Why Germany will be Defeated.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 167, 20 April 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

Why Germany will be Defeated.

(Contributed.) Among the many remarkable pamphlets, which the war has produced, the following provides an answer to our question (says a London paper). It is written by "A Prussian, for over 2o years a naturalised British subject." The chief reasons given by this Prussian writer for the present condition of Germany is that her Christianity is defunct. He refers to her past greatness, as a noble influence in the world—the Germany of the Reformation —and contrasts that with her present materialistic and pagan-spirit-ual and modern attitude. He says: " Indeed it may be asserted without fear of contradiction that from the mind of educated Protestant Germany of to-day anything approaching bo I of in authoritative religion has now completely disappeared. In cultivated circles the very thought and suggestion would provoke a smile. The various State churches are regarded by the pooo'c as the fossil remains of a dead past, useful perhaps fo ■ the preservation of the appearance of things, and in a measure necessary instruments to be employed for political and social purposes, but in all other respects effete institutions, which have long ceased to serve any moral end, and which are bound to disappear entirely in the course of time. I have made long stays in various parts of Protestant Germany, and have come in close touch with different spheres of Gorman social life, hut I have never met a single "educated" German who docs not shrug his shoulders at the ment : on of the State Church, and who dors not grudginglv pay the few shillings of Church tax which the authorities levy year by year. And a scarcely concealed contempt is the attitude of the Gorman citizen towards the pa ; tor. who is only expected to enter his house when a baptism or a marriage ceremony has to be performed, or when a member of the family die=. These men have long ceased to be in any sense a spiritual force; they are scarcely a moral force, and even the'r social influence is rapidly declining. I have often, in order to gather true and accurate impressions, looked into some of the churches in Germany during divine service, and I have marvelled how men of education and self-respect can have the courage to enter a pulpit and address such microscopic congregations. The writer then proceeds to show the process of this deadly condition, namely, the proachina; of evolution and other errors by Darwin, which secured a firmer ho'd on Germany than on any other people. "The teaching of Darwin." he says, "fell there unon a favourable and well prepared soil, r.nd brought forth fruit a thousandfold." Darwin's theory was embraced and taught by Haeckel, "who expounded I it to the people in so plausible and convincing a form that it captivated both their intellects and their imagination, and turned the'r entire moral life upside down. Who does not know that, in spite of scientific opposition, in spite of the publication of countle-s brochures demonstrat : ng the utter and unreasonab'cness of Irs expositions, in spite of tho results of modern psychological research. Haeckel reigns to-day supreme over the public mind of modern Gerimny. and owns the whole-hearted allegiance of millions of its .people? Inexpensive and popular editions of his works pre in everv household, and upon the ideas set forth in them the entiro intellectual and moral life of modern Germany has been constructed. The religions and Christian conception of human life and human duty has come to be regarded with undisguised contempt, and as a survival of one of those many superstitions which have but retarded the real progress of the human race, but which the higher culture and knowledge of enlightened Germany have destroyed once and for ali. And to such an extraordinary extent has this destructive principle been at work in the country that not even the ethical ideals of Christianity have been preserved. The person and character of Christ Himself have been attacked and besmirched, and a desperai tempt has been made to persuade the German people that there is good and valid reason to doubt whether He had ever any real objective existence at all. The Divine Christ, too, Who for nineteen centuries has ruled over the hearts and minds of the noblest and best of mankind, and who had rescued a decadent world from the destructive forces of paganism, was effectually disposed of, and "tho God within," that most terrible of all the gods worshipped by man, was enthroned in His place.'' The writer shows how this rejection of Christianity has resulted m the brutality of the military system of Germany; and has caused an unbridgable gulf between the civilian and the Prussian officer. The system by which the Gorman recruit is moulded into a soldier is one of " heartlessness and brutality," with the result that suicides in the army are of frequent occurrence. We need not wonder, then, if the treatment meted out to British prisoners of war is barbarous, when their own men are "kicked, beaten and harn:wd" until they arc moulded into mere machines for carrying out unspeakable horrors." Yet another result of Germany's defunct Protestantism and rejection of Biblical Christianitv is found in the worldhncss of the people generally. The writer says: "Berlin has become in the truest senile of the word the modern continental Babylon. It is the centre of an incredible amount of profligacy and of unbridled immorality in a hundred forms. In this city, night is made hideous and turned into day bv crowds of noisy repellors of all classes of the population who pasG from one caie or drinking saloon to another, and whose one aim and desire seems to bo I to gratify sensual indulgence to the ut- | tormo-st." The writer describes the above conditions of German social, religious and military life as "a rapid relapse into paganism," and he goes on to explain that the boasted science and intelligence of power "on which the nation has so long prided itself," has boon "misdirected and misapplied and given that Paganism a peculiarly repulsive and abhorrent form." The

Prussian writer, summing up the facts, concludes that such a Germany must bo defeated. The justice of God demands it. "It i.s lot this reason," he says "irrespective of any other consideration involved in the immediate political situation, that I believe that Germany will ultimately bo defeated in the present conflict. 1 hold it to be simply mconceivab'e and inconsistent with any reasonable belief in God and in a moral world-order that, after nineteen centuries of Christian thought and teaching, a nation exhibiting all the marks of paganism should triumph ana should become dominant in Europe. I could in any case only regard such a triumph as a superficial and transitory one, and conceivably as a warning and lesson to the other nations who are more oi- loss all threatened bv a similar danger. If God bo, and if Christianity be true, there cannot and must not surely be any real doubt as to the ultimate issue of the conflict." "The harvest is ripe" (Rev. xiv.. 15.) Need wo wonder that we are at war! The apostacy of our own land is the reason why we are suffering fo much in the war—idolatry, scepticism, the false philosphies of Darwin and Haeckel are sns laid to our charge. So far as we are partners in the guilt, so far we must suffer. How much is the harvest of the British Isles—of the Empire—of the United States of America—ripe! In the idolatry, scept eism, the increase of witchcraft, theosophy. Christian Science, Russel'ism, Tongues Movement, Sabbath breaking, vice, drunkenness, etc., our nation is partak ng in the sins of Germany, and must therefore expect the "sharp sickle" of retribution of Him Who sits upon the throne of judgment and vengeance. "God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Gal. vi., 7). That nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish." (Isaiah lx., 12.)