WAR AND THE BIBLE.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 8 July 1916, Page 2

WAR AND THE BIBLE.

(To The Editor.)

Sir,—As. an interested though dispassionate observer of the arguments in your coi.rnms i would like to say a word a.bout the Christian aspect of the war. To my mind it seems beyond dispute that no interpretation favoring war .-can lie taken from the words ol' Christ. Then comes the problem, "Are men to submit to butchery and! worse at the hands unscrupulous foes, instead of defending themselves? 1 say no; the hard-and-fast Christian say*. yes; the up-to-date Christian says ''not in every set of conditions." This ■brings us" to what is called "The Higher Criticism," which many churchmen favour. It is needed in these days, lateral observance of everything that appears in the New Twin-incut is not practicable. As a brilliant Wellington commentator once wrote, "those who feel obliged to observe to the Vtter everything written and commanded in the 'New Testament will Tie under the necessity of bringing Si. Paul's cloak from Troas,' " as he directs someone to do in one of his epistles. We need reasonable interpretaiiwns of Scripture in these days, not blind observance of everything written.-I am ,etc., HFKRY SAMTTEL /MIWSON.