he Christian Scots in Kintyre, and Scotland
found a name. In time the Angles and Strathclyde were merged in the
unity of the Kingdom of Scotland. There came first the unity of one
ideal, of one law, of one faith--and out of that there came the four
kingdoms merged at last in the unity of the one Kingdom of Scotland.
Until at last, after weary centuries, the sounds of war hushed into
silence: clan no longer lifted up sword against clan; brethren in
Christ could no longer slay one another. Peace lay at last like a
golden shaft across all the land. One fearless unarmed man faced a
king with the weapons of the Spirit, sowed the harvest which we are now
reaping.

IV

It is only by that road that humanity can come at last to the great
goal of universal peace. It is the road that nations are unwilling to
tread. They still are following the mirage that has strewn the deserts
of time with the bleached skeletons of those who set out to reach it.
The mirage is salvation by treaties. That idol has had hecatombs
offered on its altars, and unless there comes a change it will have
hecatombs in the future. If there be no truth and righteousness in the
heart that signs, then treaties are valueless. The history of the
centuries is the proof of their futility. The treaties of to-day can
no more save than the treaties of all the yesterdays. For the nations
that sign cannot trust each other. In the hearts of the nations there
is not throned that righteousness which can be trusted.

The world's sickness is of the soul. What the nations need is that
truth and righteousness be enthroned in their midst. Without that,
peace is only the scum on the surface of the foul and stagnant pool.
And the witness of the centuries is that righteousness is the fruit of
the vision of God. The foundation of righteousness is the realisation
of the ceaseless operation of the laws whose source is God. If only
the vision of God could blaze forth before the eyes of democracies as
it blazed forth before the eyes of King Brude, then the way of peace
would open up for groaning humanity. How can there be lasting peace in
a world of conflicting ideals? Can Christianity be at peace with
Mohammedanism stained with the blood of millions of Armenians; with
paganism still brooding over the ideal of an empire based on force?
Can the ideals of unselfish service and of pride and greed lie down in
peace together? There can be no peace until humanity is bro