uor would it 'have occurred to Henry or Elizabeth to select as chief servant anybody who differed vitally from them in matters theological. _ Some of the Stuarts would at times havo put anybody in office who served their turn, and indeed it was Parliament, not the Court, that imposed the Test Act. Since its repeal towards' the closo of the reign o! George IV, •we havo had two, possibly three, Heads of Administrations

who might bavo been labelled Presbyterians, hut assuredly not Dissenters. They seem, in fact, to have belonged to tho "Established Church"—whether north or south of the Tweed.

A CALL OF COD. CONFIRMATION, CONSOLATION, CONVERSION. The Very Kev. A. Wallace Williamsou, D.D., in the last of a series of lectures on "Christian Faith and the War" in the High U.F. Church, Edinburgh, spoke of the' bewilderment the 1 war has caused, both on the material and the spiritual side of things. The experiences through which we aro passing mean something; and there is a: duty on the Church 'to interpret the meaning. It is not a mere opposition of earthly powers; spiritual ideals and principles.are involved The Avar is not an act of God; but it is a visitation of God; and every visitation is a call of God. It is a,call to our nation and Church to repentance and prayer. Threo great duties are laid upon the Church: (]) A whole-hearted return to a living religion; (2) the acknowledgment of the supremacy of the Lprd Jesus Christ in all things; and (3) reformation of our practices in all spheres. If there is to. be a great spiritual movement, as grant there may be, the Church must be ready with cleanness of heart to present, and press homo with - great simplicity and directness, a Gospel of Confirmation in the Faith, when so many arc shaken; a Gospel of Consolation, when so many are bereaved and sorrowful; and a Gospel of Conversion in the broad, not the narrow, sense. . ■■. RIGHT GREATER THAN PEACE. Professor Carnegie Simpson, of Westminster College, Cambridge, preaching in St.. John's Presbyterian Church, Kensington,' said that every Christian and human heart must be moved by the thought of peace after two, and a half years of appalling war. But this must be said —peace is a moral ideal only when it- is linked to something greater than itself. The only justification for this or any war is that it is necessary for'' an end\ greater, than peace. What is greater than peace? Righteousness is. Why are we at war? We are at war not that wo loved peace less, but that we loved rigbt more. We must continue to love'right more till it is vindicated and secured in the public life of Europe. A peace that was not the fruit of this but the failure of it is not a peace of God. " A SOLDIER'S NOBLE PRAYER. "Verse and Prose, in Peace and War," by Williarti Noel Hodgson, M.C.; (late Lieutenant Devons), has just been published by Smith, Elder, and Co. "In several of the twenty-seven verse pieces here collected," says the "Morning Post," "the author is revealed as a poet of real distinction, a worthy member of the Sidneian fraternity, headed by. Rupert Brooke and Julian Grenfell and Charles Sorley and Robert Nichols. ' "The last of those pieces—'Before Action,' written two days before the poet fell in action—is surely as noble a prayer as has been pronounced by any of these young Greathearts. Here is the last stanza: —' I, that on my.familiar hill Saw; with uncomprehending eyes A hundred of Thy sunsets spill . Their fresh ,and sanguine sacrifice, Ere the 6un 6wings his noonday sword Must say good-bye to all of this:— By all, delights that I shall miss, Help me to die, 0 . Lord. A MOTHER'S LAMENT. My Son: I saw you go—and felt you took with you the best that was in me-rr-my , , prayers—niy tenderness! '■■'■. ;; • :„Oft in:the night I;wokoiwith- stifled breath, and felt that you had gone-4ie'er to return. 1 prayed —oh! how I prayed that. God, would give you' back to 'mo. ■ My son! , | . One night a vision came—l saw s the Master's form and heard His " voice', "Daughter,' have faith— thy son is in My hands. Of what avail your prayers, if faith you lack?" and so I leave you in our Father's care; My son —my son. "■ H.E.M.S.