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 1 , • 
 
 The Chu rch 
 
 and 
 
 International Peace 
 
 . i 
 
 A Series of Papers by the Trustees of 
 THE CHURCH PEACE UNION 
 
 VIII 
 
 The Church and the Ideal 
 
 by 
 
 Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, D.D. 
 
 THE CHURCH PEACE UNION 
 70 Fifth Avenue 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
The Church and International Peace 
 
 A uniform series of papers by the Trustees of The 
 Church Peace Union, treating the problems of war and 
 peace from the point of view of religion, and especially 
 emphasizing the message the Church should have for the 
 world in this time of war. 
 
 ALREADY PUBLISHED 
 
 1. The Cause of the War, by Rev. Charles E. Jefferson, D.D. 
 
 2. The Midnight Cry, by Rt. Rev. David H. Greer, D.D. 
 
 3. The Scourge of Militarism, by Rev. Peter Ainslie, D.D. 
 
 4. Europe’s War, America’s Warning, by Rev. Charles S. Mac- 
 
 farland, Ph.D. 
 
 5. The Way to Disarm, by Hamilton Holt, LL.D. 
 
 6. The Church’s Mission as to War and Peace, by Junius B. 
 
 Remensnyder, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 7. Might or Meekness, by Rev. William Pierson Merrill, D.D. 
 
 8. The Church and the Ideal, by Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, D.D. 
 
 IN PREPARATION 
 
 1. After the War—What? by Rev. Francis E. Clark, D.D. 
 
 2. The United Church and the Terms of Peace, by Rev. Frederick 
 
 Lynch, D.D. 
 
 3. Adequate Armaments, by Prof. William I. Hull. 
 
The Church and the Ideal 
 
 By Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, D.D. 
 
 This is a time for prayer rather than for preaching. This 
 is not the time for national or personal self-satisfaction that 
 we being at peace are not what other and warring nations 
 and peoples are; that these horrors could not occur in this 
 country because we are a democracy, our people are governed 
 by their representatives and not by an autocrat who may de¬ 
 clare war in spite of the people, or because we do not believe 
 in takdng possession of the lands of other peoples against their 
 will. Although we may recall with gratitude our retirement 
 from Cuba, we may also recall the fact that much of the land 
 which we occupy was conquered from the Indians and by 
 their extermination. 
 
 Still less is this a time to sit in judgment upon others 
 and declare who is to blame for this awful war. The evidence 
 is not all in yet and probably will not be in our lifetime. We 
 are wise if we leave these judgments with God. 
 
 The fact is that the people of these nations, those who 
 are fighting and suffering and dying, those who are shouting 
 in exultation or shrieking in pain believe that they are fight¬ 
 ing for the defense of their country, their homes and their 
 posterity. Patriotism, the motive which has been extolled 
 for centuries, is at the heart of their action; it is that which 
 is sending each day thousands against the steel of thousands. 
 
 What we should be doing, we children of a republic, 
 bred in liberty, if we were in close contact with other nations 
 like those of Europe, if we felt hemmed in and smothered, 
 if we thought that our liberties or even our commerce were 
 at stake, if we were divided by racial stocks and the mem¬ 
 ories of religious warfare, if parts of our country traded 
 or won in warfare forward and back were to be torn from 
 us, we should not dare to say. We should probably be doing 
 
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as these nations are, fighting for what we believe our rights, 
 our honor, or our homes. 
 
 Though we be Americans and peace loving, liberty 
 loving people, we are men and women subject to the pas¬ 
 sions and greeds of others. When national or commercial 
 or political interest dominates us, we are not altogether free 
 from the theory that might makes right. 
 
 The weakness, the temptations and sins of other people 
 are ours also. We for instance are interested today that the 
 ethics of nations, of strong and great bodies of people should 
 be founded upon the same principles as the ethics of indi¬ 
 viduals. The plighted word must be kept; dealings must be 
 mutually honorable even though every condition be not named 
 in the bond; the weakest must have the same treatment that is 
 yielded to the strongest; to make treaties or bargains with 
 one party while one is secretly making bargains inconsistent 
 with these with others is wrong. 
 
 We have been quick during these two months to criticize 
 or condemn these lapses of national honor, honesty or justice. 
 Let us look to ourselves. Are we in our days of peace entirely 
 free from these faults? Are we clear that the standards of 
 ethics in our commercial, political or national life are the 
 standards of personal ethics? 
 
