i
TO HAVE PEACE-CONQUER YOUR ENEMIES
Copjrlufct. Utt, br It Blir Ommu, Unit UrIUla HifaU lU-nti
There Are Two Kinds of Peace. Peace Between
Nations Is One Kind Common Sense Will
Bring It. Peace Within the Individual Means
Long Battle, and One That Does Not End.
E present to you, with satisfac
tion, an earnest and timely
article by Dr. Parkhurst.
"Peace on earth and good will
to men" is the thought for this
time of the vear.
wvinf. in naace? If there are mora kinds
of peace than one and there are what peace
is most important?
. Peace between nations will come. It is
coming rapidly, as Dr. Parkhurst points out.
The people CAN READ, and, being able to
read, they will soon refuse to be put to cutting
each other's throats oyer the Quarrels of old
fashioned kings or modern money kings. The
few wholesale murders of human beings will
probably still disgrace the history of this
planet. And then thinking, intelligent and
READING men and women will decide that
war between nations must end. And war will
end.
But that will be on this earth only THE
BEGINNING OF PEACE.
There is a peace higher and more difficult
to achieve than peace between the nations.
That is the peace that passeth all understand
ing, within the mind and heart of the indi
vidual. How can man be at peace with himself?
How can he stop the war that goes on between
the passions, between the savage, conflicting
interests and desires handed down to him by
millions of ancestors reaching back beyond
the stone age, 'and by billions of animal an
cestors still farther back.
Each individual has his own civil war; it
Clever ends and never can end.
XEach individual has inside of himself a
fighthat i3 constant.
4fc
In a btpad, rough way the artist who makes
this picture presents the problem so simply
that children will understand it, and be inter
ested in it.
How is the little individual striving for
peace of spirit and for righteousness to over
come these giant enemies that constantly at
tack him?
Laziness, intemperance, self-indulgence,
timidity, procrastination, are some of the ene
mie8 portrayed in this cartoon.
All of these, and many others, fight against
ace in the individual.
VJHpw can that war be ended?
! "He that is slow to anger is better than
the "mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than
he that taketh a city."
Proverbs XVI., '32.
The old wise man who penned the thirty
seoond verse of the sixteenth chapter of Prov
erbs knew that the' greatest men are not the
great 'fighters; that the greatest peace is not
the peace between cities, but the peace within
the soul of man.
A .
How' can we have THAT PEACE WITHIN, WHICH
18 THE ONLY PEACE?
Each man must' make the fight for himself, INSIDE
OP HIMSELF.
Each must realize that the biff enomies ARE INSIDE
OP MAN'S OWN SKULL, LEFT THERE BY ANCES
TORS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO, AND
WORKING AGAINST THE PEACE OF THE SPIRIT
NOW. ,
The peace that passeth all understanding will come,
but slowly, as peace between nations and individuals has
come slowly.
If we look baok, we see that tho enemies of man's
peaoe have been destroyed and left behind, many of
them, ono by one.
All men were once cannibals, and actually ate tho
flesh of their brothers unless they were too timid for
battle. Cannibalism has been left behind on our upward
journey.
All men, with perhaps one exception in n million, were
once cruel and bloodthirsty. They tortured each other in
the name of God Almighty, and His Son. They burned
each other alive, tore the living flesh with hot pincers.
The rack and tho thumbscrew, the boot, tho iron virgin,
the bonfires of living human beings all tell us in history
of horrible brutality that survived among men, inherited
irom aramalb, only yesterday.
Ths.t is lot behind PARTLY. We still burn up chil
dren, a'; hard labor, as we used to burn heretics. We still
kill women slowly in mills, as we used to kill them quiokly
in the old days of witchcraft. But, we HAVE very
largely conquered the demon of cruelty.
Individual selfishness was the rule only a little while
ago. "Salvation for me, and the devil take the others"
was the old motto. But that has changed slowly.
Men spend their money now, when they die, to build
universities, hospitals, libraries, if they don't use it try
ing to buy eternal salvation for themselves. That is
progress, and we find that we are getting nearer to real
peace.
