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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18650-8.txt b/18650-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b7ca248 --- /dev/null +++ b/18650-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3786 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The War and the Churches, by Joseph McCabe + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The War and the Churches + + +Author: Joseph McCabe + + + +Release Date: June 22, 2006 [eBook #18650] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR AND THE CHURCHES*** + + +E-text prepared by Irma Spehar and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/) from page images +generously made available by Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries +(http://www.archive.org/details/toronto) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See + http://www.archive.org/details/warandchurches00mccauoft + + + + + +THE WAR AND THE CHURCHES + +by + +JOSEPH McCABE + + + + + + + +[Issued for the Rationalist Press Association, Limited] +London: Watts & Co. 17 Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, E.C. +1915 + + + + +WORKS BY THE AUTHOR + +_Modern Rationalism_ (Watts), 2nd ed. 1/- + +_Peter Abelard_ (Duckworth), 2nd ed. 3/6. + +_Saint Augustine and his Age_ (Duckworth), 2nd ed. 3/6. + +_Twelve Years in a Monastery_ (Smith Elder), 3rd ed. _6d._ and 1/- + +_Life in a Modern Monastery_ (Grant Richards). 6/- + +_Life and Letters of G. J. Holyoake_ (Watts), 2 vols. £1/1/- + +_Talleyrand_ (Hutchinson). 14/- + +_The Iron Cardinal_ (Nash). 12/- + +_Goethe_ (Nash). 15/- + +_A Candid History of the Jesuits_ (Nash). 10/6. + +_The Evolution of Mind_ (Black). 5/- + +_Evolution_ (Twentieth Century Science Series). 1/- + +_Prehistoric Man_ (Twentieth Century Science Series). 1/- + +_The Principles of Evolution_ (The Nation's Library). 1/- + +_The Decay of the Church of Rome_ (Methuen), 2nd ed. 7/6. + +_The Story of Evolution_ (Hutchinson), 2nd ed. 7/6. + +_The Empresses of Rome_ (Methuen). 12/6. + +_The Empresses of Constantinople_ (Methuen). 12/6. + +_Church Discipline_ (Duckworth). 3/6. + +_Can we Disarm?_ (Heinemann). 2/6. + +_In the Shade of the Cloister_ (pseudonymous--Constable). 6/- + +_The Bible in Europe_ (Watts). 3/6. + +_The Religion of Woman_ (Watts), 2nd ed. _6d._ + +_Woman in Political Evolution_ (Watts). _6d._ + +_Haeckel's Critics Answered_ (Watts), 2nd ed. _6d._ + +_From Rome to Rationalism_ (Watts), 4th ed. _4d._ + +_The Origin of Life_ (Watts). 1/- + +_Secular Education_ (Watts), 2nd ed. 1/- + +_The Martyrdom of Ferrer_ (Watts), 2nd ed. _6d._ + +_The Religion of the Twentieth Century_ (Watts). 1/- + +_A Hundred Years of Education Controversy_ (Watts). _3d._ + +_The Existence of God_ (Watts). _9d._ + +_Shakespeare and Goethe_ (Cole). _6d._ + +_George Bernard Shaw_ (Kegan Paul). 7/6. + +_The Religion of Sir Oliver Lodge_ (Watts). 2/- + + + + +PREFACE + + +The searching crisis through which the nation is passing must have the +effect of securing grave consideration for many aspects of our life and +institutions. We have already traversed the acute stage of suspense, and +are gradually becoming sensible of these wider considerations. It was +natural that for a prolonged period the disturbance of our economic +conditions, the anxiety for the safety of our nation in face of an +appalling menace, the personal concern of millions about the lives of +sons or brothers who have bravely responded to the call, should keep our +thoughts enchained to the daily or hourly fortunes of the field of +battle. Now that the initial disorder has been allayed and we have +attained a quiet and reasonable confidence in the issue, we turn to +other and broader aspects of this mighty event of our generation. How +comes it that the most enlightened century the world has yet seen should +be thus darkened by one of the bloodiest and most calamitous wars that +have ever spread their awful wings over the life of man? Where is all +the optimism of yesterday? Must we reconsider our reasoned boast that +our civilisation has lifted the life of man to a level hitherto +unattained? Is there something entirely and most mischievously wrong +with the foundations of modern civilisation? + +A dozen such questions will press for an answer, but it will be granted +that one of the most urgent and most interesting of the many grave +considerations which the war suggests is its relation to the prevailing +creeds and standards of conduct. The war coincides with an advanced +stage of what is called the spread of unbelief. In each of the nations +of Europe which are engaged in this awful struggle complaints have been +made every year for the last two or three generations that Christianity +is losing its moral control of the white race. In the cities, especially +in the capitals, of Europe there has been a proved and acknowledged +decay of church-going; and, however much we may be disposed to think +that these millions who no longer attend church retain in their minds +the beliefs of their fathers, the slender circulation of religious +literature makes it plain that the vast majority of them do not, in +point of fact, receive either the spoken or written message of the +Christian Church. In the great cities--and it is undoubted that the life +of a nation is mainly controlled by its cities--there has been an +increasing reluctance to listen to the authoritative exponents of the +Christian gospel. + +A number of the clergy have very naturally noticed and stressed this +coincidence. Prelates of high authority have, as we shall see, even +declared that the war is a scourge deliberately laid on the back of +mankind by the Almighty on account of this spreading infidelity. As a +rule, the clergy shrink from advocating a theory which has such grave +implications as this has, and they are content to submit the more +plausible suggestion, that the decay of the Christian standard of +conduct in the mind of a large proportion of our generation accounts for +this tragic combat of nations. A distinguished Positivist writer, Mr. J. +Cotter Morison, commenting in the last generation on the decay of +Christian belief, expressed some such concern in the following terms: + + "It would be rash to expect that a transition, unprecedented for + its width and difficulty, from theology to positivism, from the + service of God to the service of Man, could be accomplished without + jeopardy. Signs are not wanting that the prevalent anarchy in + thought is leading to anarchy in morals. Numbers who have put off + belief in God have not put on belief in Humanity. A common and + lofty standard of duty is being trampled down in the fierce battle + of incompatible principles."[1] + +It is true that in the work from which I quote[1] the learned, if +somewhat nervous, Positivist does not, by his masterly survey of the +moral history of Europe, afford us the least reason to think that we +have really deteriorated from the standard of conduct set us by earlier +generations, but his words do tend to press on our notice the claim of +many writers, clerical and non-clerical, that we are returning from +Christianity to Paganism, from a settled moral discipline to an +unhealthy moral scepticism. Can one entirely and safely reconstruct the +bases of personal and national conduct in one or two generations? + +This very plain and plausible theory is, however, exposed to criticism +from other points of view. The clergy as a body are not at all willing +to concede that the decay of belief has spread as far as the theory +would suggest. In order to suppose that the life of Europe has, in a +matter of the gravest importance, been directed by a non-Christian +spirit, one must assume that at least the majority in each nation have +deserted the traditional creed. It is by no means conceded or +established that the fighting nations have ceased to be predominantly +Christian. Indeed, if we confine the awful responsibility for this +tragedy, as the evidence compels us, to Germany and Austria-Hungary, we +are casting it upon the two nations which have been the chief +representatives in Europe of the two leading branches of the Church. +Most assuredly no prelate of either country would admit that his nation +has ceased to be Christian or surrendered its life to non-Christian +impulses; and in our own country we have frequently been assured of late +years that the real power of Christianity was never greater. + +Clearly these conflicting claims and this contrast of profession and +practice suggest a problem that deserves consideration. The problem +becomes the more interesting, and the plausible theory of non-Christian +responsibility is even more severely shaken, when we reflect that war is +not an innovation of this unbelieving age, but a legacy from the earlier +and more thoroughly Christian period. Had mankind departed from some +admirable practice of submitting its international quarrels to a +religious arbitrator, and in our own times devised this horrible +arbitrament of the sword, we should be more disposed to seek the cause +in a contemporary enfeeblement of moral standards. This is notoriously +not the case. Men have warred, and priests have blessed the banners +which were to wave over fields of blood, from the very beginning of +Christian influence, not to speak of earlier religious epochs. There is +assuredly a ghastly magnitude about modern war which almost lends it an +element of novelty, but the appearance is illusory. That intense +employment of resources which makes modern war so sanguinary tends also +to shorten its duration. No military struggle could now be prolonged +into the period of the Napoleonic wars; to say nothing of the Thirty +Years War, which involved the death, with every circumstance of +ferocity, of immensely larger numbers than could be affected by any +modern war. Nor may we forget that it is the modern spirit which has +claimed some alleviation of the horrors of the field, and that the +majority of the nations engaged in the present struggle have observed +the new rules. + +These considerations show that the problem is less simple and more +serious than is often supposed, and I set out to discuss each of them +with some fullness. That the war has _no_ relation to the Churches will +hardly be claimed by anybody. Such a claim would mean that they were +indifferent to one of the very gravest phases of human conduct, or +wholly unable to influence it. Nor can we avoid the issue by pleading +that Christianity approves and blesses a just defensive war, and that, +since the share of this country in the war is entirely just and +defensive, we have no moral problem to consider. I have assuredly no +intention of questioning either the justice of Britain's conduct or the +prudence of the Churches in adapting the maxims of the Sermon on the +Mount to the practical needs of life. If and when a nation sees its life +and prosperity threatened by an ambitious or a jealous neighbour, one +cannot but admire its clergy for joining in the advocacy of an efficient +and triumphant defence. But this is merely a superficial and proximate +consideration. Not the actual war only, but the military system of which +it is the occasional outcome, has a very pertinent relation to religion; +the maintenance of this machinery for settling international quarrels in +an age in which applied science makes it so formidable is a very grave +moral issue. It turns our thoughts at once to those branches of the +Christian Church which claim the predominant share in the moulding of +the conduct of Europe. + +But these questions of the efficacy of Christian teaching or the +influence of Christian ministers are not the only or the most +interesting questions suggested by the relation of the war to the +prevailing religion. The great tragedy which darkens the earth to-day +raises again in its most acute form the problem of evil and Providence. +More than two thousand years ago, as _Job_ reminds us, some difficulty +was experienced in justifying the ways of God to men. The most +penetrating thinker of the early Church, St. Augustine, wrestled once +more with the problem, as if no word had been written on it; and he +wrestled in vain. A century and a half ago, when the Lisbon earthquake +destroyed forty thousand Portuguese, Voltaire attempted, with equal +unsuccess, to vindicate Providence with the faint hope of the Deist. +Modern science, prolonging the sufferings of living things over earlier +millions of years, has made that problem one of the great issues of our +age, and this dread spectacle of _human_ nature red in tooth and claw +brings it impressively before us. Is the work of God restricted to +counting the hairs of the head, and not enlarged to check the murderous +thoughts in the human brain? Nay, when we survey those horrid stretches +of desolation in Belgium and Poland and Serbia, where the mutilated +bodies of the innocent, of women and children, lie amidst the ashes of +their homes; when we think of those peaceful sailors of our mercantile +marine at the bottom of the deep, those unoffending civilians whose +flesh was torn by shells, those hundreds of thousands whom patriotic +feeling alone has summoned to the vast tombs of Europe, those millions +of homes that have been darkened by suspense and loss--how can we repeat +the ancient assurance that God _does_ count the hairs of the head and +mark the fall of even the sparrows? Does God move the insensate stars +only, and leave to the less skilful guidance of man those momentous +little atoms which make up the brain of statesmen? + +These are reflections which must occur to every thoughtful person in the +later and more meditative phases of a great war, when the eye has grown +somewhat weary of the glitter of steel and the colour of banners, when +the world mourns about us and the long lists of the dead and longer list +of the stupendous waste sober the mind. Something is gravely wrong with +our international life; and, plainly, it is not a question _whether_ +that international life departs from the Christian standard, but _why_, +after fifteen hundred years of mighty Christian influence, it does so +depart. Is the moral machinery of Europe ineffective? One certainly +cannot say that it has not had a prolonged trial; yet here, in the +twentieth century, we have, in the most terrible form, one of the most +appalling evils which human agency ever brought upon human hearts. We +have to reconsider our religious and ethical position; to ask ourselves +whether, if the influence of religion has failed to direct men into +paths of wisdom and peace, some other influence may not be found which +will prove more persuasive and more beneficent. + +J. M. + +_Easter, 1915._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAP. PAGE + + I. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCHES 1 + II. CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 25 +III. THE APOLOGIES OF THE CLERGY 48 + IV. THE WAR AND THEISM 70 + V. THE HUMAN ALTERNATIVE 95 + + + + +THE WAR AND THE CHURCHES + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCHES + + +The first question which the unprejudiced inquirer will seek to answer +is: How far were the Churches able to prevent, yet remiss in using their +influence to prevent, the present war? There is, unhappily, in these +matters no such thing as an entirely unprejudiced inquirer. Our +preconceived ideas act like magnets on the material of evidence which is +submitted to us, instinctively selecting what bears in their favour and +declining to receive what they cannot utilise. Nowhere is this more +conspicuous than in the field of religious inquiry, nor is it confined +to either believers or unbelievers. There has been too much mutual +abuse, and too little attention to the fact that the mind no less than +the mouth has its palate, its impulsive selections and rejections. One +can meet the difficulty only by a patient and full examination of the +pleas of both parties to a controversy. + +And the first plea which it is material to examine is that, since it is +claimed that all the nations engaged in the war are Christian nations, +one may accuse them collectively of moral failure. From the earliest +days of the Christian religion it was the boast of those who accepted +it that it abolished all distinctions of caste and race. In the little +community which gathered round the cross there was neither bond nor +free, neither Greek nor Roman. This cosmopolitanism was, in fact, a +natural feature of religious movements at the time, and was due not so +much to their intrinsic development as to the political circumstances of +the world in which they spread. All round the eastern and northern +shores of the Mediterranean a great variety of races mingled in every +port and every commercial town, and it was the policy of the powerful +Empire which extended its sway over them all to overrule their national +antagonisms. When, in the earlier period, Jew and Greek and Egyptian had +maintained their separate nationalities, hostility to other races had +been a very natural social quality, an inevitable part of the spirit of +self-preservation in a race. When the great Empires had conquered the +smaller nationalities or the decaying older Empires, this mutual +hostility was moderated, and, as the vast movements of population which +marked the end of the old and the beginning of the new era filled the +Mediterranean cities with extraordinarily mixed crowds, mutual +friendship became the more fitting and more useful social virtue. A good +deal of the old narrow patriotism had been due to the fact that each +nation had its own god. In the new Roman world this theological +exclusivism broke down, and the priests of a particular god, scattered +like their followers among the cities of the eastern world, began to +seek a cosmopolitan rather than a nationalist following. In the temple +of each of the leading gods of the time--Jahveh, Serapis, Mithra, and so +on--people of all races and classes were received on a footing of +equality. The doctrine of the brotherhood of man spread all over that +cosmopolitan world. + +When the old world, to the south and east of the Mediterranean, was +blotted out of history, and Europe in turn became a group of conflicting +nationalities, racial hatred was revived and in its political and social +aspects the doctrine of the brotherhood of man was virtually forgotten. +But the Christian Church had embodied that doctrine in its sacred +writing, and was bound to maintain it. In its ambition of a universal +dominion it was the direct successor of the Roman Empire. All the races +of Europe were to meet as brothers under the one God of the new world +and under the direction of his representatives on earth. It was this +change in the features of the world which gave a certain air of +insincerity to the Christian gospel. In the older days there had been +political unity with a great diversity of religions; now there was +religious unity spread over a great diversity of antagonistic political +bodies. Men were brothers from the religious point of view and, only too +frequently, deadly enemies from the political point of view. The discord +was made worse by the feudal system which was adopted. Even within the +same race there was no brotherhood. In effect the clergy as a body did +not insist that the noble was a brother of the serf, and did not exact +fraternal treatment of the serf. Thus the phrase, "the brotherhood of +man," which had been a most prominent and active principle of early +Christianity, became little more than a useless theological thesis. + +The solution of the difficulty would, of course, have been for the +clergy, as the supreme representatives of the doctrine of brotherhood, +to apply that doctrine boldly to every part of man's conduct; to +pronounce that all violence and bloodshed were immoral, and to devise a +humane means of settling international quarrels. I will consider in the +next chapter why the Christian leaders failed even to attempt this great +reform. For the moment it is enough to observe that the conditions of +modern times favoured a fresh assertion of the doctrine of brotherhood. +Great as the power of sincere moral idealism has always been, the +historian must recognise that economic changes have had a most important +influence upon the development or acceptance of moral ideas. Just as in +earlier ages the development of forms of life was conditioned by changes +in their material surroundings, so man's moral development has been +profoundly influenced by industrial, commercial, and political changes. + +The destruction of feudalism and the development of the modern worker +were notoriously not due to religious influence, yet they had an +important relation to religious doctrines. Once the new spirit had +asserted its right, the clergy recollected that all men are brothers +from the social as well as the religious point of view. Many of them, +and even some social writers of Christian views, maintain that the new +social order is itself based on or inspired by the religious doctrine of +brotherhood. This speculation is entirely opposed to the historical +facts, but it will easily be realised that when the workers had, in +their own interest, asserted afresh the doctrine of human brotherhood, +the Churches had a new occasion to preach it. How timid and tentative +that preaching was, and even is, we have not to consider here. On the +whole the brotherhood of men was re-affirmed by the Churches both in the +social and religious sense. + +This situation makes more violent than ever the contrast between the +political and religious relations of men, and gives a strong _prima +facie_ case to the charge against the Churches which I am considering. +It is wholly artificial and insincere to say that men are brothers +socially and religiously, yet are justified in marching out in millions, +with the most murderous apparatus science can devise, to meet each other +on the field of battle. We condemn crime for social reasons. We have +relegated to the Middle Ages, to which it belongs, the notion that the +criminal is a man who has affronted society, and that society may take a +revenge on him. In the sane conception of our time the criminal is a +mischievous element disturbing the social order, and, in the interest of +that order, he must be isolated or put out of existence. It is not the +_guilt_, but the _social effect_, which we regard. And from this point +of view a single great war is far more calamitous than all the crime in +Europe during whole decades. It is estimated by high authorities that if +the present war lasts only twelve months it will cost Europe, directly +and indirectly, including the destruction of property and the loss to +industry and commerce, no less a sum than £9,000,000,000; and it will +certainly cost more than a million, if not more than two million, lives, +besides the incalculable amount of suffering from wounds, loss of +relatives, outrages, and the incidental damage of warfare. The time will +come when historians will study with amazement the wonderful system we +have devised in Europe for the suppression of breaches of the social +order at a time when we complacently suffer these appalling periodical +destructions of the entire social order of nations. + +It is quite natural to arraign the Christian Churches in connection +with this disastrous outbreak. Unless they discharge the high task of +the moral direction of men, in international as well as in personal +conduct, they have no _raison d'être_. Few of them to-day will plead +that their function is merely to interpret to their fellows what they +regard as the revealed word of God. In face of the challenging spirit of +our time they maintain that they discharge a moral mission of such +importance that society is likely to go to pieces if Christianity is +abandoned. We therefore ask very pertinently where they were, and what +they were doing, during the months when the nations of Europe were +slowly advancing toward a declaration of war. + +In examining the charge that, for some reason or other, they neglected +their mission at a crisis of supreme importance, we must recall that few +of us believed that a great war would occur until we actually heard the +declaration. No indictment of the clergy is valid which presupposes that +they are more sagacious or far-seeing than the rest of us. Yet, however +much we may have doubted the actual occurrence of war, we have known for +years, and have quite complacently commented upon, the danger that half +of Europe would sooner or later be involved in the horrors of the +greatest war in history. Now it is notorious that the Christian Churches +have done little or nothing, in proportion to their mighty resources and +influence, to avert this danger. No collective action has been taken, +and relatively few individuals have used their influence to moderate or +obviate the danger. The supreme head of the most powerfully organised +and most cosmopolitan religious body in the world, an institution which +has its thousands of ministers among each of the antagonistic peoples--I +mean the Church of Rome--gave his attention to minute questions of +doctrine and administration, and bemoaned repeatedly the evil spirit of +our age, but issued not one single syllable of precise and useful +direction to the various national regiments of his clergy in connection +with this terrible impending danger. The heads or Councils of the +various Protestant bodies were equally remiss. Here and there individual +clergymen joined associations, founded by laymen, which endeavoured to +maintain peace and to secure arbitration upon quarrels, and one Sunday +in the year was set aside by the pulpits for the vague gospel of peace. +But in almost all cases these movements were purely secular in origin, +and the few movements of a religious nature have been obviously founded +only to keep the idealism linked with a particular Church, have had no +great influence, and have been too vague in their principles to have had +any effect upon the growing chances of a European war. There is no doubt +that the Churches have remained almost dumb while Europe was preparing +for its Armageddon. + +I speak of the clergy, but in our time the responsibility cannot be +confined to these. Even in the Church of England the laity have now a +considerable influence, and in the other Protestant bodies they have +even more power in the control of policy. No doubt the duty of +initiative and of work in such matters lies mainly with the more +leisured and more official interpreters of the Christian spirit, yet it +would be absurd to restrict the criticism to them. The various Christian +bodies, as a whole, have confronted a very grave and imminent danger +with remarkable indifference, although that danger could become an +actual infliction only by seriously immoral conduct on the part of some +nation. They saw, as we all saw, the vast armies preparing for the fray, +the diplomatists betraying an increasing concern about the relations +between their respective nations, the press embittering those relations, +and a pernicious and provocative literature inflaming public opinion. We +all saw these things, and knew that a war of appalling magnitude would +follow the first infringement of peace. Yet I think it will hardly be +controverted that the Churches made no serious effort to avert that +calamity from Europe. They were deeply concerned about unbelief, about +personal purity, about the cleanness of plays and books and pictures, +even about questions of social reform which a rebellious democracy +forced on them; but they took no initiative and performed no important +service in connection with this terrible danger. + +That is the indictment which many bring against Christianity, and we +have now to consider the general defence. I will examine later a number +of religious pronouncements about the war, and will discuss here only a +few general pleas which are put forward as a defence against the general +indictment. + +It is, in the first place, urged that the moral and humanitarian +teaching which the Christian Churches never ceased to put before the +world condemned in advance every departure from the paths of justice and +charity; that it was not the fault of Christianity if men refused to +listen to or carry into practice that teaching. But at no period in the +history of morals has it sufficed to lay down general principles. +Everybody perceives to-day, not only that slavery was in itself a crime, +but that it was essentially opposed to the Christian morality. Yet, as +no Christian teacher for many centuries ventured to apply the principle +by expressly denouncing slavery, the institution was taken over from +Paganism by Christian Europe and lasted centuries after the fall of the +Roman Empire. The Church itself had vast numbers of slaves, and later of +serfs, on its immense estates. Leo the Great disdainfully enacted that +the priesthood must not be stained by admitting so "vile" a class to its +ranks, and Gregory the Great had myriads of slaves on the Papal +"patrimonies." So it was with the demand for social reform which +characterised the nineteenth century. To-day Christians claim that their +principles sanctioned and gave weight to those early demands of reform, +yet their principles had been vainly repeated in Europe for fifteen +hundred years, and, when the people themselves at last formulated their +demands in the early part of the nineteenth century, it is notorious +that the clergy opposed them. The teaching of abstract moral principles +is of no avail. Man is essentially a casuist. Leave to him the +application of your principles, and he will adapt almost any scheme of +conduct to them. The moralist who does not boldly and explicitly point +the application of his principles is either too ignorant of human nature +to discharge his duty with effect or is a coward. The plain fact is that +the preaching of justice and peace throughout Europe has been steadily +accompanied by an increase in armaments and in international friction. +It had no moral influence on the situation. + +A more valid plea is that we must distinguish carefully between the +nations which inaugurated the war and the nations which are merely +defending themselves, and we must quarrel with the Christian Churches +only in those lands which are guilty. It may, indeed, be pleaded that, +since each nation regards itself as acting on the defensive and uses +arguments to this effect which convince its jurists and scholars no less +than its divines, there is no occasion at all to introduce Christianity. +Most of us do not merely admit the right, we emphasise the duty, of +every citizen to take his share in the just defence of his country, +either by arms or by material contribution. Since there seems to be a +general conviction even in Germany and Austria that the nation is +defending itself against jealous and designing neighbours, why quarrel +with their clergy for supporting the war? + +When the plea is broadened to this extent we must emphatically reject +it. There has been too much disposition among moralists to listen +indulgently to such talk as this. When we find five nations engaged in a +terrible war, and each declaring that it is only defending itself +against its opponent, the cynic indeed may indolently smile at the +situation, but the man of principle has a more rigorous task. Some one +of those peoples is lying or is deceived, and, in the future interest of +mankind, it is imperative to determine and condemn the delinquent. There +is no such thing as an inevitable war, nor does the burden of great +armaments lead of itself to the opening of hostilities. It is certain +that on one side or the other, if not on both sides, there is a terrible +guilt, and it is the duty of Christian or any other moralists, whether +or no they belong to the guilty nations, sternly to assign and condemn +that guilt. It is precisely on this loose and lenient habit of mind that +the engineers of aggressive war build in our time, and we have seen, in +the case of neutral nations and of a section of our own nation, what +chances they have of succeeding. They have only to fill their people and +the world at large with counter-charges, resolutely mendacious, and +many will throw up their hands in presence of the mutual accusations and +declare that it is impossible to assign the responsibility. That is a +fatal concession to immorality, and we must hold that in some one or +more of the combatant nations the Churches have, for some reason or +other, acquiesced in a crime. + +The plea is valid only to this extent, that the guilty nations in this +case were notoriously Germany and Austria-Hungary, and therefore one +cannot pass any censure on British Christians for supporting the war. I +have in other works dealt so fully with the guilt of those two nations +that here I must be content to assume it. The general and incessant cry +of the German people, that they are only defending their Empire against +malignant enemies, must be understood in the light of their recent +history and literature. No Power in the world had given any indication +of a wish to destroy Germany; there were, at the most, a few +uninfluential appeals in England for an attack on Germany, but solely on +the ground that it meditated an attack on England, and the accumulated +evidence now shows that it did meditate such an attack. England did not +desire an acre of German ground. France had assuredly not forgotten +Alsace and Lorraine, but France would have had no support, and would +have failed ignominiously, in an aggressive campaign to secure those +provinces. On the other hand, an immense and weighty literature, which +is unfortunately very little known in England, has familiarised Germany +for fifteen years with aggressive ideas. The most authoritative writers +claimed that, as they said repeatedly, "Germany must and will expand"; +and leagues which numbered millions of subscribers propagated this +sentiment in every school and village. A definite demand was made +throughout Germany for more colonies and a longer coast-line on the +North Sea; and it was in relation to this ambition that England, France, +and Russia were represented--and justly represented--as Germany's +opponents. England, in particular, was described as the great dragon +which watched at the gates of Germany and grimly forbade its +"development." It is in this sense that the bulk of the German people +maintain that their action is defensive. + +In passing, let me emphasise this peculiar economic difference between +the four nations. Russia had a vast territory in which her people might +develop. France had no surplus population, and had a large colonial +field for such of her children as desired adventure abroad or would +escape the competition at home. England had, in Canada and Australasia +and South Africa, a magnificent estate for her surplus population. None +of these Powers had an economic ground for aggression. Germany was +undoubtedly in a far less fortunate position, and had an overflowing +population. Six hundred thousand men and women (mostly men) had to leave +the fatherland every year, and, as the colonies were small and +unsatisfactory, they were scattered and lost among the nations of the +earth. The proper attitude toward Germany is, not to gratify the cunning +of her leaders by superficially admitting that she was not aggressive, +but to understand clearly the very solid grounds of her desire for +expansion. + +Into the whole case against Germany, however, I cannot enter here. +Familiar from their chief historical writers with the supposed law of +the expansion of powerful nations, convinced by their economists that +the country would soon burst with population and be choked by their own +industrial products unless they expanded, knowing well that such +expansion meant war to the death against France and England (who would +suffer by their expansion), the German people consented to the war. +Their official documents absolutely belie the notion that they were +meeting an aggressive England. But the Christians of Germany were +utterly false to their principles in supporting such a war. I do not +mean merely that they set aside the precept, or counsel to turn the +other cheek to the smiter, for no one now expects either nation or +individual to act on that maxim. They were false to the ordinary +principles of Christian morals or of humanity. Even if one were +desperately to suppose that, learned divines like Harnack were unable to +assign the real responsibility for the war, or that the whole of Germany +is kept in a kind of hot-house of falsehood, it would be impossible to +defend them. The Churches of Germany have complacently watched for +twenty-three years the tendency which William II gave to their schools; +they have passed no censure on the fifteen years of Imperialist +propaganda which have steadily prepared the nation for an aggressive +war; and they have raised no voice against the appalling decision that, +in order to attain Germany's purposes, every rule of morals and humanity +should be set aside. They have servilely accepted every flimsy pretext +for outrage, and have followed, instead of leading, their +passion-blinded people. It was the same in Austria-Hungary. Austrian and +Hungarian prelates have passed in silence the fearful travesties of +justice by which, in recent years, their statesmen sought to compass +the judicial murder of scores of Slavs; they raised no voice when, at +the grave risk of a European war, Austria dishonestly annexed Bosnia and +Herzegovina; they gave their tacit or open consent when Austria, +refusing mediation, declared war on Serbia and inaugurated the titanic +struggle; and they have passed no condemnation on the infamies which the +Magyar troops perpetrated in Serbia. + +I am concerned mainly with the action or inaction of the Churches in +this country, but it is entirely relevant to set out a brief statement +of these facts about Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Christian religion +was on trial in those countries as well as here. It failed so +lamentably, not because there is more Christianity here than in Germany +and Austria, not because the national character was inferior to the +English and less apt to receive Christian teaching, but because the +temptation was greater. Until this war occurred, no responsible +traveller ever ventured to say that the German or Austrian character was +inferior to the British. It is not. But the economic difficulties of +Germany and the political difficulties (with the Slavs) of +Austria-Hungary laid a heavier trial on those nations, and their +Christianity entirely failed. Catholic and Protestant alike--for the two +nations contain fifty million Catholics to sixty million +Protestants--were swept onward in the tide of national passion, or +feared to oppose it. + +One might have expected that at least the supreme head of the Roman +Church would, from his detached throne in Rome, pass some grave censure +on the outrages committed by Catholic Bavarians in Belgium or Catholic +Magyars in Serbia. Not one syllable either on the responsibility for the +war or the appalling outrages which have characterised it has come from +him. The only event which drew from him a protest--a restrained and +inoffensive remonstrance--was the confinement to his palace for some +days of my old friend and teacher, Cardinal Mercier! To the stories of +fearful and widespread outrage, even when they were sternly +authenticated, he was deaf. One knows why. If Germany and Austria fail +in this war, as they will fail, the Catholic bodies of Germany and +Austria, the strongest Catholic political parties in Europe, will be +broken. Millions of the Catholic subjects of Germany and Austria will +pass under the rule of unbelieving France or schismatical Russia. So the +supreme head of the Roman Church wraps himself nervously in a mantle of +political neutrality and disclaims the duty of assigning moral guilt. + +On us in England was laid only the task of defending our homes and our +honour. It is in those other countries that we most clearly see +Christianity put to the test, and failing deplorably under the test. I +do not mean that there was no opportunity here for the Churches to +display their effectiveness as the moral guides of nations. In those +fateful years between 1908 and 1914, during which we now see so plainly +the preparation for this world-tragedy, they might have done much. They +did nothing. They might have seen, at least at the eleventh hour, the +iniquity of sustaining the military system, and have cast the whole of +their massive influence on the side of the promoters of arbitration. I +do not mean that any man should advocate disarmament, or less effective +armament, in England while the rest of the world remains armed. As long +as we retain the military system instead of an international court, the +soldier's profession is honourable, and the man who voluntarily faces +the horrors of the field is entitled to respect and gratitude. But in +every country there was an agitation for the _general_ abandonment of +militarism and the substitution of lawyers for soldiers in the +settlement of international quarrels. Had the Churches in every country +given their whole support to this agitation, and insisted that it is +morally criminal for the race as a whole to prolong the military system, +we might not have witnessed this great catastrophe. + +Before, however, I press this charge against the Christian bodies, let +me discuss the third plea that may be urged in defence of the Churches. +It is the plea of those who are so eager to disclaim responsibility that +they are willing to allow an enormous decay of religious influence in +the modern world. You have repeatedly told us, they say to the +Rationalist, that Christianity has lost its hold on Europe. You speak of +millions who no longer hear the word of Christian ministers, but who +_do_ read Rationalist literature in enormous quantities. Very well, you +cannot have it both ways. Let us admit that the nations of Europe have +become non-Christian, and we cast on your non-Christian influence the +burden of responsibility for the war. + +This language has been used more than once in England. It leaves the +speaker free to assume that in England, whose action in the war we do +not criticise, the nation remains substantially Christian, while in +Germany and Austria the Churches have lost more ground. Indeed, one may +almost confine attention to Germany. Profoundly corrupt as political +life has been in Austria-Hungary for years, there is no little evidence +in the official publications of diplomatic documents that at the last +moment, when the spectre of a general war definitely arose, Austria +hesitated and entered upon a hopeful negotiation with Russia. It was +Germany's criminal ultimatum to Russia which set the avalanche on its +terrible path. Now Germany is notoriously a land of religious criticism +and Rationalism. Church-going in Berlin is far lower even than in +London, where six out of seven millions do not attend places of worship. +It is almost as low as at Paris, where hardly a tenth of the population +attend church on Sundays. In other large towns of Germany the condition +is, as in England, proportionate. Almost in proportion to the size of +the town is the aversion of the people from the Churches. + +It is absolutely impossible in the case of Germany to determine, even in +very round numbers, how many have abandoned their allegiance to +Christianity, though, when one remembers the enormous rural population +and the high proportion of believers in the smaller towns, it seems +preposterous to suggest that the country has, even to the extent of one +half, become non-Christian. But I am anxious to do justice to this plea, +and would point out that it is the educated class and the men of the +large cities who control a nation's policy. The rural population--the +general population, in fact--follows its educated leaders. Now there is +no doubt that in Germany, as elsewhere, this body of the population--the +middle class and the workers of the great cities--has very largely lost +the traditional belief. The workers of Berlin are solidly Socialistic, +which means very largely anti-clerical. And I would boldly draw the +conclusion that the responsibility for the war is shared at least +equally by Christians and non-Christians. The stricture I have passed on +the Churches of Germany is based on the fact that they, being organised +bodies with a definite moral mission, were peculiarly bound to protest +against the obvious political development of their country, and they +entirely failed to do so. But I should be the last to confine the +responsibility to them. Not only religious leaders like Harnack and +Eucken, but leading Rationalists like Haeckel and Ostwald, have +cordially supported the action of their country. So it was from the +first. Of that large class of men who may be said to have had some real +control of the fortunes of their country a very high proportion--I +should be disposed to say at least one half--are not Christians, or are +Christians only in name. + +While we thus candidly admit that non-Christians as well as Christians +in Germany bear the moral responsibility, we must be equally candid in +rejecting the libellous charge that the principles, or lack of +principles, of the non-Christians tended to provoke or encourage war, in +opposition to the Christian principles. This not uncommon plea of +religious people is worse than inaccurate, since it is quite easy to +ascertain the principles of those who reject Christianity. In Germany, +as elsewhere, the non-Christians are mainly an unorganised mass, but +there are two definite organisations, which, in this respect, reflect or +educate the general non-Christian sentiment. These are the Social +Democrats, a body of many millions who are for the most part opposed to +the clergy, and the Monists, an expressly Rationalistic body. In both +cases the moral principles of the organisation are emphatically +humanitarian and opposed to violence, dishonesty, or injustice; in both +cases those principles are adhered to with a fidelity at least equal to +that which one finds in the Christian Churches. It is little short of +monstrous to say that the moral teaching of Bebel and Singer and +Liebknecht, or of Haeckel and Ostwald--all men of high moral +idealism--gave greater occasion than the teaching of Christianity to +this atrocious war. The Socialists, indeed, were the strongest opponents +of war and advocates of international amity in Europe. How, like the +Evangelical and the Christian Churches, they failed in a grave crisis to +assert their principles may be a matter for interesting consideration, +but it would be entirely dishonest to plead that the substitution of the +influence of Rationalists and Socialists for Christian ministers has in +any degree facilitated the war. + +The Christian who regards all these non-Christian influences as "Pagan," +and feels that a "return to Paganism" explains the essential immorality +of Germany's conduct, usually has a grossly inaccurate idea of Paganism. +Whatever may be said of sexual developments in modern and ancient times, +we shall see that the Roman writers held principles which most decidedly +made for peace and brotherhood and justice. In point of fact, the +majority of the German writers who have been responsible for the +education of Germany in war-like ideas have been Christians. The Emperor +himself, who is mainly responsible because of his deliberate +prostitution of German schools to militarist purposes since 1891, will +hardly be described as other than Christian; certainly every prelate or +minister in Germany would vehemently resent such a description. +Treitschke, who is probably the best known in England of the Imperialist +writers, definitely bases his appalling conception of life on Christian +principles, and claims that he is acting from a sense of the divine +mission of Germany. General von Bernhardi uses precisely the same +Christian language. But these are only two in a hundred writers who, +for more than half a century, have been educating Germany in aggressive +ideas, and, speaking from personal acquaintance with their works, I +should say that the overwhelming majority of them are Christians. Not a +single Socialist, and not a single well-known Rationalist, has +contributed to their pernicious gospel. + +Probably the one German writer in the mind of those English people who +speak of Germany's return to Paganism is Friedrich Nietzsche. It is true +that Nietzsche was bitterly anti-Christian, and he has probably had a +greater influence in Germany, in spite of his strictures on the country, +than many seem disposed to allow. German booksellers have recently drawn +up a statement in regard to the favourite books of soldiers in the +field, and it appears that Nietzsche's _Thus Spake Zarathustra_ is +second on the list--leagues ahead of the Bible. But to conclude from +this that the anti-moral doctrine of the Pagan Nietzsche is the chief +source of the outrages committed is one of those slipshod inferences +which make one despair of Christian literature. + +In the first place, Goethe is even more popular with the troops than +Nietzsche, and, although Goethe too was a Pagan, his teaching was the +very antithesis of crime, violence, injustice, or hypocrisy. No nobler +human doctrine was ever set forth than in the pages of his _Faust_, the +first on this list of favourite books. In the second place, this fact at +once warns us of a circumstance which we might have taken for granted: +in the knapsacks of the overwhelming majority of the soldiers there are +no books at all. It is the minority who read; and it is quite safe to +assume that this thoughtful minority are not the minority who have +disgraced German militarism. Thirdly--and it should hardly be necessary +to make this observation--the sensitive and high-strung Nietzsche would +have regarded with shuddering horror these outrages which some +ignorantly attribute to his influence. It is indeed probable that, if he +still looked from his hill-top upon the fields of Europe, he would pour +out his most volcanic scorn upon the warring nations, and especially +upon Germany and Austria. In fine, it is necessary to remember that +Nietzsche was violently anti-democratic. For the mass of the people he +had only disdain, and it is folly to suppose that his aristocratic +philosophy has been accepted among them as a gospel. + +Nietzsche has had a considerable influence on the more thoughtful +reading public in Germany, yet even here one has to make reserves in +charging him with a part in the preparation of the country for an +aggressive war. His peculiar art and temperamental exaggerations make it +impossible for any but a patient few to grasp his teaching accurately, +and are peculiarly liable to mislead the less patient. When, therefore, +he stresses--as most anti-Socialists do--the Darwinian struggle for +existence, when he assails the humanitarian and Christian doctrine of +helping the weak, when he calls into question the received code of +morals, and when he extols self-assertion and strength of will, his +fiery words do lend some confirmation, which he assuredly never +intended, to the Prussian ideal of a State. Nietzsche was too much +averse from politics to intend such an application of his teaching, +which is essentially individualistic, and he had nothing but contempt +for the bluster and philistinism of the Prussian State in particular. We +must admit, however, that in this unintentional way he contributed to +the formation of that German temper which led to the war. General von +Bernhardi's admiring references to his philosophy sufficiently show +this. + +But Nietzsche's very limited influence on German thought cannot +reasonably be quoted as justification of the common saying that Germany +had deserted Christianity for Paganism. Had such a statement been made +before the war began, our divines would have indignantly repudiated it. +The truth is that all classes--Christian and non-Christian--have yielded +fatally to the pernicious interpretation which interested politicians, +soldiers, manufacturers, and Jingoistic writers have put on the real +economic needs of the country. Of the Socialist and Catholic parties, in +particular, the two most powerfully organised bodies in Germany, we may +say that, in deserting their ideals, they have been partly deceived into +a real belief that Russia and England sought their destruction, and they +have partly yielded to that very old and familiar temptation--the desire +to retain their numerical strength by compromising with their +principles. In justice to the Socialists it should be added that that +party has furnished the only men and journals in Germany to raise any +protest against the madness of the nation. One of the most repulsive +moral traits in Germany to-day is, even when we have made the most +liberal allowance for the painful and desperate circumstances of the +people, the astounding expression and cultivation of hatred. It has +transpired time after time that the _Vorwärts_ has protested against +this. Not once has it been reported that the religious press or +religious ministers have protested. The new phrase that is officially +sanctioned, "God punish England," is a religious phrase that no +Neo-Pagan could use. On the very day on which I write this page it is +reported that Socialists have protested in the Reichstag against the +official endorsement of outrages. We do not hear of any Christian +protest, from end to end of the campaign. + +Yet I do not wish to disguise the fact that both Christians and +non-Christians share the guilt of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The real +difference between the two bodies appears when we take a broader view of +the war, and only in this way can any general indictment of Christianity +be formulated. Important as it is to determine the responsibility for +this war, it is even more important to conceive that the war is the +natural outcome of a system which Europe ought to have abolished ages +ago. We are not far from the time when, in spite of the official +teaching of the Churches, every Christian nation maintained the practice +of the duel which the Teutonic nations introduced fourteen centuries +ago. Although in Germany the Christian clergy have not the courage to +assert their plain principles in opposition to the Emperor's barbaric +patronage of the duel, the people of most civilised countries now regard +the duel as a crime. No one who surveys the whole stream of moral +development can doubt that a time is coming when war, the duel of +nations, will be regarded as an infinitely graver crime. The day is +surely over when sophists like Treitschke and callous soldiers like +Bernhardi could sing the praises of war. The pathetic picture drawn by +our great novelist of a worthless young lord lying at the feet of his +opponent touched England profoundly and hastened the end of the duel in +this country. If England, if the civilised world, be not even more +deeply touched by the descriptions we have read, week after week, of +tens of thousands of braver and more innocent men lying in their blood, +of all the desolation and sorrow that have been brought on whole +kingdoms of Europe, one will be almost tempted to despair of the race. +War is the last and worst stain of barbarism on the escutcheon of +civilisation. + +The question of real interest is, therefore, the historical question. +Those of us who did not foresee this war until we were in the very +penumbra of the tragedy cannot complain that our Christian neighbours +did not foresee and prevent it. Those of us who feel that the +participation of our country is just and necessary may, with no strain +of imagination, conceive the men of other countries equally persuading +themselves that the action of their country is just and necessary. But +from the day when we awoke to an adult perception of the life of the +world we have been aware that the established system of settling +international quarrels was barbaric and might in any year lead to just +such a catastrophe. How comes it that such a system has survived fifteen +hundred years of profound Christian influence? Whatever we may think of +the clergy of to-day, with the more powerful clergy of yesterday we have +a grave reckoning. The Rationalist is a new thing in Europe. The very +name is little more than a century old, and until a few decades ago only +a few thousand would accept it. Not from such a new and struggling +movement do we ask why this military system has dominated Europe for +ages and has only in recent times been seriously challenged. During +those ages the Churches suffered none but themselves to pretend to a +moral influence over the life of the nations, nor were there many bold +and independent enough to make the claim. It is of the Churches we ask +why this appalling system has taken such deep root in the life of Europe +that it resists the most devoted efforts to eradicate it. It is not +_this_ war, but war, that accuses the Churches. We are entangled in a +system so widespread and so subtle that, when a war occurs, each nation +can persuade itself that it is acting on just grounds. It is the system +which interests us. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +CHRISTIANITY AND WAR + + +The day will come when the student of human development will find war +one of the most remarkable institutions that ever entered and quitted +history. Civilisation took it over from barbarism; barbarism from the +savage; the savage from the beast. So we are accustomed to argue, but we +must make a singular reservation. The lowest peoples of the human +family, which seem to represent primitive man, do not wage war, and are +little addicted to violence. They seem by some process of natural +selection to have obtained the social quality of peacefulness and mutual +aid. There was, in a sense, a stage of primitive innocence. As, however, +these primitive peoples grew in numbers and were organised in tribes, as +they obtained collective possessions--flocks and pastures and hunting +grounds--they came into collision with each other, and all the old +pugnacity of the beast awoke. Skill, and even ferocity, in war became a +valuable social quality, and we get the stage of the savage. The +barbarian, or the man between savagery and civilisation, was still +compelled to fight for his possessions. He was usually surrounded by +fierce savage tribes. The civilised man in turn was surrounded by +savages and barbarians, and needed to fight. So through thousands of +years of development of moral sentiment and legal procedure the +primitive method of the beast has been preserved. + +But I am not writing a history of warfare, and need not describe these +stages more closely, or examine the new sentiment of imperialist +expansion which gave civilisations a fresh incentive to develop methods +of warfare. The point of interest is to determine at what stage it might +have been possible for the moral element to intervene and bid the +warriors, in the name of humanity, lay down their arms; at what stage +the tribunal which men had set up to adjudicate between the quarrels of +individuals might have been enlarged so as to be capable of arbitrating +on the quarrels of nations. + +Now this was plainly impossible in the early centuries of the present +era, and it is therefore foolish to ask why Pagan moralists did not do +what we expect Christian moralists to have done. I have already +mentioned, and have fully described elsewhere, how humanitarian +sentiments were generally diffused throughout the old Græco-Roman world. +There is not a phrase of the New Testament which has not a parallel +among the Jews, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. The great +fusion of peoples in the Roman Empire begot a feeling of brotherhood, +and, by a natural reaction on years of vice and violence, there was a +considerable growth of lofty and tender, and often impracticable, +sentiments. Moralists urged men to avoid anger, to bear blows with +dignity, to greet all men as brothers, even to love their enemies. Plato +and Epictetus and Plutarch and Seneca and Marcus Aurelius urged these +maxims as forcibly as Christ did. The Stoic religion or philosophy, +which guided Emperors and lawyers, and had a very wide influence in the +Roman world, was intensely and quite modernly humanitarian. Its +principal exponents condemned slavery and promoted a remarkable spread +of philanthropy. + +It was, however, not possible for the Stoics to condemn war. Some of the +more ardent and less practical humanitarians of the time did this, but +no alert Roman citizen could advocate the abolition of the legions. The +Empire was completely surrounded by barbarians who would rush in and +trample on its civilisation the moment the fence of spears was removed. +From the turreted walls in the north of England, where men watched the +Picts and Scots, to the deserts of Mesopotamia--from the banks of the +Danube and Rhine to the spurs of the Atlas--it was essential to maintain +those bronzed legions who guarded the civilised provinces from +marauders. With those outlying barbarians no treaty was possible or +sacred; no legal tribunal would have protected those frontiers from the +men who looked covetously on the fertile fields and comfortable cities +of the Roman provinces. From the first to the fourth century Rome +fought, not for its expansion, but for its preservation against these +increasing enemies; and it was the final intensification of the pressure +in the Danube region by the arrival of enormous hordes of barbarians +from Asia which precipitated the final catastrophe. Paganism had never +the slightest opportunity to abandon the military system, and only those +who are totally unacquainted with Roman history can wonder why it did +not make the attempt. It would have been a crime to abandon the +civilised provinces to barbarism. + +This was the essential position of the Roman Empire: the civil wars of +the fourth century, by which its military system was abused, need not +be considered here. And the student of history must recognise with +equal candour that the new Christianity, which succeeded Paganism in the +fourth and fifth centuries, was equally powerless to abolish warfare. +What we may justly blame is that the triumphant Christianity of the +fourth century did not merely sanction the use of arms in defence of +civilisation; it employed them in its own interest. The earlier +Christians had exasperated the Romans by refusing to bear arms in the +service of the Empire, plain as the need was. To a slight extent this +was due to an aversion from the shedding of blood; for the most part +military service was refused because it was saturated with Pagan rites. +When the Empire became Christian, this objection was removed, and the +Christians freely entered the army. Unhappily, the Christian body +deteriorated with the new prosperity and base instincts were indulged. +It is an undoubted historical fact, recorded by St. Jerome himself, that +the election of Pope Damasus, his friend and benefactor, was accompanied +by bloody and fatal riots. From undoubted historical sources we know +that the Christian mob compelled the Prefect of Rome to fly from the +city, and there is very serious evidence (in a document written by two +Roman priests) that Damasus employed the swords and staves of his +supporters to secure his position. Damasus and subsequent Popes then +obtained or sanctioned the use of the Roman soldiers for the suppression +of heresy and schism and Paganism, and Christianity was installed by +violence throughout the Empire. In the Eastern Roman Empire things were +even worse. Violence became the customary device in the seething +religious quarrels of the time, and, literally, tens of thousands lost +their lives. The Byzantine or Greek Christianity entered upon a record +of crime and violence which disgraced it for many centuries. + +This development did not augur well for the application of Christian +principles to warfare. We may, however, observe at once that for many +centuries the Roman Church had not the slightest chance of establishing +peace in Europe. The destruction of the Roman Empire and disbanding of +its armies made an entirely new situation in Italy. The Popes were, for +the most part, good men, but they did not dream at that time of +controlling the counsels of kings and dictating affairs of State. Even +the story of Pope Leo the Great overawing the King of the Huns, Attila, +and turning his army away from Italy, is a mere legend of medieval +writers, and is at variance with the nearer authorities. The northern +tribes themselves were to a great extent, and for some centuries, of the +Arian faith, and took no advice from Rome. In a word, it would be stupid +to expect Christian leaders of the early Middle Ages to press the cause +of peace. The northern peoples, who would in time form the nations of +Europe, were essentially violent and warlike, and would have recognised +no pacific counsels in that imperfect stage of their religious +development. + +Where the historian may and must censure the Church is in its adoption +of militarism for its own purposes. Pope Gregory the Great found Italy +in a chaotic and pitiful condition, and no doubt he acted, on the whole, +rightly in organising its military defence. The more serious +circumstance was that he began to receive immense estates, as gifts or +legacies, in all parts of Italy as the property of the Roman Church, and +from that time either a Papal army or the employment of the army of +some friendly monarch was necessary in order to protect these estates. +With the confirmation and consolidation of these estates into a kingdom +under Charlemagne in the ninth century the Papacy completed its moral +aberration. Most of the Popes were still men of good character, and they +no doubt persuaded themselves that, since the income of these estates +was needed for the fulfilment of their spiritual task, it was proper to +defend them by the sword. But casuistry of this kind has never prospered +indefinitely, and few historians will doubt that this temporal +development led directly to that degradation of the Papacy which +rendered it unfit to exercise moral influence on Europe. The Papacy +became a princedom to attract the covetous and the ambitious, and the +line of Popes sank so low by the tenth century that the grossest +characters were able to occupy the chair of Peter at a time when the +nations of Europe were sufficiently advanced to be susceptible of a +sincere moral influence. The record of the Papacy, from the ninth +century to the nineteenth, contains on almost every page a bloody +struggle for the temporal power. The most religious and most eminent of +the Popes, such as Gregory VII and Innocent III, were the most prompt to +set in motion the machinery of war in defence of their territories or in +punishment of rebels against their authority. Not one of them was in a +position to bid kings disband their armies, or ever dreamed of enjoining +them to do more than observe a few days' truce or keep their swords from +each other in order to save them for the common enemy of Christendom. + +It would be useless to speculate about the date when the new nations of +Europe had become sufficiently civilised to hear a gospel of peace. The +idea of superseding the military system of Europe by a juridical system +occurred to no Christian leader, and therefore we need not consider what +prospect it might have had of realisation. The Christian gospel of +meekness had become a mockery: even the great abbeys, in which the +gentler and more religious were supposed to be immured, had their +troops, and abbots and bishops, and very often Papal Legates, appeared +at the head of armies. Two Popes, John X and Julius II, marched +themselves at the head of their troops. Cardinals had their suites of +swordsmen, and the castles of the Roman aristocracy were at times strong +fortifications from which war of the most ferocious and unscrupulous +character was waged. Christendom was steeped in violence; only a gentle +saint or bishop here and there caught a futile vision of a world of +peace. Every man was armed against possible trouble with his neighbour; +every noble had his retainers and kept them well exercised; every prince +was free, as far as the spiritual authorities were concerned, to covet +and bloodily exact the lands of his neighbour. The noble, of either sex, +found supreme delight in jousts which the modern sentiment finds as +inhuman as a sordid quarrel of _Apaches_ over a mistress; the peasants +found a corresponding pleasure in the play of quarter-staves or the +combats of dogs and cocks. + +It is, as I said, little use to speculate about the chances of a gospel +of humanity in such a world. The overwhelming majority of priests and +prelates made no effort whatever to restrain the prevailing violence. +The elementary duty of any profound moral agency was to protest without +ceasing, even if the protest was unavailing. It is not at all clear that +it would have been unavailing. The power of the Popes was beyond that +of any other hierarchy known to history, and at least the moral +education of Europe would have proceeded less slowly, and war would have +been abolished centuries ago, if there had been any serious, collective, +and authoritative enforcement of Christian principles. There was not, +and to this silence of the clergy during those long ages of their power +we owe the maintenance in Europe to-day of the regime of violence. They +were so far from enjoying moral inspiration in this respect that they +were amongst the first to bless the banners and swell the coffers of an +aggressive monarch, and they gave the military system a final +consecration by employing it repeatedly in the interests of the Church. + +All that one can plead in mitigation of this deep historical censure of +the medieval Church is that the frontiers of Christendom were for +centuries threatened by the Turk and the Saracen. The old need of +protecting civilisation by arms had almost disappeared. Few and feeble +peoples remained outside the range of Christian civilisation after the +tenth century. Armies were maintained only in the interest of criminal +ambition or for the settlement of disputes which ought to have been +submitted to judges. The menace of the Turk, with his hostile religion, +was, of course, a just ground for armaments, but a few nations generally +bore the whole brunt of his onset. Whatever religious feeling may make +of the great Crusades, which drew to the east armies from all parts of +Europe, secular history must dismiss them as appalling blunders. The few +advantages they brought to European culture cannot seriously be weighed +against the terrible sacrifice of lives and the even more terrible +consecration of militarism. In a word, the menace of the Turk could +have been met admirably by such an arrangement as we are advocating in +Europe to-day: the maintenance of a small force by each nation for +common action, under the direction of a supreme legal tribunal, against +nations which would not obey the common law of peace. But we need not +seriously discuss the influence of the Turk on the system. The last +phases of the struggle, when the selfish nations and the ambitious +Papacy spent their time in idle mutual recrimination and left the +Hungarians and Poles to do all the work, justify us in dismissing that +element. Kings and republics maintained armies for purely selfish +purposes, for brutal aggression and defence against aggressors; and not +a prelate in Europe had any moral repugnance to the system, or ventured +to condemn it, especially as the Church used the same agency in defence +of its own temporal interests. + +With the development of the Papal power and the advance of the peoples +of Europe the opportunity of peace became greater, but the spiritual +authority pledged itself more and more deeply to the military system. +The Popes aspired--as Gregory VII and Innocent III repeatedly state--to +control the temporal as well as the spiritual affairs of Europe, to +transfer crowns when they thought fit, to direct invasions and military +expeditions against any who questioned their authority. Hildebrand +boasts (_Ep._ vii, 23) that, when William of Normandy sent envoys to ask +Pope Alexander to sanction his unscrupulous invasion of England, and the +Papal Court was itself too sensible of the enormity to give its +sanction, he (Hildebrand) overbore the wavering Pope and forced him to +bless the enterprise; and, when he had in his turn mounted the Papal +throne, he vehemently claimed that his action had made England a fief +for ever of the Holy See! Gregory VII and Innocent III are the two +greatest and most sincerely religions of the medieval Popes, and they +carried the power of the Papacy to a height which excites the amazement +of the modern historian. But they were at the same time the most +militant of the Popes, and on the least provocation they set +armies--even the most barbaric and ferocious troops in Europe--in motion +to carry out their imperial commands. They arrogated the power of +deposing monarchs, and thus encouraged civil war and the ambitions of +neighbouring kings. + +The rise of heresy and of protests against the corruption of the Papacy +was another very grave pretext of the Church to support the military +system. In the days of Gregory VII a body of Puritans known as the +Patareni spread over the north of Italy, and Rome encouraged a few +soldiers to lead armed mobs against them and drown their idealism in +blood. Innocent III has a more terrible stigma on his record. The +Albigensians, an early type of Protestants, were spreading in the south +of France, and the Pope sanctioned a "crusade"--an expedition, largely, +of looters and cut-throats--against them from all parts of France. The +appalling deceit practised by the Papal Legate and sanctioned by the +Pope, the ferocity of the campaign, and the desolation brought on one of +the happiest and most prosperous provinces of France, may be read in any +history of the thirteenth century. Tens of thousands of men, women, and +children were savagely put to death. And this was only the beginning of +the Papal war on heresy, which from the thirteenth century never ceased +to spring up in Europe until it won its right of citizenship in the +Reformation. Even more vehemently was war urged against the Moors, then +the most civilised people in Europe. + +In face of this notorious history of Europe during the long course of +the Middle Ages it is now usual for Catholic apologists to plead that +the blood of the barbarian still flowed in the veins of the Christian +nations and men were not yet prepared to listen to the message of peace. +This plea cannot for a moment be admitted in extenuation of the Church's +guilt. The clergy had themselves no conception of the criminality of +war, and did not rise above the moral level of their age. Here and there +a saint or a prelate raised a feeble voice against the violence of men, +but we do not estimate an institution by the words of an occasional +member, especially if they are at variance with the official conduct and +the general sentiment. On the other hand, to boast that the clergy at +times enforced a temporary cessation of fighting (the "Truce of God") +only increases our appreciation of their guilt. The men who enforced +that Truce gave proof at once of their power and of their perception of +the un-Christian nature of warfare. But they were unwilling to condemn +outright a machinery which they might employ at any moment in defence or +advancement of their own interests. Had the Church been a serious moral +influence in Europe, had it been true to the message in virtue of which +it had grown rich and powerful, it would have protested unceasingly +against this reign of violence. It was not a great moral influence. The +grossness and illiteracy of the people, the appalling immorality of the +clergy and monks and nuns, and this almost entire failure to apply +Christian or ordinary human principles to the worst feature of the life +of Europe, are terrible offsets to the little good it achieved. Europe +was steadily educated and encouraged, century after century, in the +shedding of blood. + +The Protestant is at times disposed to dismiss the whole sordid story +with the remark that this Roman Church was not Christianity at all. He +contrives to overlook the serious difficulty that, if the Roman Church +did not represent Christianity from the sixth century to the sixteenth, +there was, contrary to the promise of Christ, no Christianity in Europe +for a thousand years; and he surrenders all the wonderful art of the +Middle Ages (as he ought) to entirely non-Christian forces. That, +however, does not concern me here. The slightest recollection of history +would warn the Protestant that the Reformation brought no improvement +whatever, as far as this reign of violence is concerned. The forces set +up by the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation fought each other for +some decades with the comparatively peaceful weapons of mutual abuse and +heated argument. When it was perceived that these weapons were of no +avail, there was the customary appeal to the sword. In the historical +documents which tell the life of Pope Paul IV we see the Papacy and the +Jesuits urging the Catholic princes to lead out their armies. Heresy was +to be extinguished in blood; and, seeing how many millions in the north +had by that time embraced the heresy, there can have been no illusion as +to the magnitude of the oceans of blood that would be required to drown +it. So Europe entered upon the horrors of the Thirty Years' War +(1618-1648), which put back the civilisation of Germany for more than a +hundred years and utterly ruined some of the small principalities. The +population of Bohemia alone fell from three millions to less than a +million. Nearly every nation in Europe was involved, and the war was +conducted with all the brutality of the older medieval warfare. + +The fact that political as well as religious ambitions were engaged in +the Thirty Years' War does not affect my argument. In so far as +religious sentiment was responsible--and it will hardly be questioned +that it had a large share in the Thirty Years' War--we find a fresh +consecration by Christianity itself of the use of the sword. But the +main point we have to consider is that the new spiritual authorities +were no more inclined than the old to declare that warfare was opposed +to Christian principles. The last three centuries have been as full of +aggressive war as the three centuries which preceded, but there was no +protest by Christian ministers either in Protestant England and +Scandinavia or in Catholic France and Austria. It was the period when +the modern Powers of Europe were building up their vast dominions, and +no one who is acquainted with the story can have any illusion as to the +application to that process of what are now described as clear Christian +principles. + +This is precisely the plaint of modern Germany. We seek, they say, to do +merely what England and France--it were indiscreet to mention +Austria--did in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They were +vigorous peoples with an impulse to expand and to extend their +civilisation over backward lands. They appealed solely to the right of +the sword, and all the Christian authorities in Europe--the bishops of +William and of Anne, the bishops of Louis XIV, the bishops of Peter the +Great--had not a single syllable to say against the right of the sword. +The various branches of the Christian Church were at that time +singularly unanimous in accommodating their principles to imperialist +and aggressive warfare. Now that you have obtained all that you +need--the aggrieved Teuton says--now that I in turn would expand and +colonise, you discover that this imperialist aggression is supremely +opposed to Christian principles. + +On some such meditations, in part, the German bases his conviction of +the hypocrisy and perfidy of the English character. He is, of course, +entirely wrong. A real change has taken place in the moral sentiment of +this country; a change so real that when, in South Africa, the nation +entered upon a war which many regarded as aggressive and merely +acquisitive, there was a very widespread revolt. The cynic might +genially observe that it is not difficult to retire from evil-doing and +cultivate lofty principles when your fortune has been made, but it is +important to realise this change and understand its significance. There +is, no doubt, a sound human element in the cynic's observation. It _is_ +easier to recognise moral principle when the period of temptation is +over. Every thoughtful and humane Englishman will make allowance for the +less fortunate position of Germany, and not foolishly pride himself on +his own superiority of character. The fact remains, however, that there +has been a real moral improvement in England and France, and it would +now be impossible for those nations to enter upon the aggressive and +nakedly ambitious wars which they were accustomed to undertake before +the nineteenth century. We have a genuine abhorrence of the "lust for +land" which has impelled Germany to plunge Europe into war. But until a +century or two ago that lust for land was considered a legitimate +appetite in Europe, and the clergy crowded with the people to greet the +warriors who came home with the news that they had added, by the sword, +one more province to our spreading Empire. + +That this change of heart is not merely a feeling that we have no +further need of aggression, and would ourselves suffer by the aggression +of others, could easily be proved, if it were necessary. In the same +period of change we abolished the duel, and there was no material +advantage in discovering the immorality of the duel. We abolished +dog-fighting, cock-fighting, bull-baiting, and other brutalising +spectacles. We undertook a reform of our industrial and penal systems +which, however imperfect it be, was very considerable in itself, and was +inspired solely by motives of humanity. There was a general and marked +improvement of public sentiment, and it is as part of this improvement +that we now find a universal condemnation of aggressive war and a +widespread demand for the entire abolition of war. The construction of +English history and English character on the lines of Mr. G. B. Shaw may +be entertaining, and may save considerable trouble of research, but it +does not conduce to sound judgment. The laments of social pessimists and +of certain religious controversialists are never supported by accurate +knowledge. Every social historian who gives evidence of knowing the +evils of the England of a century ago as well as the England of to-day +admits that there has been a great moral advance. + +I will examine in the next chapter certain comments of religious writers +and speakers on this advance. Here I wish to determine the facts with +some clearness. It has not been necessary for me to discuss the medieval +and the early modern period with any fullness. There is no dispute about +the features of those periods. They were ages of violence, of incessant +and frankly aggressive war, of unrestrained ambition. The smallest +pretext sufficed for a monarch, if his forces and finances were in +order, to invade his neighbour's territory and annex as much of it as +he could hold by the sword. Frederic the Great and Napoleon did not +introduce new ideas into Europe; they attempted to revive medieval ideas +in a changing world. Austria in its annexation of Bosnia and +Herzegovina, Germany in its ambition to annex Belgium and the colonies +which other Powers have laboriously cultivated, are following their +example. They are not inventing new forms of criminality; they are not +returning to Pagan ideals: they are reverting merely to ideals which +were accepted throughout Europe for more than a thousand years. In the +more brutal features of war to which they have descended they are even +more emphatically reverting to the Middle Ages. The Romans did not +commit such outrages at the command of educated officers. Medieval +Christians did: the record of Papal warfare, down to the "Massacre of +Perugia" in 1859, is as deeply stained as any by these abominable +methods. + +My further point, that the Christian Church or Churches made no serious +resistance to the prevailing brutality, is just as easy to establish. It +is a sheer travesty of argument to put forward the gentle exhortations +of a Francis of Assisi as characteristic of the Christian Church when +the Pope of the time, one of the most powerful and conscientious Popes +of all time, Innocent III, was threatening or directing the movements of +ferocious armies all over Europe. Most assuredly there were among the +numbers of fine characters who appeared in Christendom in the course of +a thousand years many who deeply resented the prevailing violence. But +when we speak of the Church, we speak of its official action and its +predominant sentiment. The official action of the Popes was, during all +that period, to make the same use as any terrestrial monarch of the +service of soldiers; they failed, from Gregory the Great to Pius X, to +recognise one of the supreme moral needs of Europe. The bishops of the +Church of England and the heads of the Lutheran and Calvinistic Churches +did not prove to have any sounder moral inspiration in this respect. It +was left to despised bodies like the Friends, who were hardly recognised +as Christians, and to rare individuals to protest against the system +which has brought such appalling evil on Europe. + +In the nineteenth century the moral sentiment of Europe began to advance +more rapidly than it had previously done, and the idea of substituting +arbitration for war began to spread. The history of this reform has not +yet been written, as far as I can discover, but it is hardly likely that +any will be bold enough to suggest that the idea was due to +Christianity. After the Napoleonic wars, at least, Europe was ripe for +such a reform. I do not mean that public feeling in Europe was prepared +for the idea. It would have met with a very considerable degree of +resistance, and would have generally been conceived as the dream of an +amiable fanatic. Such resistance makes the duty of the moralist or the +reformer all the more pressing, and it is merely amazing to hear the +earlier Christian clergy exonerated on the ground that the world was not +prepared to receive a message of peace from them. They did not try the +experiment because it did not occur to them, or because they were too +closely dependent on the monarchs of the earth to question the wisdom of +their arrangements. Europe was, in point of fact, quite ripe for the +change in the second decade of the nineteenth century, and there would +assuredly be no war to-day if the Churches had had the moral inspiration +and the moral courage to insist on it. The frontiers of the nations were +(except in the case of Italy and Poland) defined with a fair show of +justice, and the time had come to disband armies and submit any future +quarrel to arbitration: to retain only a small standing army in each +country for the defence of its colonial frontiers against tribes which +do not respect arbitration, or for the enforcement of the decisions of +the central tribunal. The conditions were almost as favourable for such +a change in 1816 as they are to-day, or will be in 1916, and it is +another grave point in the indictment of Christianity that it had no +inspiration to demand that change. The bishops of England no less than +the bishops of Rome were deeply concerned about the rise of democracy +and the spread of unbelief, and they joined with the monarchs in +enforcing a system of violent repression. For the larger and more real +need of Europe they had no feeling whatever, and militarism entered upon +its last and most terrible phase: the stage of national armies and of +means of destruction prepared with all the fearful skill of modern +science. + +As the nineteenth century proceeded, humanitarianism attained clearer +conceptions and more articulate speech. The scheme of substituting legal +procedure for military violence was definitely put before the world. It +is not necessary, and would be difficult, to trace the earliest +developments of this idea. On the one hand, I find no claim that it was +put forward by representatives of Christianity; on the other hand, +literary research among the records of the early Rationalist movements +in this country has shown me that the idea was familiar and welcome +amongst them. No doubt the aversion of the Friends from bloodshed had +some influence, and we find representatives of that noble-minded Society +active in more than one of the early reform-movements. But, as far as I +can discover, it was Robert Owen who first definitely advanced the idea +of substituting arbitration for war, and it was repeatedly discussed +among the "Rational Religion" Societies--which were not at all +religious--that he founded or inspired in various parts of the country. +The immense influence which he obtained in the thirties and forties +enabled him to direct public attention to the reform. + +This early history is, however, as yet vague and unstudied, nor do we +need to enter into any ungenerous struggle about priority. It is enough +that the idealist scheme was well known in England long before the +middle of the nineteenth century. Did the Christian Churches adopt and +enforce it? Here, at least, no minute research is needed. The Christian +bodies failed lamentably and totally (apart from the heterodox Friends) +even to recognise the moral and humane greatness of the idea when it was +definitely presented to them. It is only in the last few years that a +Peace Sunday has--at the suggestion of lay associations--been adopted in +the churches and chapels of England. It is only in quite recent times +that bishops and ministers have stood on peace-platforms and advocated +the reform. And even to-day, when peace associations founded by laymen +have been endeavouring for decades to educate the country, no branch of +the Christian Church has officially and collectively decreed that +Christian principles enjoin the reform; no Pope or Archbishop or Church +Council has supported it with a stern and official injunction that +Christian and moral principle demands that all the members of the +particular Church shall subscribe to and work for the reform. Even at +this eleventh hour, when the issue of peace or war confronts the whole +of mankind, one notices hesitation, reserve, ambiguity. During the +fateful years between 1900 and 1914, when the nations were, in the eyes +of all, preparing the most appalling armaments ever known in history, +when men were speaking freely all over Europe of "the next war" and the +terrific dimensions which modern science and modern alliances would give +to it, the various branches of the Christian Church adhered to their +ancient and futile practice of preaching general principles (as far as +national conduct is concerned), and had little practical influence on +the development. + +I am not unaware of the small movements among the clergy for cultivating +international clerical friendship, or of the extent to which individual +clergymen have co-operated in the various arbitration movements. That is +only a feeble discharge of a small part of their duty. Had Leo XIII or +Pius X issued a plain and explicit Encyclical on the subject, and +directed his vast international organisation of clergy to labour +wholeheartedly for its realisation, who can estimate what the result +would have been? Had the clergy of Germany issued a stern and collective +denunciation of the Pan-German and Imperialist literature which was +instilling poison into every village of the country, can we suppose that +it would have been without avail? Had the Archbishops and Bishops of +England, and the leaders of the Free Churches, definitely instructed +their people that the pacifist ideal was not merely in accord with +Christian principles, but was one of the most urgent and beneficent +reforms of our time, would the English people have passed as +inobservantly as it did through the five years of preparation for a +great war? + +It is no part of my plan to analyse this deplorable failure of the +Churches as moral agencies. The explanation would be complex, and is now +superfluous. The clergy were, like the majority of their fellows, +obsessed by the military system and unable to realise the possibility of +a change. In part they were deluded by the catch-words of superficial +literature. They had an idea that we were asking England to lower its +armament while the rest of the world increased its armament. They +muttered that "the time was not ripe," not realising that it was their +business to make it ripe. They had been accustomed for ages to preaching +a purely individualist morality, and they felt ill at ease in the larger +social applications of moral principle which our age regards as more +important. They feared to offend military supporters, and did not +realise that one may entirely honour the soldier as long as the military +system lasts, yet resent the system. They felt that this new movement +was suspiciously hailed by Socialists, and that to denounce armies had +an air of politics about it. They were peculiarly wedded to tradition, +on account of the very nature they claimed for their traditions, and +they instinctively felt that to denounce war would be to attempt to +improve, not merely on their predecessors, but on the Old and the New +Testaments. They solaced themselves with the thought that unnecessary +violence was condemned in their general teaching, and that, if it +eventually transpired that war was unnecessary, they could point out +once more the all-embracing character of the Christian ethic. In fine, +they were for the greater part, like the greater part of their fellows, +mentally indolent and indisposed to think out or fight for a new idea. + +Whatever the explanation, the fact remains. By the tenth century +Christianity was fully organised, and all the peoples of Europe were +Christian; by the thirteenth century the power of the Church was +enormous and the nations of Europe were settled and civilised. But +neither then nor at any later period did Christianity perceive the crime +and stupidity of the prevailing system. The perception is even now only +faint and partial. It is this long toleration of the military system, +the thousand-year silence on what is now acclaimed as one of the +greatest applications of Christian principle, that one finds it +difficult or impossible to forgive. The zeal of some of the modern +clergy is open to a certain not unnatural suspicion: in view of their +shrinking authority and the growing indifference of the world to dogma +and ritual, they have been forced to take up these new and larger ideas +of our time. + +Even if one lays aside that suspicion, and in many cases it is quite +unjust, the clergy must realise that the indictment of Christianity is +grave, and is almost unatonable. Those thousand years of conflict, +during which they sanctioned every variety of war and initiated many +wars in their own interest, have given the military system such root in +the hearts of men that it will require a supreme and prolonged effort to +destroy it. The proverbial visitor from Mars would not be so much amazed +at any feature of our life as at this retention amid a great +civilisation of the barbaric method of settling international +differences. He would ask in astonishment how an intelligent and +generally humane race, a race which raises homes for stray cats and aged +horses, could cling to a system which, on infallible experience, plunges +one or more countries in the deepest suffering every few years. He would +learn that there has not been a war in Europe for a hundred years the +initial cause of which would not have been better appreciated and +adjudicated on by a body of impartial lawyers; and that, if the quarrels +had thus been submitted to arbitration, we should have saved (including +the annual military expenditure and the cost of the present war) some +three million lives and more than £15,000,000,000--since the end of the +Napoleonic wars. In answer to the amazement of this imaginary critic, we +could reply only that Europe has grown to regard the military system as +so permanent and unquestioned an institution of our civilisation that it +simply cannot imagine the abolition of that system. + +For this incapacity, this widespread inertia, this blundering idea that +there is some serious intrinsic difficulty in the matter, the Churches +are responsible. If they had directed to war the smallest particle of +the ardent rhetoric they have poured on disbelief in dogmas which they +are to-day abandoning, the public mind would have awakened long ago. +There is no intrinsic difficulty in substituting arbitration for war. +There are technical difficulties which the great lawyers and statesmen +of the peace-movement have given ample promise of surmounting, but the +overwhelming obstacle is merely this--the peoples of Europe do not +insist on the reform. Of all the large problems which confront the +modern mind this is incomparably the simplest. We are hopelessly divided +as to the nature of the remedy for most of our social ills. Here the +remedy is acknowledged: the plan has been elaborated almost in entirety: +the international tribunal already exists, and awaits only its +executive, which the nations of Europe could supply to-morrow. It is the +will, the demand, that is wanting. For that lack we charge the utter +failure of the Churches during the ages of their power to enunciate a +plain moral lesson, and their positive encouragement of an evil system. +That is the real indictment. It affects the Christian Church in every +nation. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE APOLOGIES OF THE CLERGY + + +Any person who cares to read the reports of the utterances of our clergy +in the current religious periodicals will recognise that they are +painfully conscious of the reproach which this war implies. One +constantly finds them repeating that in this year of tragedy +"Christianity has failed" and "the gospel has broken in our hands." It +had been their boast that Christianity had civilised Europe, and none of +them has the audacity or indecency to claim, as some writers have done, +that such a war is in harmony with the principles and ideals of +civilisation. They have preached brotherhood and peace, and the greater +part of Christendom is engaged in a strife of the most terrible nature. +It is not a struggle of Christian and infidel; it is a struggle of +Christian and Christian, and one or several of the Christian nations +involved are guilty of a crime greater in magnitude than all the murders +in Europe during a decade. Above all patriotism, above all immediate +anxiety, above all argumentation about responsibility, this grim fact +stands out and reproaches them: after fifteen hundred years of Christian +preaching Europe is locked in the bloodiest struggle of all time. + +During the last fifty or hundred years the clergy have developed some +expertness in making apologies. They have lived in a world of anxious +questions and heated charges, and a special department called +Apologetics has been added to theology. They are, it is true, sorely +perplexed, divided in counsel, uneasy as to their procedure. Some would +ignore the pertinacious outsider and persuade their followers that he is +negligible; others would sustain an energetic campaign against him. Some +would openly and candidly meet the questions of their followers; others +would prefer not to unsettle the large number who never ask questions. +At the present juncture it is impossible to be wholly silent. Some of +the clergy, it seems--I learn this from the recorded words of eminent +preachers--wish to ignore the war and go on with their business as +usual. But the majority feel that such a procedure is dangerous. This +violent breach of Christian principles by Christian nations requires +some explanation. Where is the long-boasted moral influence of +Christianity? Where is the all-loving ruler of the universe? Let us +examine some of the apologies of the preachers. + +Let me confess that, from a long experience of this apologetic branch of +theology, I am not surprised to find that not a single speaker or +writer--as far as my reading of their utterances goes--fairly meets the +main difficulty. Most of them, naturally, are content to plead that the +war has been forced on Europe by Germany, and that therefore no +responsibility lies on Christianity as a whole for the tragedy and the +moral failure it involves. A large number of them go even farther. They +point to the heroic sacrifices made in defence of an ideal by France, +Belgium, England, and Russia--the millions of men streaming to the +battle-field, the millions of women bravely enduring the suspense and +the loss, the millions who generously open their purses to every +philanthropic enterprise--and they acclaim this as a triumph of +Christian civilisation. As to the failure of Christianity in Germany to +stand the test, they either point superficially to the growth of +Rationalism, Biblical Criticism, and Socialism in that country, or they +take refuge in the confusions of the extreme pacifists and refuse to +assign responsibility at all, or they persuade themselves that a small +minority of men who were not Christians deluded the German people into +consenting to the war. In any case, they insist that Christianity as a +whole is not impeached. Assume that Austria was dragged into the war by +Germany, and you have four Christian nations--five, if one includes +Serbia--behaving with great gallantry and entire propriety, and only one +Christian nation misbehaving. + +There is no doubt that this is the common religious attitude, but it +does not satisfy some of the more thoughtful and earnest preachers. This +optimism seems to them rebuked by the very fact that Christendom is in a +state of war to which Paganism can offer no parallel. They think of the +lands beyond the sea to which they have been sending the Christian +message of peace and brotherhood. They fancy they see China and Japan +smiling their faint but distressing smile at the situation in Christian +Europe. They have assured all these distant peoples that their faith has +built up a shining civilisation in Europe, and now there flash and +quiver through the nerves of the world the daily messages of horror, of +fierce hatred, of appalling carnage, of the wanton destruction by +Christians of Christian temples. The Gospel has, somehow, broken down in +Europe, they regretfully admit. + +But they never go beyond this vague admission and boldly state the sin +of the Churches. One would imagine that, in spite of its obvious and +lamentable failure, they still thought that their predecessors had been +justified in preaching only the general terms of the Christian gospel +and never applying it to war. One would fancy that they are so +unacquainted with history as to suppose that during the long ages of the +past the Churches were really frowning on violence and warfare, instead +of blessing and employing it. They fear to draw out in its full +proportion the inefficacy (because of its vagueness) of the gospel and +the long perversion of its ministers. Yet we cannot evade this +fundamental fact of the situation, that this particular war is an +outcome of a general military system, and the Churches have a very grave +responsibility for the maintenance of that system until the twentieth +century. We all know how the technical moral theologian of recent times +has glossed the complacency of his Church. He has drawn a distinction +between offensive and defensive war, and, since the latter is obviously +just, he has maintained that armies are rightly raised to wage it when +necessary. On this petty fallacy the Churches have so long reconciled +themselves to militarism, and have, in fact, been amongst its closest +allies. The clergy did not, or would not, see that the retention of the +military system was in itself the surest provocation of offensive war; +that ambition or covetousness could almost always find a moral pretext +for aggression, and that there have been comparatively few priests in +the history of Europe who ever stood out and unmasked the hypocrisy of +such monarchs. As long as the military system lasted, it was certain +that wars would take place, yet they never denounced the system. The +great conception of substituting justice for violence, law for +lawlessness, did not enter the mind of Christianity. It was born of the +secular humanitarian spirit of modern times. + +For any serious person this is the gravest charge which the clergy have +to meet, and they one and all evade it. The civilisation of Europe has a +unique greatness on its material side; in its applied science, its +engineering, its industries, its commerce. For that, assuredly, the +Churches are not in any degree responsible. Our civilisation is unique +also in its political power, its mastery over other peoples; and for +that again the Churches are not responsible. It is great on the +intellectual side, in its science and philosophy, its art and general +culture; and that greatness, too, has been won independently of, or in +defiance of, the clergy. On the moral side only it may plausibly be +connected with its established religion, and here precisely it fails and +approaches barbarism. I do not wonder that the Churches are troubled, +and do not wonder greatly that they are silent. + +But while they are silent on the main issue, they have a vast amount to +say about minor issues and secondary aspects. They console and reconcile +their people in a hundred ways. Actually they seem, in a great measure, +to entertain the idea that the Churches are going to emerge from this +trial stronger than ever, and to witness at last that religious revival +which they had almost begun to despair of securing. Let me examine a few +of these clerical pronouncements. I do not choose the eccentric sermons +of ill-educated rural preachers, but the utterances of some of the more +distinguished preachers, reproduced with pride and honour in the leading +religious periodicals. Yet no person can coldly reflect on these +pronouncements and fail to realise that our generation acts not +unnaturally in passing by the open doors of the Churches; that the +clergy are, as usual, shirking the most serious questions of the modern +intelligence, and trusting mainly to profit by the heated and disordered +and confusing emotions of the hour. + +One of the most extraordinary of these deliverances reaches me from +Australia, but as it comes from one of the leading prelates of the +Commonwealth and does assuredly express what multitudes of preachers are +saying everywhere, I do not hesitate to give it prominence. Archbishop +Carr, of Melbourne, set out in the middle of the war to enlighten his +followers, and his words are reported with great deference in the +Melbourne _Age_ (December 28th). The prelate observed that he had "very +strong ideas about the war" (I quote the words of the _Age_), and "did +not believe it had happened by accident, or by the chance action of some +king or emperor." He believed that "the great God who provided for all +human creatures, through the war was punishing sin that had prevailed +for a long time, particularly in the shape of infidelity." The +Archbishop proved from history and the Bible that war did come sometimes +as a punishment of sin, and he concluded, or the journal thus summarises +his conclusion: + + "The reason that God was using the present war for the punishment + of the nations was that for a very considerable time there had been + not merely neglect of the worship and service of God, which had + always existed to a greater or less extent, but a regular upraising + of human light and human understanding and human will against the + existence of the providence of God. It was not so common among us + here [it is just as common], but there were countries in Europe in + which the spirit of infidelity and the absence of supernatural + faith had been increasing for many years. Men were coming to think + they were quite sufficient in themselves for the working out of + their own destinies, but the war had come, and it was humbling such + men." + +Archbishop Carr is not adduced here as a representative type of clerical +culture. On what grounds the Roman Catholic authorities select men like +him and the late Cardinal Moran to preside over the destinies of their +Church in our great and promising Commonwealth is not clear. In the +course of this important sermon, in which he is delivering his very +personal and mature conclusions on the greatest issue of the hour, the +Archbishop observed that "the Roman Empire had been attacked by Attila" +and "Attila scourged the Romans for the crimes of which they had for a +long while been guilty." One is surprised that he did not add the pretty +legend of the awe-stricken Hun retreating before the majestic figure of +Pope Leo I. However, most of us are aware that, as a student in any +college of Australia ought to be able to inform the Archbishop, Attila +never reached within two hundred miles of Rome, and that the Pagan +Romans, whom the Archbishop obviously has in mind, had been extinguished +long before the monarch of the Huns was born. There is no greater +historical scholarship in the other proofs which the prelate brings in +support of his thesis that war is often deliberately sent as a +punishment. + +But what are we to make of the moral standards of an eminent prelate of +the Roman Church who can hold and express so appalling a theory? It is +based on the moral standard of the Prussian officer, of the medieval +torturer. The majority of clergymen have at length come to realise, +tardily and reluctantly, that the man or woman who rejects the creeds +they offer may quite possibly not believe in them. The practice of +describing a refusal to assent to the doctrine of hell and heaven as a +wilful rebellion of passion against the restraining influences of +Christianity is going out of fashion. Christian people were meeting too +many heretics in the flesh, and did not recognise the thing described +from the pulpit. The sturdy Archbishop will have none of this pampering. +Unbelief is a matter of the will as well as the understanding. And he +actually believes that God guided the thoughts of William II in +engineering this war--believes it for a reason a hundred times worse +than the Kaiser's idea. He believes that God sent on Europe a war that +will cost £10,000,000,000, that is blasting the homes and embittering +the hearts of millions, that mingles the innocent and guilty in one +common and fearful desolation, that sends millions to a premature death +amidst circumstances which do not lend themselves to a devout +preparation, that is raising storms of hatred and perverting the souls +of millions, because a few other millions refuse to go to church. It +would be difficult to conceive a cruder and more barbarous idea. Attila +did not scourge the Romans, but he did scourge other peoples; and we +hold him up to execration for ever for it. But Archbishop Carr, and many +other preachers, think that an all-holy and all-intelligent God can do +infinitely worse than Attila. He is going to punish the unbelievers in +eternal fire when they die: meantime he will make a hell on earth for +the innocent as well as the supposed guilty, the child and the mother as +well as the free-thinking father. Of a truth, it is not surprising that +a reluctance to listen to sermons has spread to Melbourne, and that men +are wondering whether they had better not take in hand their own +destinies rather than entrust them to such spiritual guides as this. + +Note, particularly, in passing the emphasis which the Archbishop puts on +the determination of our generation to control its own destinies. Until +the nineteenth century men entrusted their destinies, on the moral side, +to guides like Archbishop Carr. I have described the result. In the +nineteenth century there began this practice, which the Archbishop +thinks worthy of so inhuman a chastisement, of men attending to their +own moral interests. Of this also I have described the result. The moral +sentiment of Europe has greatly improved, and there is at least a +widespread revolt against warfare and a prospect of abolishing it. For +this God, the more than human, scorched Europe with the horrible flames +which Archbishop Carr thinks he keeps in his arsenal of +torture-implements. The Archbishop says that infidelity has not spread +so much in Australia. I should, if I were not well acquainted with the +Commonwealth, be disposed to see in that the reason why eminent prelates +can still utter such gross medieval nonsense in that country. + +In England this particularly crude type of nonsense is not usually +uttered by preachers of distinction,[2] though it is common enough among +less responsible preachers; but there is a dangerous approach to it in +some of the sermons which the religious periodicals regard as +important. Looking over the current issues of the religious press, I +notice a sermon on the war by Professor Clow, in which the Allies are, +in harmony with his test, described as "the vultures of God." Germany, +it seems, is the prey, and Germany's sins are painted black. Professor +Clow, it is true, shrinks from the very natural implication of his +words, but he clearly intimates that he sees the action of God in the +military conduct of the Allies, and to that extent he is hardly less +revolting, in view of his culture, than the archbishop. Could the God of +Professor Clow find no other way of removing Germany's arrogance than to +sear and blast it with a world-war and involve millions of innocent +along with the guilty in his lakes of fire and blood? + +More important, however, is a sermon delivered before the recent +National Free Church Council by one of the most esteemed Nonconformist +preachers, the Rev. J. H. Rushbrooke, and reproduced admiringly in the +Nonconformist journals. The cloud of war, naturally, brooded over this +gathering of ministers. Some of them heroically closed their eyes to it +and went on with their clerical business as usual. But most of the +speakers seem to have felt that all other issues were thrust aside in +the minds of their followers just now, and that a grave and soul-shaking +question possessed them. As a result we have, I suppose, the finest +efforts of Nonconformity to meet that question and save the prestige of +the Churches. + +Mr. Rushbrooke frankly described the war as an overwhelming catastrophe, +gravely disturbing the religious mind. It bore witness, he said, to "the +failure of organised, or disorganised, Christianity." He conceived it as +"God's judgment upon the Church's failure seriously to devote herself +to the great cause of peace on earth and good-will among men." With all +their boasts of what Christianity had done in Europe, it now appeared +that that civilisation was raised upon "foundations of sand." The +preacher claimed that much was being done in modern times by the clergy +to promote international amity, but he seemed to feel that it was little +and was _very_ recent. The spectacle unfolded before us in Europe to-day +is a sufficient proof of its inadequacy. And, as Mr. Rushbrooke said, we +now see how little use it is to preach ideals at home and not apply them +to the common life of the world. + +These words are the nearest to wisdom that I have found among a large +collection of pulpit-utterances and religious articles. The preacher +plainly sees, and with some measure of candour confesses, that long +remissness of Christian ministers in applying their principles to which +the war, and all wars, are fundamentally due. The record which he +carefully makes of recent efforts to redeem the failure is paltry in +comparison with the resources even of the Free Churches, and only serves +to bring out more clearly the awful neglect of Christian ministers +during the long ages when they had a mighty power in Europe. But Mr. +Rushbrooke makes one grave error. He feels that not merely the relation +of the war to Christianity, but its relation to God, is engaging public +attention, and he stumbles into the theory that God sent the war. It is +"God's judgment on the Church's failure." We must suppose that Mr. +Rushbrooke did not literally mean what he said. His words imply a theory +of the war more monstrous even than that of Archbishop Carr. To punish +Europe for the sins of unbelievers has at least a genuine medieval +plausibility about it; but to send this indescribable plague on the +nations of Europe because the clergy failed to do their duty.... One +must really assume that Mr. Rushbrooke did not mean what he said, and +leave the sentence unfinished. What he meant it is impossible to +conjecture. To the religious mind "God's judgment" means a chastisement +sent by God. But, whatever Mr. Rushbrooke meant, he had been wiser to +leave the idea of God out of his comments on this war, and to say +frankly that it would bring on them and on their predecessors, on the +whole of Christianity, the judgment of man and the judgment of history +for their neglect of their opportunities. + +The Rev. A. T. Guttery addressed the Council in a more cheerful mood, +and his reflections are characteristic of a large group of the clergy. +He would not for a moment allow the failure of Christianity. The +Churches had, he said, been so successful in compelling the world to +recognise the evil of aggressive warfare that even the Germans were +eager to describe their action as purely defensive. "The Pagan glory of +war for its own sake was gone." And when we acknowledge the comparative +failure of religion in Germany, and restrict our attention to the sphere +of our own clergy, we find that they have created an entirely new +spirit. The lust for territory and for gold is felt no more in England. +Here there is no mafficking over victories, there are no hymns of hate. +The British nation has been sobered by the influence of Christianity. We +may regret that the German people has not proved equally susceptible, +and its pastors equally energetic, but we cannot bear their burden. +Their naughtiness alone has disturbed the moral progress which, even in +this department, Christianity was fostering. + +This is, I think, a very usual attitude of the clergy, and I have +already appreciated the sound element of it. There is no comparison +between the behaviour of the two nations. Whether England deserves quite +all the compliments which Mr. Guttery showers upon it may be a matter of +opinion. We have as yet little cause for "mafficking," but there is very +little doubt that it will occur on a grandiose scale before the war is +over. We do not sing hymns of hate; but it might be hazardous to +speculate what we would do if some nation drew an iron ring round our +country and reduced us almost to a condition of starvation. We have no +lust for territory--I am not sure about the lust for gold--because we +have in our Empire territory enough for our population; and we may wait +to see if England does not annex any part of Germany's African or +Pacific possessions. Mr. Guttery's contrast is crude and superficial. He +ignores the economic and geographical conditions which give us a feeling +of content and Germany a profound feeling of discontent and a dangerous +ambition. The German character is not in itself inferior to ours, and it +were well for us to fancy ourselves in Germany's position and wonder if +we would have acted otherwise. + +On the other hand, I have freely acknowledged, or claimed, that there +has been a great improvement in the moral temper of Europe, and that +this is especially seen in the odium that is now cast on aggressive or +offensive war. But to claim this improvement for the credit of religion +is, to say the least, audacious. The more simple-minded of Mr. Guttery's +hearers would imagine that the change set in with the fall of Paganism. +"The Pagan glory of war for its own sake is gone." When clerical writers +speak of Paganism they think that any evil deed ever done by a Pagan is +characteristic of the whole body; they ask us to apply a different +standard to their own body. Plato and Socrates were Pagans; Marcus +Aurelius and Antoninus Pius--to speak of warriors and statesmen--were +Pagans. The truth is that a glory in war for its own sake was no more +generally characteristic of Paganism than it was of Christian Europe +until a century ago: it was probably less. Most of the German Emperors +and of the Kings of England, France, and Spain would fairly come under +the description which Mr. Guttery calls Pagan. One hardly needs to know +much of history to perceive that this moral improvement in the +conception of war belongs to the last century and a half, and it is +somewhat bold to claim that a change which made no appearance during a +thousand years of profound Christian influence, and did begin to appear +and make progress as that faith waned, can be claimed for Christianity. +I do not forget that the theologian began long ago, in the seclusion of +his cell or study, to condemn offensive warfare. But there have been +hundreds of offensive wars waged by Christian monarchs since that date, +and we do not read of any instance in which the clergy failed to endorse +the thin casuistry by which the offensive was turned into a defensive or +a preventive war, or refused to sanction an entire neglect of the +principle. + +Dr. Scott-Lidgett followed on somewhat similar lines. The whole trouble, +he protested, was due to an anti-Christian, illiberal, and inhuman +system. It seems that he was referring to Prussia, and it is regrettable +that he did not feel called to explain why that system prevails in the +year of the Lord 1915, or how it finds an instrument of its ambition in +a militarism that ought to have been denounced and abolished centuries +ago. Mr. Shakespeare, another distinguished Nonconformist, follows the +same facile course--casts all the responsibility on Germany--and equally +fails to explain how Germany came to find the machinery of destruction +at its hand in our age. + +In fine, Dean Welldon, one of the most energetic spokesmen of the Church +of England, addressed this Free Church Council, and imparted an element +of originality. He used the inconclusive and dangerous argument of _tu +quoque_. If, he said, you claim that this war exhibits the failure of +Christianity, you must admit that it shows equally the failure of +science and civilisation. Nay, he says, growing bolder, if your +contention is true, Christianity has done no more than supply the +instrument of its own destruction, but science and civilisation have +brought us back to savagery. + +It is, of course, difficult to follow a man's rounded thought in the +crabbed phrases of an abbreviating reporter, but it is plain that Dean +Welldon has here been guilty of a confusion which only betrays his +apologetic poverty in face of this great crisis. Science--and it is +especially science that the clergy conceive as the rival they have to +discredit--has no concern whatever with the war. Science, either as an +organised body of teachers or as a branch of culture, has never +discussed war, and never had the faintest duty or opportunity to do so. +Economic science may discuss particular aspects of war, but the +economist deals with things as they are, not as they ought to be. Moral +science even is not a preaching agency, desirous of dividing with the +clergy the ethical guidance of the people. When men pit science against +religion, they usually refer to its superior power of explaining +reality. And if it be objected that therefore no morally educative +agency would remain if religion were discarded, the answer is simple. A +system of moral idealism founded on science--it is absurd to call it +science--does exist, and might at any time be enlarged to the +proportions of a national or international educative agency. As yet it +is left to individual cultivation or crystallised in a few tiny +associations, such as Ethical and Secularist and, partly, Socialist +Societies; and I venture to say, from a large experience of these +bodies, that, apart from the professed peace societies, they have been +more assiduous than any religious associations in England, in proportion +to their work, in demanding the substitution of arbitration for war, and +that the overwhelming majority, almost the entirety, of their members +are pacifists. To speak of this small organised force, with its slender +influence, as equally discredited with the far mightier and +thousand-year-older influence of the Churches would be strangely +incongruous; and it is hardly less incongruous to drag science into the +comparison. + +A somewhat similar distinction must be observed in regard to +civilisation. The antithesis of religion and civilisation is confused +and confusing. Christian ministers have claimed that _they_ are the +moral element of civilisation, and they have jealously combated every +effort to take from them or divide with them that function. They resist +every attempt to exclude their almost useless Bible-lessons from our +schools, and to substitute for them a direct and more practical moral +education of children. They have for fifteen hundred years claimed and +possessed the monopoly of ethical culture in European civilisation, and +we are a little puzzled when they turn round and say, with an air of +argument, that if Christianity has failed civilisation also has failed. +There is only one civilisation in Europe that has attempted to +substitute a humanitarian for a religious training of conduct; one +nation that is plainly and overwhelmingly non-Christian. That nation is +France. And France has one of the best moral records in modern Europe, +and has behaved nobly throughout this lamentable business. In fine, if +we take Dean Welldon's words in the most generous sense, if we assume +that he refers to the whole body of culture and sentiment which, in our +time, aspires to mould and direct the race apart from Christian +doctrine, the answer has already been given. Christianity is, as a power +in Europe, fourteen centuries old; this humanitarianism is hardly a +century old. But there has surely been more progress made during this +last century toward the destruction of the military system, and more +progress in the elimination of brutality from war, than in the whole +preceding thirteen centuries. Does Dean Welldon doubt that? Or does he +regard it as a mere coincidence? + +Thus, whether we turn to Churchman or Nonconformist, to cleric or +layman, we find no satisfactory apology. I have before me a short +article by Mr. Max Pemberton on the question, "Will Christianity survive +the war?" He uses the most consecrated phrases of the Church, and leaves +no doubt whatever that he writes in defence of Christianity. But Mr. +Pemberton practically confines himself to a very emphatic personal +assurance that Christianity _will_ survive the war, and does not +honestly face a single one of the questions of "the Pagan" against whom +he is writing. He does make one serious point of a peculiar character. +There are, he says, "23,000 priests fighting for France in the +trenches." Mr. Pemberton seems to find it easy to accept the interested +statements of those Roman Catholic journalists who make sectarian use of +some of the London dailies. There are only about 30,000 priests in +France, and, since none of them are younger than twenty-three, to +suppose that seventy-five per cent. of them are of military age is to +take a remarkable view of the population of France. In any case, there +is no special ground for rhapsody. They are not volunteers; in France +every man must do his civic duty. We may appreciate their devotion to +their religion on the battle-field, but Mr. Pemberton must be +imperfectly acquainted with the French character if he supposes that the +thirty-four million unbelievers of France are going to return to the +Church because the younger _curés_ did not try to evade the military +service which the State imposed on them. + +Another document I may quote is a manifesto issued by the "Hampstead +Evangelical Free Church Council," a joint declaration of the principal +Nonconformist ministers of that highly cultivated suburb. It does not +purport to vindicate the Churches, yet some of its observations in +connection with the war open out a new page of apologetics. These +clergymen invite all the citizens of their district, on the ground of +the war, to attend church, even if they have not been in the habit of +doing so. On what more precise ground? The able lawyer who received this +invitation, and forwarded it to me, thought it, not the most ingenious, +but the most curious, piece of pleading he had ever known. The citizens +of Hampstead were invited to go to church "to offer up to God a +sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for his goodness to us as a +nation"! At the very time the eminent preachers were writing this, the +darkened city still cowered under the threat of a horrible outrage; the +shattered homes and fresh graves of Scarborough and Whitby reminded us +faintly of the horrors beyond the sea; the maimed soldiers all over the +country, the sad figures of the bereaved, the anxious hearts of a +million of our people, were but a beginning of the evil that had fallen +on us. We had in fourteen years, since the last war, been obliged to +spend a thousand millions sterling in preparation for a war we did not +desire, and we were entering upon an expenditure of something more than +a thousand millions in a year. All this we had incurred through no fault +of ours. And these clergymen thought it a good opportunity to invite us +to go to church to thank God for "his goodness to us as a nation." + +Another manifesto is signed by a body of archbishops and bishops of the +Anglican Church. It enjoined all the faithful to supplicate the Almighty +on January 3rd to stop the war. This was to be done "all round the +Empire." I will not indulge in any cheap sarcasm as to the result, +though one would probably be right in saying that, if the end be +deferred to the year 1917, they will still believe that their prayers +had effect. What it is more material to notice is that the prelates +think that "these are days of great spiritual opportunity." It seems +that "the shattering of so much that seemed established reveals the +vanity of human affairs," and that "anxiety, separation, and loss have +made many hearts sensible of the approach of Christ to the soul." It is, +perhaps, unkind to examine this emotional language from an intellectual +point of view, but one feels that there is a subtle element of apology +in it. These spiritual advantages may outweigh the secular pain; may +even justify God's share in the great catastrophe. I have examined, and +will discuss more fully in the next chapter, the theistic side of this +plea. Intellectually, it borders on monstrosity: it is the survival of +an ancient and barbaric conception. The notion that "the approach of +Christ to the soul" is felt especially in time of affliction is merely a +statement of a certain type of emotional experience, while the +revelation of "the vanity of human affairs" is sheer perversity. Human +affairs have for ages been so badly managed, in this respect, that we +cannot in a decade or a century rid ourselves of such a legacy. The real +moral is to discover who were responsible for that legacy of disorder +and violence, and to put our affairs on a new and sounder basis. + +A considerable number of clerical writers proceed on the suggestion +discreetly advanced by these Anglican prelates. Let us wait, they ask, +until the clouds of war have rolled away, and then estimate the +spiritual gain to men from the trial through which they have passed, and +the closer association of the Churches which it may bring about. Now I +have no doubt that many who really believe the doctrines of +Christianity, yet have for years neglected the duties which their belief +imposes on them, will be induced by this awful experience to return to +allegiance. The number is limited, and an equal or greater number may +be, and probably will be, induced to surrender religion entirely, and +with good reason, by the reflections with which this war inspires them. +But to insinuate that this spiritual advantage, if it be an advantage, +of the few is justly purchased by the appalling suffering and disorder +brought about by the war is one of those religious affirmations which +seem to the outsider positively repulsive. + +I do not speak merely of the deaths, the pain, the privation, the +outrages, the flood of tears and blood over half of Europe. This, +indeed, is of itself enough to make the theory repellent to any who do +not share the ascetic views taught in the Churches. The notion that an +evil is justified if good issue from it is akin to the notion that the +end justifies the means. But I would draw attention to an aspect of the +war which is almost ignored by these eloquent preachers. They eagerly +record every flash of heroism, every spark of charity and mercy, that +the war evokes. They refer sympathetically to the dead and the bereaved, +the outraged girls and women--whom, in the narrowest Puritanism, they +forbid to rid themselves of the awful burden laid on them by drunken +brutes--the shattered homes and monuments. But there is a side of war +which they must know, and it demands plain speaking. It relaxes the +control of moral restraints even where it was before operative. The +illegitimate-birth rate of England and France will faintly tell the +story before the year is out. Inquiry in any town where our soldiers are +lodged, or in the rear of the French and English (or any other) +trenches, will tell it more fully. I do not speak of crime and violence, +but of willing sexual intercourse where it was never known before. These +things, and the increased drunkenness and the stirring of old passions, +are regarded by the clergy as amongst the most evil things of life. Do +they seriously suggest that they have been brought in to secure, or are +justified by, the spiritual advantage of the refined and emotional few +whose religion is only deepened by affliction? + +In short, I find not a single phrase of valid explanation or apology in +these and other prominent clerical pronouncements I have read. They are +superficial, contradictory, and vapid. Nothing is more common than for +religious writers to protest that the conception of reality which is +opposed to theirs is shallow. What depth, what sincere grip of reality, +does one find in any of these pulpit utterances? Yet I have taken the +pronouncements of official bodies or of distinguished preachers who may +be trusted to put the Christian feeling in its most persuasive form. One +thinks that God sent the war; another attributes it to German rebels +against God. One regards it as a spiritual agency devised for our good; +another says that it is an unmitigated calamity sent for our punishment. +One sees in it the failure of Christianity; others find in it precisely +a confirmation of Christian teaching. Some think it will draw men to +God; others that it will drive men from God. Unity, perhaps, we cannot +expect; but the empty rhetoric and utter sophistry of most of these +utterances reveal the complete lack of defence. On the main indictment +of the Christian Church, its failure to have condemned and removed +militarism long ago, all are silent; or the one preacher who notices it +can only dejectedly confess that it is true. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE WAR AND THEISM + + +In the leading Catholic periodical of this country there has been some +nervous discussion of the attitude of the Pope. A new man, a strong and +enlightened man, happens to have mounted the chair of Peter in the midst +of the war. For more than a century his predecessors have bemoaned the +increasing wickedness of the world: Pius VII, tossed like a helpless +cork on the waves of the Revolution; Leo XII and Pius VIII, the +associates of the Holy Alliance; Gregory XVI, eating sweetmeats or +mumbling his breviary while young Italy sweated blood; Pius IX, grasping +eagerly his tatters of sovereignty; Leo XIII, the unsuccessful +diplomatist; Pius X, the medieval monk. They saw their Church shrink +decade by decade, and they witnessed the prosperity of all that they +denounced. Benedict XV came to save the Church, and a great moral +opportunity awaited him. But, while claiming to be the moral arbitrator +of the world, he avoids his plain duty, and is content to repeat the +worn phrases about the iniquity of the modern spirit. His apologists say +that the war is politics, and that Popes must not interfere in politics. + +I have earlier explained in what sense this war presents a political +aspect to Benedict XV, and given the reason for his reluctance. It is +typical of the whole failure of Christianity. A little over nineteen +centuries ago, it is said in the churches, a star shone over the cradle +of the Saviour, and choirs of angels announced his coming as a promise +of "peace on earth and good-will among men." I am not in this little +work examining the whole question of the influence of Christianity. But +it is well to recall that, according to its own records, its first and +greatest promise to the world was peace; and to that old Roman Empire, +and to Europe at any stage in its later history, no greater blessing +could have been brought. Has Christianity succeeded? + +But the religious interest of the war is by no means exhausted when we +have concluded that it marks, in one of the most important departments +of human action, the complete failure of historical Christianity. My +purpose is to discuss this relation to the Churches, and it would not be +completed unless I considered the war in relation to their fundamental +doctrine, the moral government of the universe by a Supreme Being. In a +few months, we hope, the war will be over: the Allies will have +triumphed. We know, from experience and from history, what will follow +in the Churches. From end to end of Britain, from Dover to Penzance and +from Southampton to Aberdeen, there will rise a jubilant cry that God +has blessed our arms and awarded us the victory. Now that we are in the +midst of the horrors and burdens of the war God is little mentioned. One +would imagine that the great majority of the clergy conceived him as +standing aside, for some inscrutable reason, and letting wicked men +deploy their perverse forces. When the triumph comes, gilding the past +sacrifices or driving them from memory, God will be on every lip. The +whole nation will be implored to come and kneel before the altars. +Royalty and nobility and military, judges and stockbrokers and working +men--above all, a surging, thrilling, ecstatic mass of women--will +gather round the clergy, and will avow that they see the finger of God +in this glorious consummation. The relation of the war to God will then +become the supreme consideration for the Christian mind. It may be more +instructive to consider it now, before the last flood of emotion pours +over our judgments. + +I have already discussed some of the clerical allusions to the share of +God in the war. They are so frankly repellent that one cannot be +surprised that the majority of the clergy prefer to be silent on that +point. They prefer to await the victory and build on its more genial and +indulgent emotions. The war is either a blessing or a curse. One would +think that there was not much room for choice, but we saw that some are +bold enough to hint that the spiritual good may outweigh the bodily +pain. They remind us of a Treitschke or a Bernhardi writing smugly of +the moral grandeur of war, the need to brace the slackness of human +nature periodically by war, the chivalry and devotion it calls out, and +so on. + +Still worse is the theory of those who regard war frankly as a curse, +yet put it to the direct authorship of the Almighty. This theory is +natural enough in the minds of men and women who believe in hell. In +earlier ages men could not distinguish between the law of retaliation +and the need to deter criminals by using violence against them when they +transgressed. In many primitive systems of justice the law of +retaliation is expressly consecrated. It is even introduced, +inconsistently and as a survival of barbaric times, in the Babylonian +and the Judaic codes, side by side with saner views. It is, of course, +merely a systematisation of brute passion. In the beginning, if a man +knocked your tooth out, you knocked one of his teeth out. With the +growth of law and justice, the barbarous nature of the impulse was +recognised, and the community, by its representatives, inflicted a +"punishment" on the offender instead of allowing the offended to +retaliate. With the modern improvement of moral sentiments we have +realised that this is an imperfect advance on the barbaric idea. The +community has no more right to "punish" than the offended individual +had. We now impose hardship on an offender only for the purpose of +intimidating him from repeating the offence, or of deterring others from +offending. The idea is still somewhat crude, and a third stage will in +time be reached; but it is satisfactory that we now--not since the +advent of Christianity, but since the rise of modern humanism--all admit +that the only permissible procedure is deterrence, and not punishment as +such. + +It may seem ungracious to be ever repeating that these improvements did +not take place during the period of Christian influence, but in the +recent period of its decay. There is, however, in this case a most +important and urgent reason for emphasising the fact. I say that we +_all_ admit the more humane conception of punishment, but this must be +qualified. In human affairs we do: Carlyle was, perhaps, the last +moralist to cling to the old conception. But in the religious world the +old idea has been flagrantly retained. The doctrine of eternal +punishment is clearly based on the barbaric old idea that a prince whose +dignity has been insulted may justly inflict the most barbarous +punishment on the offender. Theologians have, since the days of Thomas +Aquinas, wasted whole reams of parchment in defending the dogma of hell, +because they knew nothing whatever of comparative jurisprudence and the +evolution of moral ideas. To us the development of the doctrine is +clear. In the Christian doctrine of hell we have a flagrant survival of +the early barbaric theory of punishment. Modern divines--while +continuing to describe the non-religious view of life as "superficial" +and the Christian as "profound"--have actually yielded to the modern +sentiment, and in a very large measure rejected one of the fundamental +dogmas of the Christian tradition. In order to conceal the procedure as +far as possible, some of them are now contending brazenly that Christ +never taught the doctrine of eternal punishment, and are deluding their +uncultivated congregations with sophistical manipulations of Greek +words. + +This does not mean that Christians have lower moral sentiments than +non-Christians, but that the rigidity of their traditions, which they +regard as sacred and unalterable, imposes restrictions on them. Hence +the fact that, while Protestants have so very largely rejected the +doctrine of hell, Roman Catholics, with their more rigid conservatism +and claim of infallibility, still cling to it, and offer the amazing +spectacle of a body claiming to possess the highest ideals in the world, +yet actually cherishing an entirely barbaric theory. There is probably +not a Catholic lawyer in the world who does not reject the old idea of +punishment as barbaric, yet he placidly believes that God retains it. +That is why we find a Catholic archbishop like Carr putting forth so +revolting an idea of the war, while Protestant preachers as a rule +shrink from mentioning God in connection with it. These things make it +impossible for one to understand how non-Christians can say, as they do +sometimes, that if they _were_ to accept a creed, it would be the Roman +creed. + +Any theory of the war which proceeds on the lines of the hell-theory is +simply barbaric, and is beneath serious discussion. We know to-day that +both ethics and religion are in a state of constant evolution. We look +back over a stream of several thousand years of historically traceable +development; we follow that stream faintly through earlier tens of +thousands of years in the ideas of primitive peoples; and we see the +evolution going on plainly in the creeds and ethical codes of our own +time. But the practice of registering certain stages of this evolution +in sacred books or codes, which are then imposed on man for centuries or +millennia as something unalterable, has been and is a very serious +hindrance to development, both in ethics and religion. It is all the +worse because these codes and sacred books always contain certain +elements which belong to even earlier and less enlightened stages, and +whole regiments of philosophers or theologians are employed for ages in +putting glosses on ancient and barbaric ideas at which the world +eventually laughs. However, we need not linger here over these ancient +ways of regarding life. The man who keeps his God at a moral level which +we disdain ourselves rarely listens to argument. He protects his "faith" +by believing that it is a mortal sin (involving sentence of hell) to +read any book that would examine it critically. It is a most ingenious +arrangement by which the doctrine of a vindictive God protects itself +against moral progress. + +Now any suggestion that God sent this war upon Europe--whether as a +judgment on the clergy, or a judgment on unbelievers, or a judgment on +the arrogance of the Germans, etc.--is part of this old barbarism, and +may be disregarded. It conceives that God is vindictive, and at the same +time assures us that Christianity sternly condemns vindictiveness. It +allows God to deal mighty blows at those who affront him, and tells men +to bear affront with patience and turn the other cheek to the smiter. It +is simply part of that mixture and confusion of old and new ideas which +a codified religion always exhibits. We pass it by, and turn to more +serious considerations. I pass by also eccentric ideas of Deity like +those of Sir Oliver Lodge or Mr. G. B. Shaw--two oracles who have been +singularly silent on the religious aspect of the war. Let us examine the +main religious problem as broadly and as honestly as we can. + +The first and chief reflection that occurs to any man who does thus +seriously examine the relation of the war to theism is that, after all, +it is not so easy to disentangle theology from the crude old doctrines +which our more liberal divines think they have abandoned. They tell us +that they do not believe in a vindictive Deity, they disdain the +doctrine of eternal punishment, they smile at many of the Judaic +conceptions of Jehovah in the Old Testament. God is the all-holy and +benevolent ruler of the universe. They refuse to believe that the souls +of sinners and unbelievers are tortured for ever after death, and trust +the whole scheme of things to the love and justice of God. + +The grave difficulty of this enlightened theology, indeed of all +theology, is the immense amount of pain and evil in the universe, and +this mighty war we are considering puts it in a very acute form. It is +amusing to look back on some of the lines of apologetics in recent +years. There was a school of people, following some "profound" religious +thinker, who held that evil was "only relative." They made the wonderful +discovery that everything real is good, in the metaphysical sense, and +evil is unreal. Evil, they said, is merely the negation, the +falling-short, of good; and you do not ask for the creator or cause of a +negative thing. More recently a school endeavoured to come to their +assistance with the discovery that pain does not really exist at all. +One did not need to know philosophy or science in order to realise that +a sensation of pain is just as positive and real a thing as a sensation +of pleasure; or that, although death is _only_ the negation of life, one +is really entitled to ask why one's dear child is thus "negated" at the +age of six or twelve. Then there came this new school with its discovery +that pain does not exist. Death, of course, is an entry into a more +glorious life beyond; pain is an illusion to be banished by resolute +thought. These childish symposia were interrupted every few years by +some disastrous earthquake, the sinking of a great liner, an epidemic of +disease, a famine, and so on; but the pious philosophers bravely +struggled on. One may trust that the war has reduced them to silence, +and that we need not linger over them. + +Then there was the school which sought desperately to find good in evil. +A man or woman is stricken with disease. Very often it brings with it a +softening, an improvement, of character; either in the patient or in the +nurses, or in both. Our religious philosophers fancied they caught in +this a glimpse of the divine plan: cancer was an instrument of +righteousness in the hands of the Almighty, the bacillus of +tuberculosis was a moral agency. They detected cases in which adverse +fortune had sobered and softened a man: the finger of Providence. In +France there was a very considerable return to the Catholic Church, and +recovery of its power, after the disastrous war of 1870. In the south of +Italy there is always much less sexual freedom for a time after an +earthquake has buried a few tens of thousands under the ruins of their +houses. I would undertake to fill a quarto volume with instances of good +things which arose out of or followed upon evil experiences. We saw that +the present war is being examined in the same respect. There are "great +spiritual opportunities": hundreds of thousands of young men are being +compelled (by the authorities) to go to church who had not been for +years; the different denominations are fraternising as they never did +before; the churches are rather fuller than they had been of late: +charity is awakened on a prodigious scale; zeal for an ideal (the +violated peace of Belgium) is dragging men even from our slums to the +colours. Here again one could at least fill a moderate treatise with the +things achieved; and beyond them all is the unuttered vision of the +crowded churches at the triumphant close of the war, perhaps that +long-coveted religious revival. + +There is no doubt whatever that this theory of the war will be +assiduously pressed when nature has drawn her green mantle once more +over the blackened area of the war and our hearts are lifted up by +thought of victory. It is already being urged, and I would add a little +to the comments I have already passed on it. + +The clergy would do well to realise that, whatever virtue this theory +may have in soothing the minds and dissolving the doubts of their +followers, to an outsider it seems monstrous. In the first place, it +includes no sense of proportion, and amounts to a colossal untruth. We +must surely take into account the amount of evil inflicted and the +amount of good that ensues. Take sickness, for instance. One would +imagine that, if Christians seriously believe that illness is sent by +God to achieve certain salutary modifications of character, they ought +strenuously to oppose the modern determination to reduce disease to a +minimum. They do not, and would, on the contrary, soon reduce to silence +any religious crank who proposed it. They know perfectly well that the +cases of "spiritual advantage" from illness bear no proportion whatever +to the amount of suffering in the world. Slight but painful illnesses +rarely have any beneficent effect on character; very frequently the +reverse. Any large city, at any given moment, is racked with pains which +do but give rise to curses, or a polite equivalent. Most of the +irritation and perversion of character is due to morbid influences. And +for every case in which a long illness issues in some signal advance of +character, a hundred others could be quoted in which the illness was an +unmitigated calamity. So it is with bereavement and with adversity of +fortune. Look honestly into the experience of any class of the +community, and ask in what _proportion_ of cases narrowness of means, +especially after comfort, brings a "spiritual advantage." + +So it is above all with this war. Any man who thinks that the awful +perversion of the character of a great European people, the death of +such vast numbers in such painful circumstances, the ruin of further +millions, and all the innumerable ugly results of a great war, were +worth bringing about in order to secure a few spiritual advantages has +neither sense of proportion nor sense of decency nor sense of humour. +The theory would be too repulsive if it were put in this plain form, and +it is more usual merely to point out these good results and hint that +war is not absolutely and in every respect an evil. As if any person +ever said that it was. The point is simple, and ought not to be +obscured. A few incidental advantages do not reconcile us to this +colossal misery, suffering, and waste, and do not in the slightest +degree alleviate the position of the man who thinks that God directed +human events to this awful consummation. If an earthly ruler employed +such agencies to educate his subjects, with such an extraordinary +disproportion between the suffering inflicted and the results attained, +what should we think of him? + +The parallel reminds us that of infinite wisdom we expect infinitely +more than of a human ruler. Once unintelligent nature had a crude, +wasteful, hard method of producing new and higher types of life. Man, +having intelligence, produces the same result without waste or +suffering. We expect immeasurably higher procedure of such an +intelligence as Christians ascribe to God. One can understand the man +who says that the plan of such an intelligence might be beyond human +ken, but I am discussing the opinions of people who contend that they +bring it within human ken. In fact, there is no need here to remind us +of the mysteriousness of the ways of an infinite intelligence. If the +war was designed for certain practical uses, such as those we have had +suggested by various divines, one may reply at once that a more brutal +and unjust way of attaining those ends could not have been devised. It +is almost impossible to conceive any man seriously entertaining the +notion. Yet all the jubilation and thanksgiving that will follow the +war, all the supplication that accompanies its fortunes to-day, and the +whole teaching of Christian theology, imply that God did direct the +political movements and military ambitions which have culminated in the +war. Even a human statesman could have devised a less terrible method of +attaining any end that has yet been conceived for the war. The idea of +the war as a punishment is quite logical and intelligible, though five +hundred years out of date. But the idea of the war as a medicinal or an +educative process has neither logic nor intelligibility, and does not +even attain that consistency with modern ethical sentiments which it +seeks. The colossal amount of suffering inflicted on innocent people and +on children puts it entirely out of court. + +Thirdly, this theory, as I said, raises the question whether the end +justifies the means. Here we have another illustration of the way in +which Christian dogma keeps the Christian conscience in many matters +behind the ethical sentiment of the age. Many liberal divines would +express genuine repugnance at Archbishop Carr's view of the war; yet +some of the most liberal of these divines and laymen are almost as +backward in another direction. They justify the world-process through +which we are struggling on the ground that it will, we hope, issue in a +nobler order of things: of the war, in particular, that hope is +entertained, and to the war, accordingly, this theory of justification +is applied. That is a case of the end justifying the means. Christian +thinkers are advancing so rapidly and erratically that in some cases we +are not clear whether the writer does or does not regard God as infinite +in power and intelligence. We may ignore these few cases. The vast +majority emphatically hold that view. In their regard we can say only +what has been said a hundred times. Whether you speak of the +world-process in general or any particular cruel phase of it, such as +this war, you maintain that God chose, out of many conceivable ways, the +one way that is marked by cruelty and suffering. An infinite God is not +so confined in the choice of means. And just as we say of the +world-process in general, that to build the sunnier lives of a remote +generation on the sufferings of this and earlier generations implies a +grave injustice to _us_, so we must say of the war. No spiritual +advantages to those who survive will reconcile us to the suffering and +the loss of those who fell in the tragic combat. I speak impersonally. +It happens that I have no near relatives of military age, and neither I +nor any near relative is likely to suffer by the war. But when I brood +over the agony of the less fortunate millions, over the harrowing +experience of Belgians, Poles, and Serbs, over the whole ghastly orgy of +blood and tears in Europe, I feel unutterable disdain of these paltry +efforts to justify the ways of God to man. + +Let us look a little deeper into the matter. No doubt the plain +statement that God "sent" or caused this war will excite a certain +repugnance in many Christian minds. They will prefer to say that God +"permitted" it. Man has "free will," and it is the plan of providence to +give a certain play to this free will. When man has bruised his +shins--more frequently the shins of other people--God may, on being +supplicated sufficiently, issue his veto and put matters right. I am +quite acquainted, from a severe theological education, with the more +learned language in which this theory is expressed by theologians, but +I prefer to deal with it as it exists in the words of most preachers +and the minds of most Christians. + +It would be impossible here to deal at any length with the doctrine of +free will. Unless you conceive it in some novel and irrelevant sense, as +Professor Bergson does, it is a very much disputed thing amongst the +experts whose business it is to inform us on the subject--our +psychologists. The majority of modern psychologists seem to reject it +altogether. On the other hand, no theologian has ever yet reconciled it +in any intelligible scheme with the supposed omnipotence of God. But it +is not necessary to enter into these abstruse considerations. Let us +take the matter in the concrete. + +We look back to-day on a long series of processes and circumstances +which culminate in the war. There is the whole history of Germany for a +hundred and fifty years inspiring the German people with a bias toward +aggressive war; there are the economic and geographical circumstances +which, at the end of the nineteenth century, begin to make it think +again of aggressive war; there is the overflowing population, bred by +order of the clergy who stupidly condemn an artificial restriction of +births; there is the coincident trouble of Austria with the Slavs, of +England with its subject peoples, and so on. In the eyes of the careful +student a hundred lines of circumstance and development have led to this +war. The melodramatic idea that it all springs from the free will of the +Kaiser, or of a group of soldiers and statesmen, need not be seriously +considered. Moreover, even when we introduce the personal element--and +the personality of the Kaiser has had a very considerable influence--it +is foolish to throw the whole burden on free will. The mood and outlook +and ambition of the Kaiser take their colour from his notoriously morbid +nervous frame. In a word, you have a mighty concurrence of movements, +whether acts of will or otherwise, converging in all parts of Europe +toward this war. Was God indifferent to the whole of those movements? + +Those movements are particularly traceable in Europe during the last +fourteen years. Before that there was a similar concurrence of movements +eventuating in the South African War; and in the meantime a series of +processes and circumstances had given us the Russo-Japanese War and the +Balkan-Turkish War and the Mexican War. So we might go over the wars of +the nineteenth century and all earlier wars. The "permissiveness" or +indifference of the ruler of the universe grows amazingly. In the +meantime we had mighty catastrophes like the sinking of the _Titanic_ +and other ships, the earthquakes at Messina and elsewhere, famines and +epidemics and floods in various places, and great numbers of murders, +railway and other accidents, etc. We begin to ask _where_ the ruling of +the universe comes in at all, and, as far as human events go, all that +we can gather in the way of reply is that sometimes individuals who pray +very fervently get their diseases healed or their coffers filled; and +even these claims do not pass rational inquiry. + +Now here is the precise difficulty of the unbeliever, and this present +tragedy makes it acute. We ask our neighbour, or seek in some learned +theological treatise, what are the indications of this government of the +universe, and we are told about the making of stars and the decoration +of flowers and the putting of instincts into animals or pretty patterns +on their skins. But when we point out that the really important thing +in our part of the universe is this human life of ours, imperfectly +protected as yet against disease and malice (which is largely disease) +and natural forces, the theologian has no clear evidence to produce. +Even the evidence he