BY THE WAY

Evening Star, Issue 16516, 30 August 1917, Page 7

BY THE WAY

/* ; ‘ ; ' : )C B J Oabbl Cross.] 1 Wh ? eyes lightly r d f f 'th a i t -110 ? iay hayo an ' ’ fi^U , for V bls .' dreams and V l '." ; n. - a ? r ''^ rk n v ni . orc mischief than a a' ar© tv+k r,a . S^y ‘ reason and espionage V 'ah/1 wh eir ’ Yez 7 n aWro doomed to sccrecv nd n!? 0 <,oman<i for salutary ,puu- ' • irorV.nh t ii ®* e •• *®ntiMMtely v ;idealist'; : .'jnay™le same policy—ns, for instance, - ! P ;£? m ? ture P eace > that would favor the . ■ ■-. :, aggressor in the-Avar and en?So him to have another try'; but tiro T mte ignoring tho' granite facts tnat strong men .have to deal with; speaks - - in the. soft tones of piety and good-will, S * and ,50 insinuates. himself into the favor, ot the. UDdiscerning. as occupying higher • Srcanid that the practical men, who are actually doing things that must be done - is to be a decent place to live ■‘ v 1 ? n t Jhe idealist may bo not ’only a harraif 33 carner ? k° ma y be a nuisance and a • . . humong—and, at such a time ns this, a . public danger. ,Ho is only possible 4iecauae others are otherwise. Because some, ; ™«n are practical, ho can afford to bo impractical. Because other men are pre- ,:, : . pared to face the Hun, he has a head left • on to chatter about forgiving the Hun. Because his fellow-citizens are prepared to die, he is left alive to insinuate that they * .•have died for nothing, or worse than’ nothing. Because others are willing to pay : i.v the penalty of being wise, ho is able to enjoy the luxury of being a fool. *******

■ But he quotes high sanctions, and fortifies himself with much religious phraseology, as witness “A Message from the '(Religious Society of Friends in Great Bri- / tain/’ where we read“ Is it really necessary to go on?' Are we, by continuing the war, actually, preparing for that world without war which wo all long to see? Are we not 1 rather multiplying evil and planting the seeds of bitterness, which can never bear the fruit of peace? . . . We are faced with great issues of justice, of freedom, of peace; but the greatest issue for the world is the challenge of Jesus Christ to_ the ways of men. His way is to bring in justice and freedom and peace, ■ not by might imr by power, but bv His I Spirit. . . . Mas tho spirit of free for- , giveness, which was in our Master when He died for His enemies, been driven from our hearts?” And much more to the same •effect. Such is the farrago of deplorable logic and baseless and mischievous assumption that seeks, in the' name of the Christian religion, to play directly into tho hand of the nation that is solely responsible for the war. This manifesto plainly declares, though in an interrogative way, that the war ought to be stopped now-; that its further,prosecution is against the best interests of the world. Because our Lord prayed for His enemies “ Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, ’ the whole world is to strike g. passive attitude while Germany strikes her remorseless fangs deej> into innocent Belgium and tears her to pieces! The armed / criminal or madman who runs amuck must by no means be shot s down, or even subjected to restraining violence; he must be forgiven and prayed for, and, presumably, left to carry out his' programme until it occurs to him either that he has done enough or that he is a very bad man and really must call a halt 1 **** * * *

Germany, drunk with vanity and sava-/v hate and sense of power, cares not if the rest of the world perish in blood and ‘smoke so long as her watchword “ Dentschland über alles is glorified, As General xetam has it in a, document addressed bv him to the French army on ‘ Why We Are Fighting’;

Germany , has in no wise renounced the realisation of her schemes to crush and dominate. She. alone prepared the war in Europe; she alone N in Eurppe demred it, brought it about, precipitated, declared, and rendered it inevitable by her methods and atrocious By her means Cherishing her exorbitant of domination without "being loyal enough to avow them, she is the‘sola ■ oostado to peace. And yet it is gravely naked in the Message ; from which I have quoted “Is it really J necessary" to go on?’| ‘ and- we are accused of multiplying evil and planting the seeds of bitterness” and of virtual aposiacy from Jesus. Christ because we are standing- up against thie hideous threat agamst human freedom and all that makes life dear and sacred and iv'drth living to any man with a. soul! German guns "and submarines and Zeppelins and poison gas and flame-throwers, and. all her infanues practised on helpless prisoners and civillan3—these we are to meet with prayer and the spirit of forgiveness! Enthusiasts for peace even at the price of a shameful slavery should be careful lest they be found dishonoring the Christ they claim to represent by making out that if Ho had been m Belgium in August. 1914, Ho would have denounced King Albert and his brave arng for opposing the Germans, and that v j . were in. England to-day He would he doing His best for Germany in the congenial company of the Ramsay Mac- ■ donalds and the Philip Snowdens! It us all very well for the Message to ask if it is really necessary for the war to go 9 n - 5l • authorß °f the Message had had their way three years ago German military despotism, with all its arrogant beastliness and cruelty, would have been supreme in the world to-day. It is necessary to go on because it was necessary to begin, and because the job is not yet finished.

