CHRISTIANITY AND WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 230, 27 March 1912, Page 4

CHRISTIANITY AND WAR.

Rear-Admiral Mahan contributes to the North American Review a notable article on the place of force in international relations, which is an elaborate attack upon the opinion that Christianity is opposed to war, or that Christian men ought to object to the use of force. He says: "To right what is amiss, to convert ,to improve, to develop, is of the very essence of the Christian ideal. Without man's responsive effort God Himself is, not powerless, but deprived of the instrument through which alone He wills to work. Hence the recognition that, if force is necessary, force must be used for the benefit of the community of the commonwealth of the world." As towards conviction of the intellect, upon which religion depends, force is inoperative, and the use of it therefore wicked, Christianity as a religious system therefore rests upon a different power—a spiritual. But to Christianity as a political system, force, the sword, if necessary, is incumbent, when required to remedy environment, to amend external conditions: '"ln tlv past in other lands, the Church not infrequently has evoked the sword of the State. To-day she seeks to shatter it. In either case she errs. The present discipline of the sword in international relations keeps alive armament and the organisation of force—the power of the sword which alone centuries ago checked and rolled back the Saracenic and Turkish invasions. 'Upon this depends the ability to use force in the great conflict with the powers of political evil in the external world. In days not long past I have written of this as prospective. To-day it is upon us. In it the disarmament of the States of European civilisation, the abandonment of the energies of force, will mean the downfall of that civilisation."