themselves. For at least half a century they have been trained to regard the authority of the State as the supreme authority, and obedience to its commands as the supreme virtue. Germany has not industrial liberty. It is a well recognized economic truth that all wealth is derived from the land. In America by our Homestead Law we threw open our agricultural lands to all the world, giving 160 acres to any individual who would live upon them and cultivate them; and, though we carelessly allowed our mines, forests, and water powers to fall into the hands of a few wealthy owners, we are attempting by our policy of conservation and of land taxation to correct that well-nigh fatal error. In Germany the ancient feudal system survives, which puts the control of the nation's wealth into the hands of a landed aristocracy, popularly known as Junkers. Peasant proprietorship is practically unknown. It is Germany has not religious liberty. "Perfect love casteth out fear." equally true that fear casteth out love. The religion inculcated by the leaders of German thought and life is the religion of fear. The reverence demanded is for a God who is the ally of the military power, and the worship inspired if not inculcated is the worship of Odin, not of Christ. Bernhardi represented this spirit in his declaration that "Might proves itself the supreme Right." The Emperor represented it when in 1900 he put before his soldiers Attila, the ruthless king of the Huns, as the model for them to follow. Pastor Vorwerk represented it in his paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer: Though the warrior's bread be scanty, do Thou work daily death and tenfold woe unto the enemy. Forgive in merciful long-suffering each bullet and each blow which misses its mark!" is not difficult to believe the apparently well authenticated report, that the verse which I here quote, by an unnamed German poet, has had wide circulation and great popularity throughout Germany during this war. Contrast these two ideals, the first this ode to Odin by a modern German poet, the second The Miniature of Christ, by Sir Oliver Lodge, a modern English philosopher. THE GERMAN GOD It The foes of Germany, full of irony, inquire: "You Germans call upon God, and pray to him To aid you in the battle. So you have a God of your own, Whom we know not, A God on your side?" Yes," cries all Germany, "and if you know him not We shall tell you his name. The God who speaks through our guns, Who hovers in the heavens with our aëroplanes, Who through the centuries Has hovered over Germany, Who weaves and mixes all our lives, And on whom we depend. Odin the ancient vagabond of the clouds, THE CHRISTIAN GOD Overwhelmingly and appallingly simple is the notion presented to us by the orthodox Christian Churches: a babe born of poor parents, born in a stable among cattle because there was no room for them in the village inn no room for them in the inn - what a master touch! Revealed to shepherds. Religious people inattentive. Royalty ignorant, or bent on massacre. Then the child growing into a peasant youth, brought up to a trade. At length a few years of itinerant preaching; flashes of miraculous power and insight. And then a swift end: set upon by, the religious people; his followers over-awed and scattered, himself tried as a blasphemer, flogged, and finally tortured to death. . . . Such occurrences seem inevitable to highest humanity in an unregenerate world; but who, without inspiration would see in them a revelation of the nature of God? We are fighting to make the world safe for this democracy, safe for liberty, equality, fraternity, safe for a community inspired by the faith that One is your Father, even God and all ye are brethren. When this campaign is ended and this safety has been secured, then each Nation will be free to enter on such studies, discussions and experiments as shall make clear what democracy means, that is, what it means to recognize in all men our brethren, in life an opportunity for mutual fellowship and mutual service, and in God one to be revered not for his might but for his love, his service and his self-sacrifice. This is the crusade to which your son has consecrated himself. Are you not glad? SEVENTH LETTER CHRIST'S PEACE NEVER before have we understood as we do now Paul's experience: "We are troubled on every side yet not distressed; we are perplexed but not in despair." As moths to the candle so we fly to the daily paper to increase the troubles of our mind by reading scenes from the terrible tragedy enacted on the European stage. The pathetic cry of the Psalmist of old is repeated in our hearts: "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! Then would I fly away, and be at rest." But we have not wings and cannot fly and if we could, flight would not give us the rest we covet. We have tried that method and it failed. When this war burst upon Europe we struggled hard to persuade ourselves that its causes were obscure, that it was a new outbreak of the senseless struggle between ambitious, covetous, jealous rulers of the people, that it did not concern us, that we could be and ought to be neutral in thought and feeling as well as in official acts. And we |