Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

saved"
servant."
and hear whether it incites to or encourages men to
such actions as we have witnessed deeds that have
shocked the world. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with
all thy strength and with all thy mind. And
thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." These are
the ethics of Christianity. Was it an effort to apply
this to human life that produced the war Until it
can be shown that it was, we cannot say Christianity
is responsible. But we must separate between the
principles announced and the men who profess them ;
and it is when we come to the men that we meet
with the responsible agents, and we see them setting
themselves in direct opposition to the principles and
the precepts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Others
say the Church is to blame. What has the Church
that is, the professing Christian Churches of the
world -done Has it not tried to soften men's rough
er natures by beautiful forms of worship Has it not
appealed to the finest and gentlest in man by raptur
ous music and exalted poetry Has it not taught man
how great he is, what infinite possibilities are before
him if he only exercises his grand will-power and the
force of his reason Has it not held out the beautiful
in sculpture and painting and ecclesiastical structure,
and encouraged men to make their atonement in
stone and lime, or, perhaps, in more apparent selfsacrifice
Has it not carried civilization and educa
tion to the heathen Has it not even in some instan
ces held out Christ as the one Saviour of the soul,
and said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shalt be The Church has done much some
times not according to the Master's will but a great
deal in line with it. The message it has borne to the
world has changed the wilderness into a fruitful field,
and made the desert to blossom as the rose. It has
made this wonderful transformation not only in the
face of nature, but in the heart and soul of the be
liever. And as far as it has gone in accord with the
Master, He is saying, "Well done, good and faithful
But what message has the Church had for
the nations of the world What Church, what preach
er has dared to tell the Kaiser that there is another
King, one Jesus What Church has testified that
Christ is King of all kings, and Lord of all lords
What Church has proclaimed at the polls and in the
Parliaments of men that unless a nation is born into
Zion it is not the Lord's Christian nation Yet if the
Church has not given that message to the nation it
has not given Christ's message. The Church as a
whole is largely responsible for the awful war be
cause it has failed to carry the Gospel to the nations.
It has treated the nations as either having no need
of Christ's help or as being above Christ's authority.
It has treated the great ones of the earth as if in
government and diplomacy they were responsible
only to their fellows. Too often it has looked -for
Court favors and Government honors and pecuniary
help, and has been willing to pay for these by a bar
tering of God's truth. The result is before us. Man
apart from the Gospel is still a savage brute. And a
nation failing to recognize the authority of God and
His Son Jesus Christ may fall to the level of the
Canaanites and Hittites in an incredibly
short time.
Germany has done so. England may do so. And the
Church that has failed to give Christ's message must
bear the blame. And we may well hear God's re
proaching voice, "Where is the daubing wherewith
ye have daubed it "
198
IV. So We Are Brought Face to Face with the
Fearful Failure of Human Devices and Human Hopes.
The benefits of education cannot be over-esti
mated. Civilization can never be too highly developed.
The idea of brotherhood can never be too closely ap
plied to human relationships. Trade unionism has
done much, and may do a great deal more, for the
working man. International treaties are valuable and
necessary for international relationships. But any
and all of these is always valueless and generally de
structive apart from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And
God has been teaching the world its need of Him
a very much needed lesson. "We are
engaged,"
says
Dean Inge, "in a still undecided battle of right
against wrong here below; but God is not fighting
for His existence, nor is He striving to realize Him
self for the first time in this little planet of ours. God
is: He is the supreme and eternal fact." "From a
thousand sources we have been learning of what can
only be called the re-discovery of God by the men at
the front." A newspaper writer speaks thus
"The war will change many things in art and
life, and among them, it is to be hoped, many
own ideas as to what is, and what is not, 'intellec
tual.' "
"Thou Whose deep ways are in the sea,
Whose footsteps are not known,
To-night a world that turned from Thee
Is waiting at Thy Throne.
The towering Babels that we raised
Where scoffing sophists brawl,
The little Antichrists we praised
The night is on them all.
The fool hath said. . . The fool hath said . .
And we, who deemed him wise,
We who believed that Thou wast dead,
How should we seek Thine eyes
How should we seek to Thee for power
Who scorned Thee yesterday
How should we kneel, in this dread hour
Lord, teach us how to pray!
Grant us the single heart, once more,
That mocks no sacred thing,
The Sword of Truth our fathers wore
When Thou wast Lord and King.
Let darkness unto darkness tell
Our deep, unspoken prayer,
For, while our souls in darkness dwell,
We know that Thou art there."
of our
Lord Bryce, speaking from his Ulster-Scotch
Presbyterian origin, and with a faint echo of old
Secession and Covenanter days, says, "What is to be
done Is there any other influence from which so
much can be hoped as from Christianity Is there in
deed, any force other than Christianity that will
bring back the world towards peace and goodwill If
there is no such other force, can something be done
to revive among ourselves the inspiring power which
Christianity has shown in its best spirits at its 'best
moments If we follow the course of history during
the last two thousand years, has not the Gospel been
by far the strongest of the moral forces, often and
as men have neglected or perverted its
grievously
COVENANTER WITNESS