a
The Commoner
JULY, 191
15.
The Inexorableness of Moral Law
A selection from Dr. Charles E. Jefferson'
recent volume, WHAT THE WAR IS TEACHING,
copyrighted 1916, and reprinted by permission
of the publishers, Fleming H. Revell Company.
When one looks out upon a continent deluged
with human blood, tho question leaps to his lips
which Gideon asked centuries ago: "If the Lord
be with us, why then is all this befallen us?
and where be all His miracles which our fathers
told us of?". The question "Why?" has been
during tnese recent montns on our lips a thou
sand times. We have punctuated our reading
of the newspaper accounts of carnage with-
Why? We have sighed it, and cried it, and
moaned It. We have woven it into our praypfs.
With us Christians it has been an agonizing
question because we are committed to the be
lief that God lives and reigns, and that He is a
God of love But the heart keeps asking, Where
is He? Where was He when the shells screamed
and burst over the heads of tho multitude, or.
men, women and children who streamed foiui ,
from falling Antwerp? WJiere was He when
Poland was. swept with fire and sword? Where
was He when the Lusitania sank? Where was
He when the, Turkish butchers piled up the
bodies .of the Armenian dead?
The man of the world has also had his per
plexity. He, too, has asked Why? Science has
trained all of us to think of, the universe as be
ing governed according to law. We can not
easily think of any phenomenon without seek
ing its cause. We can. not readily believe that
events are unrelated. The sequence of things
which happen is what it is, for a reason. When
a planet refused to keep in the orbit which the
astronomer had traced, he had no rest day or
night until he had .found an explanation for
this singular behavior. It was the perturbation
of Uranus which led to the finding of Neptune
Men had for, generations died of yellow fever at r
Panama,: and when the scientist got on the field
he proceeded fco; investigate the 'cause of the J
fever. Cancer Continues to- slay its victims, and
in laboratories nil over the world trained in
vestigators, are 'zealously working, determined
to find the- cause We can not allow anything
in this Tvorld of ours to remain unexplained. We
wrestle with it and refuse to let it go until it
surrenders to us its secret. It is impossible to l
stand before a phenomenon, so vast and appall
ing as is this European War, without asking the
question: "Why has. all this befallen us?"
There are various possible explanations. We
might say , that ., the war is due to chance.. , It
happened. The' universe is a great wheel of for
tune, and the' dice happened to come out in this
particular way. History is a great gamble, and
just now we are having a bad streak of luck:
The world is a huge, kaleidoscope, kept turning
ceaselessly in hands we do not see, and one can
never tell one moment into what new combina
tions the .human beads are going to f alL The r
solar system began in a fortuitous concourse of .
atoms, and the present war is another rillustnfc
tion of the haphazard way in which thecosmos '
stumbles blindly along its way. That is a 'pos
sible explanation, but it is so repugnant, to; the
modern mind that we may dismiss it without
serious consideration. " . r . -:
PLTJNGING HEADLONG INTO ABSS; ,
Or we. may. say that the war is due io .accjK
dent. Accidents do liappeh, and this is ojae.bf
them. The European, nations were climbing the.
slippery slope of the Matterhorn, of civilization,
and the foot of one of thetn. slipping, ,it (fell
dragging with it all the. others, .and so, now yon ,
behold eleven of them plunging headlong into
the abyss! It is an explanation which ..will not
commend itself to many of us.
We might say that the war Is due to fate. All
things are in. the grip of a mysterious law which
compels all men to be what they are and all
events to happen as they do. Nobody is respon
sible for what he does, nobody can be justly
censured for what comes to pass. This war was
an irrepressible' conflict. There was no possible
escape. Human wisdom and foresight could not
have prevented it. Serbia had to be where she
is and she had to do what she did. The same is
true of all the other nations. They had to exist,
they had to grow, they had to give offense, and
finally they had to fight. -The destiny of nations
is shaped by factors unforseen and incalculable.