*♦•»»* -x- * r be knows that in her imperial policy Germany has jettisoned her soul, •tiong ago she found it an inconvenience, *ll in ™ era W 0 nuisance. But that was r.ot Mi; she proceeded on the assumption that once she had got rid of hers there was no S 9 U Isffc in the world. It was on amazing piece of folly, which has cost ■ n , .Mighty in calculation and her doctrine of necessity, she loft ’ out St waa firsfc and mightiest 6 '■ struck on her first battlefield, ouch blunders are characteristic. Wherever soul is concerned the blundering of Germany is monumental. Her incredible vanity makes her quite incapable of lookmg at great questions from any staud“ut her .own, or conceiving the possibility of other nations being inspired by iotty principles that scorn her low cunmng_ and defy her violence. There is ■ n ° tmn S hke vanity for making people absurd and destroying their sense of humor. Germany suffers from both. ConEider tbs: •i official: The Kaiser, addressing his troops on the Yser front, said ; VVo will fight till the enemy have had Our chief and most spiteful enemy is England. • She spreads hatred S ™|.l*ermany world-wide, and is steadily numg her Allies with eagerness to fmht. England is particularly “the enemy whom we must strike down, however difficult,” .If Germany had set out deliberately to incense the world against her she could not have gone about it in a way more ■calculated to secure that result. Nothing petter for the purpose could have been devised than-her submarine policy and the outrages on the unfortunate populations in tho occupied terri- _ tones. America was so unwilling to defrom her policy of neutrality that it took two years of German submarine atrocities to force her into the allied camp. And yet to that strange product the Gerpian mind, the universal distrust " and hatred she has provoked are inexpliable on any other supposition than that England has done it all! * * 4r * * * * Sir Joseph Ward has distinctly avowed himself an' advocate of State control of ‘ the Liquor Trade, a policy, he says, in ■ . , the direction of which the country is moving. fast. Many things have happened . since the Prohibitionists declared their unanimous and implacable hostility to it, •■■ ..and it -is -not unlikely that many who once opposed it tooth and nail are ■>:■ more reconciled to the idea, not by any means as a solution of tho problem, hut as a kind of half a loaf which is better - . ...Mhan no bread.' Prohibition has passed %' .'through some- bitter experiences of; late -:t years, and -some of its ardent friends are - so. eager for something to he done that cy onight'ey elr bo thankful ; for a measure ih6y -meted put '.such hearty re--

probation a few years ago. But tho Government. may have , a rude awakening if they reckon upon that spirit of compromise, being very widespread..One cannot readily bring oneself to trust the Government with such a dangerous monopoly as that of sole publican. They would ■bo too apt to exploit it for all tho revenue they could get. The; Rev. Jamies' Milne, of the Thames, who for ;ihany years has .been, closely identified with the State. control propaganda, seems to have some distrust of “political influence ” in cOHnefction with- such a re-vonue-producing concern, ahd proposes that the traffic should not be vested directly in a Slate department, but should be_ placed in the hands of Public. Commissioners or a Board of Control.” But the danger would not be obviated by any such arrangement. One of the stock, arguments against Prohibition has always been the loss of revenue it would involve—a stupid argument, of course, since it takes no note ot. tho enormous saving that would result from Prohibition; but if the Government had both the manufacturing and retail monopoly of the trade they would becoind so accustomed to the immense revenue from it that they would get to depend upon ft,-and reform would be mors difficult than ever. * * * * * * *

At a joint meeting of Yorkshire United Congregational College and Rawdoh Baptist College two months ago Dr GriffithJones, chairnfan-elect of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, said some plain things on the supply of students for tho ministry. The war has plaved havoc with the training colleges, and for many years to come it is difficult To see how the Churches can avoid experiencing a very pronounced dearth of ministers. It is more than probable that a largo proportion of the young men who before-the war were more or less definitely contemplating the _ Christian ministry as their life work will, after the war. have quite lost all inclination for it: not to speak of the many who have made the supreme sacrifice in one act of heroic death. But Dr Griffith-Jones laid special emphasis on certain growing tendencies that were strongly in evidence before the war, notably the fact that, as the report has it: The. candidates nearly all came from one class of the community, or at most from two—the so-called lower middle class and the better class of working men - • ; • The ministry, however, was a varied calling, and needed, among others, men of high breeding and of thorough education. It was -not, of course, a profession in which a man might make a fortune. It had its rewards for the man fitted for it. and who> devoted himself to it with whole-' hearted enthusiasm; but the rewards were not those of wealth and outward position. Could this be the reason why our better-placed families did not cnconrago their sons to give themselves to the Christian ministry?. If this waa'so, it was a sad commentary on the influence of wealth in -reversing the values of life. The ceitainty of a pressing scarcity ( of ministers in tho Churches generally points to an inevitable decline in calibre and ’equipment, and these two factors raav go a long way in the direction of compelling the denominations to lay aside much tradiand enter upon large union' 68 ° l SaUe econom y leading to organic