The Lord of all mankind hath fashioned this human realm to be a Garden of
Eden, an earthly paradise. If, as it must, it findeth the way to harmony
and peace, to love and mutual trust, it will become a true abode of bliss,
a place of manifold blessings and unending delights. Therein shall be
revealed the excellence of humankind, therein shall the rays of the Sun of
Truth shine forth on every hand.
Remember how Adam and the others once dwelt together in Eden. No sooner,
however, did a quarrel break out between Adam and Satan than they were,
one and all, banished from the Garden, and this was meant as a warning to
the human race, a means of telling humankind that dissension--even with the
Devil--is the way to bitter loss. This is why, in our illumined age, God
teacheth that conflicts and disputes are not allowable, not even with
Satan himself.
Gracious God! Even with such a lesson before him, how heedless is man!
Still do we see his world at war from pole to pole. There is war among the
religions; war among the nations; war among the peoples; war among the
rulers. What a welcome change would it be, if only these black clouds
would lift from off the skies of the world, so that the light of reality
could be shed abroad! If only the darksome dust of this continual fighting
and killing could settle forever, and the sweet winds of God's
loving-kindness could blow from out the well-spring of peace. Then would
this world become another world, and the earth would shine with the light
of her Lord.
If there is any hope, it is solely in the bounties of God: that His
strengthening grace will come, and the struggling and contending will
cease, and the acid bite of blood-dripping steel will be turned into the
honey-dew of friendship and probity and trust. How sweet would that day be
in the mouth, how fragrant as musk the scent thereof.
God grant that the new year will bring a promise of the new peace. May He
enable this distinguished assemblage to conclude a fair treaty and
establish a just covenant, that you may be blessed forever, across the
unborn reaches of time.
[Addressed to the readers of The Christian Commonwealth, 1 January 1913]