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T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
January 1930
The Way of Peace B y H enry C. B i I ell ( Pastor Second Presbyterian Church, Los Angeles )
swords that have hacked at it without cutting it to pieces. Think of the spears that have been driven through it without ending its life. Think of the mighty warrior-kings that have trampled on it, and think of the military experts that have poured out upon it the acid o f their biting contempt,—and yet it still lives... This is all the more surprising when we remember that the hope has never been fulfilled. The dream has never been real ized. Through 2,600 years there has been continuous disappoint ment. Every generation has looked forward to a warless world and every generation has looked forward in vain. In each suc ceeding century bold-hearted men have dared to proclaim the speedy advent o f a warless world. They have all prophesied in vain, but in spite of the disappointment, the world goes right on dreaming of a time when war shall be no more.* But not only has the hope persisted down the cen turies;, many have devoted themselves to its realization. So eager was Andrew Carnegie to make peace among the nations that he gave ten millions of dollars to erect the Hague Peace Palace and other peace tribunals. It was a laudable thing to do, no doubt. But, as Professor Hammil once said: “ I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I declare a surer way to hush the roar o f guns and furl the flags of war would be to spend the ten million dollars on Bibles and missionaries.” W h y M odern E fforts F ail These modern efforts to bring “ peace on earth” are illustrative of what Isaiah menat when he said : “ The way o f peace [the method of securing it] have they not known.” He knew that only God could give to the world a peace that would be permanent and universal. “ I make peace; I create evil. . . . I am the Lord and there is none else. There is no other God beside me. I the Lord do all these things” (Isa. 45:5, 7). How can men expect to handle this monstrous problem and leave God out of the transaction? But is not that ex actly what men are doing today? God’s way of peace “ they know not.” ; They do not know the way of peace because they fail to recognize the claims o f Him who alone is the “ Prince o f Peace.” God was left out of the Peace Conference at Versailles following the war in spite of the presence there of our great Christian President. How could He be recognized when they met around that table as politicians and par tisans seeking revenge, seeking their own selfish interests, making terms of peace that have had to be revised again and again during the years that have intervened? Some notable things have been done since then in the interest of world peace ; some notable conferences have been held, and notes exchanged, and peace pacts signed ; but with how much recognition of the Prince of Peace ? The editor of The Sunday School Times, in speaking of the recent visit of Prime Minister MacDonald and his conversations with President Hoover, says: But this epoch-making conference between the representa tives of two of the leading nations o f earth strangely omits all recognition o f the only certain security for peace that man can *In quoting Dr. Jefferson the author would like to say that he does not endorse all that Dr. Jefferson has to say in his chapter on “A Warless World.”
“ The way o f peace they know not.’’- —Isa. 59: 8 .
HERE is no writer of the Old Testament who has so much to say about peace as Isaiah, the poet-prophet. No less than twenty-five times the word “peace” occurs in his prophecy. While most frequently he speaks of a peace that is per sonal and• individual, as when he says: “ Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee” (2 6 :3), he also speaks of international peace. The most widely quoted of all words on peace are the words of Isaiah’s notable prophecy re corded in chapter 2, verse 4, when he declares that He “ shall judge among the nations, and rebuke many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” A more modern poet writes of the time to come when— The war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle-flags were furled In the Parliament o f man, the Federation of the world. W hence C ame T he P rophecy of P eace ? Where did the poet get such an inspiration and on what grounds are we all looking for that day to dawn? The basis of this hope is such a prophecy as Isaiah makes. But whence the prophecy? Few were the peace-lovers in the age in which Isaiah lived. Dr. C. E. Jefferson says: , In that century, war was the pastime o f kings and the glory of them. It was by war that a king won imperishable renown. It was natural to fight and normal to engage in battle. Assyria was a military power, and so Was Egypt. All the kings around Judah believed in war and practiced it. Where did Isaiah get his idea of a warless world? .... . How surprising that in the eighth century before Christ there should live a man who could see that there is no place in the ideal world for war,—that war is only a transient horror that will sometime pass away, that war is not after the mind of God and 'will some day be banished from the world? The author quoted answers the question by saying that since he did not get the idea from any existing king or other leader of men, he must have gotten it from God. For this Book which we call our Bible is full of ideas and ideals that can be accounted for in no other way. They could not have originated in the minds of selfish and sin ful men who lived when they first found expression. “Holy men o f God spake as they were moved by the Holy GAoyf”— that is Peter’s explanation of it. Isaiah wrote that sentence about a warless world because he was moved by the Spirit o f Almighty God. . . . . That the idea came from God is evidence that it cannot be destroyed. It is an idea that will not die. The human mind is wonderfully prolific and it gives birth to an infinite number of ideas and conceptions and notions and hopes and fancies and dreams, and most of these, after a while, grow weak and die. Only a small fraction o f the ideas born of the mind survive. Here is an idea which survives. It is 2,600 years old but it is more alive today than it ever was since it came out of Isaiah’s brain. Think o f the enemies it has had to meet. Think of the floods it has come through without being drowned. Think of the fires it has passed through without being burned. Think of the
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