CHRISTIANITY VERSUS WAR.
By The Commoner
ERASMUS, whose words have echoed thru three centuries, has this to say of the antagonism between Christianity and war:— Let us imagine we hear a soldier among these fighting Christians saying the Lord’s prayer just before battle. Our Father, says he. O hardened wretch! Can you call God Father, when you are just going out to cut your brother’s throat? Hallowed be Thy name. How can the name of God be more impiously unhallowed than by mutual bloody murder among His sons? Thy kingdom come. Do you pray for the coming of His kingdom while you are endeavoring to establish an earthly despotism by spilling the blood of God’s sons and subjects? Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. His will in heaven is for peace; but you are now meditating war. Give us this day our daily bread. How dare you say this to your Father in heaven at the moment that you are going to burn your brother’s corn fields, and would rather lose the benefit of them yourself than suffer him to enjoy them unmolested? Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. With what face can you pray thus, when, so far from forgiving your brother, you are going with all the haste you can to murder him in cold blood, for an alleged trespass, which, after all, is but imaginary? Lead us not into temptation. And do you presume to deprecate temptation or danger—you who are not only rushing into it yourself, but doing all you can to force your brother into it? Deliver us from evil. You pray to be delivered from evil, that is, from the evil being, Satan, to whose impulses you are now submitting yourself, and by whose spirit you are guided in contriving the greatest possible evil to your brother. These sentiments, set forth and commented upon in the Peace Manual, are respectfully commended to those followers of the Nazarene who preach a strenuous gospel of bloodshed, and who imagine that they see God’s hand directing a war waged for conquest and the extension of trade.—The Commoner.