The Reconciliation of Races and Religions | Page 3

bloodshed on so gigantic a scale. Christ is
crucified afresh to-day. If some forsake Him and flee, let it be more
clear that there are others who take their stand with Him, come what
may.
3. This we may do by continuing to show the spirit of love to all. For
those whose conscience forbids them to take up arms there are other
ways of serving, and definite plans are already being made to enable
them to take their full share in helping their country at this crisis. In
pity and helpfulness towards the suffering and stricken in our own
country we shall all share. If we stop at this, 'what do we more than
others?' Our Master bids us pray for and love our enemies. May we be
saved from forgetting that they too are the children of our Father. May
we think of them with love and pity. May we banish thoughts of
bitterness, harsh judgments, the revengeful spirit. To do this is in no
sense unpatriotic. We may find ourselves the subjects of
misunderstanding. But our duty is clear--to be courageous in the cause
of love and in the hate of hate. May we prepare ourselves even now for
the day when once more we shall stand shoulder to shoulder with those
with whom we are now at war, in seeking to bring in the Kingdom of
God.
4. It is not too soon to begin to think out the new situation which will
arise at the close of the war. We are being compelled to face the fact
that the human race has been guilty of a gigantic folly. We have built
up a culture, a civilization, and even a religious life, surpassing in many
respects that of any previous age, and we have been content to rest it all
upon a foundation of sand. Such a state of society cannot endure so
long as the last word in human affairs is brute force. Sooner or later it
was bound to crumble. At the close of this war we shall be faced with a
stupendous task of reconstruction. In some ways it will be rendered
supremely difficult by the legacy of ill-will, by the destruction of
human life, by the tax upon all in meeting the barest wants of the
millions who will have suffered through the war. But in other ways it
will be easier. We shall be able to make a new start, and to make it all

together. From this point of view we may even see a ground of comfort
in the fact that our own nation is involved. No country will be in a
position which will compel others to struggle again to achieve the
inflated standard of military power existing before the war. We shall
have an opportunity of reconstructing European culture upon the only
possible permanent foundation--mutual trust and good-will. Such a
reconstruction would not only secure the future of European
civilization, but would save the world from the threatened catastrophe
of seeing the great nations of the East building their new social order
also upon the sand, and thus turning the thought and wealth needed for
their education and development into that which could only be a fetter
to themselves and a menace to the West. Is it too much to hope for that
we shall, when the time comes, be able as brethren together to lay down
far-reaching principles for the future of mankind such as will ensure us
for ever against a repetition of this gigantic folly? If this is to be
accomplished it will need the united and persistent pressure of all who
believe in such a future for mankind. There will still be multitudes who
can see no good in the culture of other nations, and who are unable to
believe in any genuine brotherhood among those of different races.
Already those who think otherwise must begin to think and plan for
such a future if the supreme opportunity of the final peace is not to be
lost, and if we are to be saved from being again sucked down into the
whirlpool of military aggrandizement and rivalry. In time of peace all
the nations have been preparing for war. In the time of war let all men
of good-will prepare for peace. The Christian conscience must be
awakened to the magnitude of the issues. The great friendly
democracies in each country must be ready to make their influence felt.
Now is the time to speak of this thing, to work for it, to pray for it.
5. If this is to happen, it seems to us of vital importance that the war
should not be carried on in any vindictive spirit, and that it should be
brought to a close at the earliest possible