draws from stars and flowers and peacocks' tails +and sunsets, with which he is, as a rule, very imperfectly acquainted, +is, of course, heatedly disputed, and the proper authorities on these +subjects are, on the whole, not well disposed toward his interpretation. +But we need not consider that here. Where we should most logically +expect the hand of Providence is in the human order, because in that +order catastrophe is infinitely more important, in view of man's +capacity for pain. Yet it is precisely in regard to this order that the +theologian is vaguest and least satisfactory. He talks grandly of God +moving every atom in the universe, counting the hairs of our heads, +numbering (but not preventing) the fall of the sparrows, and so on; but +when we ask for the evidence of God's concern with contemporary human +events he is very vague if they are good events, and, if they are evil, +he hastily disclaims any interference of the Deity. Some of our more +advanced theologians are claiming that the finest improvement they have +made in their science is to have brought God from _without_ the universe +(where no theologian had ever put him) and make him _immanent_ in it. +But they seem just as incapable as the others to trace his interposition +in human events. + +Theologians still maintain a valiant and stubborn fight against +scientific men, but they do not fight historians. They are very keen on +maintaining the influence of God over atoms and stars and roses and +birds, but not half so keen to vindicate it in the life of man. The +story of the world, _our_ world, may be divided into three chapters: a +chapter describing the moulding of the globe and the rocks, a chapter +describing the slow evolution of the plants and animals, and a chapter +describing the antics and fortunes of man. Some may surrender the first +chapter to science, some the second chapter, but it looks as if they all +surrender the third. They have long been accustomed to surrender the +early part, and very much the longer and more laborious part, of man's +story to natural forces, or the devil. Then there was a melodramatic +notion that God, after the lapse of hundreds of thousands of years, +began to take an interest in one very small people and kept revealing +things to it, and smiting its enemies, until Christianity was given to +the world. History tells the story in a totally different way. We find +the stream of moral and religious evolution flowing steadily on nineteen +hundred years ago, much as we do to-day. At this point, of course, the +theologian does make a struggle with the historian. In proportion to the +imperfectness of his culture and the backwardness and conservatism of +his Church, he fights for miraculous interpositions in human events +nineteen hundred years ago. But we need not delay to examine that +difference of opinion, because the later period suffices for my purpose. + +A few theologians, not well acquainted with history, see another +miraculous interposition in the fourth century, when Christianity was +established; and the Roman Catholic--in the intellectual rear, as +usual--believes in hundreds of miraculous interpositions, in small +matters, as late as the year 1914. But in order to take a broad view of +the matter we may leave these controversies with the more reactionary on +one side. The history of Europe for the last fifteen centuries at least +is now entrusted to able laymen, and it has been purged of divine +interpositions. Innumerable myths and legends, often based on what are +now acknowledged to be spurious documents, have been cast out of the +science, and we are presented with a quite continuous and purely natural +sequence of events. Religious historians like Bishop Creighton or Lord +Bryce do not find their periods broken by divine interpositions; the +writers of the Cambridge History do not occasionally arrest us before +some great event and warn us that the chain of human causation seems to +be obscure or discontinuous. There are, of course, problems of history, +but they are not obscurities which, like the obscure places in science, +tempt the theologian to enter and claim a divine interposition. The +story is from beginning to end--to use Nietzsche's phrase--"human, all +too human." On the whole, as it has been hitherto written, it is a story +of wars, and, though patriotic piety puts its gloss on the issue of a +war here and there, the historian does not find any serious problem in +them. No French historian will now claim divine action in the Napoleonic +wars, and assuredly few of us are prepared to see the finger of God in +the fortunate issue of Prussia's many campaigns since Frederick the +Great. + +Whatever we may think of the cosmic process generally, the human part of +that process does not encourage a theological interpretation. Man is +working out his own destiny, and doing it ill. We see him, like some +pedlar plodding along a country road under his burdens, carrying through +whole centuries institutions and ideas and follies that he will +eventually shed. When he drops them, there is no more element of +miracle or revelation in his action than when he discovers the use of +steam or of aluminium or of the spectroscope. His mind expands and his +ideals rise. It is a little incongruous to suppose that some infinitely +wiser and affectionate parent was looking on all the time and giving no +assistance. In the dialogue between Mephistopheles and God which Goethe +prefixes to his _Faust_, the devil obviously scores. In the sight of +such an intelligence man must have made a pretty fool of himself during +the last 1500 years. We human beings are more charitable. Take the whole +story as the gradual development of human intelligence and emotion under +unfavourable political conditions, hampered by a despotic and perverse +clergy, and it seems natural enough. + +This is the impression one gets from history, and the nearer history is +to our own time and the better we know it, the less it suggests a divine +guidance. There is something parochial or rural about the average +Christian way of looking at events. One day the German Christian goes to +church to thank God for driving the Russians out of East Prussia; the +next day the English Christian thanks the same God for killing or +wounding 20,000 Germans at Neuve Chapelle--with the help of 350 guns. +Yet such things as these are the only claims we have offered to us of +the action of God in human events. Neither the steps that man takes +onward nor the steps that he takes backward are ascribed to divine +influence. All that is claimed is that when a ship goes down, for +instance, he saves the saved, and "permits" the rest to be drowned; when +a war has been raging for a few months by his "permission," he puts a +stop to it when one army is worn out. The unbeliever is really entitled +to a good deal of sympathy for his inability to follow this tortuous +reasoning with confidence. One cannot entirely blame him for being more +interested in the heart of man than in the petals of a rose. + +These considerations are, of course, not novel. I am only applying to +this special case of the war a difficulty that has been discussed in all +ages, and has been acutely felt by very able religious thinkers. How a +group of bishops can sit down to write, in very deliberate and elegant +language, that such a calamity as this makes the soul more sensible of +"the approach of Christ" is one of the many little mysteries of the +clerical mind. It has precisely the opposite effect in any logical mind. +When the way of life is smooth, and our nation or home is prospering, we +may be genially disposed to think that God is near and is looking after +us as well as the sparrows. But when a black storm bursts suddenly and +disastrously on us; when the earth shakes their roofs on ten thousand of +our fellows, or a great ship strikes a rock and pours a laughing crowd +suddenly into the lap of death; when vast provinces are laid desolate by +war, and we see the tens of thousands clasping the hand of their loved +ones for the last time, it seems rather uncanny that this should suggest +to any person the approach of Christ. To very many people it is a +confirmation of the general impression they get from the world-process +and the story of man: that these great forces deploy and interlace and +build up and destroy without the slightest intervention from without. + +In our time, we must remember, this difficulty had already been +enormously increased. St. Augustine, who felt the problem acutely in the +prime of his intelligence, had really a very much lighter task than the +modern divine. He had merely to suggest why evil was permitted in the +narrow world he knew; and he had the great advantage of being able to +appeal to a primitive sin and primitive punishment of the race. The +problem became more serious when original sin, or at least the notion +that the race might justly be damned for one man's fault, was abandoned. +It became graver still when science discovered the tombs of inhabitants +of this globe who had lived during millions of earlier years, and showed +that the very law of their life and progress was struggle against evil. +Every attempt to minimise the struggle of those earlier ages has failed. +At a time when there was no possibility of "spiritual advantage" there +was acute consciousness of pain, the struggle and suffering were +prodigious. Theistic literature of the last half century, growing more +weary and more wistful in each decade, reflects the increasing +difficulty. If any man can see in this war a relief of the difficulty, +and not an appalling accentuation and illustration of it, he must be +gifted with a peculiar type of mind and emotion. It is more probable +that an increasing number will conclude that, if God is indifferent to +these things, they will be indifferent to him. Professor William James, +in his _Varieties of Religious Experience_, declared that the only gods +the men of the new generation would recognise would be gods of some use +to them. The war does not encourage the chances of the Christian God. + +A few modern religious thinkers seem to imagine that they have found +some relief by devising the formula that God's plan is to "co-operate +with man," and in those modern advances which I have freely admitted +they see indications of this co-operation. This new formula is not a +whit better than the other phrases which have, at various stages, been +regarded by religions people as profound thoughts. In the recent history +of moral progress we have, as a rule, a minority of high-minded men and +women struggling to impress their sentiments on the inert majority. The +new theologian is not daunted in the application of his theory by the +fact that a large proportion of these pioneers did not believe in God at +all, so I will not discuss that aspect; though no doubt the plain man +will find it interesting to trace how, in the earlier and more difficult +days of modern humanism, so few of the reformers were Christian +ministers and so many Rationalists. From the historical point of view, +however, we find this line of development quite intelligible. We find, +for instance, Robert Owen (a great Rationalist) advocating the +substitution of arbitration for war nearly a century ago, and we +discover the earlier sources of Owen's enthusiasm in English Radicals +like Godwin, who were affected by the early French Revolutionaries, who +had been influenced by Rousseau, and so on. It is a quite natural +evolution of ideas, as they find a congenial soil in each generation in +certain types of temperament. But where are the traces or what was the +nature of God's co-operation with these men? Looking to their generally +heterodox character and the hostility of the Churches to them, the idea +is not without humour; but, even if we reconcile ourselves to this +peculiar feature, anything in the nature of positive evidence of divine +action is wholly lacking, and we can understand the whole process +without it. The theory is merely a desperate and unfounded assertion of +men who are determined that God shall not be left out. + +There is a further grave difficulty. One would imagine that the kind of +paternal affection which is ascribed to God would have induced him to +intervene at an earlier stage. The kind of father who co-operates with +the more gifted and ambitious of his children, and does nothing for the +less gifted and sluggish, is a narrow-minded and narrow-hearted man. +Affection turns rather to those who cannot help themselves, or who need +judicious and constant inspiration. This view we are considering is even +less flattering to God, because the aspiring children of the nineteenth +and twentieth centuries seem able to dispense with his co-operation, +while the ignorant and priest-ridden children of earlier ages could do +little of themselves. The theologians who have found this new formula +are of the more liberal school. They do not attribute all the blunders +and crimes and failures of the Middle Ages to free will, to a sheer and +deliberate obstinacy in clinging to evil. They realise the overpowering +nature of the environment and the drastic discouragement by the clergy +of anything like novelty or initiative in ethics. It was then that man +needed God, if there is a God. But, on this theory, God argued with the +academic wisdom of a medieval theologian; he concluded that medieval men +were quite capable of originating modern ideas, and he would not +co-operate until they did. The theory is preposterous in every respect. + +Finally, we have the very large class of candid or of hopelessly puzzled +Christians who give up the matter as a mystery. They do not understand +how this ruling of the universe which they seem to see clearly in stars +and flowers should become so obscure or disappear altogether in the +human order. They realise that, if this war were an isolated +occurrence, they might imagine God holding his hand for a season, for +some reason unknown to us; but they know that it is not an isolated +occurrence: it is part of the human order of things. It has been +preceded by other wars at intervals of every few years, and war itself +is only one of a series of catastrophes and calamities that splash the +human chronicle with innocent blood. They give it up, sorrowfully, and +find a thin consolation in learned formulæ about the impossibility of a +finite mind understanding an infinite mind, and so on: which give, as I +say, thin consolation, for one may at least see that an infinite +benevolence ought not to act worse than a moderate human benevolence. + +Now if there were any very strong evidence of divine ruling outside the +human order, we might find a certain amount of logic in this position. +The mystery of a God who moves the stars and inspires the bees, yet +leaves man to his own unhappy impulses (after putting those impulses in +him), would be, one imagines, painful enough; but if there were +irresistible evidence that God does move the stars and quicken the bird +and beast, we might be compelled to reconcile ourselves to that unhappy +dilemma. There is, however, no such irresistible evidence. This is not +the place to examine such evidence as is adduced. I must be content to +recall the fact that it is all highly controverted; that theologians +tear to pieces each other's "proofs" of the existence of God; and that a +large and increasing body of cultivated men and women discard the +evidence entirely. So that, in the last resort, the situation is this: +on the one hand we have a number of very disputable suggestions, which +are growing fainter in proportion as science investigates these matters, +of divine action in stars and rocks and reptiles, and on the other hand +we have a stupendous mass of suffering, starting millions of years ago +at the very birth of consciousness and piled up mountains high in this +year 1915, which no thinker has ever yet reconciled with the notion of a +divine ruling of the life of man. This is a very grave and plain +situation, and if the clergy have nothing more to say about it than to +borrow from an ancient Hebrew certain offensive gibes at the unbeliever, +or to offer us the kind of apologies we examined in the last chapter, +one must conclude that they do not realise the situation. The war has +terribly accentuated the most terrible difficulty they ever had to face. +Whether there is intelligence manifested in nature is, after all, an +academic question which does not profoundly stir the modern world. +Whether there is benevolence, a moral personality, reflected in the +course of man's history is the much more important question. And this +appalling calamity will induce many to take a more candid view of the +world-process and conclude that, as far as the critical eye can see, +man's world seems to be left entirely to his own efforts, to his own +crimes and blunders and aspirations. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE HUMAN ALTERNATIVE + + +If the observations I have made in the preceding chapters are even +approximately just, the hope which many of the clergy express, that +there will be a religious revival at the close of the war, is very +singular. No doubt it means, on the whole, that some advantage to +religion will be sought in the flood of genial and generous emotion +which will surge through the country. In Germany and Austria, one +imagines, religion will have a rough experience. The people who wrote +and repeated constantly, "Gott strafe England"--which, by the way, is +another proof that the general German attitude is theological rather +than humanist--will have a few serious questions to put to the clergy, +as well as to their secular rulers. In France, despite the reports of +interested people, there will be little change. The nation, being +overwhelmingly Rationalistic, relied on its 75-centimetre guns rather +than on prayer, and will find its wisdom justified. But in England and +Russia, and in the backward Slav countries, there will be mighty +flag-waving in Church, and no doubt a great number of not very +thoughtful people will conclude that the clergy and the Y.M.C.A. and the +Salvation Army have behaved very nicely over the whole affair, and there +will be, for a time, an increased attendance at church. + +We may suppose that this emotional storm will not last long, and the +nation will settle down to face the bill, the empty chairs at home, and +the disorganisation of its industries. Then will arise the questions I +have been endeavouring to answer in this little book. The clergy behaved +very well during the war, short of volunteering in any conspicuous +number for active service; but what is the sense of this lofty message +of "peace on earth and good-will among men" which never produces any +result? The Churches are fairly eager to join in the work of peace now +that it is being promoted by large associations of laymen; but where, in +the name of heaven, were they during these "ages of faith" which they +bemoan? God may conceivably have been at work somewhere among the +batteries or the infantry of the Allies--it is so very difficult to +analyse these things--but we should be infinitely more grateful if he +had asserted his power earlier and spared us all the bloodshed. He may +be a very stern schoolmaster, teaching us a valuable lesson by means of +this war; but we were really quite open to conviction if he had sent us +the lesson in a more humane form. A great many good people may have +derived spiritual advantages from the war, but the price was stupendous, +and we would rather they got their spiritual advantages in another way. + +These questions and reflections must surely arise, and they will lead to +larger reflections. Men will perceive the antithesis I pointed out +between all that is claimed for Christianity in Europe and the actual +condition of Europe; between the supposed luminous traces of the finger +of God in the non-human world and the complete absence of them from the +human world. From the samples of clerical eloquence which we have +examined, we can hardly suppose that the clergy will have great success +in meeting the inquirers. An enormous proportion of their followers, of +course, will not ask questions, or will be satisfied with anything in +the nature of an answer. I heard a group of men discussing the subject +in a rural ale-house, and the most intelligent man in the group, to +whom, as an educated visitor, the natives looked up with respect, said: +"War is God's way of purifying and bracing nations from time to time." +This sort of stuff pacifies hundreds of thousands: like the stuff that +Archbishop Carr found it possible to put before his Australian +Catholics. But inquiry and reflection grow among the adherents of the +Churches, and, although the Press generally refuses to bring books of +this character to the notice of the public, and clergymen often stoop to +the most despicable means to exclude them from bookstalls and shops, +they seem to find a fairly large public to-day. Thinking is as needful +an exercise for the mind as work is for the body, and the only plausible +ground on which you can seek to suppress thinking about Christianity is +the fear that it will not be good for Christianity. + +Then we shall have the next and inevitable question: What would you put +in the place of Christianity? Young men in various parts of the country +hurl that question at one as if it were really very serious, putting an +end to all dispute. Any person who is quite candid and sincere about +these matters can find the material for an answer easily enough. Take +France. Forty years ago the nation was overwhelmingly Christian; to-day +it is overwhelmingly non-Christian. It has not put anything in the place +of Christianity, and has prospered remarkably. There is a legacy of what +is called vice which comes down from earlier religious times, but any +person who cares to examine criminal and other statistics, the only +positive tests of a nation's health, will find that France has been +extraordinarily successful without Christianity and without putting +anything in its place. There are, it is true, moral lessons in its +schools, but I would not claim that they are much responsible: the +system is imperfect, and the teachers not well equipped. Take our ally +Japan. The moral discipline of the nation, which, in spite of some +recent deterioration through Western influence, is admirable, does not +rest on religious foundations. Take London or any metropolis of modern +Europe. The bulk of the people have ceased to receive any influence from +the representatives of Christianity, yet there has been moral progress +instead of deterioration. Those who speak of degeneration in London or +Paris do not accurately know and estimate the state of those cities in +more religious times. + +This experience might be enlarged indefinitely, but one or two instances +will suffice for my purpose. The soundness of these instances which I +quote I have established elsewhere, and the general truth to which I +refer may be sufficiently gathered from the words of the clergy +themselves. The rhetorical way in which they characterise our times is +more or less typical of the carelessness of their judgments and the +strength of their prejudices. One group of clerical writers, which +generally includes the reigning Pope, speak in the darkest terms of our +age and suggest that a sensible degeneration has followed the decrease +of the influence of the Churches. Another group, considering the +remarkable spread of idealism in our generation, the growing demand for +peace, justice, and sobriety, claim that this moral progress, which they +cannot deny, is due to some tardy recognition of the spirit of Christ: +a strange contention, seeing that our age is less and less willing to +hear the words of Christ and ascribes its sentiments to entirely +different inspiration. Hence there are a few who frankly admit that the +idealism of modern times is to them a rebuke and a mystery. One of these +more sensitive religious writers once confessed to me that the fact that +the times became better while the influence of Christianity grew less +was to him a perplexing truth. + +The really honest social student, who does not measure his age by his +prejudices, but fashions his theories according to the carefully +ascertained facts, will try to discover the causes of this phenomenon. +In those wide and varied areas where it is observed, we cannot say that +anything has taken the place of Christianity. The Press sometimes +flatters itself that it has taken the place of the pulpit, but opinions +will differ in regard to its efficacy as a moral agency. On the whole, +it is too apt to reflect the moral sentiments of the more reactionary, +who are generally the most self-assertive, and it has no moral, as +distinct from political, leadership. Then there are Ethical and kindred +societies which hold "services" of a humanitarian character, and are to +many people a substitute for the Christian Churches. Their influence is, +however, restricted to a few thousand people in the whole country, and +signs are not wanting that their usefulness will be only transitory. The +experience of any careful observer is that the mass of people who cease +to attend church desire and need no substitute whatever for +Christianity. The Rationalist literature which many of them read is, as +a rule, of a high idealist character; but here again the influence is +very restricted. No organised influence is at work to any great extent +as a successor to Christianity, yet it is indubitable that, as Christian +influence wanes, the temper of the age improves. + +This improvement must have an adequate cause, and it would be merely +another form of crude social reasoning and of sectarian prejudice to +say, in the rich language of the older anti-clericals, that breaking +"the fetters of superstition and priestcraft" led of itself to such a +result. But this sanguine rhetoric does contain or obscure a certain +truth. In plain human language, when you prevent a man from relying on +the old traditional inspirations, he may for a time be tempted to act +without inspiration. In the matter of his dealings with his fellows it +is an undeniable fact that, on the whole, he has not been thus tempted. +It is absurd to heap up all the contemporary instances of corruption in +trade and politics, looseness in domestic life, and so on, unless you +make a similar study of the vices and crimes of an earlier and more +Christian generation, and carefully compare the two. It is not a +question whether there is evil in our generation; it is a question +whether there is more or less evil than in earlier generations. I must +be pardoned for reiterating this, because, although this comparison is +essential for forming an accurate judgment on the moral effect of the +decay of Christianity, it is rarely instituted with the least pretence +of rigour. I have sufficiently studied it in earlier works (especially +_The Bible in Europe_), and will not repeat the facts. Cotter Morison, +whom I quoted on an early page, was wrong in his expectation. The change +from Christian to humanist inspiration is taking place without disorder +and with increasing advantage. + +The solution of this apparent problem is really not obscure. If the +genuine basis of human conduct needed an elaborate search--if it had to +be revealed by a Deity or laboriously established by moral theologians +or moral philosophers--no doubt the age of transition would be an age of +disorder, and a very comprehensive educational organisation would be +needed. But the true basis of human conduct is simple. There are, of +course, Rationalists who feel that some very abstruse "science of +ethics" has to be constructed as the solid foundation of conduct; but +this has as little relation to the conduct of ordinary men as the +learned pedants of the science of prosody have to ordinary speakers of +prose. Experience is the real base and guide of conduct, and it forces +itself on every man and woman, even on the child. "Do unto others as you +would that they should do unto you" is the first principle of morals; +and to inculcate it you need neither the thunders of Jupiter nor the +impressive abstractions of a science of ethics: nor do you need any +moral genius or philosophical skill to discover it. It is a rule of life +that suggests itself spontaneously. It is a natural and prompt +expression of the fact that our life is social: our acts have the +closest relation to others besides ourselves. Now and again, perhaps, a +man is tempted to assert his own personality, or seek his own +gratification, in such a way as to ignore his fellows; but he is usually +arrested before long by the simple experience that he himself suffers +from the actions of others just as they may suffer from his conduct. It +is a lesson of life which one needs no power of analysis to learn. + +And the chief reason why the abandonment of the old doctrines is +proceeding without any moral degeneration is that this experience was +really always the basis of general morality. We need not question--it +would be absurd to question--that refined natures have received moral +aid from their belief in the presence of God, or in a desire to please +God by accepting the law of virtue as a declaration of his will; though +we must be equally candid in admitting that men and women of this nature +have not been observed to deteriorate when they sacrifice their +religious beliefs, as thousands of them have done. On the other hand, we +will hardly question that numbers of people of coarser nature have been +deterred from evil-doing by dread of supernatural punishment. It is, +however, notorious in the moral history of Europe that these religious +beliefs have been consistent with a vast amount of transgression of the +decalogue: more than we witness in any civilised country in our own +time. How, then, are we to discover what were the real springs of +conduct in the mass of ordinarily decent people? It seems to me that the +only accurate method is to avoid theories and consider people in the +flesh. Do our Christian friends--did we ourselves in Christian +days--refrain from lying, dishonesty, injustice, cruelty, and injury, +solely or mainly because God forbids them or will punish them? I have +not met the man, except in the imaginative pages of religious +controversy, who confessed that he would stoop freely to these things if +there were no Christian prohibition. The mainspring of ordinary decent +conduct in any educated community has always been a perception of its +human and social value. + +The only line of the decalogue about which there is likely to be any +dispute in this regard is that putting restraint on sexual relations. I +have not to consider here a subject so remote from my immediate +interest, and will observe only that any act which hurts either an +individual or the social interest will as plainly come under a +humanitarian law as the practice of lying: acts which inflict no injury +and have been forbidden only on mystic grounds are not likely to remain +on the moral code of the future. But I am concerned here with a definite +issue, and need discuss general morality only in so far as that issue is +affected. + +Here, at least, the way of the humanitarian is plain. Sermons on the +brotherhood of men under the fatherhood of God have been totally +ineffective to prevent war and abolish militarism. There is something +incongruous in the introduction into a modern peace-meeting of some +clerical speaker who talks unctuously about the great promise and +precept of Christianity. The meeting itself, being held nineteen +centuries after the promise was made, is a sufficient indication of its +futility. No progress was made or seriously attempted in the work of +peace until a genuine human passion was substituted for that empty +phraseology. The brotherhood of men was, in the Christian sense of that +phrase, too abstruse and precarious a conclusion to be of use in such a +struggle. The plain fact is that it was of no use, and is of no use +to-day. There is, indeed, reason to think that we should make more +progress if we entirely discarded figures of speech like "the +brotherhood of men." The fact that we are all children of God, or +children of Eve, or children of some Tertiary anthropoid, does not very +obviously impose on us the duty not to take up arms in an international +quarrel. + +The ultimate basis of morality is, as Schopenhauer said, sympathy, +though in an advanced social order this sentiment approves itself to +the intellect, and its requirements may be precisely formulated by +reason. One is not sure whether there will not be more morality in the +world when the word "morality," with all its mystic entanglements, is +discarded, and we speak plainly of social law. Violence, the infliction +of pain and injustice, is one of the most obvious infractions of social +law, quite apart from any religious commandments. Its social evil is so +obvious that the community has, at an early date in its development, +elaborated a special machinery for restraining it, and has imposed +penalties in this world, whatever it thinks about the next. There may be +questions raised, and one can understand people who are confined to a +religious environment feeling a genuine concern, about other sections of +moral law; but it would be obviously absurd to think that a humanitarian +ethic would fail here. There have been attempts in modern times to +question the validity of ethical law altogether. In so far as this +movement aims at stripping moral law of its mysticism and fearlessly +investigating its traditional content, it is admirable and will grow; +but in so far as these moral rebels would resent restraint of any kind, +and pronounce the freedom of every individual impulse, they seem to +overlook a factor of great importance--the impulse of retaliation. A +pretty state of society we should have if such a theory were generally, +or largely, carried into practice. + +But these are academic vagaries, like those of the mystic or the moral +theologian. Whatever be the future fortune of Christian legends, men are +not likely to sacrifice the peace and security of social life to such +theories of freedom any more than they are likely to expose property to +a general scramble. The instinct of sympathy is now growing deeper in +every century. Most of the great improvements of social life (in its +widest sense) during the nineteenth century, which we have inherited, +were due to that development of sympathy. It matters not whether the +reformer was Christian or non-Christian--Elizabeth Fry and Florence +Nightingale or Robert Owen and John Stuart Mill--the impulse was +sympathy with suffering fellow-humans. All the hope of improvement in +the twentieth century looks to a continued growth of that sentiment. It +becomes a veritable passion in certain natures, as long as there are +large and cruel evils to redress; and this passion of a few leading +spirits, communicating something of its fire to the colder mass, is the +great cause of progress. Surely that is the correct interpretation of +the progressive life of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries? Men +realised that to cultivate sympathy because it was enjoined by religion +was a more or less mercantile procedure: it was worth cultivating for +its own sake. + +Here we have the reply to those who, unfamiliar with any but their own +religious environment, ask what place there will be for sympathy in an +intellectual or nationalistic age. It is a very grave error to suppose +either that our age is becoming less emotional or that Rationalism has +no place for emotions. In pursuing its task during the nineteenth +century Rationalism was an intensely emotional movement. Mr G. K. +Chesterton, in his _Victorian Age in Literature_, speaks of J. S. Mill's +"hard rationalism in religion" and "hard egoism in ethics." Like very +many other statements in that lamentable book, these are inexplicably +unjust. Mill was so far from being "hard" in religion that he ended his +days in a kind of sentimental theism; he was so far from being a "hard +egoist" in ethics that he declared that he would burn in hell for ever +rather than lie at the supposed bidding of a Deity. Robert Ingersoll, +the most popular Rationalist of that age, was--I judge from his private +letters, not his ornate speeches--a man of the most tender and fine +sentiment. It is simply ludicrous to suppose that, because we do not +admit emotion to be a test of the accuracy of statements of fact (as all +religious dogmas claim to be), we do not find any room for emotion in +life. Is the whole of man's life an affirmation about reality or +criticism of such affirmation? This supposed "hardness"--I detest these +vague phrases, but one knows what is meant--of the Rationalist temper is +one of the strangest myths the clergy have invented. + +Reason not merely approves, but enjoins, the cultivation of sentiment. +When the sentiment in question is one that shows a power of transforming +life and impelling men to struggle against pain and evil, reason +applauds it as one of the most valuable forces we can cultivate. Such, +plainly, is the sentiment of sympathy. We look back to-day with horror +on the industrial and social condition of England in the earlier part of +the nineteenth century: the burdened lives and few gross pleasures of +the workers, the horrible cellar-homes of the poor, the ghastly +treatment of child-workers, the stupid and brutal herding of criminals, +the tragedies of asylums and workhouses, the fearful political +corruption and despotism, the subjection of women, the revolting +proportions of the birth-rate and death-rate. We have still much to do +to redeem our civilisation from medieval errors, but when one +contemplates the social revolution that human sympathy has brought about +in the life of England, one feels that this, and not the long-futile +teaching of Christianity, is the hope of the future. Christian preaching +of virtue has been individualistic. Even in our time the clergy hesitate +and are divided in face of social problems which plainly involve moral +principles. But the humanitarian ethic is essentially social, and this +passion of sympathy is its chief root. + +We wish, then, not to substitute any creed or organisation for +Christianity, but to sweep away these primitive or medieval speculations +about life, and let the human mind and human heart increasingly devote +themselves, directly, to human interests. In discussing the question of +peace and war, the application is obvious. We enclose or dispatch the +murderer, lest some fresh grave act of violence be perpetrated. We agree +that the violent and premature termination of a life is the most serious +transgression of social law that a man can perpetrate. Next to it we put +rape, mutilation, the destruction of a man's home or fortune; all acts, +in a word, that come nearest to it in threatening or causing the +greatest desolation. Yet we have suffered, age after age, that every few +years all these acts should be gathered into one mighty outrage and +showered upon whole populations. The time will come when men will read +with bewilderment the things that have been written about warfare in the +nineteenth, and even the twentieth, century. The men of clear judgment +and sound emotion of some coming age will see anguish rising, as vapour +does from some tropical sea, from our vast battle-fields. They will read +of Cats' Homes, and Anti-Vivisection Societies, and Homes of Rest for +Horses, and a hundred such institutions, and they will find contributors +to these institutions stirring not one finger when hundreds of thousands +of men writhe under hails of shrapnel, and crowds of homeless women and +children fly in terror before the unavoidable calamities or the +superfluous brutalities of war. They will see a generation shaken and +shuddering as the ghastly picture is daily unfolded before it, and they +will see that same generation in a few months grow dully indifferent to, +if not actively supporting, the military system which invariably brings +these horrors every few years upon the world. They will read of social +aspiration spreading through our civilisation, and statesmen regretting +that want of funds alone prevents them from remedying our social ills; +and they will read how Europe in one year wasted in butchery the +resources that might have renovated its disfigured civilisation, and the +next year complacently shouldered its military burden, its annual waste +of a thousand millions sterling, with the prospect of a costlier war +than ever. + +In face of this situation the question, What would you put in place of +Christianity? is a mere mockery. One can see some pertinence and use in +the question: How shall we induce the Christian Churches to employ their +still great resources in helping to bring on the reign of peace? But it +is not to them that we now look for redemption. It is to the +humanitarian spirit, the clearer reason, of our age. I have described +the situation in terms of emotion, because thus it spontaneously rises +before me; but it may be recorded in terms of pure reason. We maintain +in Europe a machinery for settling international quarrels which costs us +more than a thousand millions sterling annually, while we could erect at +a cost of a few thousands annually an efficient machinery for dealing +with those quarrels, and for a few millions we could add the machinery +for carrying out its decisions. We boast that our civilisation is +founded on justice; yet, of the two types of machinery for adjusting +quarrels, we retain the one that is the least possible adapted for +securing the triumph of justice and discard the one that is +pre-eminently fitted to secure it. We flatter ourselves that we rise +above the savage in enjoying security of life and property, and we +retain this system though we know that, periodically, it will invade +life and property on a scale that surpasses the experience of the savage +as much as a Dreadnought surpasses a canoe. + +It is just as easy to state our situation in terms of reason as in terms +of sentiment: it would not be easy to say in which guise it is ugliest. +Let us talk no more nonsense about needing religion to help us to get +rid of this atrocious nightmare. It drives both reason and sentiment to +the brink of insanity. Both protest against it with every particle of +their energy. Why Christianity failed to protest against it in fifteen +hundred years may or may not be obscure; but there is no obscurity +whatever about the probable effect on militarism and war of a +cultivation of reason and sympathy.[3] + +Many a reform has been actually retarded by the use of rhetoric. An +outpour of vehement language seems to release, both in the speaker and +in the assenting audience, a part of that energy which ought to issue in +action. It has been one of the grave blunders of the Churches that they +thought their function ended with the eloquent announcement that men +were brothers. We must be more practical. Now, while the imagination of +the world is filled with the horrors of war, and sympathy is ready to +fire us with a mighty energy, is one of the great opportunities of +peace. One may trust that, after this experience, the Churches will +awaken to the implications of their moral doctrine and set to work to +impress it emphatically and repeatedly, as a moral duty, on their +followers. It is, however, not impossible that, with all their +scoutmasters and chaplains and services of thanksgiving for victory, a +very large part of the clergy will find themselves so closely allied +with militarism when the war is over, so confused in their appreciation +of what it has done for us, that they will continue to mumble only +general principles and halting counsels. In any case, in the cities and +large towns of this kingdom, where are found the effective controllers +of our destiny, the majority do not any longer sit at the feet of the +clergy. Precise statistical observation has shown this. + +Let us remember that the one task before us is to inspire the _majority_ +in each civilised nation with a determination that the system shall end. +The only practical difficulty of considerable magnitude is the economic +difficulty: the disorganisation of the industrial world by suppressing +war-industries and large standing armies. It is, however, foolish to +regard this as an obstacle to disarmament, since--to put an extreme +case--it would be more profitable to a nation to maintain these men in +idleness than run the risk of another war. For disarmament itself what +is needed is that half a dozen, at least, of the great Powers shall +agree to submit _all_ quarrels to arbitration, and reduce their armies +to the proportions of an international police, at the service of the +international tribunal and for use (under its permit) against lower +peoples who turn aggressive. No one doubts that this can be done when +the Powers agree to do it. But for one reason or other, which I need not +discuss, the Governments will probably not do this until a majority of +the electorate indicate a resolute demand for it. The immediate task is +to secure this majority by education; and the work of education will be +best conducted by vast non-sectarian peace-organisations. The mixture of +futile Christian phraseology and genuine humanitarian interests in some +of these movements has been hitherto a grave disadvantage. The movement +has been compelled to split into sectarian branches, and has +proportionately lost efficacy. If the clergy insist on winning prestige +for themselves, or respect and recognition for their doctrines, by +acting in these bodies, they are again hampering the work of reform. A +great national agitation, linked with similar agitations in other lands, +avoiding Christian formulæ as well as anti-Christian reproaches, will +alone secure the object. + +I confess--with ardent hope that I may be wrong--that I expect no +immediate realisation of the reform. It may take years, even after the +grim lesson that militarism has given us, to inspire the majority of our +people with an unsleeping and irresistible demand, and the work will +grow more arduous as the memory of the hardships of the war fades. On +the day on which I write this I have listened to the conversation, in a +train, of a wealthy, refined, and cultivated Churchwoman. "I said to my +son when he set out," she observed, with a laugh, to her neighbour, +"that it was far better for him to get shot than to die of diphtheria or +something at home." If that sentiment, that obtuseness to the massive +horrors of war even when a son was involved, is widespread, the outlook +is dark. One fears that it is not very promising. + +The lady I quote would read these pages, if she could constrain herself +to do so, with a genuine shudder. Abandon Christianity! She would +volubly reel off the eloquent forecasts of the doom of society which she +has heard from a hundred pulpits. Meantime she is one of the gravest +obstacles (as a type of her class) to the removal from society of one of +its most crushing burdens and most criminal usages. To me her class +illustrates the limitations of Christianity, and it confirms me in the +belief that we shall make more rapid progress without it. She was a lady +of keen sympathies and of great activity for others: the kind of woman +who, as she would put it, practised her Christianity. Yet in face of +this mighty disorder she showed at once the failure of Christianity and +the reason of it. Her genuine human sympathy was directed by an ancient +and outworn code of duties. Where Christianity had delivered no clear +message, the expanding of her sympathy was barred. War was part of the +established order of things. She could even cheat her maternal sentiment +with thin fallacies, because they reconciled her to what the Church had +not condemned. She had never seen the vision of peace, never grasped the +comparatively easy alternative to war. + +This, in general terms, is what one means by the expectation that a +surrender of Christian doctrines will certainly not check the growth of +sympathy, and is more likely to promote it. It will direct itself +spontaneously to departments of suffering to which the Church had not +directed it. But we should be foolish to rely on this free growth and +spontaneous application of sympathy. It must be cultivated: our +generation must be educated to a sense of its value. As far as the child +is concerned, the need is plain. Children do not merely have veins of +cruelty; they have, as comparative psychology knows, the blood and +impulses of primitive man. The general impulse of a healthy boy is to +exact an eye for an eye: the impulse which it is the supreme care of a +modern State to curb in its citizens. To educate such children in +military history, whether of ancient Jews or medieval Englishmen or +modern Germans, is, as William II knows, the best means of maintaining +war. As to the New Testament, its language is not addressed to children, +its sentiments are often so obviously impracticable that it defeats the +end of education, and its precepts and counsels are so emphatically +based on a disputable reward in heaven that their ethic savours of a +risky commercial speculation. We must abandon "Bible lessons," and teach +children to be human. + +But for the work of education to end when the child leaves the school is +one of the crudities of our elementary civilisation. The human material +is just becoming fit for the efforts of the educator when the child +leaves school, yet from that moment we leave it to the casual and +largely pernicious influences of its environment. Some day, perhaps, our +education department will be more seriously concerned about the youth +and the adult than about impressing a few facts of history and geography +on the memory of the child: even if it did no more than organise and +direct the innumerable foundations and voluntary organisations which +actually exist, and bring them into living and practical contact with +our splendid museums and libraries and art-collections, a vast amount +could be done in the education of the adult. Meantime a persistent, +comprehensive, intensely earnest propaganda of peace is needed. Since I +wrote a little work on those lines in 1899 I have had fifteen years' +experience of preaching the gospel of peace, and know well how +convincing are its arguments and how little it has to overcome except +inertia. We need only to help the imagination of the mass of people; to +put clearly before them the comparative easiness and the incalculable +value of the change. Christianity has not tried and failed; it has not +even tried. It has wasted its resources in generalities which have +proved wholly futile. We must speak as men to men; and men will be more +open to conviction when we plead that, not the supposed commands of a +Galilean preacher of nineteen hundred years ago, but their own highest +and most sacred instincts, bid them lay down their arms and inaugurate +the age of international peace. + +[Footnote 1: _The Service of Man_ (_6d._ edition), p. 16.] + +[Footnote 2: As I write, the Press describes Canon Green of Burnley as +saying that "the war is a divine judgment on the world--England for the +last ten years has been God-forgetting, drunken, immoral."] + +[Footnote 3: Let me again guard myself against misrepresentation. Were I +of military age, I should to-day be in the trenches. The men who, as +long as the military system is retained, expose their lives in our +defence have my entire respect and gratitude. It is the system I +impugn.] + + +Printed by Watts & Co., Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, E.C. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR AND THE CHURCHES*** + + +******* This file should be named 18650-8.txt or 18650-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/5/18650 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The War and the Churches</p> +<p>Author: Joseph McCabe</p> +<p>Release Date: June 22, 2006 [eBook #18650]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR AND THE CHURCHES***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Irma Spehar<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net/</a>)<br /> + from page images generously made available by<br /> + Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries<br /> + (<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/toronto">http://www.archive.org/details/toronto</a>)</h3> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Note: + </td> + <td> + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See + <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/warandchurches00mccauoft"> + http://www.archive.org/details/warandchurches00mccauoft</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<h1>THE WAR AND THE CHURCHES</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>JOSEPH McCABE</h2> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p style="text-align: center;"><small>[ISSUED FOR THE RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION, LIMITED]</small></p> +<div style="text-align: center;"> + +<span class="smcap">London</span>:<br /> +WATTS & CO. <br /> +17 JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C. +<br /> +1915</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="WORKS_BY_THE_AUTHOR" id="WORKS_BY_THE_AUTHOR"></a>WORKS BY THE AUTHOR</h2> + + +<p> +<i>Modern Rationalism</i> (Watts), 2nd ed. 1/-<br /> + +<i>Peter Abelard</i> (Duckworth), 2nd ed. 3/6.<br /> + +<i>Saint Augustine and his Age</i> (Duckworth), 2nd ed. 3/6.<br /> + +<i>Twelve Years in a Monastery</i> (Smith Elder), 3rd ed. 6<i>d.</i> and 1/-<br /> + +<i>Life in a Modern Monastery</i> (Grant Richards). 6/-<br /> + +<i>Life and Letters of G. J. Holyoake</i> (Watts), 2 vols. £1/1/-<br /> + +<i>Talleyrand</i> (Hutchinson). 14/-<br /> + +<i>The Iron Cardinal</i> (Nash). 12/-<br /> + +<i>Goethe</i> (Nash). 15/-<br /> + +<i>A Candid History of the Jesuits</i> (Nash). 10/6.<br /> + +<i>The Evolution of Mind</i> (Black). 5/-<br /> + +<i>Evolution</i> (Twentieth Century Science Series). 1/-<br /> + +<i>Prehistoric Man</i> (Twentieth Century Science Series). 1/-<br /> + +<i>The Principles of Evolution</i> (The Nation's Library). 1/-<br /> + +<i>The Decay of the Church of Rome</i> (Methuen), 2nd ed. 7/6.<br /> + +<i>The Story of Evolution</i> (Hutchinson), 2nd ed. 7/6.<br /> + +<i>The Empresses of Rome</i> (Methuen). 12/6.<br /> + +<i>The Empresses of Constantinople</i> (Methuen). 12/6.<br /> + +<i>Church Discipline</i> (Duckworth). 3/6.<br /> + +<i>Can we Disarm?</i> (Heinemann). 2/6.<br /> + +<i>In the Shade of the Cloister</i> (pseudonymous—Constable). 6/-<br /> + +<i>The Bible in Europe</i> (Watts). 3/6.<br /> + +<i>The Religion of Woman</i> (Watts), 2nd ed. 6<i>d.</i><br /> + +<i>Woman in Political Evolution</i> (Watts). 6<i>d.</i><br /> + +<i>Haeckel's Critics Answered</i> (Watts), 2nd ed. 6<i>d.</i><br /> + +<i>From Rome to Rationalism</i> (Watts), 4th ed. 4<i>d.</i><br /> + +<i>The Origin of Life</i> (Watts). 1/-<br /> + +<i>Secular Education</i> (Watts), 2nd ed. 1/-<br /> + +<i>The Martyrdom of Ferrer</i> (Watts), 2nd ed. 6<i>d.</i><br /> + +<i>The Religion of the Twentieth Century</i> (Watts). 1/-<br /> + +<i>A Hundred Years of Education Controversy</i> (Watts). 3<i>d.</i><br /> + +<i>The Existence of God</i> (Watts). 9<i>d.</i><br /> + +<i>Shakespeare and Goethe</i> (Cole). 6<i>d.</i><br /> + +<i>George Bernard Shaw</i> (Kegan Paul). 7/6.<br /> + +<i>The Religion of Sir Oliver Lodge</i> (Watts). 2/-<br /> + +</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2> + + + +<p>The searching crisis through which the nation is passing must have the +effect of securing grave consideration for many aspects of our life and +institutions. We have already traversed the acute stage of suspense, and +are gradually becoming sensible of these wider considerations. It was +natural that for a prolonged period the disturbance of our economic +conditions, the anxiety for the safety of our nation in face of an +appalling menace, the personal concern of millions about the lives of +sons or brothers who have bravely responded to the call, should keep our +thoughts enchained to the daily or hourly fortunes of the field of +battle. Now that the initial disorder has been allayed and we have +attained a quiet and reasonable confidence in the issue, we turn to +other and broader aspects of this mighty event of our generation. How +comes it that the most enlightened century the world has yet seen should +be thus darkened by one of the bloodiest and most calamitous wars that +have ever spread their awful wings over the life of man? Where is all +the optimism of yesterday? Must we reconsider our reasoned boast that +our civilisation has lifted the life of man to a level hitherto +unattained? Is there something entirely and most mischievously wrong +with the foundations of modern civilisation?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span></p> + + +<p>A dozen such questions will press for an answer, but it will be granted +that one of the most urgent and most interesting of the many grave +considerations which the war suggests is its relation to the prevailing +creeds and standards of conduct. The war coincides with an advanced +stage of what is called the spread of unbelief. In each of the nations +of Europe which are engaged in this awful struggle complaints have been +made every year for the last two or three generations that Christianity +is losing its moral control of the white race. In the cities, especially +in the capitals, of Europe there has been a proved and acknowledged +decay of church-going; and, however much we may be disposed to think +that these millions who no longer attend church retain in their minds +the beliefs of their fathers, the slender circulation of religious +literature makes it plain that the vast majority of them do not, in +point of fact, receive either the spoken or written message of the +Christian Church. In the great cities—and it is undoubted that the life +of a nation is mainly controlled by its cities—there has been an +increasing reluctance to listen to the authoritative exponents of the +Christian gospel.</p> + + +<p>A number of the clergy have very naturally noticed and stressed this +coincidence. Prelates of high authority have, as we shall see, even +declared that the war is a scourge deliberately laid on the back of +mankind by the Almighty on account of this spreading infidelity. As a +rule, the clergy shrink from advocating a theory which has such grave +implications as this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> has, and they are content to submit the more +plausible suggestion, that the decay of the Christian standard of +conduct in the mind of a large proportion of our generation accounts for +this tragic combat of nations. A distinguished Positivist writer, Mr. J. +Cotter Morison, commenting in the last generation on the decay of +Christian belief, expressed some such concern in the following terms:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"It would be rash to expect that a transition, unprecedented for +its width and difficulty, from theology to positivism, from the +service of God to the service of Man, could be accomplished without +jeopardy. Signs are not wanting that the prevalent anarchy in +thought is leading to anarchy in morals. Numbers who have put off +belief in God have not put on belief in Humanity. A common and +lofty standard of duty is being trampled down in the fierce battle +of incompatible principles."<a href="#Footnote_1_1"><small>[1]</small></a></p> +</div> + + +<p>It is true that in the work from which I quote<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> the learned, if +somewhat nervous, Positivist does not, by his masterly survey of the +moral history of Europe, afford us the least reason to think that we +have really deteriorated from the standard of conduct set us by earlier +generations, but his words do tend to press on our notice the claim of +many writers, clerical and non-clerical, that we are returning from +Christianity to Paganism, from a settled moral discipline to an +unhealthy moral scepticism. Can one entirely and safely reconstruct the +bases of personal and national conduct in one or two generations?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></p> + + +<p>This very plain and plausible theory is, however, exposed to criticism +from other points of view. The clergy as a body are not at all willing +to concede that the decay of belief has spread as far as the theory +would suggest. In order to suppose that the life of Europe has, in a +matter of the gravest importance, been directed by a non-Christian +spirit, one must assume that at least the majority in each nation have +deserted the traditional creed. It is by no means conceded or +established that the fighting nations have ceased to be predominantly +Christian. Indeed, if we confine the awful responsibility for this +tragedy, as the evidence compels us, to Germany and Austria-Hungary, we +are casting it upon the two nations which have been the chief +representatives in Europe of the two leading branches of the Church. +Most assuredly no prelate of either country would admit that his nation +has ceased to be Christian or surrendered its life to non-Christian +impulses; and in our own country we have frequently been assured of late +years that the real power of Christianity was never greater.</p> + + +<p>Clearly these conflicting claims and this contrast of profession and +practice suggest a problem that deserves consideration. The problem +becomes the more interesting, and the plausible theory of non-Christian +responsibility is even more severely shaken, when we reflect that war is +not an innovation of this unbelieving age, but a legacy from the earlier +and more thoroughly Christian period. Had mankind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> departed from some +admirable practice of submitting its international quarrels to a +religious arbitrator, and in our own times devised this horrible +arbitrament of the sword, we should be more disposed to seek the cause +in a contemporary enfeeblement of moral standards. This is notoriously +not the case. Men have warred, and priests have blessed the banners +which were to wave over fields of blood, from the very beginning of +Christian influence, not to speak of earlier religious epochs. There is +assuredly a ghastly magnitude about modern war which almost lends it an +element of novelty, but the appearance is illusory. That intense +employment of resources which makes modern war so sanguinary tends also +to shorten its duration. No military struggle could now be prolonged +into the period of the Napoleonic wars; to say nothing of the Thirty +Years War, which involved the death, with every circumstance of +ferocity, of immensely larger numbers than could be affected by any +modern war. Nor may we forget that it is the modern spirit which has +claimed some alleviation of the horrors of the field, and that the +majority of the nations engaged in the present struggle have observed +the new rules.</p> + + +<p>These considerations show that the problem is less simple and more +serious than is often supposed, and I set out to discuss each of them +with some fullness. That the war has <i>no</i> relation to the Churches will +hardly be claimed by anybody. Such a claim would mean that they were +indifferent to one of the very gravest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> phases of human conduct, or +wholly unable to influence it. Nor can we avoid the issue by pleading +that Christianity approves and blesses a just defensive war, and that, +since the share of this country in the war is entirely just and +defensive, we have no moral problem to consider. I have assuredly no +intention of questioning either the justice of Britain's conduct or the +prudence of the Churches in adapting the maxims of the Sermon on the +Mount to the practical needs of life. If and when a nation sees its life +and prosperity threatened by an ambitious or a jealous neighbour, one +cannot but admire its clergy for joining in the advocacy of an efficient +and triumphant defence. But this is merely a superficial and proximate +consideration. Not the actual war only, but the military system of which +it is the occasional outcome, has a very pertinent relation to religion; +the maintenance of this machinery for settling international quarrels in +an age in which applied science makes it so formidable is a very grave +moral issue. It turns our thoughts at once to those branches of the +Christian Church which claim the predominant share in the moulding of +the conduct of Europe.</p> + + +<p>But these questions of the efficacy of Christian teaching or the +influence of Christian ministers are not the only or the most +interesting questions suggested by the relation of the war to the +prevailing religion. The great tragedy which darkens the earth to-day +raises again in its most acute form the problem of evil and Providence. +More than two thousand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span> years ago, as <i>Job</i> reminds us, some difficulty +was experienced in justifying the ways of God to men. The most +penetrating thinker of the early Church, St. Augustine, wrestled once +more with the problem, as if no word had been written on it; and he +wrestled in vain. A century and a half ago, when the Lisbon earthquake +destroyed forty thousand Portuguese, Voltaire attempted, with equal +unsuccess, to vindicate Providence with the faint hope of the Deist. +Modern science, prolonging the sufferings of living things over earlier +millions of years, has made that problem one of the great issues of our +age, and this dread spectacle of <i>human</i> nature red in tooth and claw +brings it impressively before us. Is the work of God restricted to +counting the hairs of the head, and not enlarged to check the murderous +thoughts in the human brain? Nay, when we survey those horrid stretches +of desolation in Belgium and Poland and Serbia, where the mutilated +bodies of the innocent, of women and children, lie amidst the ashes of +their homes; when we think of those peaceful sailors of our mercantile +marine at the bottom of the deep, those unoffending civilians whose +flesh was torn by shells, those hundreds of thousands whom patriotic +feeling alone has summoned to the vast tombs of Europe, those millions +of homes that have been darkened by suspense and loss—how can we repeat +the ancient assurance that God <i>does</i> count the hairs of the head and +mark the fall of even the sparrows? Does God move the insensate stars +only, and leave to the less skilful guidance of man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> those momentous +little atoms which make up the brain of statesmen?</p> + + +<p>These are reflections which must occur to every thoughtful person in the +later and more meditative phases of a great war, when the eye has grown +somewhat weary of the glitter of steel and the colour of banners, when +the world mourns about us and the long lists of the dead and longer list +of the stupendous waste sober the mind. Something is gravely wrong with +our international life; and, plainly, it is not a question <i>whether</i> +that international life departs from the Christian standard, but <i>why</i>, +after fifteen hundred years of mighty Christian influence, it does so +depart. Is the moral machinery of Europe ineffective? One certainly +cannot say that it has not had a prolonged trial; yet here, in the +twentieth century, we have, in the most terrible form, one of the most +appalling evils which human agency ever brought upon human hearts. We +have to reconsider our religious and ethical position; to ask ourselves +whether, if the influence of religion has failed to direct men into +paths of wisdom and peace, some other influence may not be found which +will prove more persuasive and more beneficent.</p> + + +<p style="text-align: right;">J. M.</p> + + +<p><i>Easter, 1915.</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>CHAP.</td><td align='left'>PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a> THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCHES</td><td align='center'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a> CHRISTIANITY AND WAR</td><td align='center'><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a> THE APOLOGIES OF THE CLERGY</td><td align='center'><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a> THE WAR AND THEISM</td><td align='center'><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a> THE HUMAN ALTERNATIVE</td><td align='center'><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h2>THE WAR AND THE CHURCHES</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + + +<h3>THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCHES</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + + + +<p>The first question which the unprejudiced inquirer will seek to answer +is: How far were the Churches able to prevent, yet remiss in using their +influence to prevent, the present war? There is, unhappily, in these +matters no such thing as an entirely unprejudiced inquirer. Our +preconceived ideas act like magnets on the material of evidence which is +submitted to us, instinctively selecting what bears in their favour and +declining to receive what they cannot utilise. Nowhere is this more +conspicuous than in the field of religious inquiry, nor is it confined +to either believers or unbelievers. There has been too much mutual +abuse, and too little attention to the fact that the mind no less than +the mouth has its palate, its impulsive selections and rejections. One +can meet the difficulty only by a patient and full examination of the +pleas of both parties to a controversy.</p> + + +<p>And the first plea which it is material to examine is that, since it is +claimed that all the nations engaged in the war are Christian nations, +one may accuse them collectively of moral failure. From the earliest +days<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> of the Christian religion it was the boast of those who accepted +it that it abolished all distinctions of caste and race. In the little +community which gathered round the cross there was neither bond nor +free, neither Greek nor Roman. This cosmopolitanism was, in fact, a +natural feature of religious movements at the time, and was due not so +much to their intrinsic development as to the political circumstances of +the world in which they spread. All round the eastern and northern +shores of the Mediterranean a great variety of races mingled in every +port and every commercial town, and it was the policy of the powerful +Empire which extended its sway over them all to overrule their national +antagonisms. When, in the earlier period, Jew and Greek and Egyptian had +maintained their separate nationalities, hostility to other races had +been a very natural social quality, an inevitable part of the spirit of +self-preservation in a race. When the great Empires had conquered the +smaller nationalities or the decaying older Empires, this mutual +hostility was moderated, and, as the vast movements of population which +marked the end of the old and the beginning of the new era filled the +Mediterranean cities with extraordinarily mixed crowds, mutual +friendship became the more fitting and more useful social virtue. A good +deal of the old narrow patriotism had been due to the fact that each +nation had its own god. In the new Roman world this theological +exclusivism broke down, and the priests of a particular god, scattered +like their followers among the cities of the eastern world, began to +seek a cosmopolitan rather than a nationalist following. In the temple +of each of the leading gods of the time—Jahveh, Serapis, Mithra, and so +on—people of all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> races and classes were received on a footing of +equality. The doctrine of the brotherhood of man spread all over that +cosmopolitan world.</p> + + +<p>When the old world, to the south and east of the Mediterranean, was +blotted out of history, and Europe in turn became a group of conflicting +nationalities, racial hatred was revived and in its political and social +aspects the doctrine of the brotherhood of man was virtually forgotten. +But the Christian Church had embodied that doctrine in its sacred +writing, and was bound to maintain it. In its ambition of a universal +dominion it was the direct successor of the Roman Empire. All the races +of Europe were to meet as brothers under the one God of the new world +and under the direction of his representatives on earth. It was this +change in the features of the world which gave a certain air of +insincerity to the Christian gospel. In the older days there had been +political unity with a great diversity of religions; now there was +religious unity spread over a great diversity of antagonistic political +bodies. Men were brothers from the religious point of view and, only too +frequently, deadly enemies from the political point of view. The discord +was made worse by the feudal system which was adopted. Even within the +same race there was no brotherhood. In effect the clergy as a body did +not insist that the noble was a brother of the serf, and did not exact +fraternal treatment of the serf. Thus the phrase, "the brotherhood of +man," which had been a most prominent and active principle of early +Christianity, became little more than a useless theological thesis.</p> + + +<p>The solution of the difficulty would, of course, have been for the +clergy, as the supreme representatives of the doctrine of brotherhood, +to apply that doctrine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> boldly to every part of man's conduct; to +pronounce that all violence and bloodshed were immoral, and to devise a +humane means of settling international quarrels. I will consider in the +next chapter why the Christian leaders failed even to attempt this great +reform. For the moment it is enough to observe that the conditions of +modern times favoured a fresh assertion of the doctrine of brotherhood. +Great as the power of sincere moral idealism has always been, the +historian must recognise that economic changes have had a most important +influence upon the development or acceptance of moral ideas. Just as in +earlier ages the development of forms of life was conditioned by changes +in their material surroundings, so man's moral development has been +profoundly influenced by industrial, commercial, and political changes.</p> + + +<p>The destruction of feudalism and the development of the modern worker +were notoriously not due to religious influence, yet they had an +important relation to religious doctrines. Once the new spirit had +asserted its right, the clergy recollected that all men are brothers +from the social as well as the religious point of view. Many of them, +and even some social writers of Christian views, maintain that the new +social order is itself based on or inspired by the religious doctrine of +brotherhood. This speculation is entirely opposed to the historical +facts, but it will easily be realised that when the workers had, in +their own interest, asserted afresh the doctrine of human brotherhood, +the Churches had a new occasion to preach it. How timid and tentative +that preaching was, and even is, we have not to consider here. On the +whole the brotherhood of men was re-affirmed by the Churches both in the +social and religious sense.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + + +<p>This situation makes more violent than ever the contrast between the +political and religious relations of men, and gives a strong <i>prima +facie</i> case to the charge against the Churches which I am considering. +It is wholly artificial and insincere to say that men are brothers +socially and religiously, yet are justified in marching out in millions, +with the most murderous apparatus science can devise, to meet each other +on the field of battle. We condemn crime for social reasons. We have +relegated to the Middle Ages, to which it belongs, the notion that the +criminal is a man who has affronted society, and that society may take a +revenge on him. In the sane conception of our time the criminal is a +mischievous element disturbing the social order, and, in the interest of +that order, he must be isolated or put out of existence. It is not the +<i>guilt</i>, but the <i>social effect</i>, which we regard. And from this point +of view a single great war is far more calamitous than all the crime in +Europe during whole decades. It is estimated by high authorities that if +the present war lasts only twelve months it will cost Europe, directly +and indirectly, including the destruction of property and the loss to +industry and commerce, no less a sum than £9,000,000,000; and it will +certainly cost more than a million, if not more than two million, lives, +besides the incalculable amount of suffering from wounds, loss of +relatives, outrages, and the incidental damage of warfare. The time will +come when historians will study with amazement the wonderful system we +have devised in Europe for the suppression of breaches of the social +order at a time when we complacently suffer these appalling periodical +destructions of the entire social order of nations.</p> + + +<p>It is quite natural to arraign the Christian Churches<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> in connection +with this disastrous outbreak. Unless they discharge the high task of +the moral direction of men, in international as well as in personal +conduct, they have no <i>raison d'être</i>. Few of them to-day will plead +that their function is merely to interpret to their fellows what they +regard as the revealed word of God. In face of the challenging spirit of +our time they maintain that they discharge a moral mission of such +importance that society is likely to go to pieces if Christianity is +abandoned. We therefore ask very pertinently where they were, and what +they were doing, during the months when the nations of Europe were +slowly advancing toward a declaration of war.</p> + + +<p>In examining the charge that, for some reason or other, they neglected +their mission at a crisis of supreme importance, we must recall that few +of us believed that a great war would occur until we actually heard the +declaration. No indictment of the clergy is valid which presupposes that +they are more sagacious or far-seeing than the rest of us. Yet, however +much we may have doubted the actual occurrence of war, we have known for +years, and have quite complacently commented upon, the danger that half +of Europe would sooner or later be involved in the horrors of the +greatest war in history. Now it is notorious that the Christian Churches +have done little or nothing, in proportion to their mighty resources and +influence, to avert this danger. No collective action has been taken, +and relatively few individuals have used their influence to moderate or +obviate the danger. The supreme head of the most powerfully organised +and most cosmopolitan religious body in the world, an institution which +has its thousands of ministers among each of the antagonistic peoples—I +mean the Church<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> of Rome—gave his attention to minute questions of +doctrine and administration, and bemoaned repeatedly the evil spirit of +our age, but issued not one single syllable of precise and useful +direction to the various national regiments of his clergy in connection +with this terrible impending danger. The heads or Councils of the +various Protestant bodies were equally remiss. Here and there individual +clergymen joined associations, founded by laymen, which endeavoured to +maintain peace and to secure arbitration upon quarrels, and one Sunday +in the year was set aside by the pulpits for the vague gospel of peace. +But in almost all cases these movements were purely secular in origin, +and the few movements of a religious nature have been obviously founded +only to keep the idealism linked with a particular Church, have had no +great influence, and have been too vague in their principles to have had +any effect upon the growing chances of a European war. There is no doubt +that the Churches have remained almost dumb while Europe was preparing +for its Armageddon.