The King’s Business
Voi. 5
DECEMBER, 1914
No. 12
The War and Missions O NE of the worst evils arising out of the present war is its effect upon for eign missions. The work is almost paralyzed in many fields and mission aries subjected to great discomforts and perils. In some fields, it is im possible to get supplies to the brave men and women working at the front and it is impossible to even hear from some of the missionaries. But this is not all, nor the worst of it, the nations at war have been called “ Christian nations.” Of course, they are not really so, but they are nominally SO, and it is impossi ble for the Mohammedans and Buddhists and other followers of false religions to make fine distortions, and now they are laughing at Christianity and, judging this to be Christianity, they do not wish it. The faithful work of generations is being undone. It was certainly a master stroke of the Devil when he brought about this present war. However, God is wiser than he and mightier than he, and doubtless in the final outcome will bring to naught all these schemes and devices of Satan, but the appalling difficulties which are confronting every mis sionary society today as an outcome of the war should drive Christians to prayer. Is Patriotism a Christian Virtue? F OR a few years great emphasis has been laid upon patriotism as a Christian virtue, but a great deal that is called “ patriotism” is selfishness (though possibly in disguised form) and therefore is essentially Satanic. To love a country simply because it is one’s- own country and to stand by it no matter of what injustice it is guilty toward other and weaker nations is radically and thoroughly unchristian. The sentiment, “ My country, may she always be right, but my country whether right or wrong,” has been quoted and requoted until some almost seem to think it is a portion of the Word of God. It is a thoroughly vicious sentiment. It justifies the most unjustifiable wars and the most devilish conduct in war. We should love our country—there is no ques tion about our Lord’s love for His own Jewish people—but we should not love our country at the expense of other countries. We should not justify our coun try when she is in the wrong. We should not join hands with the multitude of our countrymen to do evil to other nations. We should seek the peace and prosperity and welfare of other lands as well as our own. We should not seek to always put the best construction on our own acts and the worst construction on the acts of other nations. The law of love should be the law of nations as well as the law of the individual. The fair-sounding word “ Patriotism” is often used as a cloak for the basest and meanest conduct. In Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, German, Englishman, Russian or American, we are all one in Him (Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11). Ought Christians to Go to War ? A VERY striking and thoughtful article on T he C h r i s t i a n ’ s D u t y in T i m e o f W a r recently appeared in a London paper called “ The Labor Leader.” We give extracts from it. The writer says:
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