The Spirit of Hate Engendered by War
By Editor
IN the November number of Boys' Life, the Boy Scouts' magazine, Dr. David Starr Jordan says, “When this hideous war is over, all the nations will be filled with the spirit of hate, for without hate there could be no war.” One of the never-failing consequences of war is this spirit of national hatred. It becomes fixed in the minds of the people, and will last for generation after generation. The facts that are brought out in regard to the two Balkan wars, which were concluded shortly before this great European war, show that a spirit of national hatred was stirred up there that led men into barbarism which it would seem ought to shame the faces of savages. And now that so large a portion of the world is involved in war, men should be able to see that the situation is hopeless. If this world were permitted to stand, several generations of profound peace would be needed to wipe out the feelings of hatred and bitterness that have been engendered. Old grudges between the various nations of Europe are woven into the very nerves and flesh of the populace. The Bible prophecies, as we have abundantly pointed out during recent weeks, make clear beyond a peradventure that these last days will be days of the bitterest war and strife. Not only does the record say that the nations are angry, but the spirits of the very demons themselves are stirring men to war. This shows that the most frightful barbarities will be the order of the day. And so from the standpoint of the common sense that men ought to exercise, and also from the further fortified standpoint of what the divine record foretells, we should see that the days upon which this world have entered constitute a period of continued hatreds and strifes. These will lead to Armageddon, the great world-wide war foretold by the prophets, as inevitably as unconfined water flows down hill. The Bible story is clear; and if men will regard its pages, and exercise even a reasonable amount of common sense, they will know what the future of this world is. It can not be a time of peace; and yet men will arise who will undertake to patch up these conditions, and who will not only deceive themselves into believing that they will secure peace, but just before Armageddon breaks they will say they have peace. It is a fearful thing for men and women to allow themselves to overlook the strongest kind of evidence, while they plunge headlong into the delusions that end in universal destruction.