</p> + + +<p>I speak of the clergy, but in our time the responsibility cannot be +confined to these. Even in the Church of England the laity have now a +considerable influence, and in the other Protestant bodies they have +even more power in the control of policy. No doubt the duty of +initiative and of work in such matters lies mainly with the more +leisured and more official interpreters of the Christian spirit, yet it +would be absurd to restrict the criticism to them. The various Christian +bodies, as a whole, have confronted a very grave and imminent danger +with remarkable indifference, although that danger could become an +actual infliction only by seriously immoral conduct on the part of some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +nation. They saw, as we all saw, the vast armies preparing for the fray, +the diplomatists betraying an increasing concern about the relations +between their respective nations, the press embittering those relations, +and a pernicious and provocative literature inflaming public opinion. We +all saw these things, and knew that a war of appalling magnitude would +follow the first infringement of peace. Yet I think it will hardly be +controverted that the Churches made no serious effort to avert that +calamity from Europe. They were deeply concerned about unbelief, about +personal purity, about the cleanness of plays and books and pictures, +even about questions of social reform which a rebellious democracy +forced on them; but they took no initiative and performed no important +service in connection with this terrible danger.</p> + + +<p>That is the indictment which many bring against Christianity, and we +have now to consider the general defence. I will examine later a number +of religious pronouncements about the war, and will discuss here only a +few general pleas which are put forward as a defence against the general +indictment.</p> + + +<p>It is, in the first place, urged that the moral and humanitarian +teaching which the Christian Churches never ceased to put before the +world condemned in advance every departure from the paths of justice and +charity; that it was not the fault of Christianity if men refused to +listen to or carry into practice that teaching. But at no period in the +history of morals has it sufficed to lay down general principles. +Everybody perceives to-day, not only that slavery was in itself a crime, +but that it was essentially opposed to the Christian morality. Yet, as +no Christian teacher for many centuries ventured to apply the principle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +by expressly denouncing slavery, the institution was taken over from +Paganism by Christian Europe and lasted centuries after the fall of the +Roman Empire. The Church itself had vast numbers of slaves, and later of +serfs, on its immense estates. Leo the Great disdainfully enacted that +the priesthood must not be stained by admitting so "vile" a class to its +ranks, and Gregory the Great had myriads of slaves on the Papal +"patrimonies." So it was with the demand for social reform which +characterised the nineteenth century. To-day Christians claim that their +principles sanctioned and gave weight to those early demands of reform, +yet their principles had been vainly repeated in Europe for fifteen +hundred years, and, when the people themselves at last formulated their +demands in the early part of the nineteenth century, it is notorious +that the clergy opposed them. The teaching of abstract moral principles +is of no avail. Man is essentially a casuist. Leave to him the +application of your principles, and he will adapt almost any scheme of +conduct to them. The moralist who does not boldly and explicitly point +the application of his principles is either too ignorant of human nature +to discharge his duty with effect or is a coward. The plain fact is that +the preaching of justice and peace throughout Europe has been steadily +accompanied by an increase in armaments and in international friction. +It had no moral influence on the situation.</p> + + +<p>A more valid plea is that we must distinguish carefully between the +nations which inaugurated the war and the nations which are merely +defending themselves, and we must quarrel with the Christian Churches +only in those lands which are guilty. It may, indeed, be pleaded that, +since each nation regards itself as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> acting on the defensive and uses +arguments to this effect which convince its jurists and scholars no less +than its divines, there is no occasion at all to introduce Christianity. +Most of us do not merely admit the right, we emphasise the duty, of +every citizen to take his share in the just defence of his country, +either by arms or by material contribution. Since there seems to be a +general conviction even in Germany and Austria that the nation is +defending itself against jealous and designing neighbours, why quarrel +with their clergy for supporting the war?</p> + + +<p>When the plea is broadened to this extent we must emphatically reject +it. There has been too much disposition among moralists to listen +indulgently to such talk as this. When we find five nations engaged in a +terrible war, and each declaring that it is only defending itself +against its opponent, the cynic indeed may indolently smile at the +situation, but the man of principle has a more rigorous task. Some one +of those peoples is lying or is deceived, and, in the future interest of +mankind, it is imperative to determine and condemn the delinquent. There +is no such thing as an inevitable war, nor does the burden of great +armaments lead of itself to the opening of hostilities. It is certain +that on one side or the other, if not on both sides, there is a terrible +guilt, and it is the duty of Christian or any other moralists, whether +or no they belong to the guilty nations, sternly to assign and condemn +that guilt. It is precisely on this loose and lenient habit of mind that +the engineers of aggressive war build in our time, and we have seen, in +the case of neutral nations and of a section of our own nation, what +chances they have of succeeding. They have only to fill their people and +the world at large with counter-charges, resolutely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> mendacious, and +many will throw up their hands in presence of the mutual accusations and +declare that it is impossible to assign the responsibility. That is a +fatal concession to immorality, and we must hold that in some one or +more of the combatant nations the Churches have, for some reason or +other, acquiesced in a crime.</p> + + +<p>The plea is valid only to this extent, that the guilty nations in this +case were notoriously Germany and Austria-Hungary, and therefore one +cannot pass any censure on British Christians for supporting the war. I +have in other works dealt so fully with the guilt of those two nations +that here I must be content to assume it. The general and incessant cry +of the German people, that they are only defending their Empire against +malignant enemies, must be understood in the light of their recent +history and literature. No Power in the world had given any indication +of a wish to destroy Germany; there were, at the most, a few +uninfluential appeals in England for an attack on Germany, but solely on +the ground that it meditated an attack on England, and the accumulated +evidence now shows that it did meditate such an attack. England did not +desire an acre of German ground. France had assuredly not forgotten +Alsace and Lorraine, but France would have had no support, and would +have failed ignominiously, in an aggressive campaign to secure those +provinces. On the other hand, an immense and weighty literature, which +is unfortunately very little known in England, has familiarised Germany +for fifteen years with aggressive ideas. The most authoritative writers +claimed that, as they said repeatedly, "Germany must and will expand"; +and leagues which numbered millions of subscribers propa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>gated this +sentiment in every school and village. A definite demand was made +throughout Germany for more colonies and a longer coast-line on the +North Sea; and it was in relation to this ambition that England, France, +and Russia were represented—and justly represented—as Germany's +opponents. England, in particular, was described as the great dragon +which watched at the gates of Germany and grimly forbade its +"development." It is in this sense that the bulk of the German people +maintain that their action is defensive.</p> + + +<p>In passing, let me emphasise this peculiar economic difference between +the four nations. Russia had a vast territory in which her people might +develop. France had no surplus population, and had a large colonial +field for such of her children as desired adventure abroad or would +escape the competition at home. England had, in Canada and Australasia +and South Africa, a magnificent estate for her surplus population. None +of these Powers had an economic ground for aggression. Germany was +undoubtedly in a far less fortunate position, and had an overflowing +population. Six hundred thousand men and women (mostly men) had to leave +the fatherland every year, and, as the colonies were small and +unsatisfactory, they were scattered and lost among the nations of the +earth. The proper attitude toward Germany is, not to gratify the cunning +of her leaders by superficially admitting that she was not aggressive, +but to understand clearly the very solid grounds of her desire for +expansion.</p> + + +<p>Into the whole case against Germany, however, I cannot enter here. +Familiar from their chief historical writers with the supposed law of +the expansion of powerful nations, convinced by their economists that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +the country would soon burst with population and be choked by their own +industrial products unless they expanded, knowing well that such +expansion meant war to the death against France and England (who would +suffer by their expansion), the German people consented to the war. +Their official documents absolutely belie the notion that they were +meeting an aggressive England. But the Christians of Germany were +utterly false to their principles in supporting such a war. I do not +mean merely that they set aside the precept, or counsel to turn the +other cheek to the smiter, for no one now expects either nation or +individual to act on that maxim. They were false to the ordinary +principles of Christian morals or of humanity. Even if one were +desperately to suppose that, learned divines like Harnack were unable to +assign the real responsibility for the war, or that the whole of Germany +is kept in a kind of hot-house of falsehood, it would be impossible to +defend them. The Churches of Germany have complacently watched for +twenty-three years the tendency which William II gave to their schools; +they have passed no censure on the fifteen years of Imperialist +propaganda which have steadily prepared the nation for an aggressive +war; and they have raised no voice against the appalling decision that, +in order to attain Germany's purposes, every rule of morals and humanity +should be set aside. They have servilely accepted every flimsy pretext +for outrage, and have followed, instead of leading, their +passion-blinded people. It was the same in Austria-Hungary. Austrian and +Hungarian prelates have passed in silence the fearful travesties of +justice by which, in recent years, their statesmen sought to compass +the judicial murder of scores of Slavs; they raised no voice when,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> at +the grave risk of a European war, Austria dishonestly annexed Bosnia and +Herzegovina; they gave their tacit or open consent when Austria, +refusing mediation, declared war on Serbia and inaugurated the titanic +struggle; and they have passed no condemnation on the infamies which the +Magyar troops perpetrated in Serbia.</p> + + +<p>I am concerned mainly with the action or inaction of the Churches in +this country, but it is entirely relevant to set out a brief statement +of these facts about Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Christian religion +was on trial in those countries as well as here. It failed so +lamentably, not because there is more Christianity here than in Germany +and Austria, not because the national character was inferior to the +English and less apt to receive Christian teaching, but because the +temptation was greater. Until this war occurred, no responsible +traveller ever ventured to say that the German or Austrian character was +inferior to the British. It is not. But the economic difficulties of +Germany and the political difficulties (with the Slavs) of +Austria-Hungary laid a heavier trial on those nations, and their +Christianity entirely failed. Catholic and Protestant alike—for the two +nations contain fifty million Catholics to sixty million +Protestants—were swept onward in the tide of national passion, or +feared to oppose it.</p> + + +<p>One might have expected that at least the supreme head of the Roman +Church would, from his detached throne in Rome, pass some grave censure +on the outrages committed by Catholic Bavarians in Belgium or Catholic +Magyars in Serbia. Not one syllable either on the responsibility for the +war or the appalling outrages which have characterised it has come from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +him. The only event which drew from him a protest—a restrained and +inoffensive remonstrance—was the confinement to his palace for some +days of my old friend and teacher, Cardinal Mercier! To the stories of +fearful and widespread outrage, even when they were sternly +authenticated, he was deaf. One knows why. If Germany and Austria fail +in this war, as they will fail, the Catholic bodies of Germany and +Austria, the strongest Catholic political parties in Europe, will be +broken. Millions of the Catholic subjects of Germany and Austria will +pass under the rule of unbelieving France or schismatical Russia. So the +supreme head of the Roman Church wraps himself nervously in a mantle of +political neutrality and disclaims the duty of assigning moral guilt.</p> + + +<p>On us in England was laid only the task of defending our homes and our +honour. It is in those other countries that we most clearly see +Christianity put to the test, and failing deplorably under the test. I +do not mean that there was no opportunity here for the Churches to +display their effectiveness as the moral guides of nations. In those +fateful years between 1908 and 1914, during which we now see so plainly +the preparation for this world-tragedy, they might have done much. They +did nothing. They might have seen, at least at the eleventh hour, the +iniquity of sustaining the military system, and have cast the whole of +their massive influence on the side of the promoters of arbitration. I +do not mean that any man should advocate disarmament, or less effective +armament, in England while the rest of the world remains armed. As long +as we retain the military system instead of an international court, the +soldier's profession is honourable, and the man who voluntarily faces +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> horrors of the field is entitled to respect and gratitude. But in +every country there was an agitation for the <i>general</i> abandonment of +militarism and the substitution of lawyers for soldiers in the +settlement of international quarrels. Had the Churches in every country +given their whole support to this agitation, and insisted that it is +morally criminal for the race as a whole to prolong the military system, +we might not have witnessed this great catastrophe.</p> + + +<p>Before, however, I press this charge against the Christian bodies, let +me discuss the third plea that may be urged in defence of the Churches. +It is the plea of those who are so eager to disclaim responsibility that +they are willing to allow an enormous decay of religious influence in +the modern world. You have repeatedly told us, they say to the +Rationalist, that Christianity has lost its hold on Europe. You speak of +millions who no longer hear the word of Christian ministers, but who +<i>do</i> read Rationalist literature in enormous quantities. Very well, you +cannot have it both ways. Let us admit that the nations of Europe have +become non-Christian, and we cast on your non-Christian influence the +burden of responsibility for the war.</p> + + +<p>This language has been used more than once in England. It leaves the +speaker free to assume that in England, whose action in the war we do +not criticise, the nation remains substantially Christian, while in +Germany and Austria the Churches have lost more ground. Indeed, one may +almost confine attention to Germany. Profoundly corrupt as political +life has been in Austria-Hungary for years, there is no little evidence +in the official publications of diplomatic documents that at the last +moment, when the spectre of a general war definitely arose, Austria +hesitated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> and entered upon a hopeful negotiation with Russia. It was +Germany's criminal ultimatum to Russia which set the avalanche on its +terrible path. Now Germany is notoriously a land of religious criticism +and Rationalism. Church-going in Berlin is far lower even than in +London, where six out of seven millions do not attend places of worship. +It is almost as low as at Paris, where hardly a tenth of the population +attend church on Sundays. In other large towns of Germany the condition +is, as in England, proportionate. Almost in proportion to the size of +the town is the aversion of the people from the Churches.</p> + + +<p>It is absolutely impossible in the case of Germany to determine, even in +very round numbers, how many have abandoned their allegiance to +Christianity, though, when one remembers the enormous rural population +and the high proportion of believers in the smaller towns, it seems +preposterous to suggest that the country has, even to the extent of one +half, become non-Christian. But I am anxious to do justice to this plea, +and would point out that it is the educated class and the men of the +large cities who control a nation's policy. The rural population—the +general population, in fact—follows its educated leaders. Now there is +no doubt that in Germany, as elsewhere, this body of the population—the +middle class and the workers of the great cities—has very largely lost +the traditional belief. The workers of Berlin are solidly Socialistic, +which means very largely anti-clerical. And I would boldly draw the +conclusion that the responsibility for the war is shared at least +equally by Christians and non-Christians. The stricture I have passed on +the Churches of Germany is based on the fact that they, being organised +bodies with a definite moral mission,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> were peculiarly bound to protest +against the obvious political development of their country, and they +entirely failed to do so. But I should be the last to confine the +responsibility to them. Not only religious leaders like Harnack and +Eucken, but leading Rationalists like Haeckel and Ostwald, have +cordially supported the action of their country. So it was from the +first. Of that large class of men who may be said to have had some real +control of the fortunes of their country a very high proportion—I +should be disposed to say at least one half—are not Christians, or are +Christians only in name.</p> + + +<p>While we thus candidly admit that non-Christians as well as Christians +in Germany bear the moral responsibility, we must be equally candid in +rejecting the libellous charge that the principles, or lack of +principles, of the non-Christians tended to provoke or encourage war, in +opposition to the Christian principles. This not uncommon plea of +religious people is worse than inaccurate, since it is quite easy to +ascertain the principles of those who reject Christianity. In Germany, +as elsewhere, the non-Christians are mainly an unorganised mass, but +there are two definite organisations, which, in this respect, reflect or +educate the general non-Christian sentiment. These are the Social +Democrats, a body of many millions who are for the most part opposed to +the clergy, and the Monists, an expressly Rationalistic body. In both +cases the moral principles of the organisation are emphatically +humanitarian and opposed to violence, dishonesty, or injustice; in both +cases those principles are adhered to with a fidelity at least equal to +that which one finds in the Christian Churches. It is little short of +monstrous to say that the moral teaching of Bebel and Singer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> and +Liebknecht, or of Haeckel and Ostwald—all men of high moral +idealism—gave greater occasion than the teaching of Christianity to +this atrocious war. The Socialists, indeed, were the strongest opponents +of war and advocates of international amity in Europe. How, like the +Evangelical and the Christian Churches, they failed in a grave crisis to +assert their principles may be a matter for interesting consideration, +but it would be entirely dishonest to plead that the substitution of the +influence of Rationalists and Socialists for Christian ministers has in +any degree facilitated the war.</p> + + +<p>The Christian who regards all these non-Christian influences as "Pagan," +and feels that a "return to Paganism" explains the essential immorality +of Germany's conduct, usually has a grossly inaccurate idea of Paganism. +Whatever may be said of sexual developments in modern and ancient times, +we shall see that the Roman writers held principles which most decidedly +made for peace and brotherhood and justice. In point of fact, the +majority of the German writers who have been responsible for the +education of Germany in war-like ideas have been Christians. The Emperor +himself, who is mainly responsible because of his deliberate +prostitution of German schools to militarist purposes since 1891, will +hardly be described as other than Christian; certainly every prelate or +minister in Germany would vehemently resent such a description. +Treitschke, who is probably the best known in England of the Imperialist +writers, definitely bases his appalling conception of life on Christian +principles, and claims that he is acting from a sense of the divine +mission of Germany. General von Bernhardi uses precisely the same +Christian language. But these are only two in a hundred writers who, +for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> more than half a century, have been educating Germany in aggressive +ideas, and, speaking from personal acquaintance with their works, I +should say that the overwhelming majority of them are Christians. Not a +single Socialist, and not a single well-known Rationalist, has +contributed to their pernicious gospel.</p> + + +<p>Probably the one German writer in the mind of those English people who +speak of Germany's return to Paganism is Friedrich Nietzsche. It is true +that Nietzsche was bitterly anti-Christian, and he has probably had a +greater influence in Germany, in spite of his strictures on the country, +than many seem disposed to allow. German booksellers have recently drawn +up a statement in regard to the favourite books of soldiers in the +field, and it appears that Nietzsche's <i>Thus Spake Zarathustra</i> is +second on the list—leagues ahead of the Bible. But to conclude from +this that the anti-moral doctrine of the Pagan Nietzsche is the chief +source of the outrages committed is one of those slipshod inferences +which make one despair of Christian literature.</p> + + +<p>In the first place, Goethe is even more popular with the troops than +Nietzsche, and, although Goethe too was a Pagan, his teaching was the +very antithesis of crime, violence, injustice, or hypocrisy. No nobler +human doctrine was ever set forth than in the pages of his <i>Faust</i>, the +first on this list of favourite books. In the second place, this fact at +once warns us of a circumstance which we might have taken for granted: +in the knapsacks of the overwhelming majority of the soldiers there are +no books at all. It is the minority who read; and it is quite safe to +assume that this thoughtful minority are not the minority who have +disgraced German militarism. Thirdly—and it should hardly be necessary +to make this observation—the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> sensitive and high-strung Nietzsche would +have regarded with shuddering horror these outrages which some +ignorantly attribute to his influence. It is indeed probable that, if he +still looked from his hill-top upon the fields of Europe, he would pour +out his most volcanic scorn upon the warring nations, and especially +upon Germany and Austria. In fine, it is necessary to remember that +Nietzsche was violently anti-democratic. For the mass of the people he +had only disdain, and it is folly to suppose that his aristocratic +philosophy has been accepted among them as a gospel.</p> + + +<p>Nietzsche has had a considerable influence on the more thoughtful +reading public in Germany, yet even here one has to make reserves in +charging him with a part in the preparation of the country for an +aggressive war. His peculiar art and temperamental exaggerations make it +impossible for any but a patient few to grasp his teaching accurately, +and are peculiarly liable to mislead the less patient. When, therefore, +he stresses—as most anti-Socialists do—the Darwinian struggle for +existence, when he assails the humanitarian and Christian doctrine of +helping the weak, when he calls into question the received code of +morals, and when he extols self-assertion and strength of will, his +fiery words do lend some confirmation, which he assuredly never +intended, to the Prussian ideal of a State. Nietzsche was too much +averse from politics to intend such an application of his teaching, +which is essentially individualistic, and he had nothing but contempt +for the bluster and philistinism of the Prussian State in particular. We +must admit, however, that in this unintentional way he contributed to +the formation of that German temper which led to the war. General von +Bernhardi's admiring references to his philosophy sufficiently show +this.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> + + +<p>But Nietzsche's very limited influence on German thought cannot +reasonably be quoted as justification of the common saying that Germany +had deserted Christianity for Paganism. Had such a statement been made +before the war began, our divines would have indignantly repudiated it. +The truth is that all classes—Christian and non-Christian—have yielded +fatally to the pernicious interpretation which interested politicians, +soldiers, manufacturers, and Jingoistic writers have put on the real +economic needs of the country. Of the Socialist and Catholic parties, in +particular, the two most powerfully organised bodies in Germany, we may +say that, in deserting their ideals, they have been partly deceived into +a real belief that Russia and England sought their destruction, and they +have partly yielded to that very old and familiar temptation—the desire +to retain their numerical strength by compromising with their +principles. In justice to the Socialists it should be added that that +party has furnished the only men and journals in Germany to raise any +protest against the madness of the nation. One of the most repulsive +moral traits in Germany to-day is, even when we have made the most +liberal allowance for the painful and desperate circumstances of the +people, the astounding expression and cultivation of hatred. It has +transpired time after time that the <i>Vorwärts</i> has protested against +this. Not once has it been reported that the religious press or +religious ministers have protested. The new phrase that is officially +sanctioned, "God punish England," is a religious phrase that no +Neo-Pagan could use. On the very day on which I write this page it is +reported that Socialists have protested in the Reichstag against the +official endorsement of outrages. We do not hear of any Christian +protest, from end to end of the campaign.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> + + +<p>Yet I do not wish to disguise the fact that both Christians and +non-Christians share the guilt of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The real +difference between the two bodies appears when we take a broader view of +the war, and only in this way can any general indictment of Christianity +be formulated. Important as it is to determine the responsibility for +this war, it is even more important to conceive that the war is the +natural outcome of a system which Europe ought to have abolished ages +ago. We are not far from the time when, in spite of the official +teaching of the Churches, every Christian nation maintained the practice +of the duel which the Teutonic nations introduced fourteen centuries +ago. Although in Germany the Christian clergy have not the courage to +assert their plain principles in opposition to the Emperor's barbaric +patronage of the duel, the people of most civilised countries now regard +the duel as a crime. No one who surveys the whole stream of moral +development can doubt that a time is coming when war, the duel of +nations, will be regarded as an infinitely graver crime. The day is +surely over when sophists like Treitschke and callous soldiers like +Bernhardi could sing the praises of war. The pathetic picture drawn by +our great novelist of a worthless young lord lying at the feet of his +opponent touched England profoundly and hastened the end of the duel in +this country. If England, if the civilised world, be not even more +deeply touched by the descriptions we have read, week after week, of +tens of thousands of braver and more innocent men lying in their blood, +of all the desolation and sorrow that have been brought on whole +kingdoms of Europe, one will be almost tempted to despair of the race. +War is the last and worst stain of barbarism on the escutcheon of +civilisation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + + +<p>The question of real interest is, therefore, the historical question. +Those of us who did not foresee this war until we were in the very +penumbra of the tragedy cannot complain that our Christian neighbours +did not foresee and prevent it. Those of us who feel that the +participation of our country is just and necessary may, with no strain +of imagination, conceive the men of other countries equally persuading +themselves that the action of their country is just and necessary. But +from the day when we awoke to an adult perception of the life of the +world we have been aware that the established system of settling +international quarrels was barbaric and might in any year lead to just +such a catastrophe. How comes it that such a system has survived fifteen +hundred years of profound Christian influence? Whatever we may think of +the clergy of to-day, with the more powerful clergy of yesterday we have +a grave reckoning. The Rationalist is a new thing in Europe. The very +name is little more than a century old, and until a few decades ago only +a few thousand would accept it. Not from such a new and struggling +movement do we ask why this military system has dominated Europe for +ages and has only in recent times been seriously challenged. During +those ages the Churches suffered none but themselves to pretend to a +moral influence over the life of the nations, nor were there many bold +and independent enough to make the claim. It is of the Churches we ask +why this appalling system has taken such deep root in the life of Europe +that it resists the most devoted efforts to eradicate it. It is not +<i>this</i> war, but war, that accuses the Churches. We are entangled in a +system so widespread and so subtle that, when a war occurs, each nation +can persuade itself that it is acting on just grounds. It is the system +which interests us.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + + +<h3>CHRISTIANITY AND WAR</h3> + + + +<p>The day will come when the student of human development will find war +one of the most remarkable institutions that ever entered and quitted +history. Civilisation took it over from barbarism; barbarism from the +savage; the savage from the beast. So we are accustomed to argue, but we +must make a singular reservation. The lowest peoples of the human +family, which seem to represent primitive man, do not wage war, and are +little addicted to violence. They seem by some process of natural +selection to have obtained the social quality of peacefulness and mutual +aid. There was, in a sense, a stage of primitive innocence. As, however, +these primitive peoples grew in numbers and were organised in tribes, as +they obtained collective possessions—flocks and pastures and hunting +grounds—they came into collision with each other, and all the old +pugnacity of the beast awoke. Skill, and even ferocity, in war became a +valuable social quality, and we get the stage of the savage. The +barbarian, or the man between savagery and civilisation, was still +compelled to fight for his possessions. He was usually surrounded by +fierce savage tribes. The civilised man in turn was surrounded by +savages and barbarians, and needed to fight. So through thousands of +years of development of moral sentiment and legal procedure the +primitive method of the beast has been preserved.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> + + +<p>But I am not writing a history of warfare, and need not describe these +stages more closely, or examine the new sentiment of imperialist +expansion which gave civilisations a fresh incentive to develop methods +of warfare. The point of interest is to determine at what stage it might +have been possible for the moral element to intervene and bid the +warriors, in the name of humanity, lay down their arms; at what stage +the tribunal which men had set up to adjudicate between the quarrels of +individuals might have been enlarged so as to be capable of arbitrating +on the quarrels of nations.</p> + + +<p>Now this was plainly impossible in the early centuries of the present +era, and it is therefore foolish to ask why Pagan moralists did not do +what we expect Christian moralists to have done. I have already +mentioned, and have fully described elsewhere, how humanitarian +sentiments were generally diffused throughout the old Græco-Roman world. +There is not a phrase of the New Testament which has not a parallel +among the Jews, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. The great +fusion of peoples in the Roman Empire begot a feeling of brotherhood, +and, by a natural reaction on years of vice and violence, there was a +considerable growth of lofty and tender, and often impracticable, +sentiments. Moralists urged men to avoid anger, to bear blows with +dignity, to greet all men as brothers, even to love their enemies. Plato +and Epictetus and Plutarch and Seneca and Marcus Aurelius urged these +maxims as forcibly as Christ did. The Stoic religion or philosophy, +which guided Emperors and lawyers, and had a very wide influence in the +Roman world, was intensely and quite modernly humanitarian. Its +principal expo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>nents condemned slavery and promoted a remarkable spread +of philanthropy.</p> + + +<p>It was, however, not possible for the Stoics to condemn war. Some of the +more ardent and less practical humanitarians of the time did this, but +no alert Roman citizen could advocate the abolition of the legions. The +Empire was completely surrounded by barbarians who would rush in and +trample on its civilisation the moment the fence of spears was removed. +From the turreted walls in the north of England, where men watched the +Picts and Scots, to the deserts of Mesopotamia—from the banks of the +Danube and Rhine to the spurs of the Atlas—it was essential to maintain +those bronzed legions who guarded the civilised provinces from +marauders. With those outlying barbarians no treaty was possible or +sacred; no legal tribunal would have protected those frontiers from the +men who looked covetously on the fertile fields and comfortable cities +of the Roman provinces. From the first to the fourth century Rome +fought, not for its expansion, but for its preservation against these +increasing enemies; and it was the final intensification of the pressure +in the Danube region by the arrival of enormous hordes of barbarians +from Asia which precipitated the final catastrophe. Paganism had never +the slightest opportunity to abandon the military system, and only those +who are totally unacquainted with Roman history can wonder why it did +not make the attempt. It would have been a crime to abandon the +civilised provinces to barbarism.</p> + + +<p>This was the essential position of the Roman Empire: the civil wars of +the fourth century, by which its military system was abused, need not +be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> considered here. And the student of history must recognise with +equal candour that the new Christianity, which succeeded Paganism in the +fourth and fifth centuries, was equally powerless to abolish warfare. +What we may justly blame is that the triumphant Christianity of the +fourth century did not merely sanction the use of arms in defence of +civilisation; it employed them in its own interest. The earlier +Christians had exasperated the Romans by refusing to bear arms in the +service of the Empire, plain as the need was. To a slight extent this +was due to an aversion from the shedding of blood; for the most part +military service was refused because it was saturated with Pagan rites. +When the Empire became Christian, this objection was removed, and the +Christians freely entered the army. Unhappily, the Christian body +deteriorated with the new prosperity and base instincts were indulged. +It is an undoubted historical fact, recorded by St. Jerome himself, that +the election of Pope Damasus, his friend and benefactor, was accompanied +by bloody and fatal riots. From undoubted historical sources we know +that the Christian mob compelled the Prefect of Rome to fly from the +city, and there is very serious evidence (in a document written by two +Roman priests) that Damasus employed the swords and staves of his +supporters to secure his position. Damasus and subsequent Popes then +obtained or sanctioned the use of the Roman soldiers for the suppression +of heresy and schism and Paganism, and Christianity was installed by +violence throughout the Empire. In the Eastern Roman Empire things were +even worse. Violence became the customary device in the seething +religious quarrels of the time, and, literally, tens of thousands lost +their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> lives. The Byzantine or Greek Christianity entered upon a record +of crime and violence which disgraced it for many centuries.</p> + + +<p>This development did not augur well for the application of Christian +principles to warfare. We may, however, observe at once that for many +centuries the Roman Church had not the slightest chance of establishing +peace in Europe. The destruction of the Roman Empire and disbanding of +its armies made an entirely new situation in Italy. The Popes were, for +the most part, good men, but they did not dream at that time of +controlling the counsels of kings and dictating affairs of State. Even +the story of Pope Leo the Great overawing the King of the Huns, Attila, +and turning his army away from Italy, is a mere legend of medieval +writers, and is at variance with the nearer authorities. The northern +tribes themselves were to a great extent, and for some centuries, of the +Arian faith, and took no advice from Rome. In a word, it would be stupid +to expect Christian leaders of the early Middle Ages to press the cause +of peace. The northern peoples, who would in time form the nations of +Europe, were essentially violent and warlike, and would have recognised +no pacific counsels in that imperfect stage of their religious +development.</p> + + +<p>Where the historian may and must censure the Church is in its adoption +of militarism for its own purposes. Pope Gregory the Great found Italy +in a chaotic and pitiful condition, and no doubt he acted, on the whole, +rightly in organising its military defence. The more serious +circumstance was that he began to receive immense estates, as gifts or +legacies, in all parts of Italy as the property of the Roman Church, and +from that time either a Papal army or the employ<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>ment of the army of +some friendly monarch was necessary in order to protect these estates. +With the confirmation and consolidation of these estates into a kingdom +under Charlemagne in the ninth century the Papacy completed its moral +aberration. Most of the Popes were still men of good character, and they +no doubt persuaded themselves that, since the income of these estates +was needed for the fulfilment of their spiritual task, it was proper to +defend them by the sword. But casuistry of this kind has never prospered +indefinitely, and few historians will doubt that this temporal +development led directly to that degradation of the Papacy which +rendered it unfit to exercise moral influence on Europe. The Papacy +became a princedom to attract the covetous and the ambitious, and the +line of Popes sank so low by the tenth century that the grossest +characters were able to occupy the chair of Peter at a time when the +nations of Europe were sufficiently advanced to be susceptible of a +sincere moral influence. The record of the Papacy, from the ninth +century to the nineteenth, contains on almost every page a bloody +struggle for the temporal power. The most religious and most eminent of +the Popes, such as Gregory VII and Innocent III, were the most prompt to +set in motion the machinery of war in defence of their territories or in +punishment of rebels against their authority. Not one of them was in a +position to bid kings disband their armies, or ever dreamed of enjoining +them to do more than observe a few days' truce or keep their swords from +each other in order to save them for the common enemy of Christendom.</p> + + +<p>It would be useless to speculate about the date when the new nations of +Europe had become sufficiently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> civilised to hear a gospel of peace. The +idea of superseding the military system of Europe by a juridical system +occurred to no Christian leader, and therefore we need not consider what +prospect it might have had of realisation. The Christian gospel of +meekness had become a mockery: even the great abbeys, in which the +gentler and more religious were supposed to be immured, had their +troops, and abbots and bishops, and very often Papal Legates, appeared +at the head of armies. Two Popes, John X and Julius II, marched +themselves at the head of their troops. Cardinals had their suites of +swordsmen, and the castles of the Roman aristocracy were at times strong +fortifications from which war of the most ferocious and unscrupulous +character was waged. Christendom was steeped in violence; only a gentle +saint or bishop here and there caught a futile vision of a world of +peace. Every man was armed against possible trouble with his neighbour; +every noble had his retainers and kept them well exercised; every prince +was free, as far as the spiritual authorities were concerned, to covet +and bloodily exact the lands of his neighbour. The noble, of either sex, +found supreme delight in jousts which the modern sentiment finds as +inhuman as a sordid quarrel of <i>Apaches</i> over a mistress; the peasants +found a corresponding pleasure in the play of quarter-staves or the +combats of dogs and cocks.</p> + + +<p>It is, as I said, little use to speculate about the chances of a gospel +of humanity in such a world. The overwhelming majority of priests and +prelates made no effort whatever to restrain the prevailing violence. +The elementary duty of any profound moral agency was to protest without +ceasing, even if the protest was unavailing. It is not at all clear that +it would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> been unavailing. The power of the Popes was beyond that +of any other hierarchy known to history, and at least the moral +education of Europe would have proceeded less slowly, and war would have +been abolished centuries ago, if there had been any serious, collective, +and authoritative enforcement of Christian principles. There was not, +and to this silence of the clergy during those long ages of their power +we owe the maintenance in Europe to-day of the regime of violence. They +were so far from enjoying moral inspiration in this respect that they +were amongst the first to bless the banners and swell the coffers of an +aggressive monarch, and they gave the military system a final +consecration by employing it repeatedly in the interests of the Church.</p> + + +<p>All that one can plead in mitigation of this deep historical censure of +the medieval Church is that the frontiers of Christendom were for +centuries threatened by the Turk and the Saracen. The old need of +protecting civilisation by arms had almost disappeared. Few and feeble +peoples remained outside the range of Christian civilisation after the +tenth century. Armies were maintained only in the interest of criminal +ambition or for the settlement of disputes which ought to have been +submitted to judges. The menace of the Turk, with his hostile religion, +was, of course, a just ground for armaments, but a few nations generally +bore the whole brunt of his onset. Whatever religious feeling may make +of the great Crusades, which drew to the east armies from all parts of +Europe, secular history must dismiss them as appalling blunders. The few +advantages they brought to European culture cannot seriously be weighed +against the terrible sacrifice of lives and the even more terrible +consecration of militarism. In a word, the menace of the Turk<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> could +have been met admirably by such an arrangement as we are advocating in +Europe to-day: the maintenance of a small force by each nation for +common action, under the direction of a supreme legal tribunal, against +nations which would not obey the common law of peace. But we need not +seriously discuss the influence of the Turk on the system. The last +phases of the struggle, when the selfish nations and the ambitious +Papacy spent their time in idle mutual recrimination and left the +Hungarians and Poles to do all the work, justify us in dismissing that +element. Kings and republics maintained armies for purely selfish +purposes, for brutal aggression and defence against aggressors; and not +a prelate in Europe had any moral repugnance to the system, or ventured +to condemn it, especially as the Church used the same agency in defence +of its own temporal interests.</p> + + +<p>With the development of the Papal power and the advance of the peoples +of Europe the opportunity of peace became greater, but the spiritual +authority pledged itself more and more deeply to the military system. +The Popes aspired—as Gregory VII and Innocent III repeatedly state—to +control the temporal as well as the spiritual affairs of Europe, to +transfer crowns when they thought fit, to direct invasions and military +expeditions against any who questioned their authority. Hildebrand +boasts (<i>Ep.</i> vii, 23) that, when William of Normandy sent envoys to ask +Pope Alexander to sanction his unscrupulous invasion of England, and the +Papal Court was itself too sensible of the enormity to give its +sanction, he (Hildebrand) overbore the wavering Pope and forced him to +bless the enterprise; and, when he had in his turn mounted the Papal +throne, he vehemently claimed that his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> action had made England a fief +for ever of the Holy See! Gregory VII and Innocent III are the two +greatest and most sincerely religions of the medieval Popes, and they +carried the power of the Papacy to a height which excites the amazement +of the modern historian. But they were at the same time the most +militant of the Popes, and on the least provocation they set +armies—even the most barbaric and ferocious troops in Europe—in motion +to carry out their imperial commands. They arrogated the power of +deposing monarchs, and thus encouraged civil war and the ambitions of +neighbouring kings.</p> + + +<p>The rise of heresy and of protests against the corruption of the Papacy +was another very grave pretext of the Church to support the military +system. In the days of Gregory VII a body of Puritans known as the +Patareni spread over the north of Italy, and Rome encouraged a few +soldiers to lead armed mobs against them and drown their idealism in +blood. Innocent III has a more terrible stigma on his record. The +Albigensians, an early type of Protestants, were spreading in the south +of France, and the Pope sanctioned a "crusade"—an expedition, largely, +of looters and cut-throats—against them from all parts of France. The +appalling deceit practised by the Papal Legate and sanctioned by the +Pope, the ferocity of the campaign, and the desolation brought on one of +the happiest and most prosperous provinces of France, may be read in any +history of the thirteenth century. Tens of thousands of men, women, and +children were savagely put to death. And this was only the beginning of +the Papal war on heresy, which from the thirteenth century never ceased +to spring up in Europe until it won its right of citizenship in the +Reformation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> Even more vehemently was war urged against the Moors, then +the most civilised people in Europe.</p> + + +<p>In face of this notorious history of Europe during the long course of +the Middle Ages it is now usual for Catholic apologists to plead that +the blood of the barbarian still flowed in the veins of the Christian +nations and men were not yet prepared to listen to the message of peace. +This plea cannot for a moment be admitted in extenuation of the Church's +guilt. The clergy had themselves no conception of the criminality of +war, and did not rise above the moral level of their age. Here and there +a saint or a prelate raised a feeble voice against the violence of men, +but we do not estimate an institution by the words of an occasional +member, especially if they are at variance with the official conduct and +the general sentiment. On the other hand, to boast that the clergy at +times enforced a temporary cessation of fighting (the "Truce of God") +only increases our appreciation of their guilt. The men who enforced +that Truce gave proof at once of their power and of their perception of +the un-Christian nature of warfare. But they were unwilling to condemn +outright a machinery which they might employ at any moment in defence or +advancement of their own interests. Had the Church been a serious moral +influence in Europe, had it been true to the message in virtue of which +it had grown rich and powerful, it would have protested unceasingly +against this reign of violence. It was not a great moral influence. The +grossness and illiteracy of the people, the appalling immorality of the +clergy and monks and nuns, and this almost entire failure to apply +Christian or ordinary human principles to the worst feature of the life +of Europe, are terrible offsets to the little good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> it achieved. Europe +was steadily educated and encouraged, century after century, in the +shedding of blood.</p> + + +<p>The Protestant is at times disposed to dismiss the whole sordid story +with the remark that this Roman Church was not Christianity at all. He +contrives to overlook the serious difficulty that, if the Roman Church +did not represent Christianity from the sixth century to the sixteenth, +there was, contrary to the promise of Christ, no Christianity in Europe +for a thousand years; and he surrenders all the wonderful art of the +Middle Ages (as he ought) to entirely non-Christian forces. That, +however, does not concern me here. The slightest recollection of history +would warn the Protestant that the Reformation brought no improvement +whatever, as far as this reign of violence is concerned. The forces set +up by the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation fought each other for +some decades with the comparatively peaceful weapons of mutual abuse and +heated argument. When it was perceived that these weapons were of no +avail, there was the customary appeal to the sword. In the historical +documents which tell the life of Pope Paul IV we see the Papacy and the +Jesuits urging the Catholic princes to lead out their armies. Heresy was +to be extinguished in blood; and, seeing how many millions in the north +had by that time embraced the heresy, there can have been no illusion as +to the magnitude of the oceans of blood that would be required to drown +it. So Europe entered upon the horrors of the Thirty Years' War +(1618-1648), which put back the civilisation of Germany for more than a +hundred years and utterly ruined some of the small principalities. The +population of Bohemia alone fell from three millions to less than a +million. Nearly every nation in Europe was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> involved, and the war was +conducted with all the brutality of the older medieval warfare.</p> + + +<p>The fact that political as well as religious ambitions were engaged in +the Thirty Years' War does not affect my argument. In so far as +religious sentiment was responsible—and it will hardly be questioned +that it had a large share in the Thirty Years' War—we find a fresh +consecration by Christianity itself of the use of the sword. But the +main point we have to consider is that the new spiritual authorities +were no more inclined than the old to declare that warfare was opposed +to Christian principles. The last three centuries have been as full of +aggressive war as the three centuries which preceded, but there was no +protest by Christian ministers either in Protestant England and +Scandinavia or in Catholic France and Austria. It was the period when +the modern Powers of Europe were building up their vast dominions, and +no one who is acquainted with the story can have any illusion as to the +application to that process of what are now described as clear Christian +principles.</p> + + +<p>This is precisely the plaint of modern Germany. We seek, they say, to do +merely what England and France—it were indiscreet to mention +Austria—did in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They were +vigorous peoples with an impulse to expand and to extend their +civilisation over backward lands. They appealed solely to the right of +the sword, and all the Christian authorities in Europe—the bishops of +William and of Anne, the bishops of Louis XIV, the bishops of Peter the +Great—had not a single syllable to say against the right of the sword. +The various branches of the Christian Church were at that time +singularly unanimous in accommodating their principles to imperialist +and aggressive warfare. Now that you have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> obtained all that you +need—the aggrieved Teuton says—now that I in turn would expand and +colonise, you discover that this imperialist aggression is supremely +opposed to Christian principles.</p> + + +<p>On some such meditations, in part, the German bases his conviction of +the hypocrisy and perfidy of the English character. He is, of course, +entirely wrong. A real change has taken place in the moral sentiment of +this country; a change so real that when, in South Africa, the nation +entered upon a war which many regarded as aggressive and merely +acquisitive, there was a very widespread revolt. The cynic might +genially observe that it is not difficult to retire from evil-doing and +cultivate lofty principles when your fortune has been made, but it is +important to realise this change and understand its significance. There +is, no doubt, a sound human element in the cynic's observation. It <i>is</i> +easier to recognise moral principle when the period of temptation is +over. Every thoughtful and humane Englishman will make allowance for the +less fortunate position of Germany, and not foolishly pride himself on +his own superiority of character. The fact remains, however, that there +has been a real moral improvement in England and France, and it would +now be impossible for those nations to enter upon the aggressive and +nakedly ambitious wars which they were accustomed to undertake before +the nineteenth century. We have a genuine abhorrence of the "lust for +land" which has impelled Germany to plunge Europe into war. But until a +century or two ago that lust for land was considered a legitimate +appetite in Europe, and the clergy crowded with the people to greet the +warriors who came home with the news that they had added, by the sword, +one more province to our spreading Empire.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + + +<p>That this change of heart is not merely a feeling that we have no +further need of aggression, and would ourselves suffer by the aggression +of others, could easily be proved, if it were necessary. In the same +period of change we abolished the duel, and there was no material +advantage in discovering the immorality of the duel. We abolished +dog-fighting, cock-fighting, bull-baiting, and other brutalising +spectacles. We undertook a reform of our industrial and penal systems +which, however imperfect it be, was very considerable in itself, and was +inspired solely by motives of humanity. There was a general and marked +improvement of public sentiment, and it is as part of this improvement +that we now find a universal condemnation of aggressive war and a +widespread demand for the entire abolition of war. The construction of +English history and English character on the lines of Mr. G. B. Shaw may +be entertaining, and may save considerable trouble of research, but it +does not conduce to sound judgment. The laments of social pessimists and +of certain religious controversialists are never supported by accurate +knowledge. Every social historian who gives evidence of knowing the +evils of the England of a century ago as well as the England of to-day +admits that there has been a great moral advance.</p> + + +<p>I will examine in the next chapter certain comments of religious writers +and speakers on this advance. Here I wish to determine the facts with +some clearness. It has not been necessary for me to discuss the medieval +and the early modern period with any fullness. There is no dispute about +the features of those periods. They were ages of violence, of incessant +and frankly aggressive war, of unrestrained ambition. The smallest +pretext sufficed for a monarch, if his forces and finances were in +order, to invade his neighbour's territory and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> annex as much of it as +he could hold by the sword. Frederic the Great and Napoleon did not +introduce new ideas into Europe; they attempted to revive medieval ideas +in a changing world. Austria in its annexation of Bosnia and +Herzegovina, Germany in its ambition to annex Belgium and the colonies +which other Powers have laboriously cultivated, are following their +example. They are not inventing new forms of criminality; they are not +returning to Pagan ideals: they are reverting merely to ideals which +were accepted throughout Europe for more than a thousand years. In the +more brutal features of war to which they have descended they are even +more emphatically reverting to the Middle Ages. The Romans did not +commit such outrages at the command of educated officers. Medieval +Christians did: the record of Papal warfare, down to the "Massacre of +Perugia" in 1859, is as deeply stained as any by these abominable +methods.</p> + + +<p>My further point, that the Christian Church or Churches made no serious +resistance to the prevailing brutality, is just as easy to establish. It +is a sheer travesty of argument to put forward the gentle exhortations +of a Francis of Assisi as characteristic of the Christian Church when +the Pope of the time, one of the most powerful and conscientious Popes +of all time, Innocent III, was threatening or directing the movements of +ferocious armies all over Europe. Most assuredly there were among the +numbers of fine characters who appeared in Christendom in the course of +a thousand years many who deeply resented the prevailing violence. But +when we speak of the Church, we speak of its official action and its +predominant sentiment. The official action of the Popes was, during all +that period, to make the same use as any terrestrial monarch of the +service of soldiers; they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> failed, from Gregory the Great to Pius X, to +recognise one of the supreme moral needs of Europe. The bishops of the +Church of England and the heads of the Lutheran and Calvinistic Churches +did not prove to have any sounder moral inspiration in this respect. It +was left to despised bodies like the Friends, who were hardly recognised +as Christians, and to rare individuals to protest against the system +which has brought such appalling evil on Europe.</p> + + +<p>In the nineteenth century the moral sentiment of Europe began to advance +more rapidly than it had previously done, and the idea of substituting +arbitration for war began to spread. The history of this reform has not +yet been written, as far as I can discover, but it is hardly likely that +any will be bold enough to suggest that the idea was due to +Christianity. After the Napoleonic wars, at least, Europe was ripe for +such a reform. I do not mean that public feeling in Europe was prepared +for the idea. It would have met with a very considerable degree of +resistance, and would have generally been conceived as the dream of an +amiable fanatic. Such resistance makes the duty of the moralist or the +reformer all the more pressing, and it is merely amazing to hear the +earlier Christian clergy exonerated on the ground that the world was not +prepared to receive a message of peace from them. They did not try the +experiment because it did not occur to them, or because they were too +closely dependent on the monarchs of the earth to question the wisdom of +their arrangements. Europe was, in point of fact, quite ripe for the +change in the second decade of the nineteenth century, and there would +assuredly be no war to-day if the Churches had had the moral inspiration +and the moral courage to insist on it. The frontiers of the nations were +(except in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> the case of Italy and Poland) defined with a fair show of +justice, and the time had come to disband armies and submit any future +quarrel to arbitration: to retain only a small standing army in each +country for the defence of its colonial frontiers against tribes which +do not respect arbitration, or for the enforcement of the decisions of +the central tribunal. The conditions were almost as favourable for such +a change in 1816 as they are to-day, or will be in 1916, and it is +another grave point in the indictment of Christianity that it had no +inspiration to demand that change. The bishops of England no less than +the bishops of Rome were deeply concerned about the rise of democracy +and the spread of unbelief, and they joined with the monarchs in +enforcing a system of violent repression. For the larger and more real +need of Europe they had no feeling whatever, and militarism entered upon +its last and most terrible phase: the stage of national armies and of +means of destruction prepared with all the fearful skill of modern +science.</p> + + +<p>As the nineteenth century proceeded, humanitarianism attained clearer +conceptions and more articulate speech. The scheme of substituting legal +procedure for military violence was definitely put before the world. It +is not necessary, and would be difficult, to trace the earliest +developments of this idea. On the one hand, I find no claim that it was +put forward by representatives of Christianity; on the other hand, +literary research among the records of the early Rationalist movements +in this country has shown me that the idea was familiar and welcome +amongst them. No doubt the aversion of the Friends from bloodshed had +some influence, and we find representatives of that noble-minded Society +active in more than one of the early reform-movements. But, as far as I +can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> discover, it was Robert Owen who first definitely advanced the idea +of substituting arbitration for war, and it was repeatedly discussed +among the "Rational Religion" Societies—which were not at all +religious—that he founded or inspired in various parts of the country. +The immense influence which he obtained in the thirties and forties +enabled him to direct public attention to the reform.</p> + + +<p>This early history is, however, as yet vague and unstudied, nor do we +need to enter into any ungenerous struggle about priority. It is enough +that the idealist scheme was well known in England long before the +middle of the nineteenth century. Did the Christian Churches adopt and +enforce it? Here, at least, no minute research is needed. The Christian +bodies failed lamentably and totally (apart from the heterodox Friends) +even to recognise the moral and humane greatness of the idea when it was +definitely presented to them. It is only in the last few years that a +Peace Sunday has—at the suggestion of lay associations—been adopted in +the churches and chapels of England. It is only in quite recent times +that bishops and ministers have stood on peace-platforms and advocated +the reform. And even to-day, when peace associations founded by laymen +have been endeavouring for decades to educate the country, no branch of +the Christian Church has officially and collectively decreed that +Christian principles enjoin the reform; no Pope or Archbishop or Church +Council has supported it with a stern and official injunction that +Christian and moral principle demands that all the members of the +particular Church shall subscribe to and work for the reform. Even at +this eleventh hour, when the issue of peace or war confronts the whole +of mankind, one notices hesitation, reserve, ambiguity. During the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +fateful years between 1900 and 1914, when the nations were, in the eyes +of all, preparing the most appalling armaments ever known in history, +when men were speaking freely all over Europe of "the next war" and the +terrific dimensions which modern science and modern alliances would give +to it, the various branches of the Christian Church adhered to their +ancient and futile practice of preaching general principles (as far as +national conduct is concerned), and had little practical influence on +the development.</p> + + +<p>I am not unaware of the small movements among the clergy for cultivating +international clerical friendship, or of the extent to which individual +clergymen have co-operated in the various arbitration movements. That is +only a feeble discharge of a small part of their duty. Had Leo XIII or +Pius X issued a plain and explicit Encyclical on the subject, and +directed his vast international organisation of clergy to labour +wholeheartedly for its realisation, who can estimate what the result +would have been? Had the clergy of Germany issued a stern and collective +denunciation of the Pan-German and Imperialist literature which was +instilling poison into every village of the country, can we suppose that +it would have been without avail? Had the Archbishops and Bishops of +England, and the leaders of the Free Churches, definitely instructed +their people that the pacifist ideal was not merely in accord with +Christian principles, but was one of the most urgent and beneficent +reforms of our time, would the English people have passed as +inobservantly as it did through the five years of preparation for a +great war?</p> + + +<p>It is no part of my plan to analyse this deplorable failure of the +Churches as moral agencies. The explanation would be complex, and is now +superfluous. The clergy were, like the majority of their fellows,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +obsessed by the military system and unable to realise the possibility of +a change. In part they were deluded by the catch-words of superficial +literature. They had an idea that we were asking England to lower its +armament while the rest of the world increased its armament. They +muttered that "the time was not ripe," not realising that it was their +business to make it ripe. They had been accustomed for ages to preaching +a purely individualist morality, and they felt ill at ease in the larger +social applications of moral principle which our age regards as more +important. They feared to offend military supporters, and did not +realise that one may entirely honour the soldier as long as the military +system lasts, yet resent the system. They felt that this new movement +was suspiciously hailed by Socialists, and that to denounce armies had +an air of politics about it. They were peculiarly wedded to tradition, +on account of the very nature they claimed for their traditions, and +they instinctively felt that to denounce war would be to attempt to +improve, not merely on their predecessors, but on the Old and the New +Testaments. They solaced themselves with the thought that unnecessary +violence was condemned in their general teaching, and that, if it +eventually transpired that war was unnecessary, they could point out +once more the all-embracing character of the Christian ethic. In fine, +they were for the greater part, like the greater part of their fellows, +mentally indolent and indisposed to think out or fight for a new idea.</p> + + +<p>Whatever the explanation, the fact remains. By the tenth century +Christianity was fully organised, and all the peoples of Europe were +Christian; by the thirteenth century the power of the Church was +enormous and the nations of Europe were settled and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> civilised. But +neither then nor at any later period did Christianity perceive the crime +and stupidity of the prevailing system. The perception is even now only +faint and partial. It is this long toleration of the military system, +the thousand-year silence on what is now acclaimed as one of the +greatest applications of Christian principle, that one finds it +difficult or impossible to forgive. The zeal of some of the modern +clergy is open to a certain not unnatural suspicion: in view of their +shrinking authority and the growing indifference of the world to dogma +and ritual, they have been forced to take up these new and larger ideas +of our time.</p> + + +<p>Even if one lays aside that suspicion, and in many cases it is quite +unjust, the clergy must realise that the indictment of Christianity is +grave, and is almost unatonable. Those thousand years of conflict, +during which they sanctioned every variety of war and initiated many +wars in their own interest, have given the military system such root in +the hearts of men that it will require a supreme and prolonged effort to +destroy it. The proverbial visitor from Mars would not be so much amazed +at any feature of our life as at this retention amid a great +civilisation of the barbaric method of settling international +differences. He would ask in astonishment how an intelligent and +generally humane race, a race which raises homes for stray cats and aged +horses, could cling to a system which, on infallible experience, plunges +one or more countries in the deepest suffering every few years. He would +learn that there has not been a war in Europe for a hundred years the +initial cause of which would not have been better appreciated and +adjudicated on by a body of impartial lawyers; and that, if the quarrels +had thus been submitted to arbitration,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> we should have saved (including +the annual military expenditure and the cost of the present war) some +three million lives and more than £15,000,000,000—since the end of the +Napoleonic wars. In answer to the amazement of this imaginary critic, we +could reply only that Europe has grown to regard the military system as +so permanent and unquestioned an institution of our civilisation that it +simply cannot imagine the abolition of that system.</p> + + +<p>For this incapacity, this widespread inertia, this blundering idea that +there is some serious intrinsic difficulty in the matter, the Churches +are responsible. If they had directed to war the smallest particle of +the ardent rhetoric they have poured on disbelief in dogmas which they +are to-day abandoning, the public mind would have awakened long ago. +There is no intrinsic difficulty in substituting arbitration for war. +There are technical difficulties which the great lawyers and statesmen +of the peace-movement have given ample promise of surmounting, but the +overwhelming obstacle is merely this—the peoples of Europe do not +insist on the reform. Of all the large problems which confront the +modern mind this is incomparably the simplest. We are hopelessly divided +as to the nature of the remedy for most of our social ills. Here the +remedy is acknowledged: the plan has been elaborated almost in entirety: +the international tribunal already exists, and awaits only its +executive, which the nations of Europe could supply to-morrow. It is the +will, the demand, that is wanting. For that lack we charge the utter +failure of the Churches during the ages of their power to enunciate a +plain moral lesson, and their positive encouragement of an evil system. +That is the real indictment. It affects the Christian Church in every +nation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + + +<h3>THE APOLOGIES OF THE CLERGY</h3> + + + +<p>Any person who cares to read the reports of the utterances of our clergy +in the current religious periodicals will recognise that they are +painfully conscious of the reproach which this war implies. One +constantly finds them repeating that in this year of tragedy +"Christianity has failed" and "the gospel has broken in our hands." It +had been their boast that Christianity had civilised Europe, and none of +them has the audacity or indecency to claim, as some writers have done, +that such a war is in harmony with the principles and ideals of +civilisation. They have preached brotherhood and peace, and the greater +part of Christendom is engaged in a strife of the most terrible nature. +It is not a struggle of Christian and infidel; it is a struggle of +Christian and Christian, and one or several of the Christian nations +involved are guilty of a crime greater in magnitude than all the murders +in Europe during a decade. Above all patriotism, above all immediate +anxiety, above all argumentation about responsibility, this grim fact +stands out and reproaches them: after fifteen hundred years of Christian +preaching Europe is locked in the bloodiest struggle of all time.</p> + + +<p>During the last fifty or hundred years the clergy have developed some +expertness in making apologies. They have lived in a world of anxious +questions and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> heated charges, and a special department called +Apologetics has been added to theology. They are, it is true, sorely +perplexed, divided in counsel, uneasy as to their procedure. Some would +ignore the pertinacious outsider and persuade their followers that he is +negligible; others would sustain an energetic campaign against him. Some +would openly and candidly meet the questions of their followers; others +would prefer not to unsettle the large number who never ask questions. +At the present juncture it is impossible to be wholly silent. Some of +the clergy, it seems—I learn this from the recorded words of eminent +preachers—wish to ignore the war and go on with their business as +usual. But the majority feel that such a procedure is dangerous. This +violent breach of Christian principles by Christian nations requires +some explanation. Where is the long-boasted moral influence of +Christianity? Where is the all-loving ruler of the universe? Let us +examine some of the apologies of the preachers.</p> + + +<p>Let me confess that, from a long experience of this apologetic branch of +theology, I am not surprised to find that not a single speaker or +writer—as far as my reading of their utterances goes—fairly meets the +main difficulty. Most of them, naturally, are content to plead that the +war has been forced on Europe by Germany, and that therefore no +responsibility lies on Christianity as a whole for the tragedy and the +moral failure it involves. A large number of them go even farther. They +point to the heroic sacrifices made in defence of an ideal by France, +Belgium, England, and Russia—the millions of men streaming to the +battle-field, the millions of women bravely enduring the suspense and +the loss, the millions who generously open their purses to every +philanthropic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> enterprise—and they acclaim this as a triumph of +Christian civilisation. As to the failure of Christianity in Germany to +stand the test, they either point superficially to the growth of +Rationalism, Biblical Criticism, and Socialism in that country, or they +take refuge in the confusions of the extreme pacifists and refuse to +assign responsibility at all, or they persuade themselves that a small +minority of men who were not Christians deluded the German people into +consenting to the war. In any case, they insist that Christianity as a +whole is not impeached. Assume that Austria was dragged into the war by +Germany, and you have four Christian nations—five, if one includes +Serbia—behaving with great gallantry and entire propriety, and only one +Christian nation misbehaving.</p> + + +<p>There is no doubt that this is the common religious attitude, but it +does not satisfy some of the more thoughtful and earnest preachers. This +optimism seems to them rebuked by the very fact that Christendom is in a +state of war to which Paganism can offer no parallel. They think of the +lands beyond the sea to which they have been sending the Christian +message of peace and brotherhood. They fancy they see China and Japan +smiling their faint but distressing smile at the situation in Christian +Europe. They have assured all these distant peoples that their faith has +built up a shining civilisation in Europe, and now there flash and +quiver through the nerves of the world the daily messages of horror, of +fierce hatred, of appalling carnage, of the wanton destruction by +Christians of Christian temples. The Gospel has, somehow, broken down in +Europe, they regretfully admit.</p> + + +<p>But they never go beyond this vague admission and boldly state the sin +of the Churches. One would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> imagine that, in spite of its obvious and +lamentable failure, they still thought that their predecessors had been +justified in preaching only the general terms of the Christian gospel +and never applying it to war. One would fancy that they are so +unacquainted with history as to suppose that during the long ages of the +past the Churches were really frowning on violence and warfare, instead +of blessing and employing it. They fear to draw out in its full +proportion the inefficacy (because of its vagueness) of the gospel and +the long perversion of its ministers. Yet we cannot evade this +fundamental fact of the situation, that this particular war is an +outcome of a general military system, and the Churches have a very grave +responsibility for the maintenance of that system until the twentieth +century. We all know how the technical moral theologian of recent times +has glossed the complacency of his Church. He has drawn a distinction +between offensive and defensive war, and, since the latter is obviously +just, he has maintained that armies are rightly raised to wage it when +necessary. On this petty fallacy the Churches have so long reconciled +themselves to militarism, and have, in fact, been amongst its closest +allies. The clergy did not, or would not, see that the retention of the +military system was in itself the surest provocation of offensive war; +that ambition or covetousness could almost always find a moral pretext +for aggression, and that there have been comparatively few priests in +the history of Europe who ever stood out and unmasked the hypocrisy of +such monarchs. As long as the military system lasted, it was certain +that wars would take place, yet they never denounced the system. The +great conception of substituting justice for violence, law for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +lawlessness, did not enter the mind of Christianity. It was born of the +secular humanitarian spirit of modern times.