and the other
delinquencies enumerated by the Dean? The nature of the punishment
hardly fits the crime. Moreover, such a conception of war as a
wholesome corrective is practically indistinguishable from the
panegyrics of the extreme militarists whom we are out utterly to
destroy. "God will see to it," wrote Treitschke, "that war always recurs
as a drastic medicine for the human race." "War," wrote General von
Bernhardi, "is a biological necessity of the first importance, a
regulative element in the life of mankind which cannot be dispensed
with, since without it an unhealthy development will follow which
excludes every advancement of the race, and, therefore, all real
civilization." "A perpetual peace," said Field-Marshal von Moltke, "is a
dream, and not even a beautiful dream. War is one of the elements of
order in the world established by God. The noblest virtues of men are
developed therein. Without war the world would degenerate and disappear
in a morass of materialism." Many perplexed souls have turned to the
Church for guidance during this time of destruction and sorrow, and the
directions given have often increased the perplexity. The Bishop of
Carlisle expressed the opinion that if we were really Christians the war
would not have happened. Archdeacon Wilberforce and Father Bernard
Vaughan stated that killing Germans was doing service to God. Many who
have suffered at the hands of the Germans will be inclined to agree, but
the trouble from the point of view of the Christian ethic is not removed
by such a simple solution. We cannot but suspect that German prelates
have been found who have seen in the killing of women and children by
air-raids on London a service to the German God. Dr. Forsyth, in _The
Christian Ethic of War_, tells us that "war is not essentially killing,
and killing is here no murder. And no recusancy to bear arms can here
justify itself on the plea that Christianity forbids all bloodshed or
even violence." He reminds us that Christ used a scourge of small cords,
and that he called the Pharisees "you vipers," and Herod "you fox." "If
the Christian man live in society," he tells us, "it is quite impossible
for him to live upon the _precepts_ of the Sermon on the Mount. But also
it is not possible at a half-developed stage to live in actual relations
of life and duty on its _principle_ except as an _ideal_." The Roman
form of internationalism he regards "as not only useless to humanity
(which the pr