The Thames Star.
SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1918. GERMAN CASUISTRY
Our War Motto:
"With malice ,towardß none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to ace the right" . . —Lincoln
It is said that even the devil can quote scripture, but the only instance of this on record is where he misquoted to suit his own purpose. ' His followers in these latter days are adepts at the same device. They wrest tihe scriptures to make them harmonise with their own distorted views. One would scarcely think fclna't the sermon oil the Mount, that famous deliverance in favour of peace, meekness^ and loving kindness, could be so "twisted by a "German pastor, as to be made to justify German frightfulness..' Yet so it is. ■Pastor Bauangarten has %.& credit, or discredit, of this remarkable dialectical feat. In the sermon itself may be found such beautiful sentiments as the following: —"Blessed are the > meek, for they shall inherit the earth; blessed a^e the merciful for they shall obtain mercy; Messed are the peacemakers, for they shall 'be called the children of God." Other quotation's might be given, all being, to the ordinary intelligence, in complete opposition to German thought and practice. But a German preacher of tlhe Gospel of peace and goodwill sees no conflict between the Beatitudes and German frightfulness. In an address on the Sermon on the Mount, he said: — "We are not only compelled to accept the war that i s forced upon us, but are even compelled' to carry on this war with a , cruelty, a ruthlessness, an employment of every imaginable, device, unknown in any previous war \" FurtEer, this exponent of the Sermon on tihe Mount i says : —'Whoever cannot prevail upon himself to approve from the bottom of his heart the sinking of the Lusibamiia.—whoever^ cannot conquer his sense of the igjganitdo cruelty to unnumbered' perfectly innocent victims, and give himself up to honest deligiht ' at this victorious: exploit of German defensive power—(him we judge to be no true German." Such gemsi of , German thought so unlblushingly expressed are'of the devil—devilish. , They should for ever operate against the hand of a German being taken in friendship.
The Thames Star. SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1918. GERMAN CASUISTRY
Thames Star, Volume LII, Issue 13665, 6 April 1918, Page 2
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