</p> + + +<p>For any serious person this is the gravest charge which the clergy have +to meet, and they one and all evade it. The civilisation of Europe has a +unique greatness on its material side; in its applied science, its +engineering, its industries, its commerce. For that, assuredly, the +Churches are not in any degree responsible. Our civilisation is unique +also in its political power, its mastery over other peoples; and for +that again the Churches are not responsible. It is great on the +intellectual side, in its science and philosophy, its art and general +culture; and that greatness, too, has been won independently of, or in +defiance of, the clergy. On the moral side only it may plausibly be +connected with its established religion, and here precisely it fails and +approaches barbarism. I do not wonder that the Churches are troubled, +and do not wonder greatly that they are silent.</p> + + +<p>But while they are silent on the main issue, they have a vast amount to +say about minor issues and secondary aspects. They console and reconcile +their people in a hundred ways. Actually they seem, in a great measure, +to entertain the idea that the Churches are going to emerge from this +trial stronger than ever, and to witness at last that religious revival +which they had almost begun to despair of securing. Let me examine a few +of these clerical pronouncements. I do not choose the eccentric sermons +of ill-educated rural preachers, but the utterances of some of the more +distinguished preachers, reproduced with pride and honour in the leading +religious periodicals. Yet no person can coldly reflect on these +pronouncements and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> fail to realise that our generation acts not +unnaturally in passing by the open doors of the Churches; that the +clergy are, as usual, shirking the most serious questions of the modern +intelligence, and trusting mainly to profit by the heated and disordered +and confusing emotions of the hour.</p> + + +<p>One of the most extraordinary of these deliverances reaches me from +Australia, but as it comes from one of the leading prelates of the +Commonwealth and does assuredly express what multitudes of preachers are +saying everywhere, I do not hesitate to give it prominence. Archbishop +Carr, of Melbourne, set out in the middle of the war to enlighten his +followers, and his words are reported with great deference in the +Melbourne <i>Age</i> (December 28th). The prelate observed that he had "very +strong ideas about the war" (I quote the words of the <i>Age</i>), and "did +not believe it had happened by accident, or by the chance action of some +king or emperor." He believed that "the great God who provided for all +human creatures, through the war was punishing sin that had prevailed +for a long time, particularly in the shape of infidelity." The +Archbishop proved from history and the Bible that war did come sometimes +as a punishment of sin, and he concluded, or the journal thus summarises +his conclusion:</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"The reason that God was using the present war for the punishment +of the nations was that for a very considerable time there had been +not merely neglect of the worship and service of God, which had +always existed to a greater or less extent, but a regular upraising +of human light and human understanding and human will against the +existence of the providence of God. It was not so common among us +here [it is just as common], but there were countries in Europe in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +which the spirit of infidelity and the absence of supernatural +faith had been increasing for many years. Men were coming to think +they were quite sufficient in themselves for the working out of +their own destinies, but the war had come, and it was humbling such +men."</p> +</div> + + +<p>Archbishop Carr is not adduced here as a representative type of clerical +culture. On what grounds the Roman Catholic authorities select men like +him and the late Cardinal Moran to preside over the destinies of their +Church in our great and promising Commonwealth is not clear. In the +course of this important sermon, in which he is delivering his very +personal and mature conclusions on the greatest issue of the hour, the +Archbishop observed that "the Roman Empire had been attacked by Attila" +and "Attila scourged the Romans for the crimes of which they had for a +long while been guilty." One is surprised that he did not add the pretty +legend of the awe-stricken Hun retreating before the majestic figure of +Pope Leo I. However, most of us are aware that, as a student in any +college of Australia ought to be able to inform the Archbishop, Attila +never reached within two hundred miles of Rome, and that the Pagan +Romans, whom the Archbishop obviously has in mind, had been extinguished +long before the monarch of the Huns was born. There is no greater +historical scholarship in the other proofs which the prelate brings in +support of his thesis that war is often deliberately sent as a +punishment.</p> + + +<p>But what are we to make of the moral standards of an eminent prelate of +the Roman Church who can hold and express so appalling a theory? It is +based on the moral standard of the Prussian officer, of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> medieval +torturer. The majority of clergymen have at length come to realise, +tardily and reluctantly, that the man or woman who rejects the creeds +they offer may quite possibly not believe in them. The practice of +describing a refusal to assent to the doctrine of hell and heaven as a +wilful rebellion of passion against the restraining influences of +Christianity is going out of fashion. Christian people were meeting too +many heretics in the flesh, and did not recognise the thing described +from the pulpit. The sturdy Archbishop will have none of this pampering. +Unbelief is a matter of the will as well as the understanding. And he +actually believes that God guided the thoughts of William II in +engineering this war—believes it for a reason a hundred times worse +than the Kaiser's idea. He believes that God sent on Europe a war that +will cost £10,000,000,000, that is blasting the homes and embittering +the hearts of millions, that mingles the innocent and guilty in one +common and fearful desolation, that sends millions to a premature death +amidst circumstances which do not lend themselves to a devout +preparation, that is raising storms of hatred and perverting the souls +of millions, because a few other millions refuse to go to church. It +would be difficult to conceive a cruder and more barbarous idea. Attila +did not scourge the Romans, but he did scourge other peoples; and we +hold him up to execration for ever for it. But Archbishop Carr, and many +other preachers, think that an all-holy and all-intelligent God can do +infinitely worse than Attila. He is going to punish the unbelievers in +eternal fire when they die: meantime he will make a hell on earth for +the innocent as well as the supposed guilty, the child and the mother as +well as the free-thinking father.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> Of a truth, it is not surprising that +a reluctance to listen to sermons has spread to Melbourne, and that men +are wondering whether they had better not take in hand their own +destinies rather than entrust them to such spiritual guides as this.</p> + + +<p>Note, particularly, in passing the emphasis which the Archbishop puts on +the determination of our generation to control its own destinies. Until +the nineteenth century men entrusted their destinies, on the moral side, +to guides like Archbishop Carr. I have described the result. In the +nineteenth century there began this practice, which the Archbishop +thinks worthy of so inhuman a chastisement, of men attending to their +own moral interests. Of this also I have described the result. The moral +sentiment of Europe has greatly improved, and there is at least a +widespread revolt against warfare and a prospect of abolishing it. For +this God, the more than human, scorched Europe with the horrible flames +which Archbishop Carr thinks he keeps in his arsenal of +torture-implements. The Archbishop says that infidelity has not spread +so much in Australia. I should, if I were not well acquainted with the +Commonwealth, be disposed to see in that the reason why eminent prelates +can still utter such gross medieval nonsense in that country.</p> + + +<p>In England this particularly crude type of nonsense is not usually +uttered by preachers of distinction,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> though it is common enough among +less responsible preachers; but there is a dangerous approach to it in +some of the sermons which the religious periodicals<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> regard as +important. Looking over the current issues of the religious press, I +notice a sermon on the war by Professor Clow, in which the Allies are, +in harmony with his test, described as "the vultures of God." Germany, +it seems, is the prey, and Germany's sins are painted black. Professor +Clow, it is true, shrinks from the very natural implication of his +words, but he clearly intimates that he sees the action of God in the +military conduct of the Allies, and to that extent he is hardly less +revolting, in view of his culture, than the archbishop. Could the God of +Professor Clow find no other way of removing Germany's arrogance than to +sear and blast it with a world-war and involve millions of innocent +along with the guilty in his lakes of fire and blood?</p> + + +<p>More important, however, is a sermon delivered before the recent +National Free Church Council by one of the most esteemed Nonconformist +preachers, the Rev. J. H. Rushbrooke, and reproduced admiringly in the +Nonconformist journals. The cloud of war, naturally, brooded over this +gathering of ministers. Some of them heroically closed their eyes to it +and went on with their clerical business as usual. But most of the +speakers seem to have felt that all other issues were thrust aside in +the minds of their followers just now, and that a grave and soul-shaking +question possessed them. As a result we have, I suppose, the finest +efforts of Nonconformity to meet that question and save the prestige of +the Churches.</p> + + +<p>Mr. Rushbrooke frankly described the war as an overwhelming catastrophe, +gravely disturbing the religious mind. It bore witness, he said, to "the +failure of organised, or disorganised, Christianity." He conceived it as +"God's judgment upon the Church's failure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> seriously to devote herself +to the great cause of peace on earth and good-will among men." With all +their boasts of what Christianity had done in Europe, it now appeared +that that civilisation was raised upon "foundations of sand." The +preacher claimed that much was being done in modern times by the clergy +to promote international amity, but he seemed to feel that it was little +and was <i>very</i> recent. The spectacle unfolded before us in Europe to-day +is a sufficient proof of its inadequacy. And, as Mr. Rushbrooke said, we +now see how little use it is to preach ideals at home and not apply them +to the common life of the world.</p> + + +<p>These words are the nearest to wisdom that I have found among a large +collection of pulpit-utterances and religious articles. The preacher +plainly sees, and with some measure of candour confesses, that long +remissness of Christian ministers in applying their principles to which +the war, and all wars, are fundamentally due. The record which he +carefully makes of recent efforts to redeem the failure is paltry in +comparison with the resources even of the Free Churches, and only serves +to bring out more clearly the awful neglect of Christian ministers +during the long ages when they had a mighty power in Europe. But Mr. +Rushbrooke makes one grave error. He feels that not merely the relation +of the war to Christianity, but its relation to God, is engaging public +attention, and he stumbles into the theory that God sent the war. It is +"God's judgment on the Church's failure." We must suppose that Mr. +Rushbrooke did not literally mean what he said. His words imply a theory +of the war more monstrous even than that of Archbishop Carr. To punish +Europe for the sins of unbelievers has at least a genuine medieval +plausibility about it; but to send this in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>describable plague on the +nations of Europe because the clergy failed to do their duty.... One +must really assume that Mr. Rushbrooke did not mean what he said, and +leave the sentence unfinished. What he meant it is impossible to +conjecture. To the religious mind "God's judgment" means a chastisement +sent by God. But, whatever Mr. Rushbrooke meant, he had been wiser to +leave the idea of God out of his comments on this war, and to say +frankly that it would bring on them and on their predecessors, on the +whole of Christianity, the judgment of man and the judgment of history +for their neglect of their opportunities.</p> + + +<p>The Rev. A. T. Guttery addressed the Council in a more cheerful mood, +and his reflections are characteristic of a large group of the clergy. +He would not for a moment allow the failure of Christianity. The +Churches had, he said, been so successful in compelling the world to +recognise the evil of aggressive warfare that even the Germans were +eager to describe their action as purely defensive. "The Pagan glory of +war for its own sake was gone." And when we acknowledge the comparative +failure of religion in Germany, and restrict our attention to the sphere +of our own clergy, we find that they have created an entirely new +spirit. The lust for territory and for gold is felt no more in England. +Here there is no mafficking over victories, there are no hymns of hate. +The British nation has been sobered by the influence of Christianity. We +may regret that the German people has not proved equally susceptible, +and its pastors equally energetic, but we cannot bear their burden. +Their naughtiness alone has disturbed the moral progress which, even in +this department, Christianity was fostering.</p> + + +<p>This is, I think, a very usual attitude of the clergy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> and I have +already appreciated the sound element of it. There is no comparison +between the behaviour of the two nations. Whether England deserves quite +all the compliments which Mr. Guttery showers upon it may be a matter of +opinion. We have as yet little cause for "mafficking," but there is very +little doubt that it will occur on a grandiose scale before the war is +over. We do not sing hymns of hate; but it might be hazardous to +speculate what we would do if some nation drew an iron ring round our +country and reduced us almost to a condition of starvation. We have no +lust for territory—I am not sure about the lust for gold—because we +have in our Empire territory enough for our population; and we may wait +to see if England does not annex any part of Germany's African or +Pacific possessions. Mr. Guttery's contrast is crude and superficial. He +ignores the economic and geographical conditions which give us a feeling +of content and Germany a profound feeling of discontent and a dangerous +ambition. The German character is not in itself inferior to ours, and it +were well for us to fancy ourselves in Germany's position and wonder if +we would have acted otherwise.</p> + + +<p>On the other hand, I have freely acknowledged, or claimed, that there +has been a great improvement in the moral temper of Europe, and that +this is especially seen in the odium that is now cast on aggressive or +offensive war. But to claim this improvement for the credit of religion +is, to say the least, audacious. The more simple-minded of Mr. Guttery's +hearers would imagine that the change set in with the fall of Paganism. +"The Pagan glory of war for its own sake is gone." When clerical writers +speak of Paganism they think that any evil deed ever done by a Pagan is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +characteristic of the whole body; they ask us to apply a different +standard to their own body. Plato and Socrates were Pagans; Marcus +Aurelius and Antoninus Pius—to speak of warriors and statesmen—were +Pagans. The truth is that a glory in war for its own sake was no more +generally characteristic of Paganism than it was of Christian Europe +until a century ago: it was probably less. Most of the German Emperors +and of the Kings of England, France, and Spain would fairly come under +the description which Mr. Guttery calls Pagan. One hardly needs to know +much of history to perceive that this moral improvement in the +conception of war belongs to the last century and a half, and it is +somewhat bold to claim that a change which made no appearance during a +thousand years of profound Christian influence, and did begin to appear +and make progress as that faith waned, can be claimed for Christianity. +I do not forget that the theologian began long ago, in the seclusion of +his cell or study, to condemn offensive warfare. But there have been +hundreds of offensive wars waged by Christian monarchs since that date, +and we do not read of any instance in which the clergy failed to endorse +the thin casuistry by which the offensive was turned into a defensive or +a preventive war, or refused to sanction an entire neglect of the +principle.</p> + + +<p>Dr. Scott-Lidgett followed on somewhat similar lines. The whole trouble, +he protested, was due to an anti-Christian, illiberal, and inhuman +system. It seems that he was referring to Prussia, and it is regrettable +that he did not feel called to explain why that system prevails in the +year of the Lord 1915, or how it finds an instrument of its ambition in +a militarism that ought to have been denounced and abolished<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> centuries +ago. Mr. Shakespeare, another distinguished Nonconformist, follows the +same facile course—casts all the responsibility on Germany—and equally +fails to explain how Germany came to find the machinery of destruction +at its hand in our age.</p> + + +<p>In fine, Dean Welldon, one of the most energetic spokesmen of the Church +of England, addressed this Free Church Council, and imparted an element +of originality. He used the inconclusive and dangerous argument of <i>tu +quoque</i>. If, he said, you claim that this war exhibits the failure of +Christianity, you must admit that it shows equally the failure of +science and civilisation. Nay, he says, growing bolder, if your +contention is true, Christianity has done no more than supply the +instrument of its own destruction, but science and civilisation have +brought us back to savagery.</p> + + +<p>It is, of course, difficult to follow a man's rounded thought in the +crabbed phrases of an abbreviating reporter, but it is plain that Dean +Welldon has here been guilty of a confusion which only betrays his +apologetic poverty in face of this great crisis. Science—and it is +especially science that the clergy conceive as the rival they have to +discredit—has no concern whatever with the war. Science, either as an +organised body of teachers or as a branch of culture, has never +discussed war, and never had the faintest duty or opportunity to do so. +Economic science may discuss particular aspects of war, but the +economist deals with things as they are, not as they ought to be. Moral +science even is not a preaching agency, desirous of dividing with the +clergy the ethical guidance of the people. When men pit science against +religion, they usually refer to its superior power of explaining +reality.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> And if it be objected that therefore no morally educative +agency would remain if religion were discarded, the answer is simple. A +system of moral idealism founded on science—it is absurd to call it +science—does exist, and might at any time be enlarged to the +proportions of a national or international educative agency. As yet it +is left to individual cultivation or crystallised in a few tiny +associations, such as Ethical and Secularist and, partly, Socialist +Societies; and I venture to say, from a large experience of these +bodies, that, apart from the professed peace societies, they have been +more assiduous than any religious associations in England, in proportion +to their work, in demanding the substitution of arbitration for war, and +that the overwhelming majority, almost the entirety, of their members +are pacifists. To speak of this small organised force, with its slender +influence, as equally discredited with the far mightier and +thousand-year-older influence of the Churches would be strangely +incongruous; and it is hardly less incongruous to drag science into the +comparison.</p> + + +<p>A somewhat similar distinction must be observed in regard to +civilisation. The antithesis of religion and civilisation is confused +and confusing. Christian ministers have claimed that <i>they</i> are the +moral element of civilisation, and they have jealously combated every +effort to take from them or divide with them that function. They resist +every attempt to exclude their almost useless Bible-lessons from our +schools, and to substitute for them a direct and more practical moral +education of children. They have for fifteen hundred years claimed and +possessed the monopoly of ethical culture in European civilisation, and +we are a little puzzled when they turn round and say, with an air of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +argument, that if Christianity has failed civilisation also has failed. +There is only one civilisation in Europe that has attempted to +substitute a humanitarian for a religious training of conduct; one +nation that is plainly and overwhelmingly non-Christian. That nation is +France. And France has one of the best moral records in modern Europe, +and has behaved nobly throughout this lamentable business. In fine, if +we take Dean Welldon's words in the most generous sense, if we assume +that he refers to the whole body of culture and sentiment which, in our +time, aspires to mould and direct the race apart from Christian +doctrine, the answer has already been given. Christianity is, as a power +in Europe, fourteen centuries old; this humanitarianism is hardly a +century old. But there has surely been more progress made during this +last century toward the destruction of the military system, and more +progress in the elimination of brutality from war, than in the whole +preceding thirteen centuries. Does Dean Welldon doubt that? Or does he +regard it as a mere coincidence?</p> + + +<p>Thus, whether we turn to Churchman or Nonconformist, to cleric or +layman, we find no satisfactory apology. I have before me a short +article by Mr. Max Pemberton on the question, "Will Christianity survive +the war?" He uses the most consecrated phrases of the Church, and leaves +no doubt whatever that he writes in defence of Christianity. But Mr. +Pemberton practically confines himself to a very emphatic personal +assurance that Christianity <i>will</i> survive the war, and does not +honestly face a single one of the questions of "the Pagan" against whom +he is writing. He does make one serious point of a peculiar character. +There are, he says, "23,000 priests<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> fighting for France in the +trenches." Mr. Pemberton seems to find it easy to accept the interested +statements of those Roman Catholic journalists who make sectarian use of +some of the London dailies. There are only about 30,000 priests in +France, and, since none of them are younger than twenty-three, to +suppose that seventy-five per cent. of them are of military age is to +take a remarkable view of the population of France. In any case, there +is no special ground for rhapsody. They are not volunteers; in France +every man must do his civic duty. We may appreciate their devotion to +their religion on the battle-field, but Mr. Pemberton must be +imperfectly acquainted with the French character if he supposes that the +thirty-four million unbelievers of France are going to return to the +Church because the younger <i>curés</i> did not try to evade the military +service which the State imposed on them.</p> + + +<p>Another document I may quote is a manifesto issued by the "Hampstead +Evangelical Free Church Council," a joint declaration of the principal +Nonconformist ministers of that highly cultivated suburb. It does not +purport to vindicate the Churches, yet some of its observations in +connection with the war open out a new page of apologetics. These +clergymen invite all the citizens of their district, on the ground of +the war, to attend church, even if they have not been in the habit of +doing so. On what more precise ground? The able lawyer who received this +invitation, and forwarded it to me, thought it, not the most ingenious, +but the most curious, piece of pleading he had ever known. The citizens +of Hampstead were invited to go to church "to offer up to God a +sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for his goodness to us as a +nation"! At the very time the eminent preachers were writing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> this, the +darkened city still cowered under the threat of a horrible outrage; the +shattered homes and fresh graves of Scarborough and Whitby reminded us +faintly of the horrors beyond the sea; the maimed soldiers all over the +country, the sad figures of the bereaved, the anxious hearts of a +million of our people, were but a beginning of the evil that had fallen +on us. We had in fourteen years, since the last war, been obliged to +spend a thousand millions sterling in preparation for a war we did not +desire, and we were entering upon an expenditure of something more than +a thousand millions in a year. All this we had incurred through no fault +of ours. And these clergymen thought it a good opportunity to invite us +to go to church to thank God for "his goodness to us as a nation."</p> + + +<p>Another manifesto is signed by a body of archbishops and bishops of the +Anglican Church. It enjoined all the faithful to supplicate the Almighty +on January 3rd to stop the war. This was to be done "all round the +Empire." I will not indulge in any cheap sarcasm as to the result, +though one would probably be right in saying that, if the end be +deferred to the year 1917, they will still believe that their prayers +had effect. What it is more material to notice is that the prelates +think that "these are days of great spiritual opportunity." It seems +that "the shattering of so much that seemed established reveals the +vanity of human affairs," and that "anxiety, separation, and loss have +made many hearts sensible of the approach of Christ to the soul." It is, +perhaps, unkind to examine this emotional language from an intellectual +point of view, but one feels that there is a subtle element of apology +in it. These spiritual advantages may outweigh the secular pain; may +even justify God's share<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> in the great catastrophe. I have examined, and +will discuss more fully in the next chapter, the theistic side of this +plea. Intellectually, it borders on monstrosity: it is the survival of +an ancient and barbaric conception. The notion that "the approach of +Christ to the soul" is felt especially in time of affliction is merely a +statement of a certain type of emotional experience, while the +revelation of "the vanity of human affairs" is sheer perversity. Human +affairs have for ages been so badly managed, in this respect, that we +cannot in a decade or a century rid ourselves of such a legacy. The real +moral is to discover who were responsible for that legacy of disorder +and violence, and to put our affairs on a new and sounder basis.</p> + + +<p>A considerable number of clerical writers proceed on the suggestion +discreetly advanced by these Anglican prelates. Let us wait, they ask, +until the clouds of war have rolled away, and then estimate the +spiritual gain to men from the trial through which they have passed, and +the closer association of the Churches which it may bring about. Now I +have no doubt that many who really believe the doctrines of +Christianity, yet have for years neglected the duties which their belief +imposes on them, will be induced by this awful experience to return to +allegiance. The number is limited, and an equal or greater number may +be, and probably will be, induced to surrender religion entirely, and +with good reason, by the reflections with which this war inspires them. +But to insinuate that this spiritual advantage, if it be an advantage, +of the few is justly purchased by the appalling suffering and disorder +brought about by the war is one of those religious affirmations which +seem to the outsider positively repulsive.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> + + +<p>I do not speak merely of the deaths, the pain, the privation, the +outrages, the flood of tears and blood over half of Europe. This, +indeed, is of itself enough to make the theory repellent to any who do +not share the ascetic views taught in the Churches. The notion that an +evil is justified if good issue from it is akin to the notion that the +end justifies the means. But I would draw attention to an aspect of the +war which is almost ignored by these eloquent preachers. They eagerly +record every flash of heroism, every spark of charity and mercy, that +the war evokes. They refer sympathetically to the dead and the bereaved, +the outraged girls and women—whom, in the narrowest Puritanism, they +forbid to rid themselves of the awful burden laid on them by drunken +brutes—the shattered homes and monuments. But there is a side of war +which they must know, and it demands plain speaking. It relaxes the +control of moral restraints even where it was before operative. The +illegitimate-birth rate of England and France will faintly tell the +story before the year is out. Inquiry in any town where our soldiers are +lodged, or in the rear of the French and English (or any other) +trenches, will tell it more fully. I do not speak of crime and violence, +but of willing sexual intercourse where it was never known before. These +things, and the increased drunkenness and the stirring of old passions, +are regarded by the clergy as amongst the most evil things of life. Do +they seriously suggest that they have been brought in to secure, or are +justified by, the spiritual advantage of the refined and emotional few +whose religion is only deepened by affliction?</p> + + +<p>In short, I find not a single phrase of valid explanation or apology in +these and other prominent clerical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> pronouncements I have read. They are +superficial, contradictory, and vapid. Nothing is more common than for +religious writers to protest that the conception of reality which is +opposed to theirs is shallow. What depth, what sincere grip of reality, +does one find in any of these pulpit utterances? Yet I have taken the +pronouncements of official bodies or of distinguished preachers who may +be trusted to put the Christian feeling in its most persuasive form. One +thinks that God sent the war; another attributes it to German rebels +against God. One regards it as a spiritual agency devised for our good; +another says that it is an unmitigated calamity sent for our punishment. +One sees in it the failure of Christianity; others find in it precisely +a confirmation of Christian teaching. Some think it will draw men to +God; others that it will drive men from God. Unity, perhaps, we cannot +expect; but the empty rhetoric and utter sophistry of most of these +utterances reveal the complete lack of defence. On the main indictment +of the Christian Church, its failure to have condemned and removed +militarism long ago, all are silent; or the one preacher who notices it +can only dejectedly confess that it is true.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + + +<h3>THE WAR AND THEISM</h3> + + + +<p>In the leading Catholic periodical of this country there has been some +nervous discussion of the attitude of the Pope. A new man, a strong and +enlightened man, happens to have mounted the chair of Peter in the midst +of the war. For more than a century his predecessors have bemoaned the +increasing wickedness of the world: Pius VII, tossed like a helpless +cork on the waves of the Revolution; Leo XII and Pius VIII, the +associates of the Holy Alliance; Gregory XVI, eating sweetmeats or +mumbling his breviary while young Italy sweated blood; Pius IX, grasping +eagerly his tatters of sovereignty; Leo XIII, the unsuccessful +diplomatist; Pius X, the medieval monk. They saw their Church shrink +decade by decade, and they witnessed the prosperity of all that they +denounced. Benedict XV came to save the Church, and a great moral +opportunity awaited him. But, while claiming to be the moral arbitrator +of the world, he avoids his plain duty, and is content to repeat the +worn phrases about the iniquity of the modern spirit. His apologists say +that the war is politics, and that Popes must not interfere in politics.</p> + + +<p>I have earlier explained in what sense this war presents a political +aspect to Benedict XV, and given the reason for his reluctance. It is +typical of the whole failure of Christianity. A little over nineteen +centuries<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> ago, it is said in the churches, a star shone over the cradle +of the Saviour, and choirs of angels announced his coming as a promise +of "peace on earth and good-will among men." I am not in this little +work examining the whole question of the influence of Christianity. But +it is well to recall that, according to its own records, its first and +greatest promise to the world was peace; and to that old Roman Empire, +and to Europe at any stage in its later history, no greater blessing +could have been brought. Has Christianity succeeded?</p> + + +<p>But the religious interest of the war is by no means exhausted when we +have concluded that it marks, in one of the most important departments +of human action, the complete failure of historical Christianity. My +purpose is to discuss this relation to the Churches, and it would not be +completed unless I considered the war in relation to their fundamental +doctrine, the moral government of the universe by a Supreme Being. In a +few months, we hope, the war will be over: the Allies will have +triumphed. We know, from experience and from history, what will follow +in the Churches. From end to end of Britain, from Dover to Penzance and +from Southampton to Aberdeen, there will rise a jubilant cry that God +has blessed our arms and awarded us the victory. Now that we are in the +midst of the horrors and burdens of the war God is little mentioned. One +would imagine that the great majority of the clergy conceived him as +standing aside, for some inscrutable reason, and letting wicked men +deploy their perverse forces. When the triumph comes, gilding the past +sacrifices or driving them from memory, God will be on every lip. The +whole nation will be implored to come and kneel before the altars. +Royalty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> and nobility and military, judges and stockbrokers and working +men—above all, a surging, thrilling, ecstatic mass of women—will +gather round the clergy, and will avow that they see the finger of God +in this glorious consummation. The relation of the war to God will then +become the supreme consideration for the Christian mind. It may be more +instructive to consider it now, before the last flood of emotion pours +over our judgments.</p> + + +<p>I have already discussed some of the clerical allusions to the share of +God in the war. They are so frankly repellent that one cannot be +surprised that the majority of the clergy prefer to be silent on that +point. They prefer to await the victory and build on its more genial and +indulgent emotions. The war is either a blessing or a curse. One would +think that there was not much room for choice, but we saw that some are +bold enough to hint that the spiritual good may outweigh the bodily +pain. They remind us of a Treitschke or a Bernhardi writing smugly of +the moral grandeur of war, the need to brace the slackness of human +nature periodically by war, the chivalry and devotion it calls out, and +so on.</p> + + +<p>Still worse is the theory of those who regard war frankly as a curse, +yet put it to the direct authorship of the Almighty. This theory is +natural enough in the minds of men and women who believe in hell. In +earlier ages men could not distinguish between the law of retaliation +and the need to deter criminals by using violence against them when they +transgressed. In many primitive systems of justice the law of +retaliation is expressly consecrated. It is even introduced, +inconsistently and as a survival of barbaric times, in the Babylonian +and the Judaic codes, side by side with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> saner views. It is, of course, +merely a systematisation of brute passion. In the beginning, if a man +knocked your tooth out, you knocked one of his teeth out. With the +growth of law and justice, the barbarous nature of the impulse was +recognised, and the community, by its representatives, inflicted a +"punishment" on the offender instead of allowing the offended to +retaliate. With the modern improvement of moral sentiments we have +realised that this is an imperfect advance on the barbaric idea. The +community has no more right to "punish" than the offended individual +had. We now impose hardship on an offender only for the purpose of +intimidating him from repeating the offence, or of deterring others from +offending. The idea is still somewhat crude, and a third stage will in +time be reached; but it is satisfactory that we now—not since the +advent of Christianity, but since the rise of modern humanism—all admit +that the only permissible procedure is deterrence, and not punishment as +such.</p> + + +<p>It may seem ungracious to be ever repeating that these improvements did +not take place during the period of Christian influence, but in the +recent period of its decay. There is, however, in this case a most +important and urgent reason for emphasising the fact. I say that we +<i>all</i> admit the more humane conception of punishment, but this must be +qualified. In human affairs we do: Carlyle was, perhaps, the last +moralist to cling to the old conception. But in the religious world the +old idea has been flagrantly retained. The doctrine of eternal +punishment is clearly based on the barbaric old idea that a prince whose +dignity has been insulted may justly inflict the most barbarous +punishment on the offender. Theologians have, since the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> days of Thomas +Aquinas, wasted whole reams of parchment in defending the dogma of hell, +because they knew nothing whatever of comparative jurisprudence and the +evolution of moral ideas. To us the development of the doctrine is +clear. In the Christian doctrine of hell we have a flagrant survival of +the early barbaric theory of punishment. Modern divines—while +continuing to describe the non-religious view of life as "superficial" +and the Christian as "profound"—have actually yielded to the modern +sentiment, and in a very large measure rejected one of the fundamental +dogmas of the Christian tradition. In order to conceal the procedure as +far as possible, some of them are now contending brazenly that Christ +never taught the doctrine of eternal punishment, and are deluding their +uncultivated congregations with sophistical manipulations of Greek +words.</p> + + +<p>This does not mean that Christians have lower moral sentiments than +non-Christians, but that the rigidity of their traditions, which they +regard as sacred and unalterable, imposes restrictions on them. Hence +the fact that, while Protestants have so very largely rejected the +doctrine of hell, Roman Catholics, with their more rigid conservatism +and claim of infallibility, still cling to it, and offer the amazing +spectacle of a body claiming to possess the highest ideals in the world, +yet actually cherishing an entirely barbaric theory. There is probably +not a Catholic lawyer in the world who does not reject the old idea of +punishment as barbaric, yet he placidly believes that God retains it. +That is why we find a Catholic archbishop like Carr putting forth so +revolting an idea of the war, while Protestant preachers as a rule +shrink from mentioning God in connection with it. These things<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> make it +impossible for one to understand how non-Christians can say, as they do +sometimes, that if they <i>were</i> to accept a creed, it would be the Roman +creed.</p> + + +<p>Any theory of the war which proceeds on the lines of the hell-theory is +simply barbaric, and is beneath serious discussion. We know to-day that +both ethics and religion are in a state of constant evolution. We look +back over a stream of several thousand years of historically traceable +development; we follow that stream faintly through earlier tens of +thousands of years in the ideas of primitive peoples; and we see the +evolution going on plainly in the creeds and ethical codes of our own +time. But the practice of registering certain stages of this evolution +in sacred books or codes, which are then imposed on man for centuries or +millennia as something unalterable, has been and is a very serious +hindrance to development, both in ethics and religion. It is all the +worse because these codes and sacred books always contain certain +elements which belong to even earlier and less enlightened stages, and +whole regiments of philosophers or theologians are employed for ages in +putting glosses on ancient and barbaric ideas at which the world +eventually laughs. However, we need not linger here over these ancient +ways of regarding life. The man who keeps his God at a moral level which +we disdain ourselves rarely listens to argument. He protects his "faith" +by believing that it is a mortal sin (involving sentence of hell) to +read any book that would examine it critically. It is a most ingenious +arrangement by which the doctrine of a vindictive God protects itself +against moral progress.</p> + + +<p>Now any suggestion that God sent this war upon Europe—whether as a +judgment on the clergy, or a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> judgment on unbelievers, or a judgment on +the arrogance of the Germans, etc.—is part of this old barbarism, and +may be disregarded. It conceives that God is vindictive, and at the same +time assures us that Christianity sternly condemns vindictiveness. It +allows God to deal mighty blows at those who affront him, and tells men +to bear affront with patience and turn the other cheek to the smiter. It +is simply part of that mixture and confusion of old and new ideas which +a codified religion always exhibits. We pass it by, and turn to more +serious considerations. I pass by also eccentric ideas of Deity like +those of Sir Oliver Lodge or Mr. G. B. Shaw—two oracles who have been +singularly silent on the religious aspect of the war. Let us examine the +main religious problem as broadly and as honestly as we can.</p> + + +<p>The first and chief reflection that occurs to any man who does thus +seriously examine the relation of the war to theism is that, after all, +it is not so easy to disentangle theology from the crude old doctrines +which our more liberal divines think they have abandoned. They tell us +that they do not believe in a vindictive Deity, they disdain the +doctrine of eternal punishment, they smile at many of the Judaic +conceptions of Jehovah in the Old Testament. God is the all-holy and +benevolent ruler of the universe. They refuse to believe that the souls +of sinners and unbelievers are tortured for ever after death, and trust +the whole scheme of things to the love and justice of God.</p> + + +<p>The grave difficulty of this enlightened theology, indeed of all +theology, is the immense amount of pain and evil in the universe, and +this mighty war we are considering puts it in a very acute form. It is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +amusing to look back on some of the lines of apologetics in recent +years. There was a school of people, following some "profound" religious +thinker, who held that evil was "only relative." They made the wonderful +discovery that everything real is good, in the metaphysical sense, and +evil is unreal. Evil, they said, is merely the negation, the +falling-short, of good; and you do not ask for the creator or cause of a +negative thing. More recently a school endeavoured to come to their +assistance with the discovery that pain does not really exist at all. +One did not need to know philosophy or science in order to realise that +a sensation of pain is just as positive and real a thing as a sensation +of pleasure; or that, although death is <i>only</i> the negation of life, one +is really entitled to ask why one's dear child is thus "negated" at the +age of six or twelve. Then there came this new school with its discovery +that pain does not exist. Death, of course, is an entry into a more +glorious life beyond; pain is an illusion to be banished by resolute +thought. These childish symposia were interrupted every few years by +some disastrous earthquake, the sinking of a great liner, an epidemic of +disease, a famine, and so on; but the pious philosophers bravely +struggled on. One may trust that the war has reduced them to silence, +and that we need not linger over them.</p> + + +<p>Then there was the school which sought desperately to find good in evil. +A man or woman is stricken with disease. Very often it brings with it a +softening, an improvement, of character; either in the patient or in the +nurses, or in both. Our religious philosophers fancied they caught in +this a glimpse of the divine plan: cancer was an instrument of +righteousness in the hands of the Almighty, the bacillus of +tuberculosis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> was a moral agency. They detected cases in which adverse +fortune had sobered and softened a man: the finger of Providence. In +France there was a very considerable return to the Catholic Church, and +recovery of its power, after the disastrous war of 1870. In the south of +Italy there is always much less sexual freedom for a time after an +earthquake has buried a few tens of thousands under the ruins of their +houses. I would undertake to fill a quarto volume with instances of good +things which arose out of or followed upon evil experiences. We saw that +the present war is being examined in the same respect. There are "great +spiritual opportunities": hundreds of thousands of young men are being +compelled (by the authorities) to go to church who had not been for +years; the different denominations are fraternising as they never did +before; the churches are rather fuller than they had been of late: +charity is awakened on a prodigious scale; zeal for an ideal (the +violated peace of Belgium) is dragging men even from our slums to the +colours. Here again one could at least fill a moderate treatise with the +things achieved; and beyond them all is the unuttered vision of the +crowded churches at the triumphant close of the war, perhaps that +long-coveted religious revival.</p> + + +<p>There is no doubt whatever that this theory of the war will be +assiduously pressed when nature has drawn her green mantle once more +over the blackened area of the war and our hearts are lifted up by +thought of victory. It is already being urged, and I would add a little +to the comments I have already passed on it.</p> + + +<p>The clergy would do well to realise that, whatever virtue this theory +may have in soothing the minds and dissolving the doubts of their +followers, to an outsider<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> it seems monstrous. In the first place, it +includes no sense of proportion, and amounts to a colossal untruth. We +must surely take into account the amount of evil inflicted and the +amount of good that ensues. Take sickness, for instance. One would +imagine that, if Christians seriously believe that illness is sent by +God to achieve certain salutary modifications of character, they ought +strenuously to oppose the modern determination to reduce disease to a +minimum. They do not, and would, on the contrary, soon reduce to silence +any religious crank who proposed it. They know perfectly well that the +cases of "spiritual advantage" from illness bear no proportion whatever +to the amount of suffering in the world. Slight but painful illnesses +rarely have any beneficent effect on character; very frequently the +reverse. Any large city, at any given moment, is racked with pains which +do but give rise to curses, or a polite equivalent. Most of the +irritation and perversion of character is due to morbid influences. And +for every case in which a long illness issues in some signal advance of +character, a hundred others could be quoted in which the illness was an +unmitigated calamity. So it is with bereavement and with adversity of +fortune. Look honestly into the experience of any class of the +community, and ask in what <i>proportion</i> of cases narrowness of means, +especially after comfort, brings a "spiritual advantage."</p> + + +<p>So it is above all with this war. Any man who thinks that the awful +perversion of the character of a great European people, the death of +such vast numbers in such painful circumstances, the ruin of further +millions, and all the innumerable ugly results of a great war, were +worth bringing about in order to secure a few spiritual advantages has +neither sense<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> of proportion nor sense of decency nor sense of humour. +The theory would be too repulsive if it were put in this plain form, and +it is more usual merely to point out these good results and hint that +war is not absolutely and in every respect an evil. As if any person +ever said that it was. The point is simple, and ought not to be +obscured. A few incidental advantages do not reconcile us to this +colossal misery, suffering, and waste, and do not in the slightest +degree alleviate the position of the man who thinks that God directed +human events to this awful consummation. If an earthly ruler employed +such agencies to educate his subjects, with such an extraordinary +disproportion between the suffering inflicted and the results attained, +what should we think of him?</p> + + +<p>The parallel reminds us that of infinite wisdom we expect infinitely +more than of a human ruler. Once unintelligent nature had a crude, +wasteful, hard method of producing new and higher types of life. Man, +having intelligence, produces the same result without waste or +suffering. We expect immeasurably higher procedure of such an +intelligence as Christians ascribe to God. One can understand the man +who says that the plan of such an intelligence might be beyond human +ken, but I am discussing the opinions of people who contend that they +bring it within human ken. In fact, there is no need here to remind us +of the mysteriousness of the ways of an infinite intelligence. If the +war was designed for certain practical uses, such as those we have had +suggested by various divines, one may reply at once that a more brutal +and unjust way of attaining those ends could not have been devised. It +is almost impossible to conceive any man seriously entertaining the +notion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> Yet all the jubilation and thanksgiving that will follow the +war, all the supplication that accompanies its fortunes to-day, and the +whole teaching of Christian theology, imply that God did direct the +political movements and military ambitions which have culminated in the +war. Even a human statesman could have devised a less terrible method of +attaining any end that has yet been conceived for the war. The idea of +the war as a punishment is quite logical and intelligible, though five +hundred years out of date. But the idea of the war as a medicinal or an +educative process has neither logic nor intelligibility, and does not +even attain that consistency with modern ethical sentiments which it +seeks. The colossal amount of suffering inflicted on innocent people and +on children puts it entirely out of court.</p> + + +<p>Thirdly, this theory, as I said, raises the question whether the end +justifies the means. Here we have another illustration of the way in +which Christian dogma keeps the Christian conscience in many matters +behind the ethical sentiment of the age. Many liberal divines would +express genuine repugnance at Archbishop Carr's view of the war; yet +some of the most liberal of these divines and laymen are almost as +backward in another direction. They justify the world-process through +which we are struggling on the ground that it will, we hope, issue in a +nobler order of things: of the war, in particular, that hope is +entertained, and to the war, accordingly, this theory of justification +is applied. That is a case of the end justifying the means. Christian +thinkers are advancing so rapidly and erratically that in some cases we +are not clear whether the writer does or does not regard God as infinite +in power and intelligence. We may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> ignore these few cases. The vast +majority emphatically hold that view. In their regard we can say only +what has been said a hundred times. Whether you speak of the +world-process in general or any particular cruel phase of it, such as +this war, you maintain that God chose, out of many conceivable ways, the +one way that is marked by cruelty and suffering. An infinite God is not +so confined in the choice of means. And just as we say of the +world-process in general, that to build the sunnier lives of a remote +generation on the sufferings of this and earlier generations implies a +grave injustice to <i>us</i>, so we must say of the war. No spiritual +advantages to those who survive will reconcile us to the suffering and +the loss of those who fell in the tragic combat. I speak impersonally. +It happens that I have no near relatives of military age, and neither I +nor any near relative is likely to suffer by the war. But when I brood +over the agony of the less fortunate millions, over the harrowing +experience of Belgians, Poles, and Serbs, over the whole ghastly orgy of +blood and tears in Europe, I feel unutterable disdain of these paltry +efforts to justify the ways of God to man.</p> + + +<p>Let us look a little deeper into the matter. No doubt the plain +statement that God "sent" or caused this war will excite a certain +repugnance in many Christian minds. They will prefer to say that God +"permitted" it. Man has "free will," and it is the plan of providence to +give a certain play to this free will. When man has bruised his +shins—more frequently the shins of other people—God may, on being +supplicated sufficiently, issue his veto and put matters right. I am +quite acquainted, from a severe theological education, with the more +learned language in which this theory is expressed by theologians, but +I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> prefer to deal with it as it exists in the words of most preachers +and the minds of most Christians.</p> + + +<p>It would be impossible here to deal at any length with the doctrine of +free will. Unless you conceive it in some novel and irrelevant sense, as +Professor Bergson does, it is a very much disputed thing amongst the +experts whose business it is to inform us on the subject—our +psychologists. The majority of modern psychologists seem to reject it +altogether. On the other hand, no theologian has ever yet reconciled it +in any intelligible scheme with the supposed omnipotence of God. But it +is not necessary to enter into these abstruse considerations. Let us +take the matter in the concrete.</p> + + +<p>We look back to-day on a long series of processes and circumstances +which culminate in the war. There is the whole history of Germany for a +hundred and fifty years inspiring the German people with a bias toward +aggressive war; there are the economic and geographical circumstances +which, at the end of the nineteenth century, begin to make it think +again of aggressive war; there is the overflowing population, bred by +order of the clergy who stupidly condemn an artificial restriction of +births; there is the coincident trouble of Austria with the Slavs, of +England with its subject peoples, and so on. In the eyes of the careful +student a hundred lines of circumstance and development have led to this +war. The melodramatic idea that it all springs from the free will of the +Kaiser, or of a group of soldiers and statesmen, need not be seriously +considered. Moreover, even when we introduce the personal element—and +the personality of the Kaiser has had a very considerable influence—it +is foolish to throw the whole burden on free will.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> The mood and outlook +and ambition of the Kaiser take their colour from his notoriously morbid +nervous frame. In a word, you have a mighty concurrence of movements, +whether acts of will or otherwise, converging in all parts of Europe +toward this war. Was God indifferent to the whole of those movements?</p> + + +<p>Those movements are particularly traceable in Europe during the last +fourteen years. Before that there was a similar concurrence of movements +eventuating in the South African War; and in the meantime a series of +processes and circumstances had given us the Russo-Japanese War and the +Balkan-Turkish War and the Mexican War. So we might go over the wars of +the nineteenth century and all earlier wars. The "permissiveness" or +indifference of the ruler of the universe grows amazingly. In the +meantime we had mighty catastrophes like the sinking of the <i>Titanic</i> +and other ships, the earthquakes at Messina and elsewhere, famines and +epidemics and floods in various places, and great numbers of murders, +railway and other accidents, etc. We begin to ask <i>where</i> the ruling of +the universe comes in at all, and, as far as human events go, all that +we can gather in the way of reply is that sometimes individuals who pray +very fervently get their diseases healed or their coffers filled; and +even these claims do not pass rational inquiry.</p> + + +<p>Now here is the precise difficulty of the unbeliever, and this present +tragedy makes it acute. We ask our neighbour, or seek in some learned +theological treatise, what are the indications of this government of the +universe, and we are told about the making of stars and the decoration +of flowers and the putting of instincts into animals or pretty patterns +on their skins. But when we point out that the really im<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>portant thing +in our part of the universe is this human life of ours, imperfectly +protected as yet against disease and malice (which is largely disease) +and natural forces, the theologian has no clear evidence to produce. +Even the evidence he draws from stars and flowers and peacocks' tails +and sunsets, with which he is, as a rule, very imperfectly acquainted, +is, of course, heatedly disputed, and the proper authorities on these +subjects are, on the whole, not well disposed toward his interpretation. +But we need not consider that here. Where we should most logically +expect the hand of Providence is in the human order, because in that +order catastrophe is infinitely more important, in view of man's +capacity for pain. Yet it is precisely in regard to this order that the +theologian is vaguest and least satisfactory. He talks grandly of God +moving every atom in the universe, counting the hairs of our heads, +numbering (but not preventing) the fall of the sparrows, and so on; but +when we ask for the evidence of God's concern with contemporary human +events he is very vague if they are good events, and, if they are evil, +he hastily disclaims any interference of the Deity. Some of our more +advanced theologians are claiming that the finest improvement they have +made in their science is to have brought God from <i>without</i> the universe +(where no theologian had ever put him) and make him <i>immanent</i> in it. +But they seem just as incapable as the others to trace his interposition +in human events.</p> + + +<p>Theologians still maintain a valiant and stubborn fight against +scientific men, but they do not fight historians. They are very keen on +maintaining the influence of God over atoms and stars and roses and +birds, but not half so keen to vindicate it in the life<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> of man. The +story of the world, <i>our</i> world, may be divided into three chapters: a +chapter describing the moulding of the globe and the rocks, a chapter +describing the slow evolution of the plants and animals, and a chapter +describing the antics and fortunes of man. Some may surrender the first +chapter to science, some the second chapter, but it looks as if they all +surrender the third. They have long been accustomed to surrender the +early part, and very much the longer and more laborious part, of man's +story to natural forces, or the devil. Then there was a melodramatic +notion that God, after the lapse of hundreds of thousands of years, +began to take an interest in one very small people and kept revealing +things to it, and smiting its enemies, until Christianity was given to +the world. History tells the story in a totally different way. We find +the stream of moral and religious evolution flowing steadily on nineteen +hundred years ago, much as we do to-day. At this point, of course, the +theologian does make a struggle with the historian. In proportion to the +imperfectness of his culture and the backwardness and conservatism of +his Church, he fights for miraculous interpositions in human events +nineteen hundred years ago. But we need not delay to examine that +difference of opinion, because the later period suffices for my purpose.</p> + + +<p>A few theologians, not well acquainted with history, see another +miraculous interposition in the fourth century, when Christianity was +established; and the Roman Catholic—in the intellectual rear, as +usual—believes in hundreds of miraculous interpositions, in small +matters, as late as the year 1914. But in order to take a broad view of +the matter we may leave these controversies with the more reactionary on +one side.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> The history of Europe for the last fifteen centuries at least +is now entrusted to able laymen, and it has been purged of divine +interpositions. Innumerable myths and legends, often based on what are +now acknowledged to be spurious documents, have been cast out of the +science, and we are presented with a quite continuous and purely natural +sequence of events. Religious historians like Bishop Creighton or Lord +Bryce do not find their periods broken by divine interpositions; the +writers of the Cambridge History do not occasionally arrest us before +some great event and warn us that the chain of human causation seems to +be obscure or discontinuous. There are, of course, problems of history, +but they are not obscurities which, like the obscure places in science, +tempt the theologian to enter and claim a divine interposition. The +story is from beginning to end—to use Nietzsche's phrase—"human, all +too human." On the whole, as it has been hitherto written, it is a story +of wars, and, though patriotic piety puts its gloss on the issue of a +war here and there, the historian does not find any serious problem in +them. No French historian will now claim divine action in the Napoleonic +wars, and assuredly few of us are prepared to see the finger of God in +the fortunate issue of Prussia's many campaigns since Frederick the +Great.</p> + + +<p>Whatever we may think of the cosmic process generally, the human part of +that process does not encourage a theological interpretation. Man is +working out his own destiny, and doing it ill. We see him, like some +pedlar plodding along a country road under his burdens, carrying through +whole centuries institutions and ideas and follies that he will +eventually shed. When he drops them, there is no more element<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> of +miracle or revelation in his action than when he discovers the use of +steam or of aluminium or of the spectroscope. His mind expands and his +ideals rise. It is a little incongruous to suppose that some infinitely +wiser and affectionate parent was looking on all the time and giving no +assistance. In the dialogue between Mephistopheles and God which Goethe +prefixes to his <i>Faust</i>, the devil obviously scores. In the sight of +such an intelligence man must have made a pretty fool of himself during +the last 1500 years. We human beings are more charitable. Take the whole +story as the gradual development of human intelligence and emotion under +unfavourable political conditions, hampered by a despotic and perverse +clergy, and it seems natural enough.</p> + + +<p>This is the impression one gets from history, and the nearer history is +to our own time and the better we know it, the less it suggests a divine +guidance. There is something parochial or rural about the average +Christian way of looking at events. One day the German Christian goes to +church to thank God for driving the Russians out of East Prussia; the +next day the English Christian thanks the same God for killing or +wounding 20,000 Germans at Neuve Chapelle—with the help of 350 guns. +Yet such things as these are the only claims we have offered to us of +the action of God in human events. Neither the steps that man takes +onward nor the steps that he takes backward are ascribed to divine +influence. All that is claimed is that when a ship goes down, for +instance, he saves the saved, and "permits" the rest to be drowned; when +a war has been raging for a few months by his "permission," he puts a +stop to it when one army is worn out. The unbeliever is really<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> entitled +to a good deal of sympathy for his inability to follow this tortuous +reasoning with confidence. One cannot entirely blame him for being more +interested in the heart of man than in the petals of a rose.</p> + + +<p>These considerations are, of course, not novel. I am only applying to +this special case of the war a difficulty that has been discussed in all +ages, and has been acutely felt by very able religious thinkers. How a +group of bishops can sit down to write, in very deliberate and elegant +language, that such a calamity as this makes the soul more sensible of +"the approach of Christ" is one of the many little mysteries of the +clerical mind. It has precisely the opposite effect in any logical mind. +When the way of life is smooth, and our nation or home is prospering, we +may be genially disposed to think that God is near and is looking after +us as well as the sparrows. But when a black storm bursts suddenly and +disastrously on us; when the earth shakes their roofs on ten thousand of +our fellows, or a great ship strikes a rock and pours a laughing crowd +suddenly into the lap of death; when vast provinces are laid desolate by +war, and we see the tens of thousands clasping the hand of their loved +ones for the last time, it seems rather uncanny that this should suggest +to any person the approach of Christ. To very many people it is a +confirmation of the general impression they get from the world-process +and the story of man: that these great forces deploy and interlace and +build up and destroy without the slightest intervention from without.</p> + + +<p>In our time, we must remember, this difficulty had already been +enormously increased. St. Augustine, who felt the problem acutely in the +prime of his intelligence, had really a very much lighter task than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> the +modern divine. He had merely to suggest why evil was permitted in the +narrow world he knew; and he had the great advantage of being able to +appeal to a primitive sin and primitive punishment of the race. The +problem became more serious when original sin, or at least the notion +that the race might justly be damned for one man's fault, was abandoned. +It became graver still when science discovered the tombs of inhabitants +of this globe who had lived during millions of earlier years, and showed +that the very law of their life and progress was struggle against evil. +Every attempt to minimise the struggle of those earlier ages has failed. +At a time when there was no possibility of "spiritual advantage" there +was acute consciousness of pain, the struggle and suffering were +prodigious. Theistic literature of the last half century, growing more +weary and more wistful in each decade, reflects the increasing +difficulty. If any man can see in this war a relief of the difficulty, +and not an appalling accentuation and illustration of it, he must be +gifted with a peculiar type of mind and emotion. It is more probable +that an increasing number will conclude that, if God is indifferent to +these things, they will be indifferent to him. Professor William James, +in his <i>Varieties of Religious Experience</i>, declared that the only gods +the men of the new generation would recognise would be gods of some use +to them. The war does not encourage the chances of the Christian God.</p> + + +<p>A few modern religious thinkers seem to imagine that they have found +some relief by devising the formula that God's plan is to "co-operate +with man," and in those modern advances which I have freely admitted +they see indications of this co-operation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> This new formula is not a +whit better than the other phrases which have, at various stages, been +regarded by religions people as profound thoughts. In the recent history +of moral progress we have, as a rule, a minority of high-minded men and +women struggling to impress their sentiments on the inert majority. The +new theologian is not daunted in the application of his theory by the +fact that a large proportion of these pioneers did not believe in God at +all, so I will not discuss that aspect; though no doubt the plain man +will find it interesting to trace how, in the earlier and more difficult +days of modern humanism, so few of the reformers were Christian +ministers and so many Rationalists. From the historical point of view, +however, we find this line of development quite intelligible. We find, +for instance, Robert Owen (a great Rationalist) advocating the +substitution of arbitration for war nearly a century ago, and we +discover the earlier sources of Owen's enthusiasm in English Radicals +like Godwin, who were affected by the early French Revolutionaries, who +had been influenced by Rousseau, and so on. It is a quite natural +evolution of ideas, as they find a congenial soil in each generation in +certain types of temperament. But where are the traces or what was the +nature of God's co-operation with these men? Looking to their generally +heterodox character and the hostility of the Churches to them, the idea +is not without humour; but, even if we reconcile ourselves to this +peculiar feature, anything in the nature of positive evidence of divine +action is wholly lacking, and we can understand the whole process +without it. The theory is merely a desperate and unfounded assertion of +men who are determined that God shall not be left out.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> + + +<p>There is a further grave difficulty. One would imagine that the kind of +paternal affection which is ascribed to God would have induced him to +intervene at an earlier stage. The kind of father who co-operates with +the more gifted and ambitious of his children, and does nothing for the +less gifted and sluggish, is a narrow-minded and narrow-hearted man. +Affection turns rather to those who cannot help themselves, or who need +judicious and constant inspiration. This view we are considering is even +less flattering to God, because the aspiring children of the nineteenth +and twentieth centuries seem able to dispense with his co-operation, +while the ignorant and priest-ridden children of earlier ages could do +little of themselves. The theologians who have found this new formula +are of the more liberal school. They do not attribute all the blunders +and crimes and failures of the Middle Ages to free will, to a sheer and +deliberate obstinacy in clinging to evil. They realise the overpowering +nature of the environment and the drastic discouragement by the clergy +of anything like novelty or initiative in ethics. It was then that man +needed God, if there is a God. But, on this theory, God argued with the +academic wisdom of a medieval theologian; he concluded that medieval men +were quite capable of originating modern ideas, and he would not +co-operate until they did. The theory is preposterous in every respect.</p> + + +<p>Finally, we have the very large class of candid or of hopelessly puzzled +Christians who give up the matter as a mystery. They do not understand +how this ruling of the universe which they seem to see clearly in stars +and flowers should become so obscure or disappear altogether in the +human order. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> realise that, if this war were an isolated +occurrence, they might imagine God holding his hand for a season, for +some reason unknown to us; but they know that it is not an isolated +occurrence: it is part of the human order of things. It has been +preceded by other wars at intervals of every few years, and war itself +is only one of a series of catastrophes and calamities that splash the +human chronicle with innocent blood. They give it up, sorrowfully, and +find a thin consolation in learned formulæ about the impossibility of a +finite mind understanding an infinite mind, and so on: which give, as I +say, thin consolation, for one may at least see that an infinite +benevolence ought not to act worse than a moderate human benevolence.</p> + + +<p>Now if there were any very strong evidence of divine ruling outside the +human order, we might find a certain amount of logic in this position. +The mystery of a God who moves the stars and inspires the bees, yet +leaves man to his own unhappy impulses (after putting those impulses in +him), would be, one imagines, painful enough; but if there were +irresistible evidence that God does move the stars and quicken the bird +and beast, we might be compelled to reconcile ourselves to that unhappy +dilemma. There is, however, no such irresistible evidence. This is not +the place to examine such evidence as is adduced. I must be content to +recall the fact that it is all highly controverted; that theologians +tear to pieces each other's "proofs" of the existence of God; and that a +large and increasing body of cultivated men and women discard the +evidence entirely. So that, in the last resort, the situation is this: +on the one hand we have a number of very disputable suggestions, which +are growing fainter in proportion as science investigates these matters, +of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> divine action in stars and rocks and reptiles, and on the other hand +we have a stupendous mass of suffering, starting millions of years ago +at the very birth of consciousness and piled up mountains high in this +year 1915, which no thinker has ever yet reconciled with the notion of a +divine ruling of the life of man. This is a very grave and plain +situation, and if the clergy have nothing more to say about it than to +borrow from an ancient Hebrew certain offensive gibes at the unbeliever, +or to offer us the kind of apologies we examined in the last chapter, +one must conclude that they do not realise the situation. The war has +terribly accentuated the most terrible difficulty they ever had to face. +Whether there is intelligence manifested in nature is, after all, an +academic question which does not profoundly stir the modern world. +Whether there is benevolence, a moral personality, reflected in the +course of man's history is the much more important question. And this +appalling calamity will induce many to take a more candid view of the +world-process and conclude that, as far as the critical eye can see, +man's world seems to be left entirely to his own efforts, to his own +crimes and blunders and aspirations.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + + +<h3>THE HUMAN ALTERNATIVE</h3> + + + +<p>If the observations I have made in the preceding chapters are even +approximately just, the hope which many of the clergy express, that +there will be a religious revival at the close of the war, is very +singular. No doubt it means, on the whole, that some advantage to +religion will be sought in the flood of genial and generous emotion +which will surge through the country. In Germany and Austria, one +imagines, religion will have a rough experience. The people who wrote +and repeated constantly, "Gott strafe England"—which, by the way, is +another proof that the general German attitude is theological rather +than humanist—will have a few serious questions to put to the clergy, +as well as to their secular rulers. In France, despite the reports of +interested people, there will be little change. The nation, being +overwhelmingly Rationalistic, relied on its 75-centimetre guns rather +than on prayer, and will find its wisdom justified. But in England and +Russia, and in the backward Slav countries, there will be mighty +flag-waving in Church, and no doubt a great number of not very +thoughtful people will conclude that the clergy and the Y.M.C.A. and the +Salvation Army have behaved very nicely over the whole affair, and there +will be, for a time, an increased attendance at church.</p> + + +<p>We may suppose that this emotional storm will not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> last long, and the +nation will settle down to face the bill, the empty chairs at home, and +the disorganisation of its industries. Then will arise the questions I +have been endeavouring to answer in this little book. The clergy behaved +very well during the war, short of volunteering in any conspicuous +number for active service; but what is the sense of this lofty message +of "peace on earth and good-will among men" which never produces any +result? The Churches are fairly eager to join in the work of peace now +that it is being promoted by large associations of laymen; but where, in +the name of heaven, were they during these "ages of faith" which they +bemoan? God may conceivably have been at work somewhere among the +batteries or the infantry of the Allies—it is so very difficult to +analyse these things—but we should be infinitely more grateful if he +had asserted his power earlier and spared us all the bloodshed. He may +be a very stern schoolmaster, teaching us a valuable lesson by means of +this war; but we were really quite open to conviction if he had sent us +the lesson in a more humane form. A great many good people may have +derived spiritual advantages from the war, but the price was stupendous, +and we would rather they got their spiritual advantages in another way.</p> + + +<p>These questions and reflections must surely arise, and they will lead to +larger reflections. Men will perceive the antithesis I pointed out +between all that is claimed for Christianity in Europe and the actual +condition of Europe; between the supposed luminous traces of the finger +of God in the non-human world and the complete absence of them from the +human world. From the samples of clerical eloquence which we have +examined, we can hardly suppose that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> clergy will have great success +in meeting the inquirers. An enormous proportion of their followers, of +course, will not ask questions, or will be satisfied with anything in +the nature of an answer. I heard a group of men discussing the subject +in a rural ale-house, and the most intelligent man in the group, to +whom, as an educated visitor, the natives looked up with respect, said: +"War is God's way of purifying and bracing nations from time to time." +This sort of stuff pacifies hundreds of thousands: like the stuff that +Archbishop Carr found it possible to put before his Australian +Catholics. But inquiry and reflection grow among the adherents of the +Churches, and, although the Press generally refuses to bring books of +this character to the notice of the public, and clergymen often stoop to +the most despicable means to exclude them from bookstalls and shops, +they seem to find a fairly large public to-day. Thinking is as needful +an exercise for the mind as work is for the body, and the only plausible +ground on which you can seek to suppress thinking about Christianity is +the fear that it will not be good for Christianity.