WHICH? by J. A. Edgerton

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

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 12.

WHICH?

By J. A. Edgerton

[J. A. Edgerton, in Advocate of Peace.]

CHRIST or Cæsar? God or Mammon? Which one shall it be? Will you follow Mars and Moloch, or the Prince of Peace? Do you long for greed and conquest, wrong and butchery, Or a golden age to come when war and hate shall cease?

You may sneer; but what of that? You can not sneer down right. You can not answer God by jeers, or laugh the truth away. Over all there is a standard that is infinite, While your prejudice and hate last only for a day.

War is murder, gloss it and disguise it as you will. War is right if murder is, and wrong if murder's wrong. Down the ages thunders the command, "Thou shalt not kill," That will last, unmodified, as long as time is long.

War is manly say you? And so once was murder thought; Dueling more recently and bruising yet to-day; But as we ascend the scale a nobler view is caught, And the moods and passions of our childhood pass away.

No, that man is truly manly who within his breast Crushes out the brute and seeks to follow right, Strives to benefit his kind and give the world his best; And, in spite of hostile tongues, pursues the higher light.