We must be reconciled to slow development, we must
work for peace between individuals and nations in our
external life, and work steadily and persistently FOR
PEAOE WITHIN, the peace most difficult to achieve.
None now living will ever know peace that is abso
lute. But the passing years, for those that try, do bring
improvement.
Eventually, men as individuals and as a human race
will achieve the absolute peaco, which is mental peace.
ViciousnesE, selfishness, cruelty, will some day have gone
to join cannibalism and legalited infanticide. One day,
many centuries from now, it will be possible for human
beings to say with the Psalmist, "Rigbteousnes and
neace have kissed each other."
Oopjrielit, 181 bj tbt SUr Oompnj. Jrtt BrlUla lUtfiU Renrred.
Eet Us Rave Peace"
yi Christmas Sermon By Rn. DrXharlns R. ParWwrsi
In His Days Shall the Righteous
Flourish Amid Abundance of Peacs
So Long as the Moon Endureth.
Psalms 72:7
THE anniversary ot our Lord's birth
gives occasion rather for Indulg
ing our spirits In tho tender senti
ment of tho event than for taxing our
minds by tho discussion ot its difficult
probloms.
Tho world Is made ono this woek rather
by Its sympathies than by the activity ot
Its intellect. Indeed, not only to-day, but
always, people tend to bo brought nearer
to ono another by tho power of heart, but
repelled from each other by exercise ot
tho mind. Feeling operatos as a unifying
influonce; thought as a divisive influence.
Henco peoplo think themselves apart, but
pray themselves together. Therefore,
the world needs warming moro than it
needs brlghtoning, and all occasions like
tho present require to be thankfully econ
omized ns means of softening the frost
into which, in an atmosphere ot cold
thoughtfulnesB, wo so naturally stiffen.
The dominant noto of the Christian
world at Christmas is, "Peaco on earth,"
as Inaugurated by tho "Prince of Peaco."
And if it sooma Btrango that the bounds
of his principality have been so long and
so slow in extending themselves we must
remember that tho world at largo can Im
prove only so fast as Improvement pro
gresses in tho soparato Smiths and Joneses
that make up tho world, and that the
battle-grounds which compose so con
spicuous a figure in the world's history
aro simply tho exhibition on an enlarged
scale of tho Holds ot conflict that lie con
coaled in individual hearts.
The world at largo is what It is made
to bo by tho Individuals composing it It
Is not any kind of diffusive greeuness that
makes the forest green, but tho combined
greenness ot its soparato leaves. It Is no
diffused whiteness that composes the
pearly shoen ot a midwinter landscape,
but the meeting together ot the untinted
complexion ot each one ot tho multitude
ot snow-crystals. So the tide of tho gon
e'ral purity, peace and love ot the world at
largo can rise no higher than the altitude
to which It mounts In tho souls ot the
separata men and women of the world.
This Is only to remtnd us that the sal
vation of the world in respect ot any one
or nil ot its virtues and graces is not a
wholesale, but a retail process, and that
public feuds and civil and international
conflicts will disappear from the face of
tho earth only so fast as they vanish from
the map of the hearts ot individual men
and women. A man who is thoroughly at
peace with himself inwardly, who has all
the Impulses and energies of his soul
tuned to the ono note, the Christ-note, ot
purity and loving kindness, cannot quar
rel with his neighbor however quarrel
some that neighbor may be.
That so great a length of time, how
ever, should have elapsed since our Lord's
command to Peter to put up his sword
was Issued, is no reproach against Chris
tianity. The thoughts of peoplo who are
precipitate In their expectations are not
moving in paco with the methods and in
tentions of God, "with whom a thousand
years Is as. ono day." If the process tor
fitting the world for human occupation
has occuplod so many centuries that
arithmetic is strained in its efforts to com
puto them, it Is occasion neither for sur
prise nor discouragement that tho shaping
and maturing ot His moral kingdom ad
vances by a movement that to our limit
edness and impatience seems so dilatory. A
spirit of hurry is one of tho infirmities of
small minds. Tho true attitude of Chris
tian philosophy does not assert itself by
Its hasto to soe tho will of God accom
plished, but consists rather In that patient
observation and discernment that enables
it gratefully to discover that things aro
moving, however Inconspicuously, toward
tho accomplishment of His will.
