Jonas Smucker Hartzler

“ THE WORLD WAR The Seeming Cause Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth." A dozen policemen meet a mob and a battle follows. Two of the policemen are killed. Several arrests are made, the newspapers give a thrilling account of the affair, the criminals are tried and executed, another account is given in the newspapers and the matter is soon forgotten. No one thinks of starting a war on account of the riot. ”

“ On the contrary, the Church believes that we should obey magistrates, pray for our rulers and never speak evil of them, to "give honor to whom honor is due." Her teaching on nonresistance has always emphasized the duty of submission to the governments which provide us shelter, holding the single reservation that we should always remember that God's law is first and should be obeyed first, and that whenever these two laws oppose each other, "We ought to obey God rather than men." ”

“ Most Mennonites hold that it is inconsistent for Christians to support war measures ; that there is really no such thing as "noncombatant" service in aid of war; but that the man who made the gun and the man who pulled the trigger, or the man who drove the team and the man who loaded the cannon, all of them having in mind the overcoming of the enemy by means of violence, share in the re sponsibility before God. ”

“ War is the corrupter of virtue, the despoiler of purity, the murderer of courage, honor, and chivalry."
Smoking and Profanity
Thousands upon thousands of soldiers at the end of the war are accustomed to using profane language who were never known to utter an oath before. This is shown by a military man who in vestigated the cause. From a very large number of answers there were several causes suggested, but nearly all of them admitted that profanity had greatly increased in the camps. Possibly an equal number have learned to smoke who were clean men before the war broke out. ”

“ They are never justifiable, but the slaying of one man and one woman could not for one moment be considered sufficient cause for a declaration of war, had there not been other and more deeply rooted causes. ”

“ The Load of Militarism Conquering nations and conquerors do not long survive the era of their conquest. Babylon, Persia, Greece, Parthia, Rome, and Germany ; Alexander, Hannibal, Napoleon, and Wilhelm are monuments of this truth a collateral proof of the doctrine of nonresistance, and of the truth of the statement that, "All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."
Another Reason for Opposing War But even those who will not accept the Bible teaching on this point have ample reason for op posing war. Think of the war just past. ”

“ The tobacco trust put out the idea that the people in America should soothe the boys in the trenches and show that they were being remembered by sending them cigars, cigarettes, tobacco, pipes, etc., and a great many Christian people fell into the trap, and helped the trust to turn clean men into inveterate smokers. ”

“ According to this unscriptural doc trine the giving up of one's life in the cause of hu manity is an act so noble that God will extend to such an one His salvation independent of the kind of life that such an individual may have lived this by men who were professedly set for the defence of the Gospel, and in the face of such plain declara tions as, "No man cometh unto the Father except by me." "There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved," and "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." ”

“ Besides this, thousands of people have died of starvation brought on by the war, and will require the co operation of Christendom if thousands more do not die from the same cause. War has been variously denned by General Sherman and others, but lan guage fails one to define this war. ”

“ It lasted four years, three months and thirteen days ; it cost the combined nations the enormous sum of two hun dred billion dollars; it swept millions of people in to eternity; it has left millions more cripples for life; it has left some once powerful and wealthy countries all but bankrupt, and all of those involved, decidedly poorer ”