INTERNATIONAL CONTROVERSIES

HRIST'S mission on earth was of a twofold

CHR

character: first, to reveal man's relation to God and his relation to other men; and, second, to teach the obligations and duties arising out of such relationship.

Christ declared that God is the Father of all, and that such Fatherhood of God necessarily created the brotherhood of man. The obligations of this sonship were summed up by Christ in these words: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength"; and the obligation of brotherhood, in this statement: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Love for one's neighbour is the essence of Christ's message regarding our dealings with one another. If the right attitude of a Christian toward his neighbour is love, then the attitude of a group of Christians toward other groups of men should be love. This is so, because a nation is an aggre

gation of persons, 192 or as Prof. Cooley says: "Nation is nearly synonymous with people, and in the United States it is applied to the whole

' Mark xii., 28–31.

2 Century Dictionary.

body of the people coming under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government," and therefore the duties and obligations resting on a nation are identical with those resting on the individuals constituting the nation.

The recognition of the brotherhood of man should be the basis of international intercourse and international dealings. Though men live on opposite shores of the ocean, and possess different coloured skins and speak different languages, and observe different customs, and give their fealty to different flags, they are nevertheless brothers and should treat each other as brothers. Neither class, nor race, nor national boundaries can sever the bond of brotherhood or release the obligation of neighbourliness as is clearly affirmed in the parable of the man who fell among thieves on the road to Jericho.' Universal brotherhood entailing universal love, as the basic conception of the relation of man to man, was absolute and unchangeable in the teachings of the Master. If a Christian loves his brother, how can he run him through with a bayonet, or pick him off with a rifle, or blow him to pieces with a shell, or send him to the bottom of the sea with a torpedo?

The law of Christ is, love and forgive your enemy; the law of war is, hate and destroy your enemy. James Russell Lowell has written:

"Const. Limit.," 5th ed. Prin. Const. Law, p. 20. Luke x., 29-37.

"Ez fer war, I call it murder,

There you hev it plain and flat.
I don't need to go no furder

Than my Testyment fer that."

To-day, the most costly and deadly armaments for the killing of men in war are being wrought, not by the nations that owe their allegiance to Mahomet, the prophet of the sword, but by those nations which profess allegiance to the Prince of Peace.

Dr. Channing has well said:

"Here is the evil of war that man, made to be the brother, becomes the deadly foe, of his kind; that man, whose duty it is to mitigate suffering, makes the infliction of suffering his study and end; that man, whose office it is to avert and heal the wounds which come from nature's powers, makes researches into nature's laws, and arms himself with her most awful forces, that he may become the destroyer of his race."

Mr. Ernest H. Crosby has written:

"Yes, war is hell, as General Sherman long ago told us; but he did not go on to tell us why. There is only one possible reason. Hell is not a geographical term; it is merely the expression of the spiritual condition of its inhabitants. War is hell because it transforms men into devils. And how naturally the terminology of hell accommodates itself to it! In different columns of a single copy of the New York

Herald, describing, I think, different engagements, I read that the soldiers 'fought like demons,' and 'yelled like fiends.' It is all so natural that probably no one noticed it but myself. And so we found in the case of the burning Spanish ship the word 'inferno' seemed the most appropriate."I

In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ declared: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God""; and as His aim was to bring "peace on earth," His disciples should be ambassadors of peace.

The late Lord Russell, former Lord Chief-Justice of England, said that "the ultimate aim in the actions of men and of communities ought to conform to the divine precept-'Do unto others as you would that others should do unto you.""

"If the so-called Christian nations were nations of Christians there would be no wars," wisely declares Lord Avebury,3 for where love is enthroned, wars and rumours of war are unknown.

Since all the nations of the present day are not Christian and since those nations calling themselves "Christian" do not always adhere to the teachings of Christ, international controversies are bound to happen, disputes to arise, and conflicts to occur, arousing the passions, inflaming the imaginations, and inducing the animal spirit in

War from the Christian Point of View, p. 5.

Matt. v., 9.

3 Peace and Happiness, p. 383.