The Spirit of War and of Blood-thirstiness.
The prophets of peace will look in vain for swords to be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning-hooks when men in such high positions of power and influence as the President of the United States give such advice to young men as the President gave recently to the cadets at West Point: “A good soldier must not only be willing to fight, he must be anxious to fight; I do not want anything to do with him, if he is not.” That is the spirit of the age. It is personified in our “strenuous” President and in Germany’s war lord, Emperor Wilhelm. While no Christian could feel that these were men for the hour, they are men of the hour; they are products of this age. But they do not make for peace.