blessing of his foe has conquered hate and fulfilled the law of love to the uttermost. Can we

pray for Germany?

One who sincerely believes that this is not only possible, but obligatory for all Christian men in Christian lands, must be very careful to define the conditions of such prayer. It cannot be sincere if it be untrue to the situation. It cannot be earnest unless the situation and the meaning of the prayer are both clearly seen. In the first place, no one who believes that the German Government, and the people so far as they have shared the spirit and purpose of the Government, has committed a colossal crime against humanity can wish or pray for anything less than that the German army should be defeated. The German people must forever be compelled to resign their mad and wicked dream of universal dominion, of supremacy over the nations of the world. Moreover, if Germany is guilty, then it is a prerequisite for the moral order of the world that Germany should be punished by defeat. Sincere prayer for Germany must begin with that.

In the second place, if Germany is thus deeply guilty and unaware, if her statesmen and her armies have broken every law of honor and decency, as they have, it follows as day follows night that Germany can never come to her best, cannot receive the full divine blessing upon her national life, until she becomes aware of the moral repro

bation of the world." She must awake to see the guilt which rests upon her, which all the world sees resting upon her name, staining deep her record. No sincere prayer for Germany can stop short of an intense spiritual desire that that nation may become aware of the position in which her rulers have placed her before God's holy will and man's conscience. It is true that this view must be taken with the utmost humility by the Christian citizens of other lands. They know the moral iniquities which obtain among themselves, they know what wrongs their own governments have done in the past, what sins are spread broadcast among their own people, they know what mixture of motives has entered into the share which they take in this war. These things they will no less earnestly and seriously confess before God than the confession which they make of the sin of Germany. Nevertheless, as imperfect men everywhere have to deal with the holiest things, and to pass judgment on open crime and vice, so in this case. A sin more flagrant than that of any other government has been committed, a criminal will has been adopted or acquiesced in by a whole people, which has done greater wrong to the race than ever the world saw.

9 "War is not to be understood as necessarily a negation of the principle of Christianity; a just war is an attempt to create the conditions under which the opponent is disposed to listen to the language of the still small voice." W. E. Hocking, "Human Nature and Its Remaking,” p. 351.

Germany must herself see that, ere her own conscience can be cleansed and her future place in history as one of high honor and achievement can be recovered. For this the Christian man may pray. And lastly, prayer for Germany will include an intense desire that the people of that Empire may in true penitence of national spirit resolve to cleanse themselves of this wrong, to change the very depths of their purpose, if necessary to overthrow their system of government, which has proved itself the destroyer of moral order. These acts must be taken openly, whether they come up through a spread of the principles of their Social Democracy, or through the establishment of a thoroughly representative and responsible government. They must include secured guarantees for a period of years that international obligations shall be observed. If these changes rest on a new will to peace, proved by cordial entrance into a league of nations for the enforcement of peace, they will be witness to the world of the penitence of a people. What lies beyond these outward acts in the inner soul of the nation, how various classes relate themselves to it, is all beyond the eyes of man. For us this will be taken as proof enough of a true penitence. Sorrow will accompany it, and humiliation, that is most certain; long the burden of these years and the years that prepared for them will rest upon the conscience and agon

ize the heart of the best people in the Empire, as doubtless they do among many German Christians already. It is this that we may pray for. In doing so we are petitioning the Throne of Grace for the highest blessing which even God can confer upon our enemies of the German Empire.

This is to pray for Germany, and thus to pray is not only within the reach of every Christian man: it is one of the most solemn duties of his life.

II. In view of all that we have said regarding the State and the Church, certain very important questions arise which may be summarized in the following brief statement. How shall men act who, first, are in fellowship with Christ and seeking to manifest His spirit; and, second, are also under obligation to the State to maintain its true functions with sincerity and loyalty, when the State orders them to take part in its work of punishing evil-doers, whether these are of the criminal class among their own citizens, or of the criminals constituted by an invading army making an unjust war? In answer to this, the following statements may perhaps prove to be sufficient.

In the first place, the most obvious duty of the Christian man is so to live and teach and share in the life of the Christian community that the sins from which all crime and the gravest crime of all, namely an aggressive and robber war, arise, shall be rebuked. He must seek to use his influence as a

citizen to remove all conditions of thought and life, and all forms of social and industrial wrong, which produce their fruits in crime. This, as we have seen, is the true and national function of the Church, and in the exercise of that function every follower of Christ must exert his and her full personal influence.

The second, and equally obvious, duty of the Christian citizen is that he shall stand by the State, that he shall be prepared to support it and share in its divinely ordained task of maintaining the basic moral order on which the structure of civilized life is erected. The problem becomes acute in discussion with pacifists at this very point. Does a situation arise when the law that I shall stand by the State in the exercise of its true functions comes into conflict with my duty to obey Jesus Christ? Clearly such a case might arise if a man were ordered to do an injustice to a fellow citizen who is innocent of transgression. Such cases have occurred in abundance when the State, under erroneous views of its rights, persecuted its citizens for the holding of certain religious beliefs. Such an event is illustrated in the secular sphere by the action of those British officers who refused to fight against the Americans in the war of the Revolution. These men gave up their commissions, cut short their careers, rather than assist their government in the performance of an act which