p. 16 | Cruelties of War

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 18, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 11.

Cruelties of War.

Men talk of the glories of war. Few stop to consider its awful cruelties. These can not be pictured. No pen can portray them. They can only be felt and known by the accumulated experience of those who die and those who remain to suffer, and those who suffer—the widows and orphans—because of those who die and who suffer. And yet it is a sad fact that some of the loudest clamors for war have come from the religious press and professed ministers of the gospel of peace. It is more than a serious question. Would those who demand war, if they had to do the fighting, urge it? Would they, for instance, demand war with the Turks if they were placed in the forefront of the battle? This war spirit is an evidence of the animal passions which reign in the human heart. There are many who repudiate prize-fights and bull-fights and cock-fights, who are hounding their fellow men to battle, with the resultant widows and orphans and general impoverishment. Far from the scene of conflict men who may be reaping commercial advantages come to look upon human life as nothing worth, give the struggle a momentary thought, and go on, chuckling over the gains which they are reaping. But in the war-desolated countries, strong men fall and groan and die, while women and children are left widows and orphans. It is pitiful, and it is more pitiful to see the professed ambassadors of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, clamoring for war. It makes one long for that time when Christ shall reign over those who are willing that He should reign, and war shall forever cease. But that happy time will not be until our Lord Himself shall come. In the meantime, His peace may reign in the hearts of His children.