</p> + + +<p>Then we shall have the next and inevitable question: What would you put +in the place of Christianity? Young men in various parts of the country +hurl that question at one as if it were really very serious, putting an +end to all dispute. Any person who is quite candid and sincere about +these matters can find the material for an answer easily enough. Take +France. Forty years ago the nation was overwhelmingly Christian; to-day +it is overwhelmingly non-Christian. It has not put anything in the place +of Christianity, and has prospered remarkably. There is a legacy of what +is called vice which comes down from earlier religious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> times, but any +person who cares to examine criminal and other statistics, the only +positive tests of a nation's health, will find that France has been +extraordinarily successful without Christianity and without putting +anything in its place. There are, it is true, moral lessons in its +schools, but I would not claim that they are much responsible: the +system is imperfect, and the teachers not well equipped. Take our ally +Japan. The moral discipline of the nation, which, in spite of some +recent deterioration through Western influence, is admirable, does not +rest on religious foundations. Take London or any metropolis of modern +Europe. The bulk of the people have ceased to receive any influence from +the representatives of Christianity, yet there has been moral progress +instead of deterioration. Those who speak of degeneration in London or +Paris do not accurately know and estimate the state of those cities in +more religious times.</p> + + +<p>This experience might be enlarged indefinitely, but one or two instances +will suffice for my purpose. The soundness of these instances which I +quote I have established elsewhere, and the general truth to which I +refer may be sufficiently gathered from the words of the clergy +themselves. The rhetorical way in which they characterise our times is +more or less typical of the carelessness of their judgments and the +strength of their prejudices. One group of clerical writers, which +generally includes the reigning Pope, speak in the darkest terms of our +age and suggest that a sensible degeneration has followed the decrease +of the influence of the Churches. Another group, considering the +remarkable spread of idealism in our generation, the growing demand for +peace, justice, and sobriety, claim that this moral progress, which they +cannot deny, is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> due to some tardy recognition of the spirit of Christ: +a strange contention, seeing that our age is less and less willing to +hear the words of Christ and ascribes its sentiments to entirely +different inspiration. Hence there are a few who frankly admit that the +idealism of modern times is to them a rebuke and a mystery. One of these +more sensitive religious writers once confessed to me that the fact that +the times became better while the influence of Christianity grew less +was to him a perplexing truth.</p> + + +<p>The really honest social student, who does not measure his age by his +prejudices, but fashions his theories according to the carefully +ascertained facts, will try to discover the causes of this phenomenon. +In those wide and varied areas where it is observed, we cannot say that +anything has taken the place of Christianity. The Press sometimes +flatters itself that it has taken the place of the pulpit, but opinions +will differ in regard to its efficacy as a moral agency. On the whole, +it is too apt to reflect the moral sentiments of the more reactionary, +who are generally the most self-assertive, and it has no moral, as +distinct from political, leadership. Then there are Ethical and kindred +societies which hold "services" of a humanitarian character, and are to +many people a substitute for the Christian Churches. Their influence is, +however, restricted to a few thousand people in the whole country, and +signs are not wanting that their usefulness will be only transitory. The +experience of any careful observer is that the mass of people who cease +to attend church desire and need no substitute whatever for +Christianity. The Rationalist literature which many of them read is, as +a rule, of a high idealist character; but here again the influence is +very re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>stricted. No organised influence is at work to any great extent +as a successor to Christianity, yet it is indubitable that, as Christian +influence wanes, the temper of the age improves.</p> + + +<p>This improvement must have an adequate cause, and it would be merely +another form of crude social reasoning and of sectarian prejudice to +say, in the rich language of the older anti-clericals, that breaking +"the fetters of superstition and priestcraft" led of itself to such a +result. But this sanguine rhetoric does contain or obscure a certain +truth. In plain human language, when you prevent a man from relying on +the old traditional inspirations, he may for a time be tempted to act +without inspiration. In the matter of his dealings with his fellows it +is an undeniable fact that, on the whole, he has not been thus tempted. +It is absurd to heap up all the contemporary instances of corruption in +trade and politics, looseness in domestic life, and so on, unless you +make a similar study of the vices and crimes of an earlier and more +Christian generation, and carefully compare the two. It is not a +question whether there is evil in our generation; it is a question +whether there is more or less evil than in earlier generations. I must +be pardoned for reiterating this, because, although this comparison is +essential for forming an accurate judgment on the moral effect of the +decay of Christianity, it is rarely instituted with the least pretence +of rigour. I have sufficiently studied it in earlier works (especially +<i>The Bible in Europe</i>), and will not repeat the facts. Cotter Morison, +whom I quoted on an early page, was wrong in his expectation. The change +from Christian to humanist inspiration is taking place without disorder +and with increasing advantage.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> + + +<p>The solution of this apparent problem is really not obscure. If the +genuine basis of human conduct needed an elaborate search—if it had to +be revealed by a Deity or laboriously established by moral theologians +or moral philosophers—no doubt the age of transition would be an age of +disorder, and a very comprehensive educational organisation would be +needed. But the true basis of human conduct is simple. There are, of +course, Rationalists who feel that some very abstruse "science of +ethics" has to be constructed as the solid foundation of conduct; but +this has as little relation to the conduct of ordinary men as the +learned pedants of the science of prosody have to ordinary speakers of +prose. Experience is the real base and guide of conduct, and it forces +itself on every man and woman, even on the child. "Do unto others as you +would that they should do unto you" is the first principle of morals; +and to inculcate it you need neither the thunders of Jupiter nor the +impressive abstractions of a science of ethics: nor do you need any +moral genius or philosophical skill to discover it. It is a rule of life +that suggests itself spontaneously. It is a natural and prompt +expression of the fact that our life is social: our acts have the +closest relation to others besides ourselves. Now and again, perhaps, a +man is tempted to assert his own personality, or seek his own +gratification, in such a way as to ignore his fellows; but he is usually +arrested before long by the simple experience that he himself suffers +from the actions of others just as they may suffer from his conduct. It +is a lesson of life which one needs no power of analysis to learn.</p> + + +<p>And the chief reason why the abandonment of the old doctrines is +proceeding without any moral<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> degeneration is that this experience was +really always the basis of general morality. We need not question—it +would be absurd to question—that refined natures have received moral +aid from their belief in the presence of God, or in a desire to please +God by accepting the law of virtue as a declaration of his will; though +we must be equally candid in admitting that men and women of this nature +have not been observed to deteriorate when they sacrifice their +religious beliefs, as thousands of them have done. On the other hand, we +will hardly question that numbers of people of coarser nature have been +deterred from evil-doing by dread of supernatural punishment. It is, +however, notorious in the moral history of Europe that these religious +beliefs have been consistent with a vast amount of transgression of the +decalogue: more than we witness in any civilised country in our own +time. How, then, are we to discover what were the real springs of +conduct in the mass of ordinarily decent people? It seems to me that the +only accurate method is to avoid theories and consider people in the +flesh. Do our Christian friends—did we ourselves in Christian +days—refrain from lying, dishonesty, injustice, cruelty, and injury, +solely or mainly because God forbids them or will punish them? I have +not met the man, except in the imaginative pages of religious +controversy, who confessed that he would stoop freely to these things if +there were no Christian prohibition. The mainspring of ordinary decent +conduct in any educated community has always been a perception of its +human and social value.</p> + + +<p>The only line of the decalogue about which there is likely to be any +dispute in this regard is that putting restraint on sexual relations. I +have not to consider<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> here a subject so remote from my immediate +interest, and will observe only that any act which hurts either an +individual or the social interest will as plainly come under a +humanitarian law as the practice of lying: acts which inflict no injury +and have been forbidden only on mystic grounds are not likely to remain +on the moral code of the future. But I am concerned here with a definite +issue, and need discuss general morality only in so far as that issue is +affected.</p> + + +<p>Here, at least, the way of the humanitarian is plain. Sermons on the +brotherhood of men under the fatherhood of God have been totally +ineffective to prevent war and abolish militarism. There is something +incongruous in the introduction into a modern peace-meeting of some +clerical speaker who talks unctuously about the great promise and +precept of Christianity. The meeting itself, being held nineteen +centuries after the promise was made, is a sufficient indication of its +futility. No progress was made or seriously attempted in the work of +peace until a genuine human passion was substituted for that empty +phraseology. The brotherhood of men was, in the Christian sense of that +phrase, too abstruse and precarious a conclusion to be of use in such a +struggle. The plain fact is that it was of no use, and is of no use +to-day. There is, indeed, reason to think that we should make more +progress if we entirely discarded figures of speech like "the +brotherhood of men." The fact that we are all children of God, or +children of Eve, or children of some Tertiary anthropoid, does not very +obviously impose on us the duty not to take up arms in an international +quarrel.</p> + + +<p>The ultimate basis of morality is, as Schopenhauer said, sympathy, +though in an advanced social order<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> this sentiment approves itself to +the intellect, and its requirements may be precisely formulated by +reason. One is not sure whether there will not be more morality in the +world when the word "morality," with all its mystic entanglements, is +discarded, and we speak plainly of social law. Violence, the infliction +of pain and injustice, is one of the most obvious infractions of social +law, quite apart from any religious commandments. Its social evil is so +obvious that the community has, at an early date in its development, +elaborated a special machinery for restraining it, and has imposed +penalties in this world, whatever it thinks about the next. There may be +questions raised, and one can understand people who are confined to a +religious environment feeling a genuine concern, about other sections of +moral law; but it would be obviously absurd to think that a humanitarian +ethic would fail here. There have been attempts in modern times to +question the validity of ethical law altogether. In so far as this +movement aims at stripping moral law of its mysticism and fearlessly +investigating its traditional content, it is admirable and will grow; +but in so far as these moral rebels would resent restraint of any kind, +and pronounce the freedom of every individual impulse, they seem to +overlook a factor of great importance—the impulse of retaliation. A +pretty state of society we should have if such a theory were generally, +or largely, carried into practice.</p> + + +<p>But these are academic vagaries, like those of the mystic or the moral +theologian. Whatever be the future fortune of Christian legends, men are +not likely to sacrifice the peace and security of social life to such +theories of freedom any more than they are likely to expose property to +a general scramble. The instinct<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> of sympathy is now growing deeper in +every century. Most of the great improvements of social life (in its +widest sense) during the nineteenth century, which we have inherited, +were due to that development of sympathy. It matters not whether the +reformer was Christian or non-Christian—Elizabeth Fry and Florence +Nightingale or Robert Owen and John Stuart Mill—the impulse was +sympathy with suffering fellow-humans. All the hope of improvement in +the twentieth century looks to a continued growth of that sentiment. It +becomes a veritable passion in certain natures, as long as there are +large and cruel evils to redress; and this passion of a few leading +spirits, communicating something of its fire to the colder mass, is the +great cause of progress. Surely that is the correct interpretation of +the progressive life of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries? Men +realised that to cultivate sympathy because it was enjoined by religion +was a more or less mercantile procedure: it was worth cultivating for +its own sake.</p> + + +<p>Here we have the reply to those who, unfamiliar with any but their own +religious environment, ask what place there will be for sympathy in an +intellectual or nationalistic age. It is a very grave error to suppose +either that our age is becoming less emotional or that Rationalism has +no place for emotions. In pursuing its task during the nineteenth +century Rationalism was an intensely emotional movement. Mr G. K. +Chesterton, in his <i>Victorian Age in Literature</i>, speaks of J. S. Mill's +"hard rationalism in religion" and "hard egoism in ethics." Like very +many other statements in that lamentable book, these are inexplicably +unjust. Mill was so far from being "hard" in religion that he ended his +days in a kind of senti<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>mental theism; he was so far from being a "hard +egoist" in ethics that he declared that he would burn in hell for ever +rather than lie at the supposed bidding of a Deity. Robert Ingersoll, +the most popular Rationalist of that age, was—I judge from his private +letters, not his ornate speeches—a man of the most tender and fine +sentiment. It is simply ludicrous to suppose that, because we do not +admit emotion to be a test of the accuracy of statements of fact (as all +religious dogmas claim to be), we do not find any room for emotion in +life. Is the whole of man's life an affirmation about reality or +criticism of such affirmation? This supposed "hardness"—I detest these +vague phrases, but one knows what is meant—of the Rationalist temper is +one of the strangest myths the clergy have invented.</p> + + +<p>Reason not merely approves, but enjoins, the cultivation of sentiment. +When the sentiment in question is one that shows a power of transforming +life and impelling men to struggle against pain and evil, reason +applauds it as one of the most valuable forces we can cultivate. Such, +plainly, is the sentiment of sympathy. We look back to-day with horror +on the industrial and social condition of England in the earlier part of +the nineteenth century: the burdened lives and few gross pleasures of +the workers, the horrible cellar-homes of the poor, the ghastly +treatment of child-workers, the stupid and brutal herding of criminals, +the tragedies of asylums and workhouses, the fearful political +corruption and despotism, the subjection of women, the revolting +proportions of the birth-rate and death-rate. We have still much to do +to redeem our civilisation from medieval errors, but when one +contemplates the social revolution that human sympathy has brought about +in the life of England, one feels<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> that this, and not the long-futile +teaching of Christianity, is the hope of the future. Christian preaching +of virtue has been individualistic. Even in our time the clergy hesitate +and are divided in face of social problems which plainly involve moral +principles. But the humanitarian ethic is essentially social, and this +passion of sympathy is its chief root.</p> + + +<p>We wish, then, not to substitute any creed or organisation for +Christianity, but to sweep away these primitive or medieval speculations +about life, and let the human mind and human heart increasingly devote +themselves, directly, to human interests. In discussing the question of +peace and war, the application is obvious. We enclose or dispatch the +murderer, lest some fresh grave act of violence be perpetrated. We agree +that the violent and premature termination of a life is the most serious +transgression of social law that a man can perpetrate. Next to it we put +rape, mutilation, the destruction of a man's home or fortune; all acts, +in a word, that come nearest to it in threatening or causing the +greatest desolation. Yet we have suffered, age after age, that every few +years all these acts should be gathered into one mighty outrage and +showered upon whole populations. The time will come when men will read +with bewilderment the things that have been written about warfare in the +nineteenth, and even the twentieth, century. The men of clear judgment +and sound emotion of some coming age will see anguish rising, as vapour +does from some tropical sea, from our vast battle-fields. They will read +of Cats' Homes, and Anti-Vivisection Societies, and Homes of Rest for +Horses, and a hundred such institutions, and they will find contributors +to these institutions stirring not one finger when hundreds of thousands +of men writhe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> under hails of shrapnel, and crowds of homeless women and +children fly in terror before the unavoidable calamities or the +superfluous brutalities of war. They will see a generation shaken and +shuddering as the ghastly picture is daily unfolded before it, and they +will see that same generation in a few months grow dully indifferent to, +if not actively supporting, the military system which invariably brings +these horrors every few years upon the world. They will read of social +aspiration spreading through our civilisation, and statesmen regretting +that want of funds alone prevents them from remedying our social ills; +and they will read how Europe in one year wasted in butchery the +resources that might have renovated its disfigured civilisation, and the +next year complacently shouldered its military burden, its annual waste +of a thousand millions sterling, with the prospect of a costlier war +than ever.</p> + + +<p>In face of this situation the question, What would you put in place of +Christianity? is a mere mockery. One can see some pertinence and use in +the question: How shall we induce the Christian Churches to employ their +still great resources in helping to bring on the reign of peace? But it +is not to them that we now look for redemption. It is to the +humanitarian spirit, the clearer reason, of our age. I have described +the situation in terms of emotion, because thus it spontaneously rises +before me; but it may be recorded in terms of pure reason. We maintain +in Europe a machinery for settling international quarrels which costs us +more than a thousand millions sterling annually, while we could erect at +a cost of a few thousands annually an efficient machinery for dealing +with those quarrels, and for a few millions we could add the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> machinery +for carrying out its decisions. We boast that our civilisation is +founded on justice; yet, of the two types of machinery for adjusting +quarrels, we retain the one that is the least possible adapted for +securing the triumph of justice and discard the one that is +pre-eminently fitted to secure it. We flatter ourselves that we rise +above the savage in enjoying security of life and property, and we +retain this system though we know that, periodically, it will invade +life and property on a scale that surpasses the experience of the savage +as much as a Dreadnought surpasses a canoe.</p> + + +<p>It is just as easy to state our situation in terms of reason as in terms +of sentiment: it would not be easy to say in which guise it is ugliest. +Let us talk no more nonsense about needing religion to help us to get +rid of this atrocious nightmare. It drives both reason and sentiment to +the brink of insanity. Both protest against it with every particle of +their energy. Why Christianity failed to protest against it in fifteen +hundred years may or may not be obscure; but there is no obscurity +whatever about the probable effect on militarism and war of a +cultivation of reason and sympathy.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + + +<p>Many a reform has been actually retarded by the use of rhetoric. An +outpour of vehement language seems to release, both in the speaker and +in the assenting audience, a part of that energy which ought to issue in +action. It has been one of the grave blunders of the Churches that they +thought their function ended with the eloquent announcement that men +were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> brothers. We must be more practical. Now, while the imagination of +the world is filled with the horrors of war, and sympathy is ready to +fire us with a mighty energy, is one of the great opportunities of +peace. One may trust that, after this experience, the Churches will +awaken to the implications of their moral doctrine and set to work to +impress it emphatically and repeatedly, as a moral duty, on their +followers. It is, however, not impossible that, with all their +scoutmasters and chaplains and services of thanksgiving for victory, a +very large part of the clergy will find themselves so closely allied +with militarism when the war is over, so confused in their appreciation +of what it has done for us, that they will continue to mumble only +general principles and halting counsels. In any case, in the cities and +large towns of this kingdom, where are found the effective controllers +of our destiny, the majority do not any longer sit at the feet of the +clergy. Precise statistical observation has shown this.</p> + + +<p>Let us remember that the one task before us is to inspire the <i>majority</i> +in each civilised nation with a determination that the system shall end. +The only practical difficulty of considerable magnitude is the economic +difficulty: the disorganisation of the industrial world by suppressing +war-industries and large standing armies. It is, however, foolish to +regard this as an obstacle to disarmament, since—to put an extreme +case—it would be more profitable to a nation to maintain these men in +idleness than run the risk of another war. For disarmament itself what +is needed is that half a dozen, at least, of the great Powers shall +agree to submit <i>all</i> quarrels to arbitration, and reduce their armies +to the proportions of an international police, at the service of the +international tribunal and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> for use (under its permit) against lower +peoples who turn aggressive. No one doubts that this can be done when +the Powers agree to do it. But for one reason or other, which I need not +discuss, the Governments will probably not do this until a majority of +the electorate indicate a resolute demand for it. The immediate task is +to secure this majority by education; and the work of education will be +best conducted by vast non-sectarian peace-organisations. The mixture of +futile Christian phraseology and genuine humanitarian interests in some +of these movements has been hitherto a grave disadvantage. The movement +has been compelled to split into sectarian branches, and has +proportionately lost efficacy. If the clergy insist on winning prestige +for themselves, or respect and recognition for their doctrines, by +acting in these bodies, they are again hampering the work of reform. A +great national agitation, linked with similar agitations in other lands, +avoiding Christian formulæ as well as anti-Christian reproaches, will +alone secure the object.</p> + + +<p>I confess—with ardent hope that I may be wrong—that I expect no +immediate realisation of the reform. It may take years, even after the +grim lesson that militarism has given us, to inspire the majority of our +people with an unsleeping and irresistible demand, and the work will +grow more arduous as the memory of the hardships of the war fades. On +the day on which I write this I have listened to the conversation, in a +train, of a wealthy, refined, and cultivated Churchwoman. "I said to my +son when he set out," she observed, with a laugh, to her neighbour, +"that it was far better for him to get shot than to die of diphtheria or +something at home." If that sentiment, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> obtuseness to the massive +horrors of war even when a son was involved, is widespread, the outlook +is dark. One fears that it is not very promising.</p> + + +<p>The lady I quote would read these pages, if she could constrain herself +to do so, with a genuine shudder. Abandon Christianity! She would +volubly reel off the eloquent forecasts of the doom of society which she +has heard from a hundred pulpits. Meantime she is one of the gravest +obstacles (as a type of her class) to the removal from society of one of +its most crushing burdens and most criminal usages. To me her class +illustrates the limitations of Christianity, and it confirms me in the +belief that we shall make more rapid progress without it. She was a lady +of keen sympathies and of great activity for others: the kind of woman +who, as she would put it, practised her Christianity. Yet in face of +this mighty disorder she showed at once the failure of Christianity and +the reason of it. Her genuine human sympathy was directed by an ancient +and outworn code of duties. Where Christianity had delivered no clear +message, the expanding of her sympathy was barred. War was part of the +established order of things. She could even cheat her maternal sentiment +with thin fallacies, because they reconciled her to what the Church had +not condemned. She had never seen the vision of peace, never grasped the +comparatively easy alternative to war.</p> + + +<p>This, in general terms, is what one means by the expectation that a +surrender of Christian doctrines will certainly not check the growth of +sympathy, and is more likely to promote it. It will direct itself +spontaneously to departments of suffering to which the Church had not +directed it. But we should be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> foolish to rely on this free growth and +spontaneous application of sympathy. It must be cultivated: our +generation must be educated to a sense of its value. As far as the child +is concerned, the need is plain. Children do not merely have veins of +cruelty; they have, as comparative psychology knows, the blood and +impulses of primitive man. The general impulse of a healthy boy is to +exact an eye for an eye: the impulse which it is the supreme care of a +modern State to curb in its citizens. To educate such children in +military history, whether of ancient Jews or medieval Englishmen or +modern Germans, is, as William II knows, the best means of maintaining +war. As to the New Testament, its language is not addressed to children, +its sentiments are often so obviously impracticable that it defeats the +end of education, and its precepts and counsels are so emphatically +based on a disputable reward in heaven that their ethic savours of a +risky commercial speculation. We must abandon "Bible lessons," and teach +children to be human.</p> + + +<p>But for the work of education to end when the child leaves the school is +one of the crudities of our elementary civilisation. The human material +is just becoming fit for the efforts of the educator when the child +leaves school, yet from that moment we leave it to the casual and +largely pernicious influences of its environment. Some day, perhaps, our +education department will be more seriously concerned about the youth +and the adult than about impressing a few facts of history and geography +on the memory of the child: even if it did no more than organise and +direct the innumerable foundations and voluntary organisations which +actually exist, and bring them into living and practical contact with +our splendid museums and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> libraries and art-collections, a vast amount +could be done in the education of the adult. Meantime a persistent, +comprehensive, intensely earnest propaganda of peace is needed. Since I +wrote a little work on those lines in 1899 I have had fifteen years' +experience of preaching the gospel of peace, and know well how +convincing are its arguments and how little it has to overcome except +inertia. We need only to help the imagination of the mass of people; to +put clearly before them the comparative easiness and the incalculable +value of the change. Christianity has not tried and failed; it has not +even tried. It has wasted its resources in generalities which have +proved wholly futile. We must speak as men to men; and men will be more +open to conviction when we plead that, not the supposed commands of a +Galilean preacher of nineteen hundred years ago, but their own highest +and most sacred instincts, bid them lay down their arms and inaugurate +the age of international peace.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 33%; height: 2px;" /> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>The Service of Man</i> (<i>6d.</i> edition), p. 16.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> As I write, the Press describes Canon Green of Burnley as +saying that "the war is a divine judgment on the world—England for the +last ten years has been God-forgetting, drunken, immoral."</p> +</div> + + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Let me again guard myself against misrepresentation. Were I +of military age, I should to-day be in the trenches. The men who, as +long as the military system is retained, expose their lives in our +defence have my entire respect and gratitude. It is the system I +impugn.</p> +<br /> + +<hr style="width: 33%; height: 2px;" /> +<div style="text-align: center;">PRINTED BY WATTS & CO., JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.</div> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR AND THE CHURCHES***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 18650-h.txt or 18650-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/5/18650">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/6/5/18650</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The War and the Churches + + +Author: Joseph McCabe + + + +Release Date: June 22, 2006 [eBook #18650] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR AND THE CHURCHES*** + + +E-text prepared by Irma Spehar and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/) from page images +generously made available by Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries +(http://www.archive.org/details/toronto) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See + http://www.archive.org/details/warandchurches00mccauoft + + + + + +THE WAR AND THE CHURCHES + +by + +JOSEPH McCABE + + + + + + + +[Issued for the Rationalist Press Association, Limited] +London: Watts & Co. 17 Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, E.C. +1915 + + + + +WORKS BY THE AUTHOR + +_Modern Rationalism_ (Watts), 2nd ed. 1/- + +_Peter Abelard_ (Duckworth), 2nd ed. 3/6. + +_Saint Augustine and his Age_ (Duckworth), 2nd ed. 3/6. + +_Twelve Years in a Monastery_ (Smith Elder), 3rd ed. _6d._ and 1/- + +_Life in a Modern Monastery_ (Grant Richards). 6/- + +_Life and Letters of G. J. Holyoake_ (Watts), 2 vols. L1/1/- + +_Talleyrand_ (Hutchinson). 14/- + +_The Iron Cardinal_ (Nash). 12/- + +_Goethe_ (Nash). 15/- + +_A Candid History of the Jesuits_ (Nash). 10/6. + +_The Evolution of Mind_ (Black). 5/- + +_Evolution_ (Twentieth Century Science Series). 1/- + +_Prehistoric Man_ (Twentieth Century Science Series). 1/- + +_The Principles of Evolution_ (The Nation's Library). 1/- + +_The Decay of the Church of Rome_ (Methuen), 2nd ed. 7/6. + +_The Story of Evolution_ (Hutchinson), 2nd ed. 7/6. + +_The Empresses of Rome_ (Methuen). 12/6. + +_The Empresses of Constantinople_ (Methuen). 12/6. + +_Church Discipline_ (Duckworth). 3/6. + +_Can we Disarm?_ (Heinemann). 2/6. + +_In the Shade of the Cloister_ (pseudonymous--Constable). 6/- + +_The Bible in Europe_ (Watts). 3/6. + +_The Religion of Woman_ (Watts), 2nd ed. _6d._ + +_Woman in Political Evolution_ (Watts). _6d._ + +_Haeckel's Critics Answered_ (Watts), 2nd ed. _6d._ + +_From Rome to Rationalism_ (Watts), 4th ed. _4d._ + +_The Origin of Life_ (Watts). 1/- + +_Secular Education_ (Watts), 2nd ed. 1/- + +_The Martyrdom of Ferrer_ (Watts), 2nd ed. _6d._ + +_The Religion of the Twentieth Century_ (Watts). 1/- + +_A Hundred Years of Education Controversy_ (Watts). _3d._ + +_The Existence of God_ (Watts). _9d._ + +_Shakespeare and Goethe_ (Cole). _6d._ + +_George Bernard Shaw_ (Kegan Paul). 7/6. + +_The Religion of Sir Oliver Lodge_ (Watts). 2/- + + + + +PREFACE + + +The searching crisis through which the nation is passing must have the +effect of securing grave consideration for many aspects of our life and +institutions. We have already traversed the acute stage of suspense, and +are gradually becoming sensible of these wider considerations. It was +natural that for a prolonged period the disturbance of our economic +conditions, the anxiety for the safety of our nation in face of an +appalling menace, the personal concern of millions about the lives of +sons or brothers who have bravely responded to the call, should keep our +thoughts enchained to the daily or hourly fortunes of the field of +battle. Now that the initial disorder has been allayed and we have +attained a quiet and reasonable confidence in the issue, we turn to +other and broader aspects of this mighty event of our generation. How +comes it that the most enlightened century the world has yet seen should +be thus darkened by one of the bloodiest and most calamitous wars that +have ever spread their awful wings over the life of man? Where is all +the optimism of yesterday? Must we reconsider our reasoned boast that +our civilisation has lifted the life of man to a level hitherto +unattained? Is there something entirely and most mischievously wrong +with the foundations of modern civilisation? + +A dozen such questions will press for an answer, but it will be granted +that one of the most urgent and most interesting of the many grave +considerations which the war suggests is its relation to the prevailing +creeds and standards of conduct. The war coincides with an advanced +stage of what is called the spread of unbelief. In each of the nations +of Europe which are engaged in this awful struggle complaints have been +made every year for the last two or three generations that Christianity +is losing its moral control of the white race. In the cities, especially +in the capitals, of Europe there has been a proved and acknowledged +decay of church-going; and, however much we may be disposed to think +that these millions who no longer attend church retain in their minds +the beliefs of their fathers, the slender circulation of religious +literature makes it plain that the vast majority of them do not, in +point of fact, receive either the spoken or written message of the +Christian Church. In the great cities--and it is undoubted that the life +of a nation is mainly controlled by its cities--there has been an +increasing reluctance to listen to the authoritative exponents of the +Christian gospel. + +A number of the clergy have very naturally noticed and stressed this +coincidence. Prelates of high authority have, as we shall see, even +declared that the war is a scourge deliberately laid on the back of +mankind by the Almighty on account of this spreading infidelity. As a +rule, the clergy shrink from advocating a theory which has such grave +implications as this has, and they are content to submit the more +plausible suggestion, that the decay of the Christian standard of +conduct in the mind of a large proportion of our generation accounts for +this tragic combat of nations. A distinguished Positivist writer, Mr. J. +Cotter Morison, commenting in the last generation on the decay of +Christian belief, expressed some such concern in the following terms: + + "It would be rash to expect that a transition, unprecedented for + its width and difficulty, from theology to positivism, from the + service of God to the service of Man, could be accomplished without + jeopardy. Signs are not wanting that the prevalent anarchy in + thought is leading to anarchy in morals. Numbers who have put off + belief in God have not put on belief in Humanity. A common and + lofty standard of duty is being trampled down in the fierce battle + of incompatible principles."[1] + +It is true that in the work from which I quote[1] the learned, if +somewhat nervous, Positivist does not, by his masterly survey of the +moral history of Europe, afford us the least reason to think that we +have really deteriorated from the standard of conduct set us by earlier +generations, but his words do tend to press on our notice the claim of +many writers, clerical and non-clerical, that we are returning from +Christianity to Paganism, from a settled moral discipline to an +unhealthy moral scepticism. Can one entirely and safely reconstruct the +bases of personal and national conduct in one or two generations? + +This very plain and plausible theory is, however, exposed to criticism +from other points of view. The clergy as a body are not at all willing +to concede that the decay of belief has spread as far as the theory +would suggest. In order to suppose that the life of Europe has, in a +matter of the gravest importance, been directed by a non-Christian +spirit, one must assume that at least the majority in each nation have +deserted the traditional creed. It is by no means conceded or +established that the fighting nations have ceased to be predominantly +Christian. Indeed, if we confine the awful responsibility for this +tragedy, as the evidence compels us, to Germany and Austria-Hungary, we +are casting it upon the two nations which have been the chief +representatives in Europe of the two leading branches of the Church. +Most assuredly no prelate of either country would admit that his nation +has ceased to be Christian or surrendered its life to non-Christian +impulses; and in our own country we have frequently been assured of late +years that the real power of Christianity was never greater. + +Clearly these conflicting claims and this contrast of profession and +practice suggest a problem that deserves consideration. The problem +becomes the more interesting, and the plausible theory of non-Christian +responsibility is even more severely shaken, when we reflect that war is +not an innovation of this unbelieving age, but a legacy from the earlier +and more thoroughly Christian period. Had mankind departed from some +admirable practice of submitting its international quarrels to a +religious arbitrator, and in our own times devised this horrible +arbitrament of the sword, we should be more disposed to seek the cause +in a contemporary enfeeblement of moral standards. This is notoriously +not the case. Men have warred, and priests have blessed the banners +which were to wave over fields of blood, from the very beginning of +Christian influence, not to speak of earlier religious epochs. There is +assuredly a ghastly magnitude about modern war which almost lends it an +element of novelty, but the appearance is illusory. That intense +employment of resources which makes modern war so sanguinary tends also +to shorten its duration. No military struggle could now be prolonged +into the period of the Napoleonic wars; to say nothing of the Thirty +Years War, which involved the death, with every circumstance of +ferocity, of immensely larger numbers than could be affected by any +modern war. Nor may we forget that it is the modern spirit which has +claimed some alleviation of the horrors of the field, and that the +majority of the nations engaged in the present struggle have observed +the new rules. + +These considerations show that the problem is less simple and more +serious than is often supposed, and I set out to discuss each of them +with some fullness. That the war has _no_ relation to the Churches will +hardly be claimed by anybody. Such a claim would mean that they were +indifferent to one of the very gravest phases of human conduct, or +wholly unable to influence it. Nor can we avoid the issue by pleading +that Christianity approves and blesses a just defensive war, and that, +since the share of this country in the war is entirely just and +defensive, we have no moral problem to consider. I have assuredly no +intention of questioning either the justice of Britain's conduct or the +prudence of the Churches in adapting the maxims of the Sermon on the +Mount to the practical needs of life. If and when a nation sees its life +and prosperity threatened by an ambitious or a jealous neighbour, one +cannot but admire its clergy for joining in the advocacy of an efficient +and triumphant defence. But this is merely a superficial and proximate +consideration. Not the actual war only, but the military system of which +it is the occasional outcome, has a very pertinent relation to religion; +the maintenance of this machinery for settling international quarrels in +an age in which applied science makes it so formidable is a very grave +moral issue. It turns our thoughts at once to those branches of the +Christian Church which claim the predominant share in the moulding of +the conduct of Europe. + +But these questions of the efficacy of Christian teaching or the +influence of Christian ministers are not the only or the most +interesting questions suggested by the relation of the war to the +prevailing religion. The great tragedy which darkens the earth to-day +raises again in its most acute form the problem of evil and Providence. +More than two thousand years ago, as _Job_ reminds us, some difficulty +was experienced in justifying the ways of God to men. The most +penetrating thinker of the early Church, St. Augustine, wrestled once +more with the problem, as if no word had been written on it; and he +wrestled in vain. A century and a half ago, when the Lisbon earthquake +destroyed forty thousand Portuguese, Voltaire attempted, with equal +unsuccess, to vindicate Providence with the faint hope of the Deist. +Modern science, prolonging the sufferings of living things over earlier +millions of years, has made that problem one of the great issues of our +age, and this dread spectacle of _human_ nature red in tooth and claw +brings it impressively before us. Is the work of God restricted to +counting the hairs of the head, and not enlarged to check the murderous +thoughts in the human brain? Nay, when we survey those horrid stretches +of desolation in Belgium and Poland and Serbia, where the mutilated +bodies of the innocent, of women and children, lie amidst the ashes of +their homes; when we think of those peaceful sailors of our mercantile +marine at the bottom of the deep, those unoffending civilians whose +flesh was torn by shells, those hundreds of thousands whom patriotic +feeling alone has summoned to the vast tombs of Europe, those millions +of homes that have been darkened by suspense and loss--how can we repeat +the ancient assurance that God _does_ count the hairs of the head and +mark the fall of even the sparrows? Does God move the insensate stars +only, and leave to the less skilful guidance of man those momentous +little atoms which make up the brain of statesmen? + +These are reflections which must occur to every thoughtful person in the +later and more meditative phases of a great war, when the eye has grown +somewhat weary of the glitter of steel and the colour of banners, when +the world mourns about us and the long lists of the dead and longer list +of the stupendous waste sober the mind. Something is gravely wrong with +our international life; and, plainly, it is not a question _whether_ +that international life departs from the Christian standard, but _why_, +after fifteen hundred years of mighty Christian influence, it does so +depart. Is the moral machinery of Europe ineffective? One certainly +cannot say that it has not had a prolonged trial; yet here, in the +twentieth century, we have, in the most terrible form, one of the most +appalling evils which human agency ever brought upon human hearts. We +have to reconsider our religious and ethical position; to ask ourselves +whether, if the influence of religion has failed to direct men into +paths of wisdom and peace, some other influence may not be found which +will prove more persuasive and more beneficent. + +J. M. + +_Easter, 1915._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAP. PAGE + + I. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCHES 1 + II. CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 25 +III. THE APOLOGIES OF THE CLERGY 48 + IV. THE WAR AND THEISM 70 + V. THE HUMAN ALTERNATIVE 95 + + + + +THE WAR AND THE CHURCHES + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCHES + + +The first question which the unprejudiced inquirer will seek to answer +is: How far were the Churches able to prevent, yet remiss in using their +influence to prevent, the present war? There is, unhappily, in these +matters no such thing as an entirely unprejudiced inquirer. Our +preconceived ideas act like magnets on the material of evidence which is +submitted to us, instinctively selecting what bears in their favour and +declining to receive what they cannot utilise. Nowhere is this more +conspicuous than in the field of religious inquiry, nor is it confined +to either believers or unbelievers. There has been too much mutual +abuse, and too little attention to the fact that the mind no less than +the mouth has its palate, its impulsive selections and rejections. One +can meet the difficulty only by a patient and full examination of the +pleas of both parties to a controversy. + +And the first plea which it is material to examine is that, since it is +claimed that all the nations engaged in the war are Christian nations, +one may accuse them collectively of moral failure. From the earliest +days of the Christian religion it was the boast of those who accepted +it that it abolished all distinctions of caste and race. In the little +community which gathered round the cross there was neither bond nor +free, neither Greek nor Roman. This cosmopolitanism was, in fact, a +natural feature of religious movements at the time, and was due not so +much to their intrinsic development as to the political circumstances of +the world in which they spread. All round the eastern and northern +shores of the Mediterranean a great variety of races mingled in every +port and every commercial town, and it was the policy of the powerful +Empire which extended its sway over them all to overrule their national +antagonisms. When, in the earlier period, Jew and Greek and Egyptian had +maintained their separate nationalities, hostility to other races had +been a very natural social quality, an inevitable part of the spirit of +self-preservation in a race. When the great Empires had conquered the +smaller nationalities or the decaying older Empires, this mutual +hostility was moderated, and, as the vast movements of population which +marked the end of the old and the beginning of the new era filled the +Mediterranean cities with extraordinarily mixed crowds, mutual +friendship became the more fitting and more useful social virtue. A good +deal of the old narrow patriotism had been due to the fact that each +nation had its own god. In the new Roman world this theological +exclusivism broke down, and the priests of a particular god, scattered +like their followers among the cities of the eastern world, began to +seek a cosmopolitan rather than a nationalist following. In the temple +of each of the leading gods of the time--Jahveh, Serapis, Mithra, and so +on--people of all races and classes were received on a footing of +equality. The doctrine of the brotherhood of man spread all over that +cosmopolitan world. + +When the old world, to the south and east of the Mediterranean, was +blotted out of history, and Europe in turn became a group of conflicting +nationalities, racial hatred was revived and in its political and social +aspects the doctrine of the brotherhood of man was virtually forgotten. +But the Christian Church had embodied that doctrine in its sacred +writing, and was bound to maintain it. In its ambition of a universal +dominion it was the direct successor of the Roman Empire. All the races +of Europe were to meet as brothers under the one God of the new world +and under the direction of his representatives on earth. It was this +change in the features of the world which gave a certain air of +insincerity to the Christian gospel. In the older days there had been +political unity with a great diversity of religions; now there was +religious unity spread over a great diversity of antagonistic political +bodies. Men were brothers from the religious point of view and, only too +frequently, deadly enemies from the political point of view. The discord +was made worse by the feudal system which was adopted. Even within the +same race there was no brotherhood. In effect the clergy as a body did +not insist that the noble was a brother of the serf, and did not exact +fraternal treatment of the serf. Thus the phrase, "the brotherhood of +man," which had been a most prominent and active principle of early +Christianity, became little more than a useless theological thesis. + +The solution of the difficulty would, of course, have been for the +clergy, as the supreme representatives of the doctrine of brotherhood, +to apply that doctrine boldly to every part of man's conduct; to +pronounce that all violence and bloodshed were immoral, and to devise a +humane means of settling international quarrels. I will consider in the +next chapter why the Christian leaders failed even to attempt this great +reform. For the moment it is enough to observe that the conditions of +modern times favoured a fresh assertion of the doctrine of brotherhood. +Great as the power of sincere moral idealism has always been, the +historian must recognise that economic changes have had a most important +influence upon the development or acceptance of moral ideas. Just as in +earlier ages the development of forms of life was conditioned by changes +in their material surroundings, so man's moral development has been +profoundly influenced by industrial, commercial, and political changes. + +The destruction of feudalism and the development of the modern worker +were notoriously not due to religious influence, yet they had an +important relation to religious doctrines. Once the new spirit had +asserted its right, the clergy recollected that all men are brothers +from the social as well as the religious point of view. Many of them, +and even some social writers of Christian views, maintain that the new +social order is itself based on or inspired by the religious doctrine of +brotherhood. This speculation is entirely opposed to the historical +facts, but it will easily be realised that when the workers had, in +their own interest, asserted afresh the doctrine of human brotherhood, +the Churches had a new occasion to preach it. How timid and tentative +that preaching was, and even is, we have not to consider here. On the +whole the brotherhood of men was re-affirmed by the Churches both in the +social and religious sense. + +This situation makes more violent than ever the contrast between the +political and religious relations of men, and gives a strong _prima +facie_ case to the charge against the Churches which I am considering. +It is wholly artificial and insincere to say that men are brothers +socially and religiously, yet are justified in marching out in millions, +with the most murderous apparatus science can devise, to meet each other +on the field of battle. We condemn crime for social reasons. We have +relegated to the Middle Ages, to which it belongs, the notion that the +criminal is a man who has affronted society, and that society may take a +revenge on him. In the sane conception of our time the criminal is a +mischievous element disturbing the social order, and, in the interest of +that order, he must be isolated or put out of existence. It is not the +_guilt_, but the _social effect_, which we regard. And from this point +of view a single great war is far more calamitous than all the crime in +Europe during whole decades. It is estimated by high authorities that if +the present war lasts only twelve months it will cost Europe, directly +and indirectly, including the destruction of property and the loss to +industry and commerce, no less a sum than L9,000,000,000; and it will +certainly cost more than a million, if not more than two million, lives, +besides the incalculable amount of suffering from wounds, loss of +relatives, outrages, and the incidental damage of warfare. The time will +come when historians will study with amazement the wonderful system we +have devised in Europe for the suppression of breaches of the social +order at a time when we complacently suffer these appalling periodical +destructions of the entire social order of nations. + +It is quite natural to arraign the Christian Churches in connection +with this disastrous outbreak. Unless they discharge the high task of +the moral direction of men, in international as well as in personal +conduct, they have no _raison d'etre_. Few of them to-day will plead +that their function is merely to interpret to their fellows what they +regard as the revealed word of God. In face of the challenging spirit of +our time they maintain that they discharge a moral mission of such +importance that society is likely to go to pieces if Christianity is +abandoned. We therefore ask very pertinently where they were, and what +they were doing, during the months when the nations of Europe were +slowly advancing toward a declaration of war. + +In examining the charge that, for some reason or other, they neglected +their mission at a crisis of supreme importance, we must recall that few +of us believed that a great war would occur until we actually heard the +declaration. No indictment of the clergy is valid which presupposes that +they are more sagacious or far-seeing than the rest of us. Yet, however +much we may have doubted the actual occurrence of war, we have known for +years, and have quite complacently commented upon, the danger that half +of Europe would sooner or later be involved in the horrors of the +greatest war in history. Now it is notorious that the Christian Churches +have done little or nothing, in proportion to their mighty resources and +influence, to avert this danger. No collective action has been taken, +and relatively few individuals have used their influence to moderate or +obviate the danger. The supreme head of the most powerfully organised +and most cosmopolitan religious body in the world, an institution which +has its thousands of ministers among each of the antagonistic peoples--I +mean the Church of Rome--gave his attention to minute questions of +doctrine and administration, and bemoaned repeatedly the evil spirit of +our age, but issued not one single syllable of precise and useful +direction to the various national regiments of his clergy in connection +with this terrible impending danger. The heads or Councils of the +various Protestant bodies were equally remiss. Here and there individual +clergymen joined associations, founded by laymen, which endeavoured to +maintain peace and to secure arbitration upon quarrels, and one Sunday +in the year was set aside by the pulpits for the vague gospel of peace. +But in almost all cases these movements were purely secular in origin, +and the few movements of a religious nature have been obviously founded +only to keep the idealism linked with a particular Church, have had no +great influence, and have been too vague in their principles to have had +any effect upon the growing chances of a European war. There is no doubt +that the Churches have remained almost dumb while Europe was preparing +for its Armageddon. + +I speak of the clergy, but in our time the responsibility cannot be +confined to these. Even in the Church of England the laity have now a +considerable influence, and in the other Protestant bodies they have +even more power in the control of policy. No doubt the duty of +initiative and of work in such matters lies mainly with the more +leisured and more official interpreters of the Christian spirit, yet it +would be absurd to restrict the criticism to them. The various Christian +bodies, as a whole, have confronted a very grave and imminent danger +with remarkable indifference, although that danger could become an +actual infliction only by seriously immoral conduct on the part of some +nation. They saw, as we all saw, the vast armies preparing for the fray, +the diplomatists betraying an increasing concern about the relations +between their respective nations, the press embittering those relations, +and a pernicious and provocative literature inflaming public opinion. We +all saw these things, and knew that a war of appalling magnitude would +follow the first infringement of peace. Yet I think it will hardly be +controverted that the Churches made no serious effort to avert that +calamity from Europe. They were deeply concerned about unbelief, about +personal purity, about the cleanness of plays and books and pictures, +even about questions of social reform which a rebellious democracy +forced on them; but they took no initiative and performed no important +service in connection with this terrible danger. + +That is the indictment which many bring against Christianity, and we +have now to consider the general defence. I will examine later a number +of religious pronouncements about the war, and will discuss here only a +few general pleas which are put forward as a defence against the general +indictment. + +It is, in the first place, urged that the moral and humanitarian +teaching which the Christian Churches never ceased to put before the +world condemned in advance every departure from the paths of justice and +charity; that it was not the fault of Christianity if men refused to +listen to or carry into practice that teaching. But at no period in the +history of morals has it sufficed to lay down general principles. +Everybody perceives to-day, not only that slavery was in itself a crime, +but that it was essentially opposed to the Christian morality. Yet, as +no Christian teacher for many centuries ventured to apply the principle +by expressly denouncing slavery, the institution was taken over from +Paganism by Christian Europe and lasted centuries after the fall of the +Roman Empire. The Church itself had vast numbers of slaves, and later of +serfs, on its immense estates. Leo the Great disdainfully enacted that +the priesthood must not be stained by admitting so "vile" a class to its +ranks, and Gregory the Great had myriads of slaves on the Papal +"patrimonies." So it was with the demand for social reform which +characterised the nineteenth century. To-day Christians claim that their +principles sanctioned and gave weight to those early demands of reform, +yet their principles had been vainly repeated in Europe for fifteen +hundred years, and, when the people themselves at last formulated their +demands in the early part of the nineteenth century, it is notorious +that the clergy opposed them. The teaching of abstract moral principles +is of no avail. Man is essentially a casuist. Leave to him the +application of your principles, and he will adapt almost any scheme of +conduct to them. The moralist who does not boldly and explicitly point +the application of his principles is either too ignorant of human nature +to discharge his duty with effect or is a coward. The plain fact is that +the preaching of justice and peace throughout Europe has been steadily +accompanied by an increase in armaments and in international friction. +It had no moral influence on the situation. + +A more valid plea is that we must distinguish carefully between the +nations which inaugurated the war and the nations which are merely +defending themselves, and we must quarrel with the Christian Churches +only in those lands which are guilty. It may, indeed, be pleaded that, +since each nation regards itself as acting on the defensive and uses +arguments to this effect which convince its jurists and scholars no less +than its divines, there is no occasion at all to introduce Christianity. +Most of us do not merely admit the right, we emphasise the duty, of +every citizen to take his share in the just defence of his country, +either by arms or by material contribution. Since there seems to be a +general conviction even in Germany and Austria that the nation is +defending itself against jealous and designing neighbours, why quarrel +with their clergy for supporting the war? + +When the plea is broadened to this extent we must emphatically reject +it. There has been too much disposition among moralists to listen +indulgently to such talk as this. When we find five nations engaged in a +terrible war, and each declaring that it is only defending itself +against its opponent, the cynic indeed may indolently smile at the +situation, but the man of principle has a more rigorous task. Some one +of those peoples is lying or is deceived, and, in the future interest of +mankind, it is imperative to determine and condemn the delinquent. There +is no such thing as an inevitable war, nor does the burden of great +armaments lead of itself to the opening of hostilities. It is certain +that on one side or the other, if not on both sides, there is a terrible +guilt, and it is the duty of Christian or any other moralists, whether +or no they belong to the guilty nations, sternly to assign and condemn +that guilt. It is precisely on this loose and lenient habit of mind that +the engineers of aggressive war build in our time, and we have seen, in +the case of neutral nations and of a section of our own nation, what +chances they have of succeeding. They have only to fill their people and +the world at large with counter-charges, resolutely mendacious, and +many will throw up their hands in presence of the mutual accusations and +declare that it is impossible to assign the responsibility. That is a +fatal concession to immorality, and we must hold that in some one or +more of the combatant nations the Churches have, for some reason or +other, acquiesced in a crime. + +The plea is valid only to this extent, that the guilty nations in this +case were notoriously Germany and Austria-Hungary, and therefore one +cannot pass any censure on British Christians for supporting the war. I +have in other works dealt so fully with the guilt of those two nations +that here I must be content to assume it. The general and incessant cry +of the German people, that they are only defending their Empire against +malignant enemies, must be understood in the light of their recent +history and literature. No Power in the world had given any indication +of a wish to destroy Germany; there were, at the most, a few +uninfluential appeals in England for an attack on Germany, but solely on +the ground that it meditated an attack on England, and the accumulated +evidence now shows that it did meditate such an attack. England did not +desire an acre of German ground. France had assuredly not forgotten +Alsace and Lorraine, but France would have had no support, and would +have failed ignominiously, in an aggressive campaign to secure those +provinces. On the other hand, an immense and weighty literature, which +is unfortunately very little known in England, has familiarised Germany +for fifteen years with aggressive ideas. The most authoritative writers +claimed that, as they said repeatedly, "Germany must and will expand"; +and leagues which numbered millions of subscribers propagated this +sentiment in every school and village. A definite demand was made +throughout Germany for more colonies and a longer coast-line on the +North Sea; and it was in relation to this ambition that England, France, +and Russia were represented--and justly represented--as Germany's +opponents. England, in particular, was described as the great dragon +which watched at the gates of Germany and grimly forbade its +"development." It is in this sense that the bulk of the German people +maintain that their action is defensive. + +In passing, let me emphasise this peculiar economic difference between +the four nations. Russia had a vast territory in which her people might +develop. France had no surplus population, and had a large colonial +field for such of her children as desired adventure abroad or would +escape the competition at home. England had, in Canada and Australasia +and South Africa, a magnificent estate for her surplus population. None +of these Powers had an economic ground for aggression. Germany was +undoubtedly in a far less fortunate position, and had an overflowing +population. Six hundred thousand men and women (mostly men) had to leave +the fatherland every year, and, as the colonies were small and +unsatisfactory, they were scattered and lost among the nations of the +earth. The proper attitude toward Germany is, not to gratify the cunning +of her leaders by superficially admitting that she was not aggressive, +but to understand clearly the very solid grounds of her desire for +expansion. + +Into the whole case against Germany, however, I cannot enter here. +Familiar from their chief historical writers with the supposed law of +the expansion of powerful nations, convinced by their economists that +the country would soon burst with population and be choked by their own +industrial products unless they expanded, knowing well that such +expansion meant war to the death against France and England (who would +suffer by their expansion), the German people consented to the war. +Their official documents absolutely belie the notion that they were +meeting an aggressive England. But the Christians of Germany were +utterly false to their principles in supporting such a war. I do not +mean merely that they set aside the precept, or counsel to turn the +other cheek to the smiter, for no one now expects either nation or +individual to act on that maxim. They were false to the ordinary +principles of Christian morals or of humanity. Even if one were +desperately to suppose that, learned divines like Harnack were unable to +assign the real responsibility for the war, or that the whole of Germany +is kept in a kind of hot-house of falsehood, it would be impossible to +defend them. The Churches of Germany have complacently watched for +twenty-three years the tendency which William II gave to their schools; +they have passed no censure on the fifteen years of Imperialist +propaganda which have steadily prepared the nation for an aggressive +war; and they have raised no voice against the appalling decision that, +in order to attain Germany's purposes, every rule of morals and humanity +should be set aside. They have servilely accepted every flimsy pretext +for outrage, and have followed, instead of leading, their +passion-blinded people. It was the same in Austria-Hungary. Austrian and +Hungarian prelates have passed in silence the fearful travesties of +justice by which, in recent years, their statesmen sought to compass +the judicial murder of scores of Slavs; they raised no voice when, at +the grave risk of a European war, Austria dishonestly annexed Bosnia and +Herzegovina; they gave their tacit or open consent when Austria, +refusing mediation, declared war on Serbia and inaugurated the titanic +struggle; and they have passed no condemnation on the infamies which the +Magyar troops perpetrated in Serbia. + +I am concerned mainly with the action or inaction of the Churches in +this country, but it is entirely relevant to set out a brief statement +of these facts about Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Christian religion +was on trial in those countries as well as here. It failed so +lamentably, not because there is more Christianity here than in Germany +and Austria, not because the national character was inferior to the +English and less apt to receive Christian teaching, but because the +temptation was greater. Until this war occurred, no responsible +traveller ever ventured to say that the German or Austrian character was +inferior to the British. It is not. But the economic difficulties of +Germany and the political difficulties (with the Slavs) of +Austria-Hungary laid a heavier trial on those nations, and their +Christianity entirely failed. Catholic and Protestant alike--for the two +nations contain fifty million Catholics to sixty million +Protestants--were swept onward in the tide of national passion, or +feared to oppose it. + +One might have expected that at least the supreme head of the Roman +Church would, from his detached throne in Rome, pass some grave censure +on the outrages committed by Catholic Bavarians in Belgium or Catholic +Magyars in Serbia. Not one syllable either on the responsibility for the +war or the appalling outrages which have characterised it has come from +him. The only event which drew from him a protest--a restrained and +inoffensive remonstrance--was the confinement to his palace for some +days of my old friend and teacher, Cardinal Mercier! To the stories of +fearful and widespread outrage, even when they were sternly +authenticated, he was deaf. One knows why. If Germany and Austria fail +in this war, as they will fail, the Catholic bodies of Germany and +Austria, the strongest Catholic political parties in Europe, will be +broken. Millions of the Catholic subjects of Germany and Austria will +pass under the rule of unbelieving France or schismatical Russia. So the +supreme head of the Roman Church wraps himself nervously in a mantle of +political neutrality and disclaims the duty of assigning moral guilt. + +On us in England was laid only the task of defending our homes and our +honour. It is in those other countries that we most clearly see +Christianity put to the test, and failing deplorably under the test. I +do not mean that there was no opportunity here for the Churches to +display their effectiveness as the moral guides of nations. In those +fateful years between 1908 and 1914, during which we now see so plainly +the preparation for this world-tragedy, they might have done much. They +did nothing. They might have seen, at least at the eleventh hour, the +iniquity of sustaining the military system, and have cast the whole of +their massive influence on the side of the promoters of arbitration. I +do not mean that any man should advocate disarmament, or less effective +armament, in England while the rest of the world remains armed. As long +as we retain the military system instead of an international court, the +soldier's profession is honourable, and the man who voluntarily faces +the horrors of the field is entitled to respect and gratitude. But in +every country there was an agitation for the _general_ abandonment of +militarism and the substitution of lawyers for soldiers in the +settlement of international quarrels. Had the Churches in every country +given their whole support to this agitation, and insisted that it is +morally criminal for the race as a whole to prolong the military system, +we might not have witnessed this great catastrophe. + +Before, however, I press this charge against the Christian bodies, let +me discuss the third plea that may be urged in defence of the Churches. +It is the plea of those who are so eager to disclaim responsibility that +they are willing to allow an enormous decay of religious influence in +the modern world. You have repeatedly told us, they say to the +Rationalist, that Christianity has lost its hold on Europe. You speak of +millions who no longer hear the word of Christian ministers, but who +_do_ read Rationalist literature in enormous quantities. Very well, you +cannot have it both ways. Let us admit that the nations of Europe have +become non-Christian, and we cast on your non-Christian influence the +burden of responsibility for the war. + +This language has been used more than once in England. It leaves the +speaker free to assume that in England, whose action in the war we do +not criticise, the nation remains substantially Christian, while in +Germany and Austria the Churches have lost more ground. Indeed, one may +almost confine attention to Germany. Profoundly corrupt as political +life has been in Austria-Hungary for years, there is no little evidence +in the official publications of diplomatic documents that at the last +moment, when the spectre of a general war definitely arose, Austria +hesitated and entered upon a hopeful negotiation with Russia. It was +Germany's criminal ultimatum to Russia which set the avalanche on its +terrible path. Now Germany is notoriously a land of religious criticism +and Rationalism. Church-going in Berlin is far lower even than in +London, where six out of seven millions do not attend places of worship. +It is almost as low as at Paris, where hardly a tenth of the population +attend church on Sundays. In other large towns of Germany the condition +is, as in England, proportionate. Almost in proportion to the size of +the town is the aversion of the people from the Churches. + +It is absolutely impossible in the case of Germany to determine, even in +very round numbers, how many have abandoned their allegiance to +Christianity, though, when one remembers the enormous rural population +and the high proportion of believers in the smaller towns, it seems +preposterous to suggest that the country has, even to the extent of one +half, become non-Christian. But I am anxious to do justice to this plea, +and would point out that it is the educated class and the men of the +large cities who control a nation's policy. The rural population--the +general population, in fact--follows its educated leaders. Now there is +no doubt that in Germany, as elsewhere, this body of the population--the +middle class and the workers of the great cities--has very largely lost +the traditional belief. The workers of Berlin are solidly Socialistic, +which means very largely anti-clerical. And I would boldly draw the +conclusion that the responsibility for the war is shared at least +equally by Christians and non-Christians. The stricture I have passed on +the Churches of Germany is based on the fact that they, being organised +bodies with a definite moral mission, were peculiarly bound to protest +against the obvious political development of their country, and they +entirely failed to do so. But I should be the last to confine the +responsibility to them. Not only religious leaders like Harnack and +Eucken, but leading Rationalists like Haeckel and Ostwald, have +cordially supported the action of their country. So it was from the +first. Of that large class of men who may be said to have had some real +control of the fortunes of their country a very high proportion--I +should be disposed to say at least one half--are not Christians, or are +Christians only in name. + +While we thus candidly admit that non-Christians as well as Christians +in Germany bear the moral responsibility, we must be equally candid in +rejecting the libellous charge that the principles, or lack of +principles, of the non-Christians tended to provoke or encourage war, in +opposition to the Christian principles. This not uncommon plea of +religious people is worse than inaccurate, since it is quite easy to +ascertain the principles of those who reject Christianity. In Germany, +as elsewhere, the non-Christians are mainly an unorganised mass, but +there are two definite organisations, which, in this respect, reflect or +educate the general non-Christian sentiment. These are the Social +Democrats, a body of many millions who are for the most part opposed to +the clergy, and the Monists, an expressly Rationalistic body. In both +cases the moral principles of the organisation are emphatically +humanitarian and opposed to violence, dishonesty, or injustice; in both +cases those principles are adhered to with a fidelity at least equal to +that which one finds in the Christian Churches. It is little short of +monstrous to say that the moral teaching of Bebel and Singer and +Liebknecht, or of Haeckel and Ostwald--all men of high moral +idealism--gave greater occasion than the teaching of Christianity to +this atrocious war. The Socialists, indeed, were the strongest opponents +of war and advocates of international amity in Europe. How, like the +Evangelical and the Christian Churches, they failed in a grave crisis to +assert their principles may be a matter for interesting consideration, +but it would be entirely dishonest to plead that the substitution of the +influence of Rationalists and Socialists for Christian ministers has in +any degree facilitated the war. + +The Christian who regards all these non-Christian influences as "Pagan," +and feels that a "return to Paganism" explains the essential immorality +of Germany's conduct, usually has a grossly inaccurate idea of Paganism. +Whatever may be said of sexual developments in modern and ancient times, +we shall see that the Roman writers held principles which most decidedly +made for peace and brotherhood and justice. In point of fact, the +majority of the German writers who have been responsible for the +education of Germany in war-like ideas have been Christians. The Emperor +himself, who is mainly responsible because of his deliberate +prostitution of German schools to militarist purposes since 1891, will +hardly be described as other than Christian; certainly every prelate or +minister in Germany would vehemently resent such a description. +Treitschke, who is probably the best known in England of the Imperialist +writers, definitely bases his appalling conception of life on Christian +principles, and claims that he is acting from a sense of the divine +mission of Germany. General von Bernhardi uses precisely the same +Christian language. But these are only two in a hundred writers who, +for more than half a century, have been educating Germany in aggressive +ideas, and, speaking from personal acquaintance with their works, I +should say that the overwhelming majority of them are Christians. Not a +single Socialist, and not a single well-known Rationalist, has +contributed to their pernicious gospel. + +Probably the one German writer in the mind of those English people who +speak of Germany's return to Paganism is Friedrich Nietzsche. It is true +that Nietzsche was bitterly anti-Christian, and he has probably had a +greater influence in Germany, in spite of his strictures on the country, +than many seem disposed to allow. German booksellers have recently drawn +up a statement in regard to the favourite books of soldiers in the +field, and it appears that Nietzsche's _Thus Spake Zarathustra_ is +second on the list--leagues ahead of the Bible. But to conclude from +this that the anti-moral doctrine of the Pagan Nietzsche is the chief +source of the outrages committed is one of those slipshod inferences +which make one despair of Christian literature. + +In the first place, Goethe is even more popular with the troops than +Nietzsche, and, although Goethe too was a Pagan, his teaching was the +very antithesis of crime, violence, injustice, or hypocrisy. No nobler +human doctrine was ever set forth than in the pages of his _Faust_, the +first on this list of favourite books. In the second place, this fact at +once warns us of a circumstance which we might have taken for granted: +in the knapsacks of the overwhelming majority of the soldiers there are +no books at all. It is the minority who read; and it is quite safe to +assume that this thoughtful minority are not the minority who have +disgraced German militarism. Thirdly--and it should hardly be necessary +to make this observation--the sensitive and high-strung Nietzsche would +have regarded with shuddering horror these outrages which some +ignorantly attribute to his influence. It is indeed probable that, if he +still looked from his hill-top upon the fields of Europe, he would pour +out his most volcanic scorn upon the warring nations, and especially +upon Germany and Austria. In fine, it is necessary to remember that +Nietzsche was violently anti-democratic. For the mass of the people he +had only disdain, and it is folly to suppose that his aristocratic +philosophy has been accepted among them as a gospel. + +Nietzsche has had a considerable influence on the more thoughtful +reading public in Germany, yet even here one has to make reserves in +charging him with a part in the preparation of the country for an +aggressive war. His peculiar art and temperamental exaggerations make it +impossible for any but a patient few to grasp his teaching accurately, +and are peculiarly liable to mislead the less patient. When, therefore, +he stresses--as most anti-Socialists do--the Darwinian struggle for +existence, when he assails the humanitarian and Christian doctrine of +helping the weak, when he calls into question the received code of +morals, and when he extols self-assertion and strength of will, his +fiery words do lend some confirmation, which he assuredly never +intended, to the Prussian ideal of a State. Nietzsche was too much +averse from politics to intend such an application of his teaching, +which is essentially individualistic, and he had nothing but contempt +for the bluster and philistinism of the Prussian State in particular. We +must admit, however, that in this unintentional way he contributed to +the formation of that German temper which led to the war. General von +Bernhardi's admiring references to his philosophy sufficiently show +this. + +But Nietzsche's very limited influence on German thought cannot +reasonably be quoted as justification of the common saying that Germany +had deserted Christianity for Paganism. Had such a statement been made +before the war began, our divines would have indignantly repudiated it. +The truth is that all classes--Christian and non-Christian--have yielded +fatally to the pernicious interpretation which interested politicians, +soldiers, manufacturers, and Jingoistic writers have put on the real +economic needs of the country. Of the Socialist and Catholic parties, in +particular, the two most powerfully organised bodies in Germany, we may +say that, in deserting their ideals, they have been partly deceived into +a real belief that Russia and England sought their destruction, and they +have partly yielded to that very old and familiar temptation--the desire +to retain their numerical strength by compromising with their +principles. In justice to the Socialists it should be added that that +party has furnished the only men and journals in Germany to raise any +protest against the madness of the nation. One of the most repulsive +moral traits in Germany to-day is, even when we have made the most +liberal allowance for the painful and desperate circumstances of the +people, the astounding expression and cultivation of hatred. It has +transpired time after time that the _Vorwaerts_ has protested against +this. Not once has it been reported that the religious press or +religious ministers have protested. The new phrase that is officially +sanctioned, "God punish England," is a religious phrase that no +Neo-Pagan could use. On the very day on which I write this page it is +reported that Socialists have protested in the Reichstag against the +official endorsement of outrages. We do not hear of any Christian +protest, from end to end of the campaign. + +Yet I do not wish to disguise the fact that both Christians and +non-Christians share the guilt of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The real +difference between the two bodies appears when we take a broader view of +the war, and only in this way can any general indictment of Christianity +be formulated. Important as it is to determine the responsibility for +this war, it is even more important to conceive that the war is the +natural outcome of a system which Europe ought to have abolished ages +ago. We are not far from the time when, in spite of the official +teaching of the Churches, every Christian nation maintained the practice +of the duel which the Teutonic nations introduced fourteen centuries +ago. Although in Germany the Christian clergy have not the courage to +assert their plain principles in opposition to the Emperor's barbaric +patronage of the duel, the people of most civilised countries now regard +the duel as a crime. No one who surveys the whole stream of moral +development can doubt that a time is coming when war, the duel of +nations, will be regarded as an infinitely graver crime. The day is +surely over when sophists like Treitschke and callous soldiers like +Bernhardi could sing the praises of war. The pathetic picture drawn by +our great novelist of a worthless young lord lying at the feet of his +opponent touched England profoundly and hastened the end of the duel in +this country. If England, if the civilised world, be not even more +deeply touched by the descriptions we have read, week after week, of +tens of thousands of braver and more innocent men lying in their blood, +of all the desolation and sorrow that have been brought on whole +kingdoms of Europe, one will be almost tempted to despair of the race. +War is the last and worst stain of barbarism on the escutcheon of +civilisation. + +The question of real interest is, therefore, the historical question. +Those of us who did not foresee this war until we were in the very +penumbra of the tragedy cannot complain that our Christian neighbours +did not foresee and prevent it. Those of us who feel that the +participation of our country is just and necessary may, with no strain +of imagination, conceive the men of other countries equally persuading +themselves that the action of their country is just and necessary. But +from the day when we awoke to an adult perception of the life of the +world we have been aware that the established system of settling +international quarrels was barbaric and might in any year lead to just +such a catastrophe. How comes it that such a system has survived fifteen +hundred years of profound Christian influence? Whatever we may think of +the clergy of to-day, with the more powerful clergy of yesterday we have +a grave reckoning. The Rationalist is a new thing in Europe. The very +name is little more than a century old, and until a few decades ago only +a few thousand would accept it. Not from such a new and struggling +movement do we ask why this military system has dominated Europe for +ages and has only in recent times been seriously challenged. During +those ages the Churches suffered none but themselves to pretend to a +moral influence over the life of the nations, nor were there many bold +and independent enough to make the claim. It is of the Churches we ask +why this appalling system has taken such deep root in the life of Europe +that it resists the most devoted efforts to eradicate it. It is not +_this_ war, but war, that accuses the Churches. We are entangled in a +system so widespread and so subtle that, when a war occurs, each nation +can persuade itself that it is acting on just grounds. It is the system +which interests us. