We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of the nations can make them. Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish object, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with all free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations as belligerents without passion and ourselves observe with proud punctilio the principles of right and fair play we profess to be fighting for." (The italics are mine.)

Here is a great opportunity for the Christian. Germany has expressed toward England words of hatred of which even she herself is now ashamed. She has performed acts of inhumanity of which her children will be ashamed in the future. There has been little of this on the part of England so far, but there have been some unchristian utterances and some reprisals. Would that every Englishman might have uttered during the course of this war only such sentiments as those which fell from the lips of Edith Cavell as she was being executed. "Standing as I do in view of God and eternity, I realize that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness toward anyone." France has been noblest of them

Noble WAR

all, but she, too, has descended once or twice to
reprisals, provoked by terrible barbarities enacted
on her territories. But here is the opportunity
of America to set a new ideal to the world. Let
every Christian see that no words of hatred escape
his lips, no cry for revenge, whatever happens.
Let every Christian pastor impress upon the boys
going from his parish their duty to keep unsullied
the fair name of America and to keep it true to
the high utterances of the President in this re-
gard, and never by word or deed to show bestial
hatred toward the enemy. Let our army, if by
and by it enters upon fields occupied by the enemy,
show to the enemy that it fights not in hatred but
in knightly crusade for right and peace. Let every
Christian in America insist that this nation vio-
late no slightest iota of international law or tradi-
tion in its warfare on sea and land, that it permit
no act of ruthlessness, of wanton destruction or
of lust. Let it be shown to all the world that
American soldiers are above atrocities of any kind.
Let the Christians of America insist that there be
no reprisals in kind for atrocities perpetrated by
the
enemy.
We believe that after this war is over
all high-minded Christian Englishmen will regret
that they ever stooped to German methods in
reprisal for inhumanities practiced upon English
subjects. Let all American Christians insist at
the beginning that America shall not stoop to
anything in her warfare that is not knightly.

II

HESE are going to be trying days for many sincere Christians. Christians are not

going to be able to see eye to eye. The experience in England has shown that there is going to be much more difference of opinion on the righteousness of war for Christians than there has ever been in any previous time. Fifty years ago, and even less, objection to war under any conditions was confined almost entirely to the Society of Friends. But the general pacifist movement has made great progress since those days and many converts to this point of view have been gained from all religious communions, and many of the labor and Socialist groups hold the same belief. Thus England, much closer to the war than we and with vital interest much more threatened, has witnessed the formation of a Fellowship of Reconciliation of some four thousand members, mostly young men and women, not predominantly Quakers, who have taken a radical stand against war as being in its essence unChristian under any conditions. Furthermore, many of the thousands who have come into prominence as conscientious objectors in England, have had no connection with the Society of Friends.

All this is referred to simply because it indicates what will surely be the experience of America. The peace movement has made much greater progress here than in England. There are thousands of people in America whose consciences will not let them kill their fellow men in settlement of international disputes. Some of these might feel that were this country invaded they might then be justified in resisting attack, but under present conditions they cannot go forth to kill. They are all the more strengthened in this position because of the great number of people who were opposed to entering the war at all. One of the leading Congressmen, just after the vote had been taken in Congress, said that had they voted according to their own convictions or according to the convictions of the country at large, fully half of Congress and half of the nation would have voted not to enter the war. It was unnecessary to say this, for the utter failure of men to volunteer shows how little enthusiasm there is for the war. Many Christians who are standing by the war now because they have heard that there was danger of the allies, and with them of democracy, being crushed under foot, have reconciled their consciences to participation in it. On the other hand, many men who have conscientious objections to making war are strengthened in their position because of the great numbers who do not feel that the United States was justified in going

into this war.
We shall, therefore, find, in light
of all the above facts, that there is going to be
an infinitely greater number of conscientious ob-
jectors than there would have been twenty-five
years ago, and that they are going to come from
every rank of life.

Here is the chance for the Christian in war time, even though he himself believes in the inevitability of this war, and in its righteousness, to render a great service to his country, to real and lasting democracy, to freedom of conscience, which is Protestantism in its very essence, and to Christianity itself. He could insist that no man be forced to act against his lifelong, or deep-rooted convictions, his religious principles, or his conscience. Nothing is more fatal to de mocracy, and nothing is more un-Christian, than to make a man break what is his allegiance to - Jesus Christ, or to God, or to his own conscience. Let us not make the terrible mistake England had made in this regard. The one thing in this war of which many of the finest Englishmen are ashamed, the only thing that has approached Prussian war methods, has been her harsh and unChristian treatment of conscientious objectors. She has seen her mistake and has relaxed her severe treatment of these men. When our conscription law begins to operate we shall have many more conscientious objectors than had England. Our colleges and our labor organizations are full

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