MORAL FORCES IN WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16169, 4 March 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

MORAL FORCES IN WAR.

BY ARCHDEACON MACMURBAT.

THE KAISER'S WAR ENGINES, r a

As shown in an article last week, the ' railway train is the Kaiser's deadliest material war engine- But for it war would * have to be waged on a comparatively small scale, for the facility given by .the railway train to move millions of men into the battle line, and feed them when there, 8 and supply them with the most awful munitions of war, on a scale never dreamed of before, has been the direct cause of millions of casualties that could not have e taken place without its deadly help. 8 Message of a Good Gilt. When these facts sink down into our * souls, we cannot but. ponder and ask questions. Would George Stephenson have 1 given his invention to the world had ho lealised the use to which it has been c turned? Certainly, I think he would, for it would be wrong to withhold a good gift 1 from humanity because of a possible evil use of it. There is hardly a good gift of ' God to man that has not been abused, and yet the All Father does not withhold it. Stephenson's good gift is not to be undervalued becauso of man's misuse 1 of it. Belgium was unwise to link up her railway system with that of Germariy— ' because that was like handing a revolver to the burglar about to break into your 1 house; but the linking up of the railway systems ought to have been beneficent and , though, alas! wo know how it was [ turned into an instrument of awful destruction. It would be interesting to draw pictures of the boons this linking up of railways might and ought to have conferred L'pon men, of German artisans finding a new and easy outlet for the fruits of their industiy; of Belgian railway and shipping men finding needed employment, and of people throughout the world benefiting by the abundant use of the products of German and Belgian industry—and contrast that picture with the destruction and misery and death, which the avalanche of German military force left behind, in Belgium, and in France as far as the Marne. The Root ol the Evil. What made that linking up an act of folly, and a source of danger, was the character of the German rulers and the German people. The root ,of the evil lies not in the engines of war, whether Zeppelin, submarine, howitzer, or railway train; the root of the evil lies in the selfish ambitions which have dethroned Christian morality in the hearts of the German naI lion. „ ' If such a beneficent product of civilisaI tion can be turned to evil uses, does it follow that civilisation is in itself evil By no means; for just as you can trust a policeman with a revolver, but not a burglar, oven so, the products of civilisation will prove to be good or evil in their uses, according as the men entrusted with them have good or evil motives and principles But Germany has not only turned , her whole industrial resources into war i machines, she has done something much ' worse; she has turned the whole machinery. ' for the cultivation of morals in the na- ' tioiial life, into a tremendous un-moral war ; engine- | The German Machine. 1 By an ingenious system, the minI isters in the Lutheran Church, the proi fessors in the universities, and the teachers ■ in the schools are made wholly dependent 1 upon the Government for promotion. Con- ' sequently, the church, the university, and , the school are perverted into wonderful machines, not for the development of character and the cultivation of morals, but for turning every unit in the population into ; a docilo a ton? in the great national ma- , chine, which places the whole military, in- ■ dustiial, economic, and moral force of the Empire, devotedly and unreservedly, in the Kaiser's hands, to do his will and bidding, whether good or bad, When we contract • German discipline with British slackness, which we have often been inclined to do , in favour of the German, let us, whilst we > deplore the slackness of the Briton, remember, that German discipline is a blind • obedience to superior military or political i authority, and that the training for it is done at the cost of individuality of character. | Fav more worthy, far more wholesome, is the self-discipline of freemen, who ; voluntarily submit themselves to authority, ' in order to attain some noble end. No ' nation in all the world's history has ever ' received, for so long a period, so thorough , a system of intellectual instructions in its schools, as have the German people. No ; nation has ever claimed so dogmatically as the German that its wonderful intellectual , system of education had placed it at the | apex of' civilisation— yet the world J stands aghast at the revelation of ruthless . brutality which the Kultured German has . given in this present war. The World's Mistake. As the Great Maker and Moral Governor of the universe looks down upon the world , to-day, can He be satisfied to see , them turned into deadly war engines? 1 Or to see telegraphs, telephones, and wireless telegraphy multiplying the powers ; f , generals for destruction? Or to see our lactones >wd chief industrial machinery I employed in turning out high explosives? 1 Or to see Zeppelins conquJriug the region of the ai-, or submarines ruling in the depths of the ocean, for the murder of women and children. Intellectual gifts, apart from faith in righteousness, and a spirit of mutual charity, are in danger of being perverted into instruments of evil. I The great machines which science has I placed in men's hands will be used for ; evil ends, unless the men using them are ! | guided by the morals and ethics of Chrisi tianity. While the world is concerned ! about the great products of civilisation,' I and is not concerned about human morality and Christian ethics, it must ! learn its mistake whatever the cost. The j awful expenditure of human lives and ! wealth in the present war is a measure ot 1 the greatness of the world's mistake, in its j judgment as to the relative values of ! machines and morals. Admiral- Beatty's Message. | But are Britons much more careful than | Germans about preserving the morals and : ethics of Christianity? If not, are the ' I consequences likely to be less disastrous jin us than they have shown themselves jto be in Germans? This gives the clue to! the meaning of Admiral Beatty's late message to the British people. Admiral Bcatty knows how to use great war engines, and therefore he knows their powers 1 end limitations. What seems to be troubling him is not that we have not enough war engines, but that the nation is not giving sufficient evidence, that behind our war machines, are ranged the moral anil | spiritual forces of the nation. If they were wo should have no greedy citizens making their fortunes out of the war: no strikers careless of the nation's safety.* , we should have no need for conscription . to secure soldiers. Religion and libertv ' would have made us more effective, even | for the purposes of a righteous war, than autocracy and greed have , made thp- Ger- ; man nation mighty for an , c'anse Relieion and liberty madei Crom- ■ well's Ironsides the most formidable sol- . . diers in history. . Religion ,and. liberty : would make the British Empire mvulner- . able and invincible. ' «