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +CHRISTIANITY AND WAR + + +The day will come when the student of human development will find war +one of the most remarkable institutions that ever entered and quitted +history. Civilisation took it over from barbarism; barbarism from the +savage; the savage from the beast. So we are accustomed to argue, but we +must make a singular reservation. The lowest peoples of the human +family, which seem to represent primitive man, do not wage war, and are +little addicted to violence. They seem by some process of natural +selection to have obtained the social quality of peacefulness and mutual +aid. There was, in a sense, a stage of primitive innocence. As, however, +these primitive peoples grew in numbers and were organised in tribes, as +they obtained collective possessions--flocks and pastures and hunting +grounds--they came into collision with each other, and all the old +pugnacity of the beast awoke. Skill, and even ferocity, in war became a +valuable social quality, and we get the stage of the savage. The +barbarian, or the man between savagery and civilisation, was still +compelled to fight for his possessions. He was usually surrounded by +fierce savage tribes. The civilised man in turn was surrounded by +savages and barbarians, and needed to fight. So through thousands of +years of development of moral sentiment and legal procedure the +primitive method of the beast has been preserved. + +But I am not writing a history of warfare, and need not describe these +stages more closely, or examine the new sentiment of imperialist +expansion which gave civilisations a fresh incentive to develop methods +of warfare. The point of interest is to determine at what stage it might +have been possible for the moral element to intervene and bid the +warriors, in the name of humanity, lay down their arms; at what stage +the tribunal which men had set up to adjudicate between the quarrels of +individuals might have been enlarged so as to be capable of arbitrating +on the quarrels of nations. + +Now this was plainly impossible in the early centuries of the present +era, and it is therefore foolish to ask why Pagan moralists did not do +what we expect Christian moralists to have done. I have already +mentioned, and have fully described elsewhere, how humanitarian +sentiments were generally diffused throughout the old Graeco-Roman world. +There is not a phrase of the New Testament which has not a parallel +among the Jews, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. The great +fusion of peoples in the Roman Empire begot a feeling of brotherhood, +and, by a natural reaction on years of vice and violence, there was a +considerable growth of lofty and tender, and often impracticable, +sentiments. Moralists urged men to avoid anger, to bear blows with +dignity, to greet all men as brothers, even to love their enemies. Plato +and Epictetus and Plutarch and Seneca and Marcus Aurelius urged these +maxims as forcibly as Christ did. The Stoic religion or philosophy, +which guided Emperors and lawyers, and had a very wide influence in the +Roman world, was intensely and quite modernly humanitarian. Its +principal exponents condemned slavery and promoted a remarkable spread +of philanthropy. + +It was, however, not possible for the Stoics to condemn war. Some of the +more ardent and less practical humanitarians of the time did this, but +no alert Roman citizen could advocate the abolition of the legions. The +Empire was completely surrounded by barbarians who would rush in and +trample on its civilisation the moment the fence of spears was removed. +From the turreted walls in the north of England, where men watched the +Picts and Scots, to the deserts of Mesopotamia--from the banks of the +Danube and Rhine to the spurs of the Atlas--it was essential to maintain +those bronzed legions who guarded the civilised provinces from +marauders. With those outlying barbarians no treaty was possible or +sacred; no legal tribunal would have protected those frontiers from the +men who looked covetously on the fertile fields and comfortable cities +of the Roman provinces. From the first to the fourth century Rome +fought, not for its expansion, but for its preservation against these +increasing enemies; and it was the final intensification of the pressure +in the Danube region by the arrival of enormous hordes of barbarians +from Asia which precipitated the final catastrophe. Paganism had never +the slightest opportunity to abandon the military system, and only those +who are totally unacquainted with Roman history can wonder why it did +not make the attempt. It would have been a crime to abandon the +civilised provinces to barbarism. + +This was the essential position of the Roman Empire: the civil wars of +the fourth century, by which its military system was abused, need not +be considered here. And the student of history must recognise with +equal candour that the new Christianity, which succeeded Paganism in the +fourth and fifth centuries, was equally powerless to abolish warfare. +What we may justly blame is that the triumphant Christianity of the +fourth century did not merely sanction the use of arms in defence of +civilisation; it employed them in its own interest. The earlier +Christians had exasperated the Romans by refusing to bear arms in the +service of the Empire, plain as the need was. To a slight extent this +was due to an aversion from the shedding of blood; for the most part +military service was refused because it was saturated with Pagan rites. +When the Empire became Christian, this objection was removed, and the +Christians freely entered the army. Unhappily, the Christian body +deteriorated with the new prosperity and base instincts were indulged. +It is an undoubted historical fact, recorded by St. Jerome himself, that +the election of Pope Damasus, his friend and benefactor, was accompanied +by bloody and fatal riots. From undoubted historical sources we know +that the Christian mob compelled the Prefect of Rome to fly from the +city, and there is very serious evidence (in a document written by two +Roman priests) that Damasus employed the swords and staves of his +supporters to secure his position. Damasus and subsequent Popes then +obtained or sanctioned the use of the Roman soldiers for the suppression +of heresy and schism and Paganism, and Christianity was installed by +violence throughout the Empire. In the Eastern Roman Empire things were +even worse. Violence became the customary device in the seething +religious quarrels of the time, and, literally, tens of thousands lost +their lives. The Byzantine or Greek Christianity entered upon a record +of crime and violence which disgraced it for many centuries. + +This development did not augur well for the application of Christian +principles to warfare. We may, however, observe at once that for many +centuries the Roman Church had not the slightest chance of establishing +peace in Europe. The destruction of the Roman Empire and disbanding of +its armies made an entirely new situation in Italy. The Popes were, for +the most part, good men, but they did not dream at that time of +controlling the counsels of kings and dictating affairs of State. Even +the story of Pope Leo the Great overawing the King of the Huns, Attila, +and turning his army away from Italy, is a mere legend of medieval +writers, and is at variance with the nearer authorities. The northern +tribes themselves were to a great extent, and for some centuries, of the +Arian faith, and took no advice from Rome. In a word, it would be stupid +to expect Christian leaders of the early Middle Ages to press the cause +of peace. The northern peoples, who would in time form the nations of +Europe, were essentially violent and warlike, and would have recognised +no pacific counsels in that imperfect stage of their religious +development. + +Where the historian may and must censure the Church is in its adoption +of militarism for its own purposes. Pope Gregory the Great found Italy +in a chaotic and pitiful condition, and no doubt he acted, on the whole, +rightly in organising its military defence. The more serious +circumstance was that he began to receive immense estates, as gifts or +legacies, in all parts of Italy as the property of the Roman Church, and +from that time either a Papal army or the employment of the army of +some friendly monarch was necessary in order to protect these estates. +With the confirmation and consolidation of these estates into a kingdom +under Charlemagne in the ninth century the Papacy completed its moral +aberration. Most of the Popes were still men of good character, and they +no doubt persuaded themselves that, since the income of these estates +was needed for the fulfilment of their spiritual task, it was proper to +defend them by the sword. But casuistry of this kind has never prospered +indefinitely, and few historians will doubt that this temporal +development led directly to that degradation of the Papacy which +rendered it unfit to exercise moral influence on Europe. The Papacy +became a princedom to attract the covetous and the ambitious, and the +line of Popes sank so low by the tenth century that the grossest +characters were able to occupy the chair of Peter at a time when the +nations of Europe were sufficiently advanced to be susceptible of a +sincere moral influence. The record of the Papacy, from the ninth +century to the nineteenth, contains on almost every page a bloody +struggle for the temporal power. The most religious and most eminent of +the Popes, such as Gregory VII and Innocent III, were the most prompt to +set in motion the machinery of war in defence of their territories or in +punishment of rebels against their authority. Not one of them was in a +position to bid kings disband their armies, or ever dreamed of enjoining +them to do more than observe a few days' truce or keep their swords from +each other in order to save them for the common enemy of Christendom. + +It would be useless to speculate about the date when the new nations of +Europe had become sufficiently civilised to hear a gospel of peace. The +idea of superseding the military system of Europe by a juridical system +occurred to no Christian leader, and therefore we need not consider what +prospect it might have had of realisation. The Christian gospel of +meekness had become a mockery: even the great abbeys, in which the +gentler and more religious were supposed to be immured, had their +troops, and abbots and bishops, and very often Papal Legates, appeared +at the head of armies. Two Popes, John X and Julius II, marched +themselves at the head of their troops. Cardinals had their suites of +swordsmen, and the castles of the Roman aristocracy were at times strong +fortifications from which war of the most ferocious and unscrupulous +character was waged. Christendom was steeped in violence; only a gentle +saint or bishop here and there caught a futile vision of a world of +peace. Every man was armed against possible trouble with his neighbour; +every noble had his retainers and kept them well exercised; every prince +was free, as far as the spiritual authorities were concerned, to covet +and bloodily exact the lands of his neighbour. The noble, of either sex, +found supreme delight in jousts which the modern sentiment finds as +inhuman as a sordid quarrel of _Apaches_ over a mistress; the peasants +found a corresponding pleasure in the play of quarter-staves or the +combats of dogs and cocks. + +It is, as I said, little use to speculate about the chances of a gospel +of humanity in such a world. The overwhelming majority of priests and +prelates made no effort whatever to restrain the prevailing violence. +The elementary duty of any profound moral agency was to protest without +ceasing, even if the protest was unavailing. It is not at all clear that +it would have been unavailing. The power of the Popes was beyond that +of any other hierarchy known to history, and at least the moral +education of Europe would have proceeded less slowly, and war would have +been abolished centuries ago, if there had been any serious, collective, +and authoritative enforcement of Christian principles. There was not, +and to this silence of the clergy during those long ages of their power +we owe the maintenance in Europe to-day of the regime of violence. They +were so far from enjoying moral inspiration in this respect that they +were amongst the first to bless the banners and swell the coffers of an +aggressive monarch, and they gave the military system a final +consecration by employing it repeatedly in the interests of the Church. + +All that one can plead in mitigation of this deep historical censure of +the medieval Church is that the frontiers of Christendom were for +centuries threatened by the Turk and the Saracen. The old need of +protecting civilisation by arms had almost disappeared. Few and feeble +peoples remained outside the range of Christian civilisation after the +tenth century. Armies were maintained only in the interest of criminal +ambition or for the settlement of disputes which ought to have been +submitted to judges. The menace of the Turk, with his hostile religion, +was, of course, a just ground for armaments, but a few nations generally +bore the whole brunt of his onset. Whatever religious feeling may make +of the great Crusades, which drew to the east armies from all parts of +Europe, secular history must dismiss them as appalling blunders. The few +advantages they brought to European culture cannot seriously be weighed +against the terrible sacrifice of lives and the even more terrible +consecration of militarism. In a word, the menace of the Turk could +have been met admirably by such an arrangement as we are advocating in +Europe to-day: the maintenance of a small force by each nation for +common action, under the direction of a supreme legal tribunal, against +nations which would not obey the common law of peace. But we need not +seriously discuss the influence of the Turk on the system. The last +phases of the struggle, when the selfish nations and the ambitious +Papacy spent their time in idle mutual recrimination and left the +Hungarians and Poles to do all the work, justify us in dismissing that +element. Kings and republics maintained armies for purely selfish +purposes, for brutal aggression and defence against aggressors; and not +a prelate in Europe had any moral repugnance to the system, or ventured +to condemn it, especially as the Church used the same agency in defence +of its own temporal interests. + +With the development of the Papal power and the advance of the peoples +of Europe the opportunity of peace became greater, but the spiritual +authority pledged itself more and more deeply to the military system. +The Popes aspired--as Gregory VII and Innocent III repeatedly state--to +control the temporal as well as the spiritual affairs of Europe, to +transfer crowns when they thought fit, to direct invasions and military +expeditions against any who questioned their authority. Hildebrand +boasts (_Ep._ vii, 23) that, when William of Normandy sent envoys to ask +Pope Alexander to sanction his unscrupulous invasion of England, and the +Papal Court was itself too sensible of the enormity to give its +sanction, he (Hildebrand) overbore the wavering Pope and forced him to +bless the enterprise; and, when he had in his turn mounted the Papal +throne, he vehemently claimed that his action had made England a fief +for ever of the Holy See! Gregory VII and Innocent III are the two +greatest and most sincerely religions of the medieval Popes, and they +carried the power of the Papacy to a height which excites the amazement +of the modern historian. But they were at the same time the most +militant of the Popes, and on the least provocation they set +armies--even the most barbaric and ferocious troops in Europe--in motion +to carry out their imperial commands. They arrogated the power of +deposing monarchs, and thus encouraged civil war and the ambitions of +neighbouring kings. + +The rise of heresy and of protests against the corruption of the Papacy +was another very grave pretext of the Church to support the military +system. In the days of Gregory VII a body of Puritans known as the +Patareni spread over the north of Italy, and Rome encouraged a few +soldiers to lead armed mobs against them and drown their idealism in +blood. Innocent III has a more terrible stigma on his record. The +Albigensians, an early type of Protestants, were spreading in the south +of France, and the Pope sanctioned a "crusade"--an expedition, largely, +of looters and cut-throats--against them from all parts of France. The +appalling deceit practised by the Papal Legate and sanctioned by the +Pope, the ferocity of the campaign, and the desolation brought on one of +the happiest and most prosperous provinces of France, may be read in any +history of the thirteenth century. Tens of thousands of men, women, and +children were savagely put to death. And this was only the beginning of +the Papal war on heresy, which from the thirteenth century never ceased +to spring up in Europe until it won its right of citizenship in the +Reformation. Even more vehemently was war urged against the Moors, then +the most civilised people in Europe. + +In face of this notorious history of Europe during the long course of +the Middle Ages it is now usual for Catholic apologists to plead that +the blood of the barbarian still flowed in the veins of the Christian +nations and men were not yet prepared to listen to the message of peace. +This plea cannot for a moment be admitted in extenuation of the Church's +guilt. The clergy had themselves no conception of the criminality of +war, and did not rise above the moral level of their age. Here and there +a saint or a prelate raised a feeble voice against the violence of men, +but we do not estimate an institution by the words of an occasional +member, especially if they are at variance with the official conduct and +the general sentiment. On the other hand, to boast that the clergy at +times enforced a temporary cessation of fighting (the "Truce of God") +only increases our appreciation of their guilt. The men who enforced +that Truce gave proof at once of their power and of their perception of +the un-Christian nature of warfare. But they were unwilling to condemn +outright a machinery which they might employ at any moment in defence or +advancement of their own interests. Had the Church been a serious moral +influence in Europe, had it been true to the message in virtue of which +it had grown rich and powerful, it would have protested unceasingly +against this reign of violence. It was not a great moral influence. The +grossness and illiteracy of the people, the appalling immorality of the +clergy and monks and nuns, and this almost entire failure to apply +Christian or ordinary human principles to the worst feature of the life +of Europe, are terrible offsets to the little good it achieved. Europe +was steadily educated and encouraged, century after century, in the +shedding of blood. + +The Protestant is at times disposed to dismiss the whole sordid story +with the remark that this Roman Church was not Christianity at all. He +contrives to overlook the serious difficulty that, if the Roman Church +did not represent Christianity from the sixth century to the sixteenth, +there was, contrary to the promise of Christ, no Christianity in Europe +for a thousand years; and he surrenders all the wonderful art of the +Middle Ages (as he ought) to entirely non-Christian forces. That, +however, does not concern me here. The slightest recollection of history +would warn the Protestant that the Reformation brought no improvement +whatever, as far as this reign of violence is concerned. The forces set +up by the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation fought each other for +some decades with the comparatively peaceful weapons of mutual abuse and +heated argument. When it was perceived that these weapons were of no +avail, there was the customary appeal to the sword. In the historical +documents which tell the life of Pope Paul IV we see the Papacy and the +Jesuits urging the Catholic princes to lead out their armies. Heresy was +to be extinguished in blood; and, seeing how many millions in the north +had by that time embraced the heresy, there can have been no illusion as +to the magnitude of the oceans of blood that would be required to drown +it. So Europe entered upon the horrors of the Thirty Years' War +(1618-1648), which put back the civilisation of Germany for more than a +hundred years and utterly ruined some of the small principalities. The +population of Bohemia alone fell from three millions to less than a +million. Nearly every nation in Europe was involved, and the war was +conducted with all the brutality of the older medieval warfare. + +The fact that political as well as religious ambitions were engaged in +the Thirty Years' War does not affect my argument. In so far as +religious sentiment was responsible--and it will hardly be questioned +that it had a large share in the Thirty Years' War--we find a fresh +consecration by Christianity itself of the use of the sword. But the +main point we have to consider is that the new spiritual authorities +were no more inclined than the old to declare that warfare was opposed +to Christian principles. The last three centuries have been as full of +aggressive war as the three centuries which preceded, but there was no +protest by Christian ministers either in Protestant England and +Scandinavia or in Catholic France and Austria. It was the period when +the modern Powers of Europe were building up their vast dominions, and +no one who is acquainted with the story can have any illusion as to the +application to that process of what are now described as clear Christian +principles. + +This is precisely the plaint of modern Germany. We seek, they say, to do +merely what England and France--it were indiscreet to mention +Austria--did in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They were +vigorous peoples with an impulse to expand and to extend their +civilisation over backward lands. They appealed solely to the right of +the sword, and all the Christian authorities in Europe--the bishops of +William and of Anne, the bishops of Louis XIV, the bishops of Peter the +Great--had not a single syllable to say against the right of the sword. +The various branches of the Christian Church were at that time +singularly unanimous in accommodating their principles to imperialist +and aggressive warfare. Now that you have obtained all that you +need--the aggrieved Teuton says--now that I in turn would expand and +colonise, you discover that this imperialist aggression is supremely +opposed to Christian principles. + +On some such meditations, in part, the German bases his conviction of +the hypocrisy and perfidy of the English character. He is, of course, +entirely wrong. A real change has taken place in the moral sentiment of +this country; a change so real that when, in South Africa, the nation +entered upon a war which many regarded as aggressive and merely +acquisitive, there was a very widespread revolt. The cynic might +genially observe that it is not difficult to retire from evil-doing and +cultivate lofty principles when your fortune has been made, but it is +important to realise this change and understand its significance. There +is, no doubt, a sound human element in the cynic's observation. It _is_ +easier to recognise moral principle when the period of temptation is +over. Every thoughtful and humane Englishman will make allowance for the +less fortunate position of Germany, and not foolishly pride himself on +his own superiority of character. The fact remains, however, that there +has been a real moral improvement in England and France, and it would +now be impossible for those nations to enter upon the aggressive and +nakedly ambitious wars which they were accustomed to undertake before +the nineteenth century. We have a genuine abhorrence of the "lust for +land" which has impelled Germany to plunge Europe into war. But until a +century or two ago that lust for land was considered a legitimate +appetite in Europe, and the clergy crowded with the people to greet the +warriors who came home with the news that they had added, by the sword, +one more province to our spreading Empire. + +That this change of heart is not merely a feeling that we have no +further need of aggression, and would ourselves suffer by the aggression +of others, could easily be proved, if it were necessary. In the same +period of change we abolished the duel, and there was no material +advantage in discovering the immorality of the duel. We abolished +dog-fighting, cock-fighting, bull-baiting, and other brutalising +spectacles. We undertook a reform of our industrial and penal systems +which, however imperfect it be, was very considerable in itself, and was +inspired solely by motives of humanity. There was a general and marked +improvement of public sentiment, and it is as part of this improvement +that we now find a universal condemnation of aggressive war and a +widespread demand for the entire abolition of war. The construction of +English history and English character on the lines of Mr. G. B. Shaw may +be entertaining, and may save considerable trouble of research, but it +does not conduce to sound judgment. The laments of social pessimists and +of certain religious controversialists are never supported by accurate +knowledge. Every social historian who gives evidence of knowing the +evils of the England of a century ago as well as the England of to-day +admits that there has been a great moral advance. + +I will examine in the next chapter certain comments of religious writers +and speakers on this advance. Here I wish to determine the facts with +some clearness. It has not been necessary for me to discuss the medieval +and the early modern period with any fullness. There is no dispute about +the features of those periods. They were ages of violence, of incessant +and frankly aggressive war, of unrestrained ambition. The smallest +pretext sufficed for a monarch, if his forces and finances were in +order, to invade his neighbour's territory and annex as much of it as +he could hold by the sword. Frederic the Great and Napoleon did not +introduce new ideas into Europe; they attempted to revive medieval ideas +in a changing world. Austria in its annexation of Bosnia and +Herzegovina, Germany in its ambition to annex Belgium and the colonies +which other Powers have laboriously cultivated, are following their +example. They are not inventing new forms of criminality; they are not +returning to Pagan ideals: they are reverting merely to ideals which +were accepted throughout Europe for more than a thousand years. In the +more brutal features of war to which they have descended they are even +more emphatically reverting to the Middle Ages. The Romans did not +commit such outrages at the command of educated officers. Medieval +Christians did: the record of Papal warfare, down to the "Massacre of +Perugia" in 1859, is as deeply stained as any by these abominable +methods. + +My further point, that the Christian Church or Churches made no serious +resistance to the prevailing brutality, is just as easy to establish. It +is a sheer travesty of argument to put forward the gentle exhortations +of a Francis of Assisi as characteristic of the Christian Church when +the Pope of the time, one of the most powerful and conscientious Popes +of all time, Innocent III, was threatening or directing the movements of +ferocious armies all over Europe. Most assuredly there were among the +numbers of fine characters who appeared in Christendom in the course of +a thousand years many who deeply resented the prevailing violence. But +when we speak of the Church, we speak of its official action and its +predominant sentiment. The official action of the Popes was, during all +that period, to make the same use as any terrestrial monarch of the +service of soldiers; they failed, from Gregory the Great to Pius X, to +recognise one of the supreme moral needs of Europe. The bishops of the +Church of England and the heads of the Lutheran and Calvinistic Churches +did not prove to have any sounder moral inspiration in this respect. It +was left to despised bodies like the Friends, who were hardly recognised +as Christians, and to rare individuals to protest against the system +which has brought such appalling evil on Europe. + +In the nineteenth century the moral sentiment of Europe began to advance +more rapidly than it had previously done, and the idea of substituting +arbitration for war began to spread. The history of this reform has not +yet been written, as far as I can discover, but it is hardly likely that +any will be bold enough to suggest that the idea was due to +Christianity. After the Napoleonic wars, at least, Europe was ripe for +such a reform. I do not mean that public feeling in Europe was prepared +for the idea. It would have met with a very considerable degree of +resistance, and would have generally been conceived as the dream of an +amiable fanatic. Such resistance makes the duty of the moralist or the +reformer all the more pressing, and it is merely amazing to hear the +earlier Christian clergy exonerated on the ground that the world was not +prepared to receive a message of peace from them. They did not try the +experiment because it did not occur to them, or because they were too +closely dependent on the monarchs of the earth to question the wisdom of +their arrangements. Europe was, in point of fact, quite ripe for the +change in the second decade of the nineteenth century, and there would +assuredly be no war to-day if the Churches had had the moral inspiration +and the moral courage to insist on it. The frontiers of the nations were +(except in the case of Italy and Poland) defined with a fair show of +justice, and the time had come to disband armies and submit any future +quarrel to arbitration: to retain only a small standing army in each +country for the defence of its colonial frontiers against tribes which +do not respect arbitration, or for the enforcement of the decisions of +the central tribunal. The conditions were almost as favourable for such +a change in 1816 as they are to-day, or will be in 1916, and it is +another grave point in the indictment of Christianity that it had no +inspiration to demand that change. The bishops of England no less than +the bishops of Rome were deeply concerned about the rise of democracy +and the spread of unbelief, and they joined with the monarchs in +enforcing a system of violent repression. For the larger and more real +need of Europe they had no feeling whatever, and militarism entered upon +its last and most terrible phase: the stage of national armies and of +means of destruction prepared with all the fearful skill of modern +science. + +As the nineteenth century proceeded, humanitarianism attained clearer +conceptions and more articulate speech. The scheme of substituting legal +procedure for military violence was definitely put before the world. It +is not necessary, and would be difficult, to trace the earliest +developments of this idea. On the one hand, I find no claim that it was +put forward by representatives of Christianity; on the other hand, +literary research among the records of the early Rationalist movements +in this country has shown me that the idea was familiar and welcome +amongst them. No doubt the aversion of the Friends from bloodshed had +some influence, and we find representatives of that noble-minded Society +active in more than one of the early reform-movements. But, as far as I +can discover, it was Robert Owen who first definitely advanced the idea +of substituting arbitration for war, and it was repeatedly discussed +among the "Rational Religion" Societies--which were not at all +religious--that he founded or inspired in various parts of the country. +The immense influence which he obtained in the thirties and forties +enabled him to direct public attention to the reform. + +This early history is, however, as yet vague and unstudied, nor do we +need to enter into any ungenerous struggle about priority. It is enough +that the idealist scheme was well known in England long before the +middle of the nineteenth century. Did the Christian Churches adopt and +enforce it? Here, at least, no minute research is needed. The Christian +bodies failed lamentably and totally (apart from the heterodox Friends) +even to recognise the moral and humane greatness of the idea when it was +definitely presented to them. It is only in the last few years that a +Peace Sunday has--at the suggestion of lay associations--been adopted in +the churches and chapels of England. It is only in quite recent times +that bishops and ministers have stood on peace-platforms and advocated +the reform. And even to-day, when peace associations founded by laymen +have been endeavouring for decades to educate the country, no branch of +the Christian Church has officially and collectively decreed that +Christian principles enjoin the reform; no Pope or Archbishop or Church +Council has supported it with a stern and official injunction that +Christian and moral principle demands that all the members of the +particular Church shall subscribe to and work for the reform. Even at +this eleventh hour, when the issue of peace or war confronts the whole +of mankind, one notices hesitation, reserve, ambiguity. During the +fateful years between 1900 and 1914, when the nations were, in the eyes +of all, preparing the most appalling armaments ever known in history, +when men were speaking freely all over Europe of "the next war" and the +terrific dimensions which modern science and modern alliances would give +to it, the various branches of the Christian Church adhered to their +ancient and futile practice of preaching general principles (as far as +national conduct is concerned), and had little practical influence on +the development. + +I am not unaware of the small movements among the clergy for cultivating +international clerical friendship, or of the extent to which individual +clergymen have co-operated in the various arbitration movements. That is +only a feeble discharge of a small part of their duty. Had Leo XIII or +Pius X issued a plain and explicit Encyclical on the subject, and +directed his vast international organisation of clergy to labour +wholeheartedly for its realisation, who can estimate what the result +would have been? Had the clergy of Germany issued a stern and collective +denunciation of the Pan-German and Imperialist literature which was +instilling poison into every village of the country, can we suppose that +it would have been without avail? Had the Archbishops and Bishops of +England, and the leaders of the Free Churches, definitely instructed +their people that the pacifist ideal was not merely in accord with +Christian principles, but was one of the most urgent and beneficent +reforms of our time, would the English people have passed as +inobservantly as it did through the five years of preparation for a +great war? + +It is no part of my plan to analyse this deplorable failure of the +Churches as moral agencies. The explanation would be complex, and is now +superfluous. The clergy were, like the majority of their fellows, +obsessed by the military system and unable to realise the possibility of +a change. In part they were deluded by the catch-words of superficial +literature. They had an idea that we were asking England to lower its +armament while the rest of the world increased its armament. They +muttered that "the time was not ripe," not realising that it was their +business to make it ripe. They had been accustomed for ages to preaching +a purely individualist morality, and they felt ill at ease in the larger +social applications of moral principle which our age regards as more +important. They feared to offend military supporters, and did not +realise that one may entirely honour the soldier as long as the military +system lasts, yet resent the system. They felt that this new movement +was suspiciously hailed by Socialists, and that to denounce armies had +an air of politics about it. They were peculiarly wedded to tradition, +on account of the very nature they claimed for their traditions, and +they instinctively felt that to denounce war would be to attempt to +improve, not merely on their predecessors, but on the Old and the New +Testaments. They solaced themselves with the thought that unnecessary +violence was condemned in their general teaching, and that, if it +eventually transpired that war was unnecessary, they could point out +once more the all-embracing character of the Christian ethic. In fine, +they were for the greater part, like the greater part of their fellows, +mentally indolent and indisposed to think out or fight for a new idea. + +Whatever the explanation, the fact remains. By the tenth century +Christianity was fully organised, and all the peoples of Europe were +Christian; by the thirteenth century the power of the Church was +enormous and the nations of Europe were settled and civilised. But +neither then nor at any later period did Christianity perceive the crime +and stupidity of the prevailing system. The perception is even now only +faint and partial. It is this long toleration of the military system, +the thousand-year silence on what is now acclaimed as one of the +greatest applications of Christian principle, that one finds it +difficult or impossible to forgive. The zeal of some of the modern +clergy is open to a certain not unnatural suspicion: in view of their +shrinking authority and the growing indifference of the world to dogma +and ritual, they have been forced to take up these new and larger ideas +of our time. + +Even if one lays aside that suspicion, and in many cases it is quite +unjust, the clergy must realise that the indictment of Christianity is +grave, and is almost unatonable. Those thousand years of conflict, +during which they sanctioned every variety of war and initiated many +wars in their own interest, have given the military system such root in +the hearts of men that it will require a supreme and prolonged effort to +destroy it. The proverbial visitor from Mars would not be so much amazed +at any feature of our life as at this retention amid a great +civilisation of the barbaric method of settling international +differences. He would ask in astonishment how an intelligent and +generally humane race, a race which raises homes for stray cats and aged +horses, could cling to a system which, on infallible experience, plunges +one or more countries in the deepest suffering every few years. He would +learn that there has not been a war in Europe for a hundred years the +initial cause of which would not have been better appreciated and +adjudicated on by a body of impartial lawyers; and that, if the quarrels +had thus been submitted to arbitration, we should have saved (including +the annual military expenditure and the cost of the present war) some +three million lives and more than L15,000,000,000--since the end of the +Napoleonic wars. In answer to the amazement of this imaginary critic, we +could reply only that Europe has grown to regard the military system as +so permanent and unquestioned an institution of our civilisation that it +simply cannot imagine the abolition of that system. + +For this incapacity, this widespread inertia, this blundering idea that +there is some serious intrinsic difficulty in the matter, the Churches +are responsible. If they had directed to war the smallest particle of +the ardent rhetoric they have poured on disbelief in dogmas which they +are to-day abandoning, the public mind would have awakened long ago. +There is no intrinsic difficulty in substituting arbitration for war. +There are technical difficulties which the great lawyers and statesmen +of the peace-movement have given ample promise of surmounting, but the +overwhelming obstacle is merely this--the peoples of Europe do not +insist on the reform. Of all the large problems which confront the +modern mind this is incomparably the simplest. We are hopelessly divided +as to the nature of the remedy for most of our social ills. Here the +remedy is acknowledged: the plan has been elaborated almost in entirety: +the international tribunal already exists, and awaits only its +executive, which the nations of Europe could supply to-morrow. It is the +will, the demand, that is wanting. For that lack we charge the utter +failure of the Churches during the ages of their power to enunciate a +plain moral lesson, and their positive encouragement of an evil system. +That is the real indictment. It affects the Christian Church in every +nation. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE APOLOGIES OF THE CLERGY + + +Any person who cares to read the reports of the utterances of our clergy +in the current religious periodicals will recognise that they are +painfully conscious of the reproach which this war implies. One +constantly finds them repeating that in this year of tragedy +"Christianity has failed" and "the gospel has broken in our hands." It +had been their boast that Christianity had civilised Europe, and none of +them has the audacity or indecency to claim, as some writers have done, +that such a war is in harmony with the principles and ideals of +civilisation. They have preached brotherhood and peace, and the greater +part of Christendom is engaged in a strife of the most terrible nature. +It is not a struggle of Christian and infidel; it is a struggle of +Christian and Christian, and one or several of the Christian nations +involved are guilty of a crime greater in magnitude than all the murders +in Europe during a decade. Above all patriotism, above all immediate +anxiety, above all argumentation about responsibility, this grim fact +stands out and reproaches them: after fifteen hundred years of Christian +preaching Europe is locked in the bloodiest struggle of all time. + +During the last fifty or hundred years the clergy have developed some +expertness in making apologies. They have lived in a world of anxious +questions and heated charges, and a special department called +Apologetics has been added to theology. They are, it is true, sorely +perplexed, divided in counsel, uneasy as to their procedure. Some would +ignore the pertinacious outsider and persuade their followers that he is +negligible; others would sustain an energetic campaign against him. Some +would openly and candidly meet the questions of their followers; others +would prefer not to unsettle the large number who never ask questions. +At the present juncture it is impossible to be wholly silent. Some of +the clergy, it seems--I learn this from the recorded words of eminent +preachers--wish to ignore the war and go on with their business as +usual. But the majority feel that such a procedure is dangerous. This +violent breach of Christian principles by Christian nations requires +some explanation. Where is the long-boasted moral influence of +Christianity? Where is the all-loving ruler of the universe? Let us +examine some of the apologies of the preachers. + +Let me confess that, from a long experience of this apologetic branch of +theology, I am not surprised to find that not a single speaker or +writer--as far as my reading of their utterances goes--fairly meets the +main difficulty. Most of them, naturally, are content to plead that the +war has been forced on Europe by Germany, and that therefore no +responsibility lies on Christianity as a whole for the tragedy and the +moral failure it involves. A large number of them go even farther. They +point to the heroic sacrifices made in defence of an ideal by France, +Belgium, England, and Russia--the millions of men streaming to the +battle-field, the millions of women bravely enduring the suspense and +the loss, the millions who generously open their purses to every +philanthropic enterprise--and they acclaim this as a triumph of +Christian civilisation. As to the failure of Christianity in Germany to +stand the test, they either point superficially to the growth of +Rationalism, Biblical Criticism, and Socialism in that country, or they +take refuge in the confusions of the extreme pacifists and refuse to +assign responsibility at all, or they persuade themselves that a small +minority of men who were not Christians deluded the German people into +consenting to the war. In any case, they insist that Christianity as a +whole is not impeached. Assume that Austria was dragged into the war by +Germany, and you have four Christian nations--five, if one includes +Serbia--behaving with great gallantry and entire propriety, and only one +Christian nation misbehaving. + +There is no doubt that this is the common religious attitude, but it +does not satisfy some of the more thoughtful and earnest preachers. This +optimism seems to them rebuked by the very fact that Christendom is in a +state of war to which Paganism can offer no parallel. They think of the +lands beyond the sea to which they have been sending the Christian +message of peace and brotherhood. They fancy they see China and Japan +smiling their faint but distressing smile at the situation in Christian +Europe. They have assured all these distant peoples that their faith has +built up a shining civilisation in Europe, and now there flash and +quiver through the nerves of the world the daily messages of horror, of +fierce hatred, of appalling carnage, of the wanton destruction by +Christians of Christian temples. The Gospel has, somehow, broken down in +Europe, they regretfully admit. + +But they never go beyond this vague admission and boldly state the sin +of the Churches. One would imagine that, in spite of its obvious and +lamentable failure, they still thought that their predecessors had been +justified in preaching only the general terms of the Christian gospel +and never applying it to war. One would fancy that they are so +unacquainted with history as to suppose that during the long ages of the +past the Churches were really frowning on violence and warfare, instead +of blessing and employing it. They fear to draw out in its full +proportion the inefficacy (because of its vagueness) of the gospel and +the long perversion of its ministers. Yet we cannot evade this +fundamental fact of the situation, that this particular war is an +outcome of a general military system, and the Churches have a very grave +responsibility for the maintenance of that system until the twentieth +century. We all know how the technical moral theologian of recent times +has glossed the complacency of his Church. He has drawn a distinction +between offensive and defensive war, and, since the latter is obviously +just, he has maintained that armies are rightly raised to wage it when +necessary. On this petty fallacy the Churches have so long reconciled +themselves to militarism, and have, in fact, been amongst its closest +allies. The clergy did not, or would not, see that the retention of the +military system was in itself the surest provocation of offensive war; +that ambition or covetousness could almost always find a moral pretext +for aggression, and that there have been comparatively few priests in +the history of Europe who ever stood out and unmasked the hypocrisy of +such monarchs. As long as the military system lasted, it was certain +that wars would take place, yet they never denounced the system. The +great conception of substituting justice for violence, law for +lawlessness, did not enter the mind of Christianity. It was born of the +secular humanitarian spirit of modern times. + +For any serious person this is the gravest charge which the clergy have +to meet, and they one and all evade it. The civilisation of Europe has a +unique greatness on its material side; in its applied science, its +engineering, its industries, its commerce. For that, assuredly, the +Churches are not in any degree responsible. Our civilisation is unique +also in its political power, its mastery over other peoples; and for +that again the Churches are not responsible. It is great on the +intellectual side, in its science and philosophy, its art and general +culture; and that greatness, too, has been won independently of, or in +defiance of, the clergy. On the moral side only it may plausibly be +connected with its established religion, and here precisely it fails and +approaches barbarism. I do not wonder that the Churches are troubled, +and do not wonder greatly that they are silent. + +But while they are silent on the main issue, they have a vast amount to +say about minor issues and secondary aspects. They console and reconcile +their people in a hundred ways. Actually they seem, in a great measure, +to entertain the idea that the Churches are going to emerge from this +trial stronger than ever, and to witness at last that religious revival +which they had almost begun to despair of securing. Let me examine a few +of these clerical pronouncements. I do not choose the eccentric sermons +of ill-educated rural preachers, but the utterances of some of the more +distinguished preachers, reproduced with pride and honour in the leading +religious periodicals. Yet no person can coldly reflect on these +pronouncements and fail to realise that our generation acts not +unnaturally in passing by the open doors of the Churches; that the +clergy are, as usual, shirking the most serious questions of the modern +intelligence, and trusting mainly to profit by the heated and disordered +and confusing emotions of the hour. + +One of the most extraordinary of these deliverances reaches me from +Australia, but as it comes from one of the leading prelates of the +Commonwealth and does assuredly express what multitudes of preachers are +saying everywhere, I do not hesitate to give it prominence. Archbishop +Carr, of Melbourne, set out in the middle of the war to enlighten his +followers, and his words are reported with great deference in the +Melbourne _Age_ (December 28th). The prelate observed that he had "very +strong ideas about the war" (I quote the words of the _Age_), and "did +not believe it had happened by accident, or by the chance action of some +king or emperor." He believed that "the great God who provided for all +human creatures, through the war was punishing sin that had prevailed +for a long time, particularly in the shape of infidelity." The +Archbishop proved from history and the Bible that war did come sometimes +as a punishment of sin, and he concluded, or the journal thus summarises +his conclusion: + + "The reason that God was using the present war for the punishment + of the nations was that for a very considerable time there had been + not merely neglect of the worship and service of God, which had + always existed to a greater or less extent, but a regular upraising + of human light and human understanding and human will against the + existence of the providence of God. It was not so common among us + here [it is just as common], but there were countries in Europe in + which the spirit of infidelity and the absence of supernatural + faith had been increasing for many years. Men were coming to think + they were quite sufficient in themselves for the working out of + their own destinies, but the war had come, and it was humbling such + men." + +Archbishop Carr is not adduced here as a representative type of clerical +culture. On what grounds the Roman Catholic authorities select men like +him and the late Cardinal Moran to preside over the destinies of their +Church in our great and promising Commonwealth is not clear. In the +course of this important sermon, in which he is delivering his very +personal and mature conclusions on the greatest issue of the hour, the +Archbishop observed that "the Roman Empire had been attacked by Attila" +and "Attila scourged the Romans for the crimes of which they had for a +long while been guilty." One is surprised that he did not add the pretty +legend of the awe-stricken Hun retreating before the majestic figure of +Pope Leo I. However, most of us are aware that, as a student in any +college of Australia ought to be able to inform the Archbishop, Attila +never reached within two hundred miles of Rome, and that the Pagan +Romans, whom the Archbishop obviously has in mind, had been extinguished +long before the monarch of the Huns was born. There is no greater +historical scholarship in the other proofs which the prelate brings in +support of his thesis that war is often deliberately sent as a +punishment. + +But what are we to make of the moral standards of an eminent prelate of +the Roman Church who can hold and express so appalling a theory? It is +based on the moral standard of the Prussian officer, of the medieval +torturer. The majority of clergymen have at length come to realise, +tardily and reluctantly, that the man or woman who rejects the creeds +they offer may quite possibly not believe in them. The practice of +describing a refusal to assent to the doctrine of hell and heaven as a +wilful rebellion of passion against the restraining influences of +Christianity is going out of fashion. Christian people were meeting too +many heretics in the flesh, and did not recognise the thing described +from the pulpit. The sturdy Archbishop will have none of this pampering. +Unbelief is a matter of the will as well as the understanding. And he +actually believes that God guided the thoughts of William II in +engineering this war--believes it for a reason a hundred times worse +than the Kaiser's idea. He believes that God sent on Europe a war that +will cost L10,000,000,000, that is blasting the homes and embittering +the hearts of millions, that mingles the innocent and guilty in one +common and fearful desolation, that sends millions to a premature death +amidst circumstances which do not lend themselves to a devout +preparation, that is raising storms of hatred and perverting the souls +of millions, because a few other millions refuse to go to church. It +would be difficult to conceive a cruder and more barbarous idea. Attila +did not scourge the Romans, but he did scourge other peoples; and we +hold him up to execration for ever for it. But Archbishop Carr, and many +other preachers, think that an all-holy and all-intelligent God can do +infinitely worse than Attila. He is going to punish the unbelievers in +eternal fire when they die: meantime he will make a hell on earth for +the innocent as well as the supposed guilty, the child and the mother as +well as the free-thinking father. Of a truth, it is not surprising that +a reluctance to listen to sermons has spread to Melbourne, and that men +are wondering whether they had better not take in hand their own +destinies rather than entrust them to such spiritual guides as this. + +Note, particularly, in passing the emphasis which the Archbishop puts on +the determination of our generation to control its own destinies. Until +the nineteenth century men entrusted their destinies, on the moral side, +to guides like Archbishop Carr. I have described the result. In the +nineteenth century there began this practice, which the Archbishop +thinks worthy of so inhuman a chastisement, of men attending to their +own moral interests. Of this also I have described the result. The moral +sentiment of Europe has greatly improved, and there is at least a +widespread revolt against warfare and a prospect of abolishing it. For +this God, the more than human, scorched Europe with the horrible flames +which Archbishop Carr thinks he keeps in his arsenal of +torture-implements. The Archbishop says that infidelity has not spread +so much in Australia. I should, if I were not well acquainted with the +Commonwealth, be disposed to see in that the reason why eminent prelates +can still utter such gross medieval nonsense in that country. + +In England this particularly crude type of nonsense is not usually +uttered by preachers of distinction,[2] though it is common enough among +less responsible preachers; but there is a dangerous approach to it in +some of the sermons which the religious periodicals regard as +important. Looking over the current issues of the religious press, I +notice a sermon on the war by Professor Clow, in which the Allies are, +in harmony with his test, described as "the vultures of God." Germany, +it seems, is the prey, and Germany's sins are painted black. Professor +Clow, it is true, shrinks from the very natural implication of his +words, but he clearly intimates that he sees the action of God in the +military conduct of the Allies, and to that extent he is hardly less +revolting, in view of his culture, than the archbishop. Could the God of +Professor Clow find no other way of removing Germany's arrogance than to +sear and blast it with a world-war and involve millions of innocent +along with the guilty in his lakes of fire and blood? + +More important, however, is a sermon delivered before the recent +National Free Church Council by one of the most esteemed Nonconformist +preachers, the Rev. J. H. Rushbrooke, and reproduced admiringly in the +Nonconformist journals. The cloud of war, naturally, brooded over this +gathering of ministers. Some of them heroically closed their eyes to it +and went on with their clerical business as usual. But most of the +speakers seem to have felt that all other issues were thrust aside in +the minds of their followers just now, and that a grave and soul-shaking +question possessed them. As a result we have, I suppose, the finest +efforts of Nonconformity to meet that question and save the prestige of +the Churches. + +Mr. Rushbrooke frankly described the war as an overwhelming catastrophe, +gravely disturbing the religious mind. It bore witness, he said, to "the +failure of organised, or disorganised, Christianity." He conceived it as +"God's judgment upon the Church's failure seriously to devote herself +to the great cause of peace on earth and good-will among men." With all +their boasts of what Christianity had done in Europe, it now appeared +that that civilisation was raised upon "foundations of sand." The +preacher claimed that much was being done in modern times by the clergy +to promote international amity, but he seemed to feel that it was little +and was _very_ recent. The spectacle unfolded before us in Europe to-day +is a sufficient proof of its inadequacy. And, as Mr. Rushbrooke said, we +now see how little use it is to preach ideals at home and not apply them +to the common life of the world. + +These words are the nearest to wisdom that I have found among a large +collection of pulpit-utterances and religious articles. The preacher +plainly sees, and with some measure of candour confesses, that long +remissness of Christian ministers in applying their principles to which +the war, and all wars, are fundamentally due. The record which he +carefully makes of recent efforts to redeem the failure is paltry in +comparison with the resources even of the Free Churches, and only serves +to bring out more clearly the awful neglect of Christian ministers +during the long ages when they had a mighty power in Europe. But Mr. +Rushbrooke makes one grave error. He feels that not merely the relation +of the war to Christianity, but its relation to God, is engaging public +attention, and he stumbles into the theory that God sent the war. It is +"God's judgment on the Church's failure." We must suppose that Mr. +Rushbrooke did not literally mean what he said. His words imply a theory +of the war more monstrous even than that of Archbishop Carr. To punish +Europe for the sins of unbelievers has at least a genuine medieval +plausibility about it; but to send this indescribable plague on the +nations of Europe because the clergy failed to do their duty.... One +must really assume that Mr. Rushbrooke did not mean what he said, and +leave the sentence unfinished. What he meant it is impossible to +conjecture. To the religious mind "God's judgment" means a chastisement +sent by God. But, whatever Mr. Rushbrooke meant, he had been wiser to +leave the idea of God out of his comments on this war, and to say +frankly that it would bring on them and on their predecessors, on the +whole of Christianity, the judgment of man and the judgment of history +for their neglect of their opportunities. + +The Rev. A. T. Guttery addressed the Council in a more cheerful mood, +and his reflections are characteristic of a large group of the clergy. +He would not for a moment allow the failure of Christianity. The +Churches had, he said, been so successful in compelling the world to +recognise the evil of aggressive warfare that even the Germans were +eager to describe their action as purely defensive. "The Pagan glory of +war for its own sake was gone." And when we acknowledge the comparative +failure of religion in Germany, and restrict our attention to the sphere +of our own clergy, we find that they have created an entirely new +spirit. The lust for territory and for gold is felt no more in England. +Here there is no mafficking over victories, there are no hymns of hate. +The British nation has been sobered by the influence of Christianity. We +may regret that the German people has not proved equally susceptible, +and its pastors equally energetic, but we cannot bear their burden. +Their naughtiness alone has disturbed the moral progress which, even in +this department, Christianity was fostering. + +This is, I think, a very usual attitude of the clergy, and I have +already appreciated the sound element of it. There is no comparison +between the behaviour of the two nations. Whether England deserves quite +all the compliments which Mr. Guttery showers upon it may be a matter of +opinion. We have as yet little cause for "mafficking," but there is very +little doubt that it will occur on a grandiose scale before the war is +over. We do not sing hymns of hate; but it might be hazardous to +speculate what we would do if some nation drew an iron ring round our +country and reduced us almost to a condition of starvation. We have no +lust for territory--I am not sure about the lust for gold--because we +have in our Empire territory enough for our population; and we may wait +to see if England does not annex any part of Germany's African or +Pacific possessions. Mr. Guttery's contrast is crude and superficial. He +ignores the economic and geographical conditions which give us a feeling +of content and Germany a profound feeling of discontent and a dangerous +ambition. The German character is not in itself inferior to ours, and it +were well for us to fancy ourselves in Germany's position and wonder if +we would have acted otherwise. + +On the other hand, I have freely acknowledged, or claimed, that there +has been a great improvement in the moral temper of Europe, and that +this is especially seen in the odium that is now cast on aggressive or +offensive war. But to claim this improvement for the credit of religion +is, to say the least, audacious. The more simple-minded of Mr. Guttery's +hearers would imagine that the change set in with the fall of Paganism. +"The Pagan glory of war for its own sake is gone." When clerical writers +speak of Paganism they think that any evil deed ever done by a Pagan is +characteristic of the whole body; they ask us to apply a different +standard to their own body. Plato and Socrates were Pagans; Marcus +Aurelius and Antoninus Pius--to speak of warriors and statesmen--were +Pagans. The truth is that a glory in war for its own sake was no more +generally characteristic of Paganism than it was of Christian Europe +until a century ago: it was probably less. Most of the German Emperors +and of the Kings of England, France, and Spain would fairly come under +the description which Mr. Guttery calls Pagan. One hardly needs to know +much of history to perceive that this moral improvement in the +conception of war belongs to the last century and a half, and it is +somewhat bold to claim that a change which made no appearance during a +thousand years of profound Christian influence, and did begin to appear +and make progress as that faith waned, can be claimed for Christianity. +I do not forget that the theologian began long ago, in the seclusion of +his cell or study, to condemn offensive warfare. But there have been +hundreds of offensive wars waged by Christian monarchs since that date, +and we do not read of any instance in which the clergy failed to endorse +the thin casuistry by which the offensive was turned into a defensive or +a preventive war, or refused to sanction an entire neglect of the +principle. + +Dr. Scott-Lidgett followed on somewhat similar lines. The whole trouble, +he protested, was due to an anti-Christian, illiberal, and inhuman +system. It seems that he was referring to Prussia, and it is regrettable +that he did not feel called to explain why that system prevails in the +year of the Lord 1915, or how it finds an instrument of its ambition in +a militarism that ought to have been denounced and abolished centuries +ago. Mr. Shakespeare, another distinguished Nonconformist, follows the +same facile course--casts all the responsibility on Germany--and equally +fails to explain how Germany came to find the machinery of destruction +at its hand in our age. + +In fine, Dean Welldon, one of the most energetic spokesmen of the Church +of England, addressed this Free Church Council, and imparted an element +of originality. He used the inconclusive and dangerous argument of _tu +quoque_. If, he said, you claim that this war exhibits the failure of +Christianity, you must admit that it shows equally the failure of +science and civilisation. Nay, he says, growing bolder, if your +contention is true, Christianity has done no more than supply the +instrument of its own destruction, but science and civilisation have +brought us back to savagery. + +It is, of course, difficult to follow a man's rounded thought in the +crabbed phrases of an abbreviating reporter, but it is plain that Dean +Welldon has here been guilty of a confusion which only betrays his +apologetic poverty in face of this great crisis. Science--and it is +especially science that the clergy conceive as the rival they have to +discredit--has no concern whatever with the war. Science, either as an +organised body of teachers or as a branch of culture, has never +discussed war, and never had the faintest duty or opportunity to do so. +Economic science may discuss particular aspects of war, but the +economist deals with things as they are, not as they ought to be. Moral +science even is not a preaching agency, desirous of dividing with the +clergy the ethical guidance of the people. When men pit science against +religion, they usually refer to its superior power of explaining +reality. And if it be objected that therefore no morally educative +agency would remain if religion were discarded, the answer is simple. A +system of moral idealism founded on science--it is absurd to call it +science--does exist, and might at any time be enlarged to the +proportions of a national or international educative agency. As yet it +is left to individual cultivation or crystallised in a few tiny +associations, such as Ethical and Secularist and, partly, Socialist +Societies; and I venture to say, from a large experience of these +bodies, that, apart from the professed peace societies, they have been +more assiduous than any religious associations in England, in proportion +to their work, in demanding the substitution of arbitration for war, and +that the overwhelming majority, almost the entirety, of their members +are pacifists. To speak of this small organised force, with its slender +influence, as equally discredited with the far mightier and +thousand-year-older influence of the Churches would be strangely +incongruous; and it is hardly less incongruous to drag science into the +comparison. + +A somewhat similar distinction must be observed in regard to +civilisation. The antithesis of religion and civilisation is confused +and confusing. Christian ministers have claimed that _they_ are the +moral element of civilisation, and they have jealously combated every +effort to take from them or divide with them that function. They resist +every attempt to exclude their almost useless Bible-lessons from our +schools, and to substitute for them a direct and more practical moral +education of children. They have for fifteen hundred years claimed and +possessed the monopoly of ethical culture in European civilisation, and +we are a little puzzled when they turn round and say, with an air of +argument, that if Christianity has failed civilisation also has failed. +There is only one civilisation in Europe that has attempted to +substitute a humanitarian for a religious training of conduct; one +nation that is plainly and overwhelmingly non-Christian. That nation is +France. And France has one of the best moral records in modern Europe, +and has behaved nobly throughout this lamentable business. In fine, if +we take Dean Welldon's words in the most generous sense, if we assume +that he refers to the whole body of culture and sentiment which, in our +time, aspires to mould and direct the race apart from Christian +doctrine, the answer has already been given. Christianity is, as a power +in Europe, fourteen centuries old; this humanitarianism is hardly a +century old. But there has surely been more progress made during this +last century toward the destruction of the military system, and more +progress in the elimination of brutality from war, than in the whole +preceding thirteen centuries. Does Dean Welldon doubt that? Or does he +regard it as a mere coincidence? + +Thus, whether we turn to Churchman or Nonconformist, to cleric or +layman, we find no satisfactory apology. I have before me a short +article by Mr. Max Pemberton on the question, "Will Christianity survive +the war?" He uses the most consecrated phrases of the Church, and leaves +no doubt whatever that he writes in defence of Christianity. But Mr. +Pemberton practically confines himself to a very emphatic personal +assurance that Christianity _will_ survive the war, and does not +honestly face a single one of the questions of "the Pagan" against whom +he is writing. He does make one serious point of a peculiar character. +There are, he says, "23,000 priests fighting for France in the +trenches." Mr. Pemberton seems to find it easy to accept the interested +statements of those Roman Catholic journalists who make sectarian use of +some of the London dailies. There are only about 30,000 priests in +France, and, since none of them are younger than twenty-three, to +suppose that seventy-five per cent. of them are of military age is to +take a remarkable view of the population of France. In any case, there +is no special ground for rhapsody. They are not volunteers; in France +every man must do his civic duty. We may appreciate their devotion to +their religion on the battle-field, but Mr. Pemberton must be +imperfectly acquainted with the French character if he supposes that the +thirty-four million unbelievers of France are going to return to the +Church because the younger _cures_ did not try to evade the military +service which the State imposed on them. + +Another document I may quote is a manifesto issued by the "Hampstead +Evangelical Free Church Council," a joint declaration of the principal +Nonconformist ministers of that highly cultivated suburb. It does not +purport to vindicate the Churches, yet some of its observations in +connection with the war open out a new page of apologetics. These +clergymen invite all the citizens of their district, on the ground of +the war, to attend church, even if they have not been in the habit of +doing so. On what more precise ground? The able lawyer who received this +invitation, and forwarded it to me, thought it, not the most ingenious, +but the most curious, piece of pleading he had ever known. The citizens +of Hampstead were invited to go to church "to offer up to God a +sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for his goodness to us as a +nation"! At the very time the eminent preachers were writing this, the +darkened city still cowered under the threat of a horrible outrage; the +shattered homes and fresh graves of Scarborough and Whitby reminded us +faintly of the horrors beyond the sea; the maimed soldiers all over the +country, the sad figures of the bereaved, the anxious hearts of a +million of our people, were but a beginning of the evil that had fallen +on us. We had in fourteen years, since the last war, been obliged to +spend a thousand millions sterling in preparation for a war we did not +desire, and we were entering upon an expenditure of something more than +a thousand millions in a year. All this we had incurred through no fault +of ours. And these clergymen thought it a good opportunity to invite us +to go to church to thank God for "his goodness to us as a nation." + +Another manifesto is signed by a body of archbishops and bishops of the +Anglican Church. It enjoined all the faithful to supplicate the Almighty +on January 3rd to stop the war. This was to be done "all round the +Empire." I will not indulge in any cheap sarcasm as to the result, +though one would probably be right in saying that, if the end be +deferred to the year 1917, they will still believe that their prayers +had effect. What it is more material to notice is that the prelates +think that "these are days of great spiritual opportunity." It seems +that "the shattering of so much that seemed established reveals the +vanity of human affairs," and that "anxiety, separation, and loss have +made many hearts sensible of the approach of Christ to the soul." It is, +perhaps, unkind to examine this emotional language from an intellectual +point of view, but one feels that there is a subtle element of apology +in it. These spiritual advantages may outweigh the secular pain; may +even justify God's share in the great catastrophe. I have examined, and +will discuss more fully in the next chapter, the theistic side of this +plea. Intellectually, it borders on monstrosity: it is the survival of +an ancient and barbaric conception. The notion that "the approach of +Christ to the soul" is felt especially in time of affliction is merely a +statement of a certain type of emotional experience, while the +revelation of "the vanity of human affairs" is sheer perversity. Human +affairs have for ages been so badly managed, in this respect, that we +cannot in a decade or a century rid ourselves of such a legacy. The real +moral is to discover who were responsible for that legacy of disorder +and violence, and to put our affairs on a new and sounder basis. + +A considerable number of clerical writers proceed on the suggestion +discreetly advanced by these Anglican prelates. Let us wait, they ask, +until the clouds of war have rolled away, and then estimate the +spiritual gain to men from the trial through which they have passed, and +the closer association of the Churches which it may bring about. Now I +have no doubt that many who really believe the doctrines of +Christianity, yet have for years neglected the duties which their belief +imposes on them, will be induced by this awful experience to return to +allegiance. The number is limited, and an equal or greater number may +be, and probably will be, induced to surrender religion entirely, and +with good reason, by the reflections with which this war inspires them. +But to insinuate that this spiritual advantage, if it be an advantage, +of the few is justly purchased by the appalling suffering and disorder +brought about by the war is one of those religious affirmations which +seem to the outsider positively repulsive. + +I do not speak merely of the deaths, the pain, the privation, the +outrages, the flood of tears and blood over half of Europe. This, +indeed, is of itself enough to make the theory repellent to any who do +not share the ascetic views taught in the Churches. The notion that an +evil is justified if good issue from it is akin to the notion that the +end justifies the means. But I would draw attention to an aspect of the +war which is almost ignored by these eloquent preachers. They eagerly +record every flash of heroism, every spark of charity and mercy, that +the war evokes. They refer sympathetically to the dead and the bereaved, +the outraged girls and women--whom, in the narrowest Puritanism, they +forbid to rid themselves of the awful burden laid on them by drunken +brutes--the shattered homes and monuments. But there is a side of war +which they must know, and it demands plain speaking. It relaxes the +control of moral restraints even where it was before operative. The +illegitimate-birth rate of England and France will faintly tell the +story before the year is out. Inquiry in any town where our soldiers are +lodged, or in the rear of the French and English (or any other) +trenches, will tell it more fully. I do not speak of crime and violence, +but of willing sexual intercourse where it was never known before. These +things, and the increased drunkenness and the stirring of old passions, +are regarded by the clergy as amongst the most evil things of life. Do +they seriously suggest that they have been brought in to secure, or are +justified by, the spiritual advantage of the refined and emotional few +whose religion is only deepened by affliction? + +In short, I find not a single phrase of valid explanation or apology in +these and other prominent clerical pronouncements I have read. They are +superficial, contradictory, and vapid. Nothing is more common than for +religious writers to protest that the conception of reality which is +opposed to theirs is shallow. What depth, what sincere grip of reality, +does one find in any of these pulpit utterances? Yet I have taken the +pronouncements of official bodies or of distinguished preachers who may +be trusted to put the Christian feeling in its most persuasive form. One +thinks that God sent the war; another attributes it to German rebels +against God. One regards it as a spiritual agency devised for our good; +another says that it is an unmitigated calamity sent for our punishment. +One sees in it the failure of Christianity; others find in it precisely +a confirmation of Christian teaching. Some think it will draw men to +God; others that it will drive men from God. Unity, perhaps, we cannot +expect; but the empty rhetoric and utter sophistry of most of these +utterances reveal the complete lack of defence. On the main indictment +of the Christian Church, its failure to have condemned and removed +militarism long ago, all are silent; or the one preacher who notices it +can only dejectedly confess that it is true. