it a moral aim. We are to make untold sacrifices not for ourselves but for the right of the small and weak nations of the earth to live their own lives without fear of dictation, domination or invasion. They must no longer be mere pawns to be moved about the map as suits the purposes of great and ambitious powers. Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, they are peace-loving nations, and they have the right to pursue their own happy lives without fear or interference. "America seeks no material profit or aggrandizement of any kind. She is fighting for no advantage or selfish objects of her own, but for the liberation of peoples everywhere from the aggressions of autocratic force." 4. In almost every address which Mr. Wilson has made during the last year he has put as the great objective of the war a league of nations pledged to settle its own disputes by peaceful methods and committed, through its united power, to preserve the peace of the world. "We shall fight for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free." (The many utterances of the President to this effect have been collated in Appendix III.) This is simply brotherhood, co-operation, good-will, mutual service, the common life, applied to nations as Christianity has applied them to individuals from the beginning. It is putting the kingdom of righteousness above the selfishness of nationalism. It is the realizing of "each for all, and all for each” in the realm of nations as we have long since realized it among men within the nation. It is establishing a democracy of nations similar to the democracy of men. It is a great, sublime, moral aim. 5. Finally the President has declared that we have entered upon this war to secure a Christian standard of conduct between nations similar to that which obtains among good men. It has not been so in the past. We have had a double standard of ethics, Christian for individuals, pagan for nations. We have said it was wrong for men to steal from each other, but permissible for nations; wrong for men to kill each other, but permissible for the mighty nation to destroy the weaker nation; wrong for men to settle their disputes by guns and swords, right for nations; wrong for men to seek revenge, the natural thing for nations. We have condemned the man who lives for self alone, for his rights alone, and we have called that man a knave who would seek his rights at the cost of the community's suffering, but we have expected nations to live for self and to plunge the whole world into misery to vindicate their own rights or honour. We have called the man who served most the great man; we have called the nation which could get the most, by any means, the great nation. All this must be changed, says the President. The nations must observe the same Christian rule of conduct that men observe in their relations with each other. In other words, we find the President applying the gospel to nations. When was there ever before a ruler who used such words as these: "We are at the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted that the same standards of conduct and of responsibility for wrong done shall be observed among nations and their governments that are observed among the individual citizens of civilized states." "It is clear that nations must in the future be governed by the same high code of honour that we demand of individuals." I II PRESIDENT WILSON'S IDEAL FOR AMERICA N Appendix VI we have brought together thirty four utterances of President Wilson, chosen from almost as many addresses, on the ideals he cherishes for America. We believe that we run no risk of contradiction when we say that in no collection of utterances on national ideals by any ruler of past or present times could any such selection as this be made. As Mr. Wilson himself has said in one of his addresses: "It is an unprecedented thing in the world that any nation in determining its foreign relations should be unselfish, and my ambition is to see America set the great example." But in every utterance of Mr. Wilson the ideals for America are as unselfish as those that the finest Christian gentleman would set for himself. American people seem to be just realizing to how high a pitch the President is raising these national ideals. Some are even beginning to get frightened, for there are many individuals who are not as unselfish as Mr. Wilson wishes to have the nation become. He is demanding that the nation act in a 15 The Christian way, become a Christian nation-not in the sense that everybody in it will be Christian, but that it conform as a government to the standards of a Christian gentleman. It is interesting to note the effect that these ideals are having abroad. At first England was a little sceptical of them. Now her statesmen and prophets are using Mr. Wilson's words, and her labour parties are introducing them into their constitutions. Germany naturally looks upon them as either hypocritical or the vagaries of a visionary and dreamer. No echo of any such sentiments as ideals for nations has yet come from any of her statesmen. It would mean the end of this war-and perhaps of all war-should the German government be willing sincerely to propound these sentiments as the national ideals. But it is a great thing that the ruler of one nation propounds them in his every utterance. It is not too much to hope that the preachers in the churches may follow him, and help to make these really Christian ideals the ideals of the United States. If one will closely study the thirty-four extracts he will find they may be grouped somewhat as follows: 1. "America exists not to serve itself, but to serve mankind." The philosophy of nations has always been that the one aim and purpose of the nation was to serve itself, and generally to serve itself at the expense of other weaker nations. No wonder that the German papers said, when Mr. Wilson ut |