WAR A HINDRANCE TO GOSPEL WORK.
By W. N. G.
The people of the United States, who have recently become ambitious to acquire colonial, or outlying, possessions, may yet learn that such property is not as profitable as their “patriotic” enthusiasm leads them to suppose. It is not an uncommon thing for smart individuals, even Americans, to overreach themselves in enlarging their farms or commercial or manufacturing enterprises. It is admitted on all sides to be better policy to so till and fertilize a field as to double its product than to double the size of the field. A nation is but an aggregation of individuals. The experience of others in the colonial business may be worthy of note. Here is what Premier Sagasta recently said about the colonies which the United States are now trying to wrest from Spain:— “Our colonies have cost us dearly. Within the last twenty-five years we have spent in them three billion francs in defensive works. Only the most important cities and points have been fortified, as we could not erect works everywhere. The cost would have been seven or eight billion francs.” But it is said that the Spaniards do not know how to manage their colonies profitably; that their colonial officials systematically rob the government, and that the customs revenues are in many cases pawned to the European money-lenders. Taking all this for granted, let us turn to Germany. Here we find a sagacious business people, in whose capital is the headquarters of the greatest financial concern in the world. What about her colonies? The Boersen Courier, published at Berlin, than which there is probably no better authority on the subject, recently said:— “A heavy burden has been laid upon Germany by her colonial policy. About eleven million marks is spent annually in this connection, and a further expenditure may be looked for in the future. The revenue derived from the colonies in no way offsets this expenditure.” There is no doubt that it will cost the United States more to hold these outlying possessions than it would cost any of the European monarchies. By a kind of mutual understanding, and a dread of adverse complications, the nations of Europe have not interfered with the colonies of one another for many years. The policy of the United States has been not to acquire any of them excepting by purchase; and even these acquisitions (excepting Alaska) were natural adjuncts from a geographical standpoint. Therefore Spain has been enabled to hold what she now has for hundreds of years. What she has lost has been by revolution, and not by conquest of other nations. But the sudden wide departure of the United States from their time-honored original policy, together with their well-known strength of resources and the aggressive energy of her people, will work a change in the attitude of European nations toward these colonies. The latent jealousy of these nations, for a long time but illy concealed, will naturally be aroused. Under suspicion of further designs in the way of conquest, they will be continually seeking pretexts for jeopardizing American claims to these possessions. Thus the United States will be compelled not only greatly to strengthen her long eastern and western coasts, but will be obliged to fortify her newly-acquired island possessions far more extensively than Spain has done in the past. Not only so, but an enormous navy will be required, and a standing army such as has not yet been thought of will be demanded in order to meet the never-ceasing menace of the ever-increasing enmity of rival powers. The financial burden that is gathering over us as a result of the present war is not appreciated as yet. The “Christians” who have demanded this war will find before long that the increasing demand for money to maintain a foreign aggressive policy will more than ever absorb the funds that ought to be devoted to missionary purposes. They will find, too, that the war spirit which has been aroused in the hearts of the people will go far toward quenching the missionary spirit, which is none too ardent even when not diverted by the delusion that carnal warfare can in anywise advance the Gospel of peace. These last days are days of deception, and there can hardly be a worse delusion than to suppose that a call to arms is in any sense a Christian call, or that the armed conquest of territory, even in the name of Christianity, can be reckoned as a victory for the Gospel. Carnal warfare, like the carnal mind, is “enmity against God;” it has nothing in common with the work of salvation. W. N. G.