THE CARNAL AND THE SPIRITUAL.
By S.
The acting governor of the province of Batangas, Philippine Islands, states that since the American occupation of the islands one hundred thousand of the inhabitants of that province have perished by war, disease, and starvation. The acting governor of Tayabas province, Major Cornelius Gardner of the American army, states that the American troops have tortured natives, have shown no proper discrimination between friendly and hostile natives, have burned property indiscriminately, and by harsh conduct in general have sown the seeds of hatred and continual insurrection. This governor states that “the political situation in that province is slowly retrograding. The American sentiment is decreasing, and we are daily making permanent enemies.” To those who look to the harsh deeds of war, the cruel business of manslaughter, as the advance agents of civilization and Christianity, we commend this picture of war’s work among the Filipinos. The Gospel of Jesus Christ depends upon no such carnal armor for its advancement and support; and civilization does not consist in forcing one people, at the bayonet’s point or the cannon’s mouth, to adopt the ways and customs of another people. Slaughter-weapons and the knowledge of how to use them are not the characteristics of true civilization. There is more genuine civilization in the hut of the most ignorant peasant who has learned to respect the rights of his neighbor than in the breast of the most pompous knight of war who willingly inflicts pain upon those within his power. There is more genuine Christianity in the home of a single poor cotter who daily kneels with his family at the altar of prayer for God’s blessing—in a whole concourse of church dignitaries who depend upon the rifle and bayonet to uphold their station. God has never commissioned any such power to undertake the work of advancing His kingdom in the earth. He has never authorized His representatives to depend upon any such support in their work. Civilization and Christianity are not advanced by the cruelties of war, but in spite of them. The missionary who goes out depending upon the arm of flesh is terribly handicapped from start to finish. But he who goes out in the fear and love of God, depending upon Him alone in every emergency, has a shield which Satan can never penetrate, and a support which can not permit of failure. His weapons are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of the strongholds of sin. S.