And It certainly does seem that no one
who is searching with a sincere desire to
discover, can fall to bo assured that the
movement toward the world's pacification
Is distinct, and as rapid as a considerate
, Christian philosophy has grounds to anti
cipate. In order to know whether a thing
- moves, whether on the ground or among
the stars, in the material or in the spirit
ual world, 'one needs to place his eye not
only on tho place where it 1b now but on
tho place where It was a hundred dayB or
a thousand years before, and if the former
ot the two places is In advance of the lat
ter oven though by never so little, there
is movement and there is progress.
Although we aro even now hearing a
great deal about armies and navies, and
large appropriations for military equip
ment, yet tho sentiment which prevails to
day in regard to war its reasonableness
and its righteousness Is so distinct from
what it was a couple of centuries ago, that
even a superficial acquaintance with the
movlngs ot thought during that tlmo will
not fall to appreciate tho change. And
it is tho sentiment ot people that is symp
tom ot condition. The question is not
how many soldiers we have, not how many
dreadnoughts there aro afloat or In course
of construction, but what are the people
thinking. That Is the instrument that we
have to use In measuring civilization. Its
Jlow or Its ebb.
It signifies nothing hat a Secretary ot
War comes out with a "war-scare," for
the purpose of exciting sufficient nor
vousness throughout the country o
Justify an immense appropriation for the
War Department. Nervousness docs not
ensue and the Secretary's official sensa
tionalism Is pigeon-holed. The document,
singularly enough, operates rather as a
sedative than as a stimulant The poopls
are not in a warm mood.
Whatever ambition an American expert
In military affairs may have for the mili
tary prestige ot his country, If he has at
tho same time familiarized himself with
tho oxhausting and Impoverishing course
upon which European nations aro run
ning, it Is difficult to understand how he
can have tho heart, by word or influence,
to prod tho American peoplo to compete
in a raco conducing to tho same fatality.
The European war debt amounts to
twenty-six blllfon dollars, a debt which
never will be discharged, the payment of
the interest upon which comes very
largely out of tho pockets of tho poor.
There is great strength, as well as good
Judgment in quietness of mind, and that
quietness is every little whllo disturbed by
some Journalistic announcement or other
to tho effect that friction is developing
between soma other country and our
selves and no one can forecast what the
issue will bo; that Japan or some other
nation, particularly Japan, is simply bid
ing Its time, and is smilingly cherishing
n very sour grudgo which may eventu
ate In a cataclysm of war that will carry
off tho Sandwich Islands and the western
quarter of our country and make them a
part of the Orient Such prophecies tend
to provoko the very thing which they
prophesy, for such insinuations and innu
endoes go across to the other side and cre
ate malevolence where no malevolence
existed.
In the course of an address recently
given in this city by Chief Justlco Wate
nobl, who represents Japan in tho admin
istration of Korea, he said: "Japan Is not
going to war with the United States.
There is no thought of It It is never
suggested In our newspapers. It is fre
quently flung as a Are brand by the
American press, but the Japanese press
is absolutely innocent of anything of that
kind."
All of the foregoing carries no taint ot
pusillanimity, but will bo the fit distinc
tion ot a nation that knows how to dis
criminate between dignity and assump
tion; ot a nation that in a Christian way
appreciates its own interests not as
something distinct from the interests ot
the world, but rather as entering Into,
and forming a part of, the interests ot
the world; of a nation in fine that feels
itself called to a great service, invited
to a policy ot life and action (hat shall
not be merely tho rehearsing of what
has been, a barren reduplication of the
old ages that have had placed upon them
the stamp of the Lord's disapproval,
out a policy that shall give to our na
tlonal life an original tone In such way
differentiating us from the rest of the
world as shall draw the rest ot the world
after us and cv ' mi.
hood of the nations a little nearer to
the finality as It Ilea registered In tho
mind of God.
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