ECCLESIASTICAL.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 255, 11 December 1914, Page 3 (Supplement)

ECCLESIASTICAL.

WAR JUSTIFIED BY MORAL EQUITY.

DR. MARTINEAU'S VIEWS

THE RIGHT OF WAR.

"And I saw the heaven opened, and, behold, a white horse; and he that rode upon him was called Faithful and True, and m righteousness he doth judge and make war. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and his name is called the Word or God. Revelation, chapter VI. v 13.

On this text Dr. Martineau preached a sermon during the Franco-Prussian War, which has taken its place among the classics. By the last English mail we learnt that tins sermon was being reprinted as a pamphlet and distributed throughout England. It is worthy or attention by every thoughful man, ana may prove a tonic to the sentimentalists and a refuge to the perplexed. Dr. Mart'neau begins the sermon oy pointing out that a good many religious persona who are avers© to war, do not shrink from postulating violence in the unseen. They forbid to men retribution or constraint, yet they threaten us at the hand of God with the very wrath which it is wicked to allow, and draw pictures of peual judgments from which H's forgiveness will never release, proves now lutle. the human mind can really with the rule of rewibu tory justice; how, if removed from oie part of existence it will assert itself in another.

LIFE IS A UNITY. The Christian rule of forgiveness, says Dr. Martineau, is applicable only to personal altront. It does not enable us to pardon moral guilt. It does not release us from the obligations of justice, winch constrain us to deal with men according to their character, to hinder the wrong and help the right. It exempts no one of the resources at our disposal—persuasion, discipline, P°«or —irom free use in this service; and it bv letting any of them be idle, we permit an injustice we might prevent, we are, in the sight of heaven, accomplices in its perpetration, bodily strength, and the skill which arms it with mechanical increase ,are as much intrustedto us tor this end as any faculty of thought or atfecfc.on; and to maintain tiiat we may employ strength and force in the service of our own convenience and luxS?Tutl not in the defence of innocence and the repulse of guilt,, is an incomprehensible and untenable paradox. Indeed, everyone who put# his money m an iron sale, or a chain upon his house door relinquishes in s reliance on the appeal'of reason and conscience, cepts the aid of material power. Andi U, further, he ha 3 ever the dmobedience of a passionate child, li he has avaded himself of the services of the police to arrest, and the courts to y the offender against his person or h* Goods if. in short, he consents to have f place in civil society at all, he has engaged himself by active coercion inl resistance of et'l, and in h's * u€ ? acity gone to war with the delinquen cies he meets.

AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER? After showing how the reign of law has extended from tribe and from the tribe to the nation, and how much may be accomplished by arbitration, Dr Mart,neau.contends that we are bound to guard what is con mitted to us, even though the path ot justice lies through the camp of war. Hence a nation is like a man. It is not ffiSfor**lf that a nation has terntnrv trenius art, trade, strength. lo others as well as to itself it has to see that right is done; and if,,* oh Urn hkfl KuLienness, it asks. , .•. brother peeper ?" the God of retiibutne history replies: "They brothers blood calleth to me from the _ .«A casuistry, that an injury must be if it be against yourself, but must i lit alone dit fall upon your ne'gh«oM m stat<«, not bo used in n °^ r *' c | e if4enying action are as nece»ii j r * j Jt 1S yns 116 f ° r for others which creates genuine servicefor othe s other indueuce unity at home. Sacrifice is urn. 1S sectional ope llllk the sea, the hearts of no ne -

THE HOiRRORS OP WAR. V > ,loul)t this openness on adequate th Vmust I bo°reguW«<l by tho t'loar and must bo . g gCOU eense of " 1C an d horrors f will war. On its. miseries not dwell, thej ill_ ol -dered war tho Mlf, ttV"riu»sV but tho, aro no. ■greatest ocr eferrmg< when such as to JU stlt - . » r i U niphs of wrong. I we can prevent tue trmF Qt dr;nv m [Those "ho 'ii t tfa e bat tiefi e ld, the detail the pic 1 mourn ing homee. siege, the hospita tne the cnppled .^ 0< COTl rtict of great nafures involv ed i Q . q|i themselves, tions, practise de J solution of and contribute liUlo tetu^ the moral P r °f^ m _ i f co mpanson. there is a by men Wounds lnnKtea higher personacting » ■thn tW « » W®, 'flVuty a ? <;ut ' ,n and honour, are n up<m their own their pr ,vate H er ;iW ful the dimen-a-CCOUn 'this evd ...ensured by the stansions of this e . idual observer, the iard of , th °X horrors and losses of magnitude of , estimated by the «ar b to tho unity of a fractiona l elation wholo g<.ncrpeople's llfe i' iLttd. what would this it ion were and » » tb ° Eft' JStho vcr'v t.™.; jonour without «» c b le. and the most ,f existence are notbin( j but a o ~p God ©mbodJot upon <>• Sric forms anJ eg great P r, . n t c,pl^ t i„ ns the organ and nakos mighty „ on flict it cannot he medium of mora llitra ment should expected that tho a sll nek >t ;ake placo wiho dvni , i tho t ho hour wail is ' no r hloroforin vinds of t'"J®- tbp giant mountain cU,, ' ilbil rM> '

when the equilibrium returns the villages risa again, aiid the Spring field smiles beneath the sun once more.

CAN THERE BE A CHRISTIAN SOLDIER?

The objection is often brought against tho morality of war, that the soldier is not the principal in tho quarrel, but hires himself to kill without regard to the rectitude of the cause. This i 8 unjust in two ways. A soldier does not hire himself to kill; killing is not the end of an armed force, but only the possible means by which it may enforce it s defence of right. As well may you say that a surgeon exists for the sake of wounding, or a policeman for kidnapping. The soldier is the agent of a liigner authority, and that he is obliged to act without option of his own is equally true of every public servant. A judge engages to award punishment according to the law as he finds it. Nor is there anything degrading 111 this surrender of individual judgment. To act a s the vehicles of a higher personality whose decisions have natural right over us, is an ennobling sacrifice of self-will. In cases that arise in which tho private conscience is at variance with the public it is only by the trial of spiritual strength that the rude public conception of right can be purified of tyranny, and the scruples of individuals discover their eccentricity.