War and Commercialism

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 19, 1902

War and Commercialism.

The Countess Von Krockow, writing in the Independent on “Germany at the Close of 1901,” utters these striking sentences:—

That past [before Bismark] afforded something for the higher soul in man, some ideals of a spiritual nature; the notion, among others, of fraternity, equality, and individual freedom, and during a long time, men died for these. Now they are made to perish in the service of another god. 1901 A.D., if embodied in the shape of an idol, would hold the model of a cannon in one hand, and that of a factory in the other.

It is war and commerce the world over. Some men’s hearts grow hard and cruel in the lust for blood and the ephemeral glory of war; others grow equally hard and more oppressive and exacting over commercial greed, the love of money. How the sweet Spirit of Christ is not only crowded out, but driven away forever. And yet many in the professed churches of Christ glorify Mars, and worship at the shrine of Mammon.