This was the old Greek idea. "Beyond and
above tho Olympian gods," as Froudo says, "lay
the silent, brooding fate, of which victim and
tyrant were alike the instruments." The idea
finds classic expression in the marble group of
Laocoon and his two sons. Two serpents swim
in from Tenedos, and encircling tho father and
his sons crush them to death. It was easy for
the ancients to believo in tho three goddesses by
whose will one's character and career are deter
mined. One of them spins the thread of life,
the second determines its length, the third cuts
it off.
STRANGE FASCINATION OF HUMAN MIND
This fancy of an inscrutable and irresistible
fate has had a' strange fascination for the hu
man mind. It has haunted tho imagination of
many generations. Tho sonost thinkers of our
modern world have repudiated it. Shakespeare
tramples on it again and again in his plays. Lis
ten to Casslus:
"Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that wo are underlings."
Listen to Edmund in "King Lear":
4lThis is the excellent foppery of tho world,
that,, when we are sick in fortune, (often the Bur
felt of our own behaviour,) we make guilty of
our disasters, the sun, the moon, and tho stars:
as if we were villians by necessity; fools by
heavenly comp.uls'on; knaves, thieves, and
treachers by spherical predominance; drunk
ards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedi
ence of planetary influence; and all that wo are
evil in, by a divine thrusting on."
John Milton expressed the conviction of the
best minds of tho seventeenth century when he
said:
"Necessity or chanco
Approach not me, and what I will Is fate."
Samuel Johnson spoke not only for the
eighteenth century, but fr all centuries when
he claimed: "I know I am free, and that is the
end of it!"
But while w.e have- outgrown thepagan su
perstition of fatalism in our. own individual life,
the-idea still .lingers in circles which discussion-,
ternational relations. There are philosophers
who still live In the twilight of the old Greek
mythology. There are university professors so
belated as to teach that this war came by fate,
One finds occasionally in magazines such non
sense; as this;.. "All great wars are fated."
If ;they are, fated, then we are not responsible
for them! This is the excellent foppery of .a
benighted section of the learned world. If we
should find a Teuton and Slav firing at one
another in the street, and if on being asked to
stop, both should reply that they were fated to
do -just whatithey were doing, the policeman
would promptly escort them to the jail In order
that they might meditate on their absurd phil
osophy. But when millions of Sla'.s and millions
of Teutons fall to killing one another, men who
have a reputation for sanity and the power of
thpught, begin to telhus that such conduct
could, not have beea avoided This is. the1 ex
cellent foppery of befuddled professors, thatna
tions become butchers by necessity, brigands and
incendiaries by heavenly compulsion, perpetra
tors ,of damnable atrocities, by a divine thrust
ing on!' This war ls'not, a monster- serpent
which has swum in from some infernal Tenedos
hidden, in the mists of, t)ie dark and all-surrounding,
sea. We must seek an explanation more ra
tional.. We might say that war is a school, which God
opens, from time to time for the education pf
mankind in those virile and conqueriug virtues
in wnich He delights. War is a feature of the
educational program prescribed by the Almighty.
It is not an elective, but belongs to the list of
compulsory studies. No nation can escape it. It
imparts a discipline to be obtained in no' other
way. This is the teaching of a school of phil
osophers who, disliking the terminology of
Greek mythology, steal pbrasesr from the vocab
ulary 4of religion. Some men are greatly im
pressed when told that war is according to the
will of God.
But let us unroll this theory before the face
of Jesus of Nazareth, the man who came into the
world to teach men of a heavenly . Father who
is infinite in tenderness and gentleness and love.
Let us think of this "school of virtue" in the
presence of the man who claimed to.haye in him
the very spirit of God, so that he did not hesi
tate to say: "He that hath seen -met hath seen
the Father." Jesus burned like a furnace in the
presence of injustice and cruelty.. His eyes
flashed fire when He saw one man hurt another.
even with words. He could not tee a womaa
wronged, or a child mistreated, without His
soul standing up In vehement protest. Ht was
always sympathetic, affectionate, forgiving. His
hands wero stretched out not to harm but to
heal. His life was given not to destroy but to
save. He assured men that He did always the
things which wore pleasing to God. He de
clared that Ho was the way to God. Ho stood
before them saying: "I have given you an ex
ample." With the figure of Jesus Christ before us, how
dare any man say that war is a school of virtue
established by God? How dare ho say that hu- .