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE WAR AND THEISM + + +In the leading Catholic periodical of this country there has been some +nervous discussion of the attitude of the Pope. A new man, a strong and +enlightened man, happens to have mounted the chair of Peter in the midst +of the war. For more than a century his predecessors have bemoaned the +increasing wickedness of the world: Pius VII, tossed like a helpless +cork on the waves of the Revolution; Leo XII and Pius VIII, the +associates of the Holy Alliance; Gregory XVI, eating sweetmeats or +mumbling his breviary while young Italy sweated blood; Pius IX, grasping +eagerly his tatters of sovereignty; Leo XIII, the unsuccessful +diplomatist; Pius X, the medieval monk. They saw their Church shrink +decade by decade, and they witnessed the prosperity of all that they +denounced. Benedict XV came to save the Church, and a great moral +opportunity awaited him. But, while claiming to be the moral arbitrator +of the world, he avoids his plain duty, and is content to repeat the +worn phrases about the iniquity of the modern spirit. His apologists say +that the war is politics, and that Popes must not interfere in politics. + +I have earlier explained in what sense this war presents a political +aspect to Benedict XV, and given the reason for his reluctance. It is +typical of the whole failure of Christianity. A little over nineteen +centuries ago, it is said in the churches, a star shone over the cradle +of the Saviour, and choirs of angels announced his coming as a promise +of "peace on earth and good-will among men." I am not in this little +work examining the whole question of the influence of Christianity. But +it is well to recall that, according to its own records, its first and +greatest promise to the world was peace; and to that old Roman Empire, +and to Europe at any stage in its later history, no greater blessing +could have been brought. Has Christianity succeeded? + +But the religious interest of the war is by no means exhausted when we +have concluded that it marks, in one of the most important departments +of human action, the complete failure of historical Christianity. My +purpose is to discuss this relation to the Churches, and it would not be +completed unless I considered the war in relation to their fundamental +doctrine, the moral government of the universe by a Supreme Being. In a +few months, we hope, the war will be over: the Allies will have +triumphed. We know, from experience and from history, what will follow +in the Churches. From end to end of Britain, from Dover to Penzance and +from Southampton to Aberdeen, there will rise a jubilant cry that God +has blessed our arms and awarded us the victory. Now that we are in the +midst of the horrors and burdens of the war God is little mentioned. One +would imagine that the great majority of the clergy conceived him as +standing aside, for some inscrutable reason, and letting wicked men +deploy their perverse forces. When the triumph comes, gilding the past +sacrifices or driving them from memory, God will be on every lip. The +whole nation will be implored to come and kneel before the altars. +Royalty and nobility and military, judges and stockbrokers and working +men--above all, a surging, thrilling, ecstatic mass of women--will +gather round the clergy, and will avow that they see the finger of God +in this glorious consummation. The relation of the war to God will then +become the supreme consideration for the Christian mind. It may be more +instructive to consider it now, before the last flood of emotion pours +over our judgments. + +I have already discussed some of the clerical allusions to the share of +God in the war. They are so frankly repellent that one cannot be +surprised that the majority of the clergy prefer to be silent on that +point. They prefer to await the victory and build on its more genial and +indulgent emotions. The war is either a blessing or a curse. One would +think that there was not much room for choice, but we saw that some are +bold enough to hint that the spiritual good may outweigh the bodily +pain. They remind us of a Treitschke or a Bernhardi writing smugly of +the moral grandeur of war, the need to brace the slackness of human +nature periodically by war, the chivalry and devotion it calls out, and +so on. + +Still worse is the theory of those who regard war frankly as a curse, +yet put it to the direct authorship of the Almighty. This theory is +natural enough in the minds of men and women who believe in hell. In +earlier ages men could not distinguish between the law of retaliation +and the need to deter criminals by using violence against them when they +transgressed. In many primitive systems of justice the law of +retaliation is expressly consecrated. It is even introduced, +inconsistently and as a survival of barbaric times, in the Babylonian +and the Judaic codes, side by side with saner views. It is, of course, +merely a systematisation of brute passion. In the beginning, if a man +knocked your tooth out, you knocked one of his teeth out. With the +growth of law and justice, the barbarous nature of the impulse was +recognised, and the community, by its representatives, inflicted a +"punishment" on the offender instead of allowing the offended to +retaliate. With the modern improvement of moral sentiments we have +realised that this is an imperfect advance on the barbaric idea. The +community has no more right to "punish" than the offended individual +had. We now impose hardship on an offender only for the purpose of +intimidating him from repeating the offence, or of deterring others from +offending. The idea is still somewhat crude, and a third stage will in +time be reached; but it is satisfactory that we now--not since the +advent of Christianity, but since the rise of modern humanism--all admit +that the only permissible procedure is deterrence, and not punishment as +such. + +It may seem ungracious to be ever repeating that these improvements did +not take place during the period of Christian influence, but in the +recent period of its decay. There is, however, in this case a most +important and urgent reason for emphasising the fact. I say that we +_all_ admit the more humane conception of punishment, but this must be +qualified. In human affairs we do: Carlyle was, perhaps, the last +moralist to cling to the old conception. But in the religious world the +old idea has been flagrantly retained. The doctrine of eternal +punishment is clearly based on the barbaric old idea that a prince whose +dignity has been insulted may justly inflict the most barbarous +punishment on the offender. Theologians have, since the days of Thomas +Aquinas, wasted whole reams of parchment in defending the dogma of hell, +because they knew nothing whatever of comparative jurisprudence and the +evolution of moral ideas. To us the development of the doctrine is +clear. In the Christian doctrine of hell we have a flagrant survival of +the early barbaric theory of punishment. Modern divines--while +continuing to describe the non-religious view of life as "superficial" +and the Christian as "profound"--have actually yielded to the modern +sentiment, and in a very large measure rejected one of the fundamental +dogmas of the Christian tradition. In order to conceal the procedure as +far as possible, some of them are now contending brazenly that Christ +never taught the doctrine of eternal punishment, and are deluding their +uncultivated congregations with sophistical manipulations of Greek +words. + +This does not mean that Christians have lower moral sentiments than +non-Christians, but that the rigidity of their traditions, which they +regard as sacred and unalterable, imposes restrictions on them. Hence +the fact that, while Protestants have so very largely rejected the +doctrine of hell, Roman Catholics, with their more rigid conservatism +and claim of infallibility, still cling to it, and offer the amazing +spectacle of a body claiming to possess the highest ideals in the world, +yet actually cherishing an entirely barbaric theory. There is probably +not a Catholic lawyer in the world who does not reject the old idea of +punishment as barbaric, yet he placidly believes that God retains it. +That is why we find a Catholic archbishop like Carr putting forth so +revolting an idea of the war, while Protestant preachers as a rule +shrink from mentioning God in connection with it. These things make it +impossible for one to understand how non-Christians can say, as they do +sometimes, that if they _were_ to accept a creed, it would be the Roman +creed. + +Any theory of the war which proceeds on the lines of the hell-theory is +simply barbaric, and is beneath serious discussion. We know to-day that +both ethics and religion are in a state of constant evolution. We look +back over a stream of several thousand years of historically traceable +development; we follow that stream faintly through earlier tens of +thousands of years in the ideas of primitive peoples; and we see the +evolution going on plainly in the creeds and ethical codes of our own +time. But the practice of registering certain stages of this evolution +in sacred books or codes, which are then imposed on man for centuries or +millennia as something unalterable, has been and is a very serious +hindrance to development, both in ethics and religion. It is all the +worse because these codes and sacred books always contain certain +elements which belong to even earlier and less enlightened stages, and +whole regiments of philosophers or theologians are employed for ages in +putting glosses on ancient and barbaric ideas at which the world +eventually laughs. However, we need not linger here over these ancient +ways of regarding life. The man who keeps his God at a moral level which +we disdain ourselves rarely listens to argument. He protects his "faith" +by believing that it is a mortal sin (involving sentence of hell) to +read any book that would examine it critically. It is a most ingenious +arrangement by which the doctrine of a vindictive God protects itself +against moral progress. + +Now any suggestion that God sent this war upon Europe--whether as a +judgment on the clergy, or a judgment on unbelievers, or a judgment on +the arrogance of the Germans, etc.--is part of this old barbarism, and +may be disregarded. It conceives that God is vindictive, and at the same +time assures us that Christianity sternly condemns vindictiveness. It +allows God to deal mighty blows at those who affront him, and tells men +to bear affront with patience and turn the other cheek to the smiter. It +is simply part of that mixture and confusion of old and new ideas which +a codified religion always exhibits. We pass it by, and turn to more +serious considerations. I pass by also eccentric ideas of Deity like +those of Sir Oliver Lodge or Mr. G. B. Shaw--two oracles who have been +singularly silent on the religious aspect of the war. Let us examine the +main religious problem as broadly and as honestly as we can. + +The first and chief reflection that occurs to any man who does thus +seriously examine the relation of the war to theism is that, after all, +it is not so easy to disentangle theology from the crude old doctrines +which our more liberal divines think they have abandoned. They tell us +that they do not believe in a vindictive Deity, they disdain the +doctrine of eternal punishment, they smile at many of the Judaic +conceptions of Jehovah in the Old Testament. God is the all-holy and +benevolent ruler of the universe. They refuse to believe that the souls +of sinners and unbelievers are tortured for ever after death, and trust +the whole scheme of things to the love and justice of God. + +The grave difficulty of this enlightened theology, indeed of all +theology, is the immense amount of pain and evil in the universe, and +this mighty war we are considering puts it in a very acute form. It is +amusing to look back on some of the lines of apologetics in recent +years. There was a school of people, following some "profound" religious +thinker, who held that evil was "only relative." They made the wonderful +discovery that everything real is good, in the metaphysical sense, and +evil is unreal. Evil, they said, is merely the negation, the +falling-short, of good; and you do not ask for the creator or cause of a +negative thing. More recently a school endeavoured to come to their +assistance with the discovery that pain does not really exist at all. +One did not need to know philosophy or science in order to realise that +a sensation of pain is just as positive and real a thing as a sensation +of pleasure; or that, although death is _only_ the negation of life, one +is really entitled to ask why one's dear child is thus "negated" at the +age of six or twelve. Then there came this new school with its discovery +that pain does not exist. Death, of course, is an entry into a more +glorious life beyond; pain is an illusion to be banished by resolute +thought. These childish symposia were interrupted every few years by +some disastrous earthquake, the sinking of a great liner, an epidemic of +disease, a famine, and so on; but the pious philosophers bravely +struggled on. One may trust that the war has reduced them to silence, +and that we need not linger over them. + +Then there was the school which sought desperately to find good in evil. +A man or woman is stricken with disease. Very often it brings with it a +softening, an improvement, of character; either in the patient or in the +nurses, or in both. Our religious philosophers fancied they caught in +this a glimpse of the divine plan: cancer was an instrument of +righteousness in the hands of the Almighty, the bacillus of +tuberculosis was a moral agency. They detected cases in which adverse +fortune had sobered and softened a man: the finger of Providence. In +France there was a very considerable return to the Catholic Church, and +recovery of its power, after the disastrous war of 1870. In the south of +Italy there is always much less sexual freedom for a time after an +earthquake has buried a few tens of thousands under the ruins of their +houses. I would undertake to fill a quarto volume with instances of good +things which arose out of or followed upon evil experiences. We saw that +the present war is being examined in the same respect. There are "great +spiritual opportunities": hundreds of thousands of young men are being +compelled (by the authorities) to go to church who had not been for +years; the different denominations are fraternising as they never did +before; the churches are rather fuller than they had been of late: +charity is awakened on a prodigious scale; zeal for an ideal (the +violated peace of Belgium) is dragging men even from our slums to the +colours. Here again one could at least fill a moderate treatise with the +things achieved; and beyond them all is the unuttered vision of the +crowded churches at the triumphant close of the war, perhaps that +long-coveted religious revival. + +There is no doubt whatever that this theory of the war will be +assiduously pressed when nature has drawn her green mantle once more +over the blackened area of the war and our hearts are lifted up by +thought of victory. It is already being urged, and I would add a little +to the comments I have already passed on it. + +The clergy would do well to realise that, whatever virtue this theory +may have in soothing the minds and dissolving the doubts of their +followers, to an outsider it seems monstrous. In the first place, it +includes no sense of proportion, and amounts to a colossal untruth. We +must surely take into account the amount of evil inflicted and the +amount of good that ensues. Take sickness, for instance. One would +imagine that, if Christians seriously believe that illness is sent by +God to achieve certain salutary modifications of character, they ought +strenuously to oppose the modern determination to reduce disease to a +minimum. They do not, and would, on the contrary, soon reduce to silence +any religious crank who proposed it. They know perfectly well that the +cases of "spiritual advantage" from illness bear no proportion whatever +to the amount of suffering in the world. Slight but painful illnesses +rarely have any beneficent effect on character; very frequently the +reverse. Any large city, at any given moment, is racked with pains which +do but give rise to curses, or a polite equivalent. Most of the +irritation and perversion of character is due to morbid influences. And +for every case in which a long illness issues in some signal advance of +character, a hundred others could be quoted in which the illness was an +unmitigated calamity. So it is with bereavement and with adversity of +fortune. Look honestly into the experience of any class of the +community, and ask in what _proportion_ of cases narrowness of means, +especially after comfort, brings a "spiritual advantage." + +So it is above all with this war. Any man who thinks that the awful +perversion of the character of a great European people, the death of +such vast numbers in such painful circumstances, the ruin of further +millions, and all the innumerable ugly results of a great war, were +worth bringing about in order to secure a few spiritual advantages has +neither sense of proportion nor sense of decency nor sense of humour. +The theory would be too repulsive if it were put in this plain form, and +it is more usual merely to point out these good results and hint that +war is not absolutely and in every respect an evil. As if any person +ever said that it was. The point is simple, and ought not to be +obscured. A few incidental advantages do not reconcile us to this +colossal misery, suffering, and waste, and do not in the slightest +degree alleviate the position of the man who thinks that God directed +human events to this awful consummation. If an earthly ruler employed +such agencies to educate his subjects, with such an extraordinary +disproportion between the suffering inflicted and the results attained, +what should we think of him? + +The parallel reminds us that of infinite wisdom we expect infinitely +more than of a human ruler. Once unintelligent nature had a crude, +wasteful, hard method of producing new and higher types of life. Man, +having intelligence, produces the same result without waste or +suffering. We expect immeasurably higher procedure of such an +intelligence as Christians ascribe to God. One can understand the man +who says that the plan of such an intelligence might be beyond human +ken, but I am discussing the opinions of people who contend that they +bring it within human ken. In fact, there is no need here to remind us +of the mysteriousness of the ways of an infinite intelligence. If the +war was designed for certain practical uses, such as those we have had +suggested by various divines, one may reply at once that a more brutal +and unjust way of attaining those ends could not have been devised. It +is almost impossible to conceive any man seriously entertaining the +notion. Yet all the jubilation and thanksgiving that will follow the +war, all the supplication that accompanies its fortunes to-day, and the +whole teaching of Christian theology, imply that God did direct the +political movements and military ambitions which have culminated in the +war. Even a human statesman could have devised a less terrible method of +attaining any end that has yet been conceived for the war. The idea of +the war as a punishment is quite logical and intelligible, though five +hundred years out of date. But the idea of the war as a medicinal or an +educative process has neither logic nor intelligibility, and does not +even attain that consistency with modern ethical sentiments which it +seeks. The colossal amount of suffering inflicted on innocent people and +on children puts it entirely out of court. + +Thirdly, this theory, as I said, raises the question whether the end +justifies the means. Here we have another illustration of the way in +which Christian dogma keeps the Christian conscience in many matters +behind the ethical sentiment of the age. Many liberal divines would +express genuine repugnance at Archbishop Carr's view of the war; yet +some of the most liberal of these divines and laymen are almost as +backward in another direction. They justify the world-process through +which we are struggling on the ground that it will, we hope, issue in a +nobler order of things: of the war, in particular, that hope is +entertained, and to the war, accordingly, this theory of justification +is applied. That is a case of the end justifying the means. Christian +thinkers are advancing so rapidly and erratically that in some cases we +are not clear whether the writer does or does not regard God as infinite +in power and intelligence. We may ignore these few cases. The vast +majority emphatically hold that view. In their regard we can say only +what has been said a hundred times. Whether you speak of the +world-process in general or any particular cruel phase of it, such as +this war, you maintain that God chose, out of many conceivable ways, the +one way that is marked by cruelty and suffering. An infinite God is not +so confined in the choice of means. And just as we say of the +world-process in general, that to build the sunnier lives of a remote +generation on the sufferings of this and earlier generations implies a +grave injustice to _us_, so we must say of the war. No spiritual +advantages to those who survive will reconcile us to the suffering and +the loss of those who fell in the tragic combat. I speak impersonally. +It happens that I have no near relatives of military age, and neither I +nor any near relative is likely to suffer by the war. But when I brood +over the agony of the less fortunate millions, over the harrowing +experience of Belgians, Poles, and Serbs, over the whole ghastly orgy of +blood and tears in Europe, I feel unutterable disdain of these paltry +efforts to justify the ways of God to man. + +Let us look a little deeper into the matter. No doubt the plain +statement that God "sent" or caused this war will excite a certain +repugnance in many Christian minds. They will prefer to say that God +"permitted" it. Man has "free will," and it is the plan of providence to +give a certain play to this free will. When man has bruised his +shins--more frequently the shins of other people--God may, on being +supplicated sufficiently, issue his veto and put matters right. I am +quite acquainted, from a severe theological education, with the more +learned language in which this theory is expressed by theologians, but +I prefer to deal with it as it exists in the words of most preachers +and the minds of most Christians. + +It would be impossible here to deal at any length with the doctrine of +free will. Unless you conceive it in some novel and irrelevant sense, as +Professor Bergson does, it is a very much disputed thing amongst the +experts whose business it is to inform us on the subject--our +psychologists. The majority of modern psychologists seem to reject it +altogether. On the other hand, no theologian has ever yet reconciled it +in any intelligible scheme with the supposed omnipotence of God. But it +is not necessary to enter into these abstruse considerations. Let us +take the matter in the concrete. + +We look back to-day on a long series of processes and circumstances +which culminate in the war. There is the whole history of Germany for a +hundred and fifty years inspiring the German people with a bias toward +aggressive war; there are the economic and geographical circumstances +which, at the end of the nineteenth century, begin to make it think +again of aggressive war; there is the overflowing population, bred by +order of the clergy who stupidly condemn an artificial restriction of +births; there is the coincident trouble of Austria with the Slavs, of +England with its subject peoples, and so on. In the eyes of the careful +student a hundred lines of circumstance and development have led to this +war. The melodramatic idea that it all springs from the free will of the +Kaiser, or of a group of soldiers and statesmen, need not be seriously +considered. Moreover, even when we introduce the personal element--and +the personality of the Kaiser has had a very considerable influence--it +is foolish to throw the whole burden on free will. The mood and outlook +and ambition of the Kaiser take their colour from his notoriously morbid +nervous frame. In a word, you have a mighty concurrence of movements, +whether acts of will or otherwise, converging in all parts of Europe +toward this war. Was God indifferent to the whole of those movements? + +Those movements are particularly traceable in Europe during the last +fourteen years. Before that there was a similar concurrence of movements +eventuating in the South African War; and in the meantime a series of +processes and circumstances had given us the Russo-Japanese War and the +Balkan-Turkish War and the Mexican War. So we might go over the wars of +the nineteenth century and all earlier wars. The "permissiveness" or +indifference of the ruler of the universe grows amazingly. In the +meantime we had mighty catastrophes like the sinking of the _Titanic_ +and other ships, the earthquakes at Messina and elsewhere, famines and +epidemics and floods in various places, and great numbers of murders, +railway and other accidents, etc. We begin to ask _where_ the ruling of +the universe comes in at all, and, as far as human events go, all that +we can gather in the way of reply is that sometimes individuals who pray +very fervently get their diseases healed or their coffers filled; and +even these claims do not pass rational inquiry. + +Now here is the precise difficulty of the unbeliever, and this present +tragedy makes it acute. We ask our neighbour, or seek in some learned +theological treatise, what are the indications of this government of the +universe, and we are told about the making of stars and the decoration +of flowers and the putting of instincts into animals or pretty patterns +on their skins. But when we point out that the really important thing +in our part of the universe is this human life of ours, imperfectly +protected as yet against disease and malice (which is largely disease) +and natural forces, the theologian has no clear evidence to produce. +Even the evidence he draws from stars and flowers and peacocks' tails +and sunsets, with which he is, as a rule, very imperfectly acquainted, +is, of course, heatedly disputed, and the proper authorities on these +subjects are, on the whole, not well disposed toward his interpretation. +But we need not consider that here. Where we should most logically +expect the hand of Providence is in the human order, because in that +order catastrophe is infinitely more important, in view of man's +capacity for pain. Yet it is precisely in regard to this order that the +theologian is vaguest and least satisfactory. He talks grandly of God +moving every atom in the universe, counting the hairs of our heads, +numbering (but not preventing) the fall of the sparrows, and so on; but +when we ask for the evidence of God's concern with contemporary human +events he is very vague if they are good events, and, if they are evil, +he hastily disclaims any interference of the Deity. Some of our more +advanced theologians are claiming that the finest improvement they have +made in their science is to have brought God from _without_ the universe +(where no theologian had ever put him) and make him _immanent_ in it. +But they seem just as incapable as the others to trace his interposition +in human events. + +Theologians still maintain a valiant and stubborn fight against +scientific men, but they do not fight historians. They are very keen on +maintaining the influence of God over atoms and stars and roses and +birds, but not half so keen to vindicate it in the life of man. The +story of the world, _our_ world, may be divided into three chapters: a +chapter describing the moulding of the globe and the rocks, a chapter +describing the slow evolution of the plants and animals, and a chapter +describing the antics and fortunes of man. Some may surrender the first +chapter to science, some the second chapter, but it looks as if they all +surrender the third. They have long been accustomed to surrender the +early part, and very much the longer and more laborious part, of man's +story to natural forces, or the devil. Then there was a melodramatic +notion that God, after the lapse of hundreds of thousands of years, +began to take an interest in one very small people and kept revealing +things to it, and smiting its enemies, until Christianity was given to +the world. History tells the story in a totally different way. We find +the stream of moral and religious evolution flowing steadily on nineteen +hundred years ago, much as we do to-day. At this point, of course, the +theologian does make a struggle with the historian. In proportion to the +imperfectness of his culture and the backwardness and conservatism of +his Church, he fights for miraculous interpositions in human events +nineteen hundred years ago. But we need not delay to examine that +difference of opinion, because the later period suffices for my purpose. + +A few theologians, not well acquainted with history, see another +miraculous interposition in the fourth century, when Christianity was +established; and the Roman Catholic--in the intellectual rear, as +usual--believes in hundreds of miraculous interpositions, in small +matters, as late as the year 1914. But in order to take a broad view of +the matter we may leave these controversies with the more reactionary on +one side. The history of Europe for the last fifteen centuries at least +is now entrusted to able laymen, and it has been purged of divine +interpositions. Innumerable myths and legends, often based on what are +now acknowledged to be spurious documents, have been cast out of the +science, and we are presented with a quite continuous and purely natural +sequence of events. Religious historians like Bishop Creighton or Lord +Bryce do not find their periods broken by divine interpositions; the +writers of the Cambridge History do not occasionally arrest us before +some great event and warn us that the chain of human causation seems to +be obscure or discontinuous. There are, of course, problems of history, +but they are not obscurities which, like the obscure places in science, +tempt the theologian to enter and claim a divine interposition. The +story is from beginning to end--to use Nietzsche's phrase--"human, all +too human." On the whole, as it has been hitherto written, it is a story +of wars, and, though patriotic piety puts its gloss on the issue of a +war here and there, the historian does not find any serious problem in +them. No French historian will now claim divine action in the Napoleonic +wars, and assuredly few of us are prepared to see the finger of God in +the fortunate issue of Prussia's many campaigns since Frederick the +Great. + +Whatever we may think of the cosmic process generally, the human part of +that process does not encourage a theological interpretation. Man is +working out his own destiny, and doing it ill. We see him, like some +pedlar plodding along a country road under his burdens, carrying through +whole centuries institutions and ideas and follies that he will +eventually shed. When he drops them, there is no more element of +miracle or revelation in his action than when he discovers the use of +steam or of aluminium or of the spectroscope. His mind expands and his +ideals rise. It is a little incongruous to suppose that some infinitely +wiser and affectionate parent was looking on all the time and giving no +assistance. In the dialogue between Mephistopheles and God which Goethe +prefixes to his _Faust_, the devil obviously scores. In the sight of +such an intelligence man must have made a pretty fool of himself during +the last 1500 years. We human beings are more charitable. Take the whole +story as the gradual development of human intelligence and emotion under +unfavourable political conditions, hampered by a despotic and perverse +clergy, and it seems natural enough. + +This is the impression one gets from history, and the nearer history is +to our own time and the better we know it, the less it suggests a divine +guidance. There is something parochial or rural about the average +Christian way of looking at events. One day the German Christian goes to +church to thank God for driving the Russians out of East Prussia; the +next day the English Christian thanks the same God for killing or +wounding 20,000 Germans at Neuve Chapelle--with the help of 350 guns. +Yet such things as these are the only claims we have offered to us of +the action of God in human events. Neither the steps that man takes +onward nor the steps that he takes backward are ascribed to divine +influence. All that is claimed is that when a ship goes down, for +instance, he saves the saved, and "permits" the rest to be drowned; when +a war has been raging for a few months by his "permission," he puts a +stop to it when one army is worn out. The unbeliever is really entitled +to a good deal of sympathy for his inability to follow this tortuous +reasoning with confidence. One cannot entirely blame him for being more +interested in the heart of man than in the petals of a rose. + +These considerations are, of course, not novel. I am only applying to +this special case of the war a difficulty that has been discussed in all +ages, and has been acutely felt by very able religious thinkers. How a +group of bishops can sit down to write, in very deliberate and elegant +language, that such a calamity as this makes the soul more sensible of +"the approach of Christ" is one of the many little mysteries of the +clerical mind. It has precisely the opposite effect in any logical mind. +When the way of life is smooth, and our nation or home is prospering, we +may be genially disposed to think that God is near and is looking after +us as well as the sparrows. But when a black storm bursts suddenly and +disastrously on us; when the earth shakes their roofs on ten thousand of +our fellows, or a great ship strikes a rock and pours a laughing crowd +suddenly into the lap of death; when vast provinces are laid desolate by +war, and we see the tens of thousands clasping the hand of their loved +ones for the last time, it seems rather uncanny that this should suggest +to any person the approach of Christ. To very many people it is a +confirmation of the general impression they get from the world-process +and the story of man: that these great forces deploy and interlace and +build up and destroy without the slightest intervention from without. + +In our time, we must remember, this difficulty had already been +enormously increased. St. Augustine, who felt the problem acutely in the +prime of his intelligence, had really a very much lighter task than the +modern divine. He had merely to suggest why evil was permitted in the +narrow world he knew; and he had the great advantage of being able to +appeal to a primitive sin and primitive punishment of the race. The +problem became more serious when original sin, or at least the notion +that the race might justly be damned for one man's fault, was abandoned. +It became graver still when science discovered the tombs of inhabitants +of this globe who had lived during millions of earlier years, and showed +that the very law of their life and progress was struggle against evil. +Every attempt to minimise the struggle of those earlier ages has failed. +At a time when there was no possibility of "spiritual advantage" there +was acute consciousness of pain, the struggle and suffering were +prodigious. Theistic literature of the last half century, growing more +weary and more wistful in each decade, reflects the increasing +difficulty. If any man can see in this war a relief of the difficulty, +and not an appalling accentuation and illustration of it, he must be +gifted with a peculiar type of mind and emotion. It is more probable +that an increasing number will conclude that, if God is indifferent to +these things, they will be indifferent to him. Professor William James, +in his _Varieties of Religious Experience_, declared that the only gods +the men of the new generation would recognise would be gods of some use +to them. The war does not encourage the chances of the Christian God. + +A few modern religious thinkers seem to imagine that they have found +some relief by devising the formula that God's plan is to "co-operate +with man," and in those modern advances which I have freely admitted +they see indications of this co-operation. This new formula is not a +whit better than the other phrases which have, at various stages, been +regarded by religions people as profound thoughts. In the recent history +of moral progress we have, as a rule, a minority of high-minded men and +women struggling to impress their sentiments on the inert majority. The +new theologian is not daunted in the application of his theory by the +fact that a large proportion of these pioneers did not believe in God at +all, so I will not discuss that aspect; though no doubt the plain man +will find it interesting to trace how, in the earlier and more difficult +days of modern humanism, so few of the reformers were Christian +ministers and so many Rationalists. From the historical point of view, +however, we find this line of development quite intelligible. We find, +for instance, Robert Owen (a great Rationalist) advocating the +substitution of arbitration for war nearly a century ago, and we +discover the earlier sources of Owen's enthusiasm in English Radicals +like Godwin, who were affected by the early French Revolutionaries, who +had been influenced by Rousseau, and so on. It is a quite natural +evolution of ideas, as they find a congenial soil in each generation in +certain types of temperament. But where are the traces or what was the +nature of God's co-operation with these men? Looking to their generally +heterodox character and the hostility of the Churches to them, the idea +is not without humour; but, even if we reconcile ourselves to this +peculiar feature, anything in the nature of positive evidence of divine +action is wholly lacking, and we can understand the whole process +without it. The theory is merely a desperate and unfounded assertion of +men who are determined that God shall not be left out. + +There is a further grave difficulty. One would imagine that the kind of +paternal affection which is ascribed to God would have induced him to +intervene at an earlier stage. The kind of father who co-operates with +the more gifted and ambitious of his children, and does nothing for the +less gifted and sluggish, is a narrow-minded and narrow-hearted man. +Affection turns rather to those who cannot help themselves, or who need +judicious and constant inspiration. This view we are considering is even +less flattering to God, because the aspiring children of the nineteenth +and twentieth centuries seem able to dispense with his co-operation, +while the ignorant and priest-ridden children of earlier ages could do +little of themselves. The theologians who have found this new formula +are of the more liberal school. They do not attribute all the blunders +and crimes and failures of the Middle Ages to free will, to a sheer and +deliberate obstinacy in clinging to evil. They realise the overpowering +nature of the environment and the drastic discouragement by the clergy +of anything like novelty or initiative in ethics. It was then that man +needed God, if there is a God. But, on this theory, God argued with the +academic wisdom of a medieval theologian; he concluded that medieval men +were quite capable of originating modern ideas, and he would not +co-operate until they did. The theory is preposterous in every respect. + +Finally, we have the very large class of candid or of hopelessly puzzled +Christians who give up the matter as a mystery. They do not understand +how this ruling of the universe which they seem to see clearly in stars +and flowers should become so obscure or disappear altogether in the +human order. They realise that, if this war were an isolated +occurrence, they might imagine God holding his hand for a season, for +some reason unknown to us; but they know that it is not an isolated +occurrence: it is part of the human order of things. It has been +preceded by other wars at intervals of every few years, and war itself +is only one of a series of catastrophes and calamities that splash the +human chronicle with innocent blood. They give it up, sorrowfully, and +find a thin consolation in learned formulae about the impossibility of a +finite mind understanding an infinite mind, and so on: which give, as I +say, thin consolation, for one may at least see that an infinite +benevolence ought not to act worse than a moderate human benevolence. + +Now if there were any very strong evidence of divine ruling outside the +human order, we might find a certain amount of logic in this position. +The mystery of a God who moves the stars and inspires the bees, yet +leaves man to his own unhappy impulses (after putting those impulses in +him), would be, one imagines, painful enough; but if there were +irresistible evidence that God does move the stars and quicken the bird +and beast, we might be compelled to reconcile ourselves to that unhappy +dilemma. There is, however, no such irresistible evidence. This is not +the place to examine such evidence as is adduced. I must be content to +recall the fact that it is all highly controverted; that theologians +tear to pieces each other's "proofs" of the existence of God; and that a +large and increasing body of cultivated men and women discard the +evidence entirely. So that, in the last resort, the situation is this: +on the one hand we have a number of very disputable suggestions, which +are growing fainter in proportion as science investigates these matters, +of divine action in stars and rocks and reptiles, and on the other hand +we have a stupendous mass of suffering, starting millions of years ago +at the very birth of consciousness and piled up mountains high in this +year 1915, which no thinker has ever yet reconciled with the notion of a +divine ruling of the life of man. This is a very grave and plain +situation, and if the clergy have nothing more to say about it than to +borrow from an ancient Hebrew certain offensive gibes at the unbeliever, +or to offer us the kind of apologies we examined in the last chapter, +one must conclude that they do not realise the situation. The war has +terribly accentuated the most terrible difficulty they ever had to face. +Whether there is intelligence manifested in nature is, after all, an +academic question which does not profoundly stir the modern world. +Whether there is benevolence, a moral personality, reflected in the +course of man's history is the much more important question. And this +appalling calamity will induce many to take a more candid view of the +world-process and conclude that, as far as the critical eye can see, +man's world seems to be left entirely to his own efforts, to his own +crimes and blunders and aspirations. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE HUMAN ALTERNATIVE + + +If the observations I have made in the preceding chapters are even +approximately just, the hope which many of the clergy express, that +there will be a religious revival at the close of the war, is very +singular. No doubt it means, on the whole, that some advantage to +religion will be sought in the flood of genial and generous emotion +which will surge through the country. In Germany and Austria, one +imagines, religion will have a rough experience. The people who wrote +and repeated constantly, "Gott strafe England"--which, by the way, is +another proof that the general German attitude is theological rather +than humanist--will have a few serious questions to put to the clergy, +as well as to their secular rulers. In France, despite the reports of +interested people, there will be little change. The nation, being +overwhelmingly Rationalistic, relied on its 75-centimetre guns rather +than on prayer, and will find its wisdom justified. But in England and +Russia, and in the backward Slav countries, there will be mighty +flag-waving in Church, and no doubt a great number of not very +thoughtful people will conclude that the clergy and the Y.M.C.A. and the +Salvation Army have behaved very nicely over the whole affair, and there +will be, for a time, an increased attendance at church. + +We may suppose that this emotional storm will not last long, and the +nation will settle down to face the bill, the empty chairs at home, and +the disorganisation of its industries. Then will arise the questions I +have been endeavouring to answer in this little book. The clergy behaved +very well during the war, short of volunteering in any conspicuous +number for active service; but what is the sense of this lofty message +of "peace on earth and good-will among men" which never produces any +result? The Churches are fairly eager to join in the work of peace now +that it is being promoted by large associations of laymen; but where, in +the name of heaven, were they during these "ages of faith" which they +bemoan? God may conceivably have been at work somewhere among the +batteries or the infantry of the Allies--it is so very difficult to +analyse these things--but we should be infinitely more grateful if he +had asserted his power earlier and spared us all the bloodshed. He may +be a very stern schoolmaster, teaching us a valuable lesson by means of +this war; but we were really quite open to conviction if he had sent us +the lesson in a more humane form. A great many good people may have +derived spiritual advantages from the war, but the price was stupendous, +and we would rather they got their spiritual advantages in another way. + +These questions and reflections must surely arise, and they will lead to +larger reflections. Men will perceive the antithesis I pointed out +between all that is claimed for Christianity in Europe and the actual +condition of Europe; between the supposed luminous traces of the finger +of God in the non-human world and the complete absence of them from the +human world. From the samples of clerical eloquence which we have +examined, we can hardly suppose that the clergy will have great success +in meeting the inquirers. An enormous proportion of their followers, of +course, will not ask questions, or will be satisfied with anything in +the nature of an answer. I heard a group of men discussing the subject +in a rural ale-house, and the most intelligent man in the group, to +whom, as an educated visitor, the natives looked up with respect, said: +"War is God's way of purifying and bracing nations from time to time." +This sort of stuff pacifies hundreds of thousands: like the stuff that +Archbishop Carr found it possible to put before his Australian +Catholics. But inquiry and reflection grow among the adherents of the +Churches, and, although the Press generally refuses to bring books of +this character to the notice of the public, and clergymen often stoop to +the most despicable means to exclude them from bookstalls and shops, +they seem to find a fairly large public to-day. Thinking is as needful +an exercise for the mind as work is for the body, and the only plausible +ground on which you can seek to suppress thinking about Christianity is +the fear that it will not be good for Christianity. + +Then we shall have the next and inevitable question: What would you put +in the place of Christianity? Young men in various parts of the country +hurl that question at one as if it were really very serious, putting an +end to all dispute. Any person who is quite candid and sincere about +these matters can find the material for an answer easily enough. Take +France. Forty years ago the nation was overwhelmingly Christian; to-day +it is overwhelmingly non-Christian. It has not put anything in the place +of Christianity, and has prospered remarkably. There is a legacy of what +is called vice which comes down from earlier religious times, but any +person who cares to examine criminal and other statistics, the only +positive tests of a nation's health, will find that France has been +extraordinarily successful without Christianity and without putting +anything in its place. There are, it is true, moral lessons in its +schools, but I would not claim that they are much responsible: the +system is imperfect, and the teachers not well equipped. Take our ally +Japan. The moral discipline of the nation, which, in spite of some +recent deterioration through Western influence, is admirable, does not +rest on religious foundations. Take London or any metropolis of modern +Europe. The bulk of the people have ceased to receive any influence from +the representatives of Christianity, yet there has been moral progress +instead of deterioration. Those who speak of degeneration in London or +Paris do not accurately know and estimate the state of those cities in +more religious times. + +This experience might be enlarged indefinitely, but one or two instances +will suffice for my purpose. The soundness of these instances which I +quote I have established elsewhere, and the general truth to which I +refer may be sufficiently gathered from the words of the clergy +themselves. The rhetorical way in which they characterise our times is +more or less typical of the carelessness of their judgments and the +strength of their prejudices. One group of clerical writers, which +generally includes the reigning Pope, speak in the darkest terms of our +age and suggest that a sensible degeneration has followed the decrease +of the influence of the Churches. Another group, considering the +remarkable spread of idealism in our generation, the growing demand for +peace, justice, and sobriety, claim that this moral progress, which they +cannot deny, is due to some tardy recognition of the spirit of Christ: +a strange contention, seeing that our age is less and less willing to +hear the words of Christ and ascribes its sentiments to entirely +different inspiration. Hence there are a few who frankly admit that the +idealism of modern times is to them a rebuke and a mystery. One of these +more sensitive religious writers once confessed to me that the fact that +the times became better while the influence of Christianity grew less +was to him a perplexing truth. + +The really honest social student, who does not measure his age by his +prejudices, but fashions his theories according to the carefully +ascertained facts, will try to discover the causes of this phenomenon. +In those wide and varied areas where it is observed, we cannot say that +anything has taken the place of Christianity. The Press sometimes +flatters itself that it has taken the place of the pulpit, but opinions +will differ in regard to its efficacy as a moral agency. On the whole, +it is too apt to reflect the moral sentiments of the more reactionary, +who are generally the most self-assertive, and it has no moral, as +distinct from political, leadership. Then there are Ethical and kindred +societies which hold "services" of a humanitarian character, and are to +many people a substitute for the Christian Churches. Their influence is, +however, restricted to a few thousand people in the whole country, and +signs are not wanting that their usefulness will be only transitory. The +experience of any careful observer is that the mass of people who cease +to attend church desire and need no substitute whatever for +Christianity. The Rationalist literature which many of them read is, as +a rule, of a high idealist character; but here again the influence is +very restricted. No organised influence is at work to any great extent +as a successor to Christianity, yet it is indubitable that, as Christian +influence wanes, the temper of the age improves. + +This improvement must have an adequate cause, and it would be merely +another form of crude social reasoning and of sectarian prejudice to +say, in the rich language of the older anti-clericals, that breaking +"the fetters of superstition and priestcraft" led of itself to such a +result. But this sanguine rhetoric does contain or obscure a certain +truth. In plain human language, when you prevent a man from relying on +the old traditional inspirations, he may for a time be tempted to act +without inspiration. In the matter of his dealings with his fellows it +is an undeniable fact that, on the whole, he has not been thus tempted. +It is absurd to heap up all the contemporary instances of corruption in +trade and politics, looseness in domestic life, and so on, unless you +make a similar study of the vices and crimes of an earlier and more +Christian generation, and carefully compare the two. It is not a +question whether there is evil in our generation; it is a question +whether there is more or less evil than in earlier generations. I must +be pardoned for reiterating this, because, although this comparison is +essential for forming an accurate judgment on the moral effect of the +decay of Christianity, it is rarely instituted with the least pretence +of rigour. I have sufficiently studied it in earlier works (especially +_The Bible in Europe_), and will not repeat the facts. Cotter Morison, +whom I quoted on an early page, was wrong in his expectation. The change +from Christian to humanist inspiration is taking place without disorder +and with increasing advantage. + +The solution of this apparent problem is really not obscure. If the +genuine basis of human conduct needed an elaborate search--if it had to +be revealed by a Deity or laboriously established by moral theologians +or moral philosophers--no doubt the age of transition would be an age of +disorder, and a very comprehensive educational organisation would be +needed. But the true basis of human conduct is simple. There are, of +course, Rationalists who feel that some very abstruse "science of +ethics" has to be constructed as the solid foundation of conduct; but +this has as little relation to the conduct of ordinary men as the +learned pedants of the science of prosody have to ordinary speakers of +prose. Experience is the real base and guide of conduct, and it forces +itself on every man and woman, even on the child. "Do unto others as you +would that they should do unto you" is the first principle of morals; +and to inculcate it you need neither the thunders of Jupiter nor the +impressive abstractions of a science of ethics: nor do you need any +moral genius or philosophical skill to discover it. It is a rule of life +that suggests itself spontaneously. It is a natural and prompt +expression of the fact that our life is social: our acts have the +closest relation to others besides ourselves. Now and again, perhaps, a +man is tempted to assert his own personality, or seek his own +gratification, in such a way as to ignore his fellows; but he is usually +arrested before long by the simple experience that he himself suffers +from the actions of others just as they may suffer from his conduct. It +is a lesson of life which one needs no power of analysis to learn. + +And the chief reason why the abandonment of the old doctrines is +proceeding without any moral degeneration is that this experience was +really always the basis of general morality. We need not question--it +would be absurd to question--that refined natures have received moral +aid from their belief in the presence of God, or in a desire to please +God by accepting the law of virtue as a declaration of his will; though +we must be equally candid in admitting that men and women of this nature +have not been observed to deteriorate when they sacrifice their +religious beliefs, as thousands of them have done. On the other hand, we +will hardly question that numbers of people of coarser nature have been +deterred from evil-doing by dread of supernatural punishment. It is, +however, notorious in the moral history of Europe that these religious +beliefs have been consistent with a vast amount of transgression of the +decalogue: more than we witness in any civilised country in our own +time. How, then, are we to discover what were the real springs of +conduct in the mass of ordinarily decent people? It seems to me that the +only accurate method is to avoid theories and consider people in the +flesh. Do our Christian friends--did we ourselves in Christian +days--refrain from lying, dishonesty, injustice, cruelty, and injury, +solely or mainly because God forbids them or will punish them? I have +not met the man, except in the imaginative pages of religious +controversy, who confessed that he would stoop freely to these things if +there were no Christian prohibition. The mainspring of ordinary decent +conduct in any educated community has always been a perception of its +human and social value. + +The only line of the decalogue about which there is likely to be any +dispute in this regard is that putting restraint on sexual relations. I +have not to consider here a subject so remote from my immediate +interest, and will observe only that any act which hurts either an +individual or the social interest will as plainly come under a +humanitarian law as the practice of lying: acts which inflict no injury +and have been forbidden only on mystic grounds are not likely to remain +on the moral code of the future. But I am concerned here with a definite +issue, and need discuss general morality only in so far as that issue is +affected. + +Here, at least, the way of the humanitarian is plain. Sermons on the +brotherhood of men under the fatherhood of God have been totally +ineffective to prevent war and abolish militarism. There is something +incongruous in the introduction into a modern peace-meeting of some +clerical speaker who talks unctuously about the great promise and +precept of Christianity. The meeting itself, being held nineteen +centuries after the promise was made, is a sufficient indication of its +futility. No progress was made or seriously attempted in the work of +peace until a genuine human passion was substituted for that empty +phraseology. The brotherhood of men was, in the Christian sense of that +phrase, too abstruse and precarious a conclusion to be of use in such a +struggle. The plain fact is that it was of no use, and is of no use +to-day. There is, indeed, reason to think that we should make more +progress if we entirely discarded figures of speech like "the +brotherhood of men." The fact that we are all children of God, or +children of Eve, or children of some Tertiary anthropoid, does not very +obviously impose on us the duty not to take up arms in an international +quarrel. + +The ultimate basis of morality is, as Schopenhauer said, sympathy, +though in an advanced social order this sentiment approves itself to +the intellect, and its requirements may be precisely formulated by +reason. One is not sure whether there will not be more morality in the +world when the word "morality," with all its mystic entanglements, is +discarded, and we speak plainly of social law. Violence, the infliction +of pain and injustice, is one of the most obvious infractions of social +law, quite apart from any religious commandments. Its social evil is so +obvious that the community has, at an early date in its development, +elaborated a special machinery for restraining it, and has imposed +penalties in this world, whatever it thinks about the next. There may be +questions raised, and one can understand people who are confined to a +religious environment feeling a genuine concern, about other sections of +moral law; but it would be obviously absurd to think that a humanitarian +ethic would fail here. There have been attempts in modern times to +question the validity of ethical law altogether. In so far as this +movement aims at stripping moral law of its mysticism and fearlessly +investigating its traditional content, it is admirable and will grow; +but in so far as these moral rebels would resent restraint of any kind, +and pronounce the freedom of every individual impulse, they seem to +overlook a factor of great importance--the impulse of retaliation. A +pretty state of society we should have if such a theory were generally, +or largely, carried into practice. + +But these are academic vagaries, like those of the mystic or the moral +theologian. Whatever be the future fortune of Christian legends, men are +not likely to sacrifice the peace and security of social life to such +theories of freedom any more than they are likely to expose property to +a general scramble. The instinct of sympathy is now growing deeper in +every century. Most of the great improvements of social life (in its +widest sense) during the nineteenth century, which we have inherited, +were due to that development of sympathy. It matters not whether the +reformer was Christian or non-Christian--Elizabeth Fry and Florence +Nightingale or Robert Owen and John Stuart Mill--the impulse was +sympathy with suffering fellow-humans. All the hope of improvement in +the twentieth century looks to a continued growth of that sentiment. It +becomes a veritable passion in certain natures, as long as there are +large and cruel evils to redress; and this passion of a few leading +spirits, communicating something of its fire to the colder mass, is the +great cause of progress. Surely that is the correct interpretation of +the progressive life of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries? Men +realised that to cultivate sympathy because it was enjoined by religion +was a more or less mercantile procedure: it was worth cultivating for +its own sake. + +Here we have the reply to those who, unfamiliar with any but their own +religious environment, ask what place there will be for sympathy in an +intellectual or nationalistic age. It is a very grave error to suppose +either that our age is becoming less emotional or that Rationalism has +no place for emotions. In pursuing its task during the nineteenth +century Rationalism was an intensely emotional movement. Mr G. K. +Chesterton, in his _Victorian Age in Literature_, speaks of J. S. Mill's +"hard rationalism in religion" and "hard egoism in ethics." Like very +many other statements in that lamentable book, these are inexplicably +unjust. Mill was so far from being "hard" in religion that he ended his +days in a kind of sentimental theism; he was so far from being a "hard +egoist" in ethics that he declared that he would burn in hell for ever +rather than lie at the supposed bidding of a Deity. Robert Ingersoll, +the most popular Rationalist of that age, was--I judge from his private +letters, not his ornate speeches--a man of the most tender and fine +sentiment. It is simply ludicrous to suppose that, because we do not +admit emotion to be a test of the accuracy of statements of fact (as all +religious dogmas claim to be), we do not find any room for emotion in +life. Is the whole of man's life an affirmation about reality or +criticism of such affirmation? This supposed "hardness"--I detest these +vague phrases, but one knows what is meant--of the Rationalist temper is +one of the strangest myths the clergy have invented. + +Reason not merely approves, but enjoins, the cultivation of sentiment. +When the sentiment in question is one that shows a power of transforming +life and impelling men to struggle against pain and evil, reason +applauds it as one of the most valuable forces we can cultivate. Such, +plainly, is the sentiment of sympathy. We look back to-day with horror +on the industrial and social condition of England in the earlier part of +the nineteenth century: the burdened lives and few gross pleasures of +the workers, the horrible cellar-homes of the poor, the ghastly +treatment of child-workers, the stupid and brutal herding of criminals, +the tragedies of asylums and workhouses, the fearful political +corruption and despotism, the subjection of women, the revolting +proportions of the birth-rate and death-rate. We have still much to do +to redeem our civilisation from medieval errors, but when one +contemplates the social revolution that human sympathy has brought about +in the life of England, one feels that this, and not the long-futile +teaching of Christianity, is the hope of the future. Christian preaching +of virtue has been individualistic. Even in our time the clergy hesitate +and are divided in face of social problems which plainly involve moral +principles. But the humanitarian ethic is essentially social, and this +passion of sympathy is its chief root. + +We wish, then, not to substitute any creed or organisation for +Christianity, but to sweep away these primitive or medieval speculations +about life, and let the human mind and human heart increasingly devote +themselves, directly, to human interests. In discussing the question of +peace and war, the application is obvious. We enclose or dispatch the +murderer, lest some fresh grave act of violence be perpetrated. We agree +that the violent and premature termination of a life is the most serious +transgression of social law that a man can perpetrate. Next to it we put +rape, mutilation, the destruction of a man's home or fortune; all acts, +in a word, that come nearest to it in threatening or causing the +greatest desolation. Yet we have suffered, age after age, that every few +years all these acts should be gathered into one mighty outrage and +showered upon whole populations. The time will come when men will read +with bewilderment the things that have been written about warfare in the +nineteenth, and even the twentieth, century. The men of clear judgment +and sound emotion of some coming age will see anguish rising, as vapour +does from some tropical sea, from our vast battle-fields. They will read +of Cats' Homes, and Anti-Vivisection Societies, and Homes of Rest for +Horses, and a hundred such institutions, and they will find contributors +to these institutions stirring not one finger when hundreds of thousands +of men writhe under hails of shrapnel, and crowds of homeless women and +children fly in terror before the unavoidable calamities or the +superfluous brutalities of war. They will see a generation shaken and +shuddering as the ghastly picture is daily unfolded before it, and they +will see that same generation in a few months grow dully indifferent to, +if not actively supporting, the military system which invariably brings +these horrors every few years upon the world. They will read of social +aspiration spreading through our civilisation, and statesmen regretting +that want of funds alone prevents them from remedying our social ills; +and they will read how Europe in one year wasted in butchery the +resources that might have renovated its disfigured civilisation, and the +next year complacently shouldered its military burden, its annual waste +of a thousand millions sterling, with the prospect of a costlier war +than ever. + +In face of this situation the question, What would you put in place of +Christianity? is a mere mockery. One can see some pertinence and use in +the question: How shall we induce the Christian Churches to employ their +still great resources in helping to bring on the reign of peace? But it +is not to them that we now look for redemption. It is to the +humanitarian spirit, the clearer reason, of our age. I have described +the situation in terms of emotion, because thus it spontaneously rises +before me; but it may be recorded in terms of pure reason. We maintain +in Europe a machinery for settling international quarrels which costs us +more than a thousand millions sterling annually, while we could erect at +a cost of a few thousands annually an efficient machinery for dealing +with those quarrels, and for a few millions we could add the machinery +for carrying out its decisions. We boast that our civilisation is +founded on justice; yet, of the two types of machinery for adjusting +quarrels, we retain the one that is the least possible adapted for +securing the triumph of justice and discard the one that is +pre-eminently fitted to secure it. We flatter ourselves that we rise +above the savage in enjoying security of life and property, and we +retain this system though we know that, periodically, it will invade +life and property on a scale that surpasses the experience of the savage +as much as a Dreadnought surpasses a canoe. + +It is just as easy to state our situation in terms of reason as in terms +of sentiment: it would not be easy to say in which guise it is ugliest. +Let us talk no more nonsense about needing religion to help us to get +rid of this atrocious nightmare. It drives both reason and sentiment to +the brink of insanity. Both protest against it with every particle of +their energy. Why Christianity failed to protest against it in fifteen +hundred years may or may not be obscure; but there is no obscurity +whatever about the probable effect on militarism and war of a +cultivation of reason and sympathy.[3] + +Many a reform has been actually retarded by the use of rhetoric. An +outpour of vehement language seems to release, both in the speaker and +in the assenting audience, a part of that energy which ought to issue in +action. It has been one of the grave blunders of the Churches that they +thought their function ended with the eloquent announcement that men +were brothers. We must be more practical. Now, while the imagination of +the world is filled with the horrors of war, and sympathy is ready to +fire us with a mighty energy, is one of the great opportunities of +peace. One may trust that, after this experience, the Churches will +awaken to the implications of their moral doctrine and set to work to +impress it emphatically and repeatedly, as a moral duty, on their +followers. It is, however, not impossible that, with all their +scoutmasters and chaplains and services of thanksgiving for victory, a +very large part of the clergy will find themselves so closely allied +with militarism when the war is over, so confused in their appreciation +of what it has done for us, that they will continue to mumble only +general principles and halting counsels. In any case, in the cities and +large towns of this kingdom, where are found the effective controllers +of our destiny, the majority do not any longer sit at the feet of the +clergy. Precise statistical observation has shown this. + +Let us remember that the one task before us is to inspire the _majority_ +in each civilised nation with a determination that the system shall end. +The only practical difficulty of considerable magnitude is the economic +difficulty: the disorganisation of the industrial world by suppressing +war-industries and large standing armies. It is, however, foolish to +regard this as an obstacle to disarmament, since--to put an extreme +case--it would be more profitable to a nation to maintain these men in +idleness than run the risk of another war. For disarmament itself what +is needed is that half a dozen, at least, of the great Powers shall +agree to submit _all_ quarrels to arbitration, and reduce their armies +to the proportions of an international police, at the service of the +international tribunal and for use (under its permit) against lower +peoples who turn aggressive. No one doubts that this can be done when +the Powers agree to do it. But for one reason or other, which I need not +discuss, the Governments will probably not do this until a majority of +the electorate indicate a resolute demand for it. The immediate task is +to secure this majority by education; and the work of education will be +best conducted by vast non-sectarian peace-organisations. The mixture of +futile Christian phraseology and genuine humanitarian interests in some +of these movements has been hitherto a grave disadvantage. The movement +has been compelled to split into sectarian branches, and has +proportionately lost efficacy. If the clergy insist on winning prestige +for themselves, or respect and recognition for their doctrines, by +acting in these bodies, they are again hampering the work of reform. A +great national agitation, linked with similar agitations in other lands, +avoiding Christian formulae as well as anti-Christian reproaches, will +alone secure the object. + +I confess--with ardent hope that I may be wrong--that I expect no +immediate realisation of the reform. It may take years, even after the +grim lesson that militarism has given us, to inspire the majority of our +people with an unsleeping and irresistible demand, and the work will +grow more arduous as the memory of the hardships of the war fades. On +the day on which I write this I have listened to the conversation, in a +train, of a wealthy, refined, and cultivated Churchwoman. "I said to my +son when he set out," she observed, with a laugh, to her neighbour, +"that it was far better for him to get shot than to die of diphtheria or +something at home." If that sentiment, that obtuseness to the massive +horrors of war even when a son was involved, is widespread, the outlook +is dark. One fears that it is not very promising. + +The lady I quote would read these pages, if she could constrain herself +to do so, with a genuine shudder. Abandon Christianity! She would +volubly reel off the eloquent forecasts of the doom of society which she +has heard from a hundred pulpits. Meantime she is one of the gravest +obstacles (as a type of her class) to the removal from society of one of +its most crushing burdens and most criminal usages. To me her class +illustrates the limitations of Christianity, and it confirms me in the +belief that we shall make more rapid progress without it. She was a lady +of keen sympathies and of great activity for others: the kind of woman +who, as she would put it, practised her Christianity. Yet in face of +this mighty disorder she showed at once the failure of Christianity and +the reason of it. Her genuine human sympathy was directed by an ancient +and outworn code of duties. Where Christianity had delivered no clear +message, the expanding of her sympathy was barred. War was part of the +established order of things. She could even cheat her maternal sentiment +with thin fallacies, because they reconciled her to what the Church had +not condemned. She had never seen the vision of peace, never grasped the +comparatively easy alternative to war. + +This, in general terms, is what one means by the expectation that a +surrender of Christian doctrines will certainly not check the growth of +sympathy, and is more likely to promote it. It will direct itself +spontaneously to departments of suffering to which the Church had not +directed it. But we should be foolish to rely on this free growth and +spontaneous application of sympathy. It must be cultivated: our +generation must be educated to a sense of its value. As far as the child +is concerned, the need is plain. Children do not merely have veins of +cruelty; they have, as comparative psychology knows, the blood and +impulses of primitive man. The general impulse of a healthy boy is to +exact an eye for an eye: the impulse which it is the supreme care of a +modern State to curb in its citizens. To educate such children in +military history, whether of ancient Jews or medieval Englishmen or +modern Germans, is, as William II knows, the best means of maintaining +war. As to the New Testament, its language is not addressed to children, +its sentiments are often so obviously impracticable that it defeats the +end of education, and its precepts and counsels are so emphatically +based on a disputable reward in heaven that their ethic savours of a +risky commercial speculation. We must abandon "