Readers Write

Northern Advocate, 2 April 1941, Page 4

Readers Write

One grows weary of the constantly reiterated asservations of a people whose arguments fail tc make the

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS.

slightest contact with practicability. Has not the

conscientious objector got to the religious stage the Jews had reached when Christ came to earth —a stage wherein a fearful teal for the letter of the Word had well-nigh suffocated its spirit in them ? Christ’s main line cf attack against ,uch religious effeminacy was to appeal direct to the human heart: “If your ass fall into a pit on the Sabbath bay won’t you straightway pull it out?” And if a wild beast attack your i.hild, won’t you beat it off, or kill it? And could any human being—man or wcman —stand' passively by while a human brute attacked a defenceless infant? I ask, could any human being .>o restrain his emotions ? I doubt if :here is a conscientious objector in the lot that could succeed in being so “religious”. ■

And is the wrath that rises in us on such occasions but a vulgar emolion—to be repressed ? Try it out on ihe test that Christ used—the appeal of the heart: “If your child is attacked won’t you defend it ?” It is as natural as pulling a sheep out of the ditch. Any accompanying emotion is but righteous wrath, no more wrong in its action than keeping the law by force—a practice pacifists don’t seem to challenge.

For humanity’s sake Christ broke the sacred Sabbath nil khn Decalogue, and taught thak the Sabbalh was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. We nd'ed to apply the same virile spirit \o£ commonsense humanity in interpreting the “commandments” of the Ne\jv Testament.-T. W. CAMERON.