man butchery is a divine ordinance for tho pur
pose of building up in men tho dispositions of
Jesus Christ? Go through tho hospitals of Eu
ropo and look on tho scones which they present: ,.
boys with their legs and arms torn off; other
boys with they eyes jabbed out; other
boys with their skulls broken and their brains
oozing out; other boys with their abdomen
ripped open and their bowels protruding; stand
in tho presence of human beings beaten Into
pujp by tho instruments of war, and say If you
can: "This is.dlvlnely foreordained. This is the
approved method of our Heavenly Father."
Tho man who says that war is a dovico choson
by tho Almighty for the education of man
tramples on tho Christian religion. Ho Is a ;
blasphemer. He Is worse than an atheist. Bet-',
ter bolieve in no God at all than in ono who has
the mind of a fiend. If there Is a rovelatlon of
God in Jesus Christ, then we can bo certain that
God hates the mailed fist, He despises shining
armor, He loathes .all tho pomp and circum
stance of war. Tho Hebrew prophet told his
countrymen that God despised their feast days,
and took no interest In the incense of their sol
emn assemblies. Ho would not accept any of,
their sacrificial offerings. 'Their religious songs V
. wero an abomination to Him. What Ho wanted'
was righteousness. If God really speaks to ug"
In Christ, then we may bo certain that Ho says.
to the nations of our day: "I hate your target
practice, I despise your bayonet drills, your mil
itary efficiency. is an abomination to me. Take
away tho gilded foolery of the barracks and the ...
What, shall wo say thenof war? It it is. not .,
due to' chanco or to accident or to fate or to:the.x
good pleasure of God, lfowjAre we to account for,.r
it? Why riot think it is 'retribution? Why not
consider it as penalty', f oit ;violated law? Whyj
not meditate upon It as the content of one -df U
the vials of, the wrath of God? Jesus Chrjstu
speaks of weeping and gnashing of teeth. v'Heoj
says that certain persons will bo beaten vrUlio
many stripes. He pictures a fire into which
transgressors are thrown. May it not Tjo 'that
Europe has been brought to judgment to answer
for the deeds done in the body, and that1 the "
warring nations. a,re now in what the New Tea-t
tament calla Gehenna,? . .' '
MOST RATIONAL INTERPRETATION,. ,: ,'
To my mind this is tho most rational of all'
the interpretations of the war, and also the
most comforting- If this war came by chance
then I am discouraged.' If we are living' In 'a
universe In which things are so loosely ' mail-
aged that an -avalanche like this can fall upon'"
us without cause, then life is not worth HVirig
Why gd ori arid make p'lars for the future?'.1 nte
If the war is due t5 a'ce'dent, then the same
accident might "happen again. If it Is due totw
fate, then why struggle, any longer? If we arV
doomed to undergo sucH a catastrophe by ";a '
pow'er which weefcn neither' understand 'nor5
overcome, then th'e outlook is disheartening.' -We;
aro Without hope ln! tho world. '" ' '!
if , the wat Is the1 wise provision of Qodritig'
tho "cultivation .of vjr,tues and graces, then how1-,
can "wo WjO'rsjiip Hip?. If Ho can deViso no '
better wy for the feflhing of the humeri heart .
tha.h the periodic slaughtering of multitudes 'qX ;
young, men, then for ono refuse to bend my
knee to Him. How can the heart adore a God
who employs the methods of a savage? '
But If the war is the consequence of freedom
which has been abused, If it is the natural con
sequence of long-continued and outrageous sin
ning, if It Is the harvest of seeds which men
have long been sowing, then, however we may
be pained and horrified by the tragedy in which
Europe writhes, we can hold up our head and
face the future undaunted. If tho present dis
tress is the result of sinning, then Europe can
repent and sin no more. We Christians have
long believed that the Lord God is merciful and
gracious, long-suffering in goodness and truth, .
keeping -mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and- transgression .and sin, and It we are now.
finding out in a fresh and terrible way thai Ht
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