What Peace Means | Page 5

sell his garment and buy one."
Does any silly pacifist say that means a spiritual sword? No. You could
get that without selling your garment. It means a real sword,--as real as
the purse and the scrip which Christ told His followers to carry with
them. It means the power of arms dedicated to the service of
righteousness without which the world can never be safe for peace.
Here, then, we may stand on the Word of God, on the work of
righteousness in making the world safe for peace. Let me tell you of my
faith that every one who has given his life for that cause, has entered
into eternal rest.
II. Come we now to consider the second part of the text: "the effect of
righteousness, quietness and confidence forever."
What shall be the nature of the peace to be concluded after our victory
in this righteous war?
Here we have to oppose the demands of the bloodthirsty civilians. They
ask that German towns should endure the same sufferings which have
been inflicted on the towns of Belgium and Northern France. Let me
say frankly that I do not believe you could persuade our officers to
order such atrocities, or our soldiers to obey such orders. Read the
order which one of the noble warriors of France, General Pétain, issued
to his men:
"To-morrow, in order to better dictate peace, you are going to carry
your arms as far as the Rhine. Into that land of Alsace-Lorraine that is
so dear to us, you will march as liberators. You will go further; all the
way into Germany to occupy lands which are the necessary guarantees
for just reparation.
"France has suffered in her ravaged fields and in her ruined villages.
The freed provinces have had to submit to intolerable vexations and

odious outrages, but you are not to answer these crimes by the
commission of violences, which, under the spur of your resentment,
may seem to you legitimate.
"You are to remain under discipline and to show respect to persons and
property. You will know, after having vanquished your adversary by
force of arms, how to impress him further by the dignity of your
attitude, and the world will not know which to admire most, your
conduct in success or your heroism in fighting."
The destruction of the commonplace Cathedral of Cologne could never
recompense the damage done to the glorious Cathedral of Rheims. Nor
could the slaughter of a million German women and children restore
the innocent victims of Belgium, France, Servia, and Armenia to life.
We do not thirst for blood. We desire justice.
No doubt the ends of justice demand that the principal brigands who
are responsible for the atrocities of this war should be tried before an
international court If convicted they should be duly punished. But not
by mob-law or violence. Nothing could be less desirable than the
assassination of William Hohenzollern. It would be absurd and horrible
to give a martyr's crown to a criminal. Vengeance belongeth unto God.
He alone is wise and great enough to deal adequately with the case. It is
for us to keep our righteous indignation free from the poison of
personal hatred, and to do no more than is needed to uphold and
vindicate the eternal law.
William Hohenzollern, and his fellow-conspirators who are responsible
for the beginning and the conduct of the dreadful war from which all
the toiling peoples of earth have suffered, must be brought to the bar of
justice and sentenced; otherwise the world will have no defense against
the anarchists who say that government is a vain thing; and the bloody
Bolshevists who proclaim the Empire of the Ignorant,--the
Boob-Rah,--as the future rule of the world, will have free scope.
It is evident that a league of free, democratic states, pledged by mutual
covenant to uphold the settlement of international differences by reason
and justice before the use of violence, offers the only hope of a durable

peace among the nations. It is also the only defense against that deadly
and destructive war of classes with which Bolshevism threatens the
whole world. The spirit of Bolshevism is atheism and enmity; its
method is violence and tyranny; its result would be a reign of terror
under that empty-headed monster, "the dictatorship of the proletariat."
God save us from that! It would be the worst possible outcome of the
war in which we have offered and sacrificed so much, and in which
God has given us the opportunity to make "a covenant of peace."
How vast, how immeasurable, are the responsibilities which this great
victory in righteous war has laid upon the Allies and America. God
help us to live up to them. God help us to sow the future not with
dragon's teeth,