G. B. THOMPSON by G. B. Thompson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Oct 6, 1904

G. B. THOMPSON

By G. B. Thompson

War

G. B. THOMPSON

In the reports of the events from the theater of war, we hear much of the valor and Spartan bravery displayed by the troops in battle. A romantic glory is given to the life of the soldier which is calculated to inspire a desire to “go to the front.” Of the terrible suffering, the inhuman butchery of human beings, in the frenzied efforts to win a victory, we know but little. A correspondent at the front in the war now being waged between Japan and Russia in Manchuria, gives us a faint glimpse of the frightful scenes on the battle-field of Liao Yang. He says:—

“The arena north of the river which was fought over by the contending armies, presents a terrible picture of the results of war. The fields are strewn with hundreds of lines of trenches, and, marking the successive stages of retreat, crematory fires are yet burning. Searching parties are still bringing in Japanese bodies. Graves of Russian soldiers can be seen at every turn, some dug by comrades, and others by the Japanese. On one hillside is a group of two hundred or three hundred graves marked by rough sticks. Many bodies remain undiscovered in the high grain, and the odor of decomposition fills the air. Flocks of crows hover about, and hundreds of Chinese dogs roam the fields.”

Then there are perhaps no greater sufferers than those left by the soldiers at home—the loving wives and children, or the fathers and mothers whose son is at the “front.” None but the compassionate God can ever understand their sufferings.

A writer in the Primitive Methodist Magazine some years ago described this terrible pageant of Satan as follows:—

“War is a dreadful scourge, an untold calamity, a fearful curse, a melancholy evidence of human depravity, and a solemn proof of a sin-avenging Providence. It paralyzes commerce, interferes with industrial occupations, lays waste fertile countries, loads nations with enormous debts, augments taxation, increases the burdens of the people, cherishes unholy and diabolical passions, depopulates cities, makes wives widows and children fatherless, fills families and communities with lamentation, mourning, and woe, and suddenly hurries multitudes into the eternal world [or rather hurries them out of this world], for which it is to be feared the great majority are not prepared.”

How earnestly should we labor and pray for that glorious time to come when sin will be destroyed, and war will cease unto the end of the earth.