 We form ourselves into corporations, great, strong 
 bodies of men, whether capitalists or workingmen. Surely 
 we are not stranger to the thought that what we may not 
 do as individuals we may do as a corporate body. Might 
 at times has made right. The strong ride over the weak. 
 Secret contracts inconsistent with public agreements are not 
 unknown; the armament of material forces is strong and 
 breaks down the defences of justice and truth at times. Men 
 are in peace what they are liable to be in war. We are of like 
 passions with other men; their sins are our sins, wherefore 
 let us “pray to this end that God forgive us our sins, our igno¬ 
 rance of His holy will, our wilfulness and many errors, and 
 lead us in the paths of obedience to places of vision and to 
 thoughts and counsels that purge and make wise.” Conscious 
 
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of our faults, humbled by our sins, and brought by confes¬ 
 sion to places of vision, what may we see beyond? The 
 vista of the future is full of mists and we know not where 
 the nations may be led through this deep, dark valley of 
 slaughter, death and sorrow. 
 
 A few rays of light pierce the mists even now. We look 
 for hopeful thoughts. We have the right to gather a few 
 of them today that they may cheer us as we go forward. Let 
 me name over some of these messages of hope. 
 
 1. Has it not been borne in upon the people of the world 
 since this war began that war, victory by force, seldom settles 
 anything satisfactorily? In former times this was the accepted 
 way for the settlement of tribal or national diflerences, today 
 we are beginning to rebel against it. Whichever side by 
 victory gains land or harbor or commerce or indemnity has 
 made for itself an enemy who will bide his time and in some 
 hour of national stress smite and take vengeance. 
 
 There has been a world-wide movement in these last years 
 which calls upon nations to respect the traditions and rights 
 of people, even the weakest and lowliest. Men the world 
 over, when they think, are becoming more and more con¬ 
 vinced that war is not only brutal and wicked but that it is 
 stupid. Intelligent people may condone wickedness, but they 
 will condemn and stop at stupidity. 
 
 2. Are we not becoming convinced that the increase 
 of great armaments, which in peace has been bleeding the 
 nations in money and life, is instead of being a bulwark of 
 peace, a temptation for war? 
 
 When citizens carry pistols and dirks for self-defense, 
 they are liable in a time of fright to draw and use them. 
 They do not mean to be aggressors; they are in a moment of 
 panic simply defending themselves. 
 
 Just such a panic seems to have swept over these nations; 
 the common interests of religion, literature, blood and friend¬ 
 ship counted for naught; life was in danger; they must strike 
 and strike quickly, or the other might kill first. And so that 
 noble sentiment of patriotism was kindled in a moment, they 
 
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and their children were threatened; stand and fight the ag¬ 
 gressor. 
 
 We are thinking what a few days of quiet reasoning 
 might have done if the cannons had not been already loaded 
 and the bayonets fixed, and we believe that the whole world 
 will think harder than ever upon this point. Settlements 
 through reason and discussion, through an appeal to public 
 opinion and men’s sense of justice gain the respect of men’*? 
 judgments and have as their basis confidence in their fellows, 
 their desire to do the right thing. 
 
 To be sure, there rises before us the vital question as 
 to who is to enforce these judgments and conclusions. In the 
 last resort we have to fall back even in our personal differ¬ 
 ences and the decisions of the courts upon the police and 
 the jail. Is such a resort possible in international disputes, 
 even when national honor is at stake? 
 
 The history of the defense of personal honor through 
 public opinion and not through the duel is full of hope, but 
 it does not altogether meet the questions of national honor. 
 We are confident, however, that God will lead us in paths of 
 obedience to places of visions and to “thoughts and counsels 
 that purge and make wise.” 
 
 The history of this movement of appeal to public opinion 
 during our generation is full of hope. Disappointments there 
 have been, many and great. The awful disappointment of 
 this awful war almost overwhelms us. 
 
 Let our thoughts dwell on the facts of the Hague Con¬ 
 ferences and the Hague Tribunal; upon treaty after treaty 
 looking to mutual confidence, justice and respect for public 
 opinion made and kept. 
 
 Let us appreciate more fully the fact that the dream of 
 a World’s Peace has passed beyond the imaginings of senti¬ 
 mentalists and has entered into and taken possession of the 
 thoughts of great statesmen as a goal to be worked for. 
 
 3. Again, the increasing sensitiveness of people through¬ 
 out the world to physical pain and suffering, their horror at 
 cruelty, the aversion to slaughter and the shambles of death 
 
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are causing men and women and children to hate war, to 
 turn their faces from it. In the excitement of battle, in the 
 thrills of patriotism these sentiments are forgotten, but they 
 are gaining control over people’s thoughts and action. 
 
 ) May we not go further? May not the day be approaching 
 faster than we think when a false form of patriotism, my 
 country right or wrong, will be frowned upon by the public 
 opinion of the world? So long as national might makes right, 
 this false patriotism will endure. 
 
