unkenness, which always accompanies war; the hardening of the finer
sensibilities of men through the cruelty and barbarity of modern warfare;
the increase of hatred and suspicion; the dividing of humanity and the
destruction of its sense of unity, brotherhood, and cooperation; the
breakdown of international law and respect for law and order; and the
loss of reverence for human life and the sense of its priceless value.

An equal number of possible _good effects_ may be mentioned which war may
at times call out: The development of courage and heroism; the call to
sacrifice in the sinking of selfish individual interests for the sake of
a cause; the discipline of obedience and the development of corporate
action; the bringing of men out of selfish and careless lives to the
facing of the great realities of God, life, death, and immortality; the
awful object lesson of the results of sin, both personal and national,
and the teaching of the terrible lesson that "the wages of sin is death";
the widening of men's horizons, the breaking of old molds, ruts, and
restrictions and the opening of men's minds to new ideas; the chastening
and mellowing influence of suffering, with its possible development of
sympathy, tenderness, and unselfishness; the deepening of the sense of
brotherhood within a single nation with the sinking of the false or
artificial social distinctions of peace time; the strengthening of
religious unity by the stripping off of nonessentials and the laying bare
of the great simple fundamentals; and the new contact with the practical
ministry of religion in hours of deepest need in camps, in hospitals, and
on the battlefields, with the resultant strengthening hold on the great
verities of the love of God, the cross of Christ, and the service of men.

It will depend upon the individual and his theories of life how he will
strike the balance between these two sides of the good and evil of war.
While the good effects of a war are seen more clearly after it is over,
certainly during the war the vast majority of men at the front would
almost unanimously agree that the preponderating influence and effect for
the time being is evil.

At the beginning of the war in 1914 there was talk of a religious revival
in the various countries. The churches for a time were filled. The
opening of the war drove men to God. With the passing months, which have
now dragged into years, many of the high ideals have gradually been
lowered