“It is good to pray for peace, but it is better to pray for justice. It
is better to pray for liberty. It is better to pray for the triumph of
the right, for the victory of human freedom.” {*}
* New York Times.
Then let us pray for victory over our enemies, having no qualms, no
shame, and no remorse. We know that Christ pronounced a death sentence
on war, and that as soon as Christianity shall have established an
ascendancy war will cease. But if anybody tells us in the meantime that
by Christ’s law we are to stand aside while a strong Power, which is in
the wrong, inflicts frightful cruelties upon a weak Power which is in
the right, let us answer that we simply don’t believe it. If anybody
tells us that by Christ’s law we are to permit ourselves to be trodden
upon and trampled out of being by an empire resting on violence, let
us answer that we simply don’t believe it. If anybody tells us that by
Christ’s law we are not to oppose the gigantic ambition of a “War
Lord” who claims Divine right to stalk over Europe in scenes of blood,
rapacity, and impurity, let us answer that we simply don’t believe
it. If anybody tells us that Christ’s words, “Resist not evil,” were
intended to say that spiritual forces will of themselves overcome all
forms of war (including, as they needs must, crime, disease, and death)
let us answer that we simply don’t believe it.
Such a clumsy and dangerous interpretation of Christ’s doctrine would
put an end to government, to science, and to literature, and allow the
worst elements of human nature to rule the world. It would also put
Christianity on the scrap-heap--Christianity “with its benevolent
morality, its exquisite adaptation to the needs of human life, the
consolation it brings to the house of mourning and the light with which
it brightens the mystery of the grave.” {*}
*Macaulay.
God forbid that the very least of us should say one word that would
prolong the horrors of this terrible war. But it is just because we hate
war that at the end of these 365 days we still think we must carry it
on. It is just because our hearts are bleeding from the sacrifices we
have made, and have still to make, that we feel they must be compelled
to bleed.
Let us, then, pray with all the fervour of our souls for Belgium, for
Poland, for Italy, for Russia, for France, but above all, for our own
beloved country, mother of nations, mother, too, of some of the bravest
and best yet born on to the earth, that as long as there remains one man
or woman of British blood above British soil this England and her Empire
may be ours--ours and our children’s.