 Higher conceptions of the rights of others, the well being 
 of all nations, are bound to temper patriotism and make it more 
 reasonable, more just and humane. For in the increasing con¬ 
 sciousness of the sacredness of the individual which Christ 
 teaches and which is at the basis of democracy, it is discovered 
 that the burdens, the sufferings and the costs of war fall most 
 heavily, not upon the leaders, not upon the rich, not even upon 
 the brave men who lie wounded and dead in the trenches, but 
 upon the women and children, upon the great body of the 
 common people. With the people in power, the governors of 
 themselves, nations will think long and move slowly before 
 they involve themselves in wars for which they are bound to 
 be the heaviest sufferers. 
 
 These and many other thoughts which come to mind are 
 full of hope. Live in them, dwell in them, press them upon 
 your own imaginations and tell them to others. Recognize 
 the difficulties, accept the objections, but do not yield to them. 
 The future is full of problems and the cause of Peace is 
 harrassed by hostile forces. The greatest and noblest states¬ 
 men know not which way to lead or where the path will open. 
 Be confident that God will open a path, and watch for it. 
 
 Let us take an even higher place of vision. The glory 
 of the Christian Church is highest when she stands for ideals. 
 The heralds of the Son of God sang, “Glory to God in the 
 highest and on earth peace, good will towards man.” At that 
 moment history tells us that all nations were at peace. 
 
 Throughout these twenty centuries, through all the wars 
 of conquest and hate, that heavenly song has rung out as the 
 
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hope of mankind. God has in His mind, we believe, the 
 consummation of a world-wide peace. When or where we 
 know not yet. The cause of truth and justice may compel its 
 servants to obey the word of their Master, “I come not to 
 send peace but a sword.” Wars for the right are not over 
 yet. Wars of greed, race hatred and false patriotism may 
 be waged in future again and again. But God’s kingdom is 
 coming, His Kingdom of Peace. In spite of disheartening 
 checks, of cynicism and opposition, the Christian’s privilege 
 is to stand for the ideal and to work for it. Work for it in 
 the way that the heavenly choir points out, through good will. 
 Let us respect the peoples of other races, enter with sympathy 
 into their hopes; let us try to discover the better and not the 
 worse in men; let us love our neighbors as ourselves. And 
 we shall do our part in preparing the world for that lasting 
 peace which is the crowning virtue and happiness of all 
 people. 
 
 God has His plan for peace. His path towards interna¬ 
 tional good will. Let us pray and pray earnestly that He will 
 show us that path that we may walk in it, 
 
 The Church Peace Union 
 
 {Founded by Andrew Carnegie) 
 
 TRUSTEES 
 
 Rev. Peter Ainslie, D.D., LL.D., Baltimore, Md. 
 
 Rev. Arthur Judson Brown, D.D., LL.D., New York. 
 
 Rev. Francis E. Clark, D.D., LL.D., Boston, Mass. 
 President W. H. P. Faunce, D.D., LL.D., Providence, R. I. 
 His Eminence, James Cardinal Gibbons, Baltimore, Md. 
 
 Rt. Rev. David H. Greer, D.D., LL.D., New York. 
 
 Rev. Frank O. Hall, D.D., New York. 
 
 Bishop E. R. Hendrix, D.D., Kansas City, Mo. 
 
 Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch, LL.D., Chicago, Ill. 
 
 Hamilton Holt, LL.D., New York. 
 
 Professor William I. Hull, Ph.D., Swarthmore, Pa. 
 
 Rev. Charles E. Jefferson, D.D., LL.D., New York. 
 
 Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, LL.D., Chicago, Ill. 
 
 Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, D.D., Boston, Mass 
 Rev. Frederick Lynch, D.D., New York. 
 
 Rev. Charles S. Macfarland, Ph.D., Nev/ York. 
 
 Marcus M. Marks, New York. 
 
 Dean Shailer Mathews, D.D., LL.D., Chicago, Ill. 
 
 Edwin D. Mead, M.A., Boston, Mass. 
 
 Rev. William Pierson Merrill, D.D., LL.D., New York. 
 John R. Mott, LL.D., New York. 
 
 George A. Plimpton, LL.D., New York. 
 
 Rev. Junius B. Remensnyder, D.D., LL.D., New York. 
 Judge Henry Wade Rogers, LL.D., New York. 
 
 Robert E. Speer, D.D., New York. 
 
 Francis Lynde Stetson, New York. 
 
 James J. Walsh, M.D., New York. 
 
 Bishop Luther B. Wilson, D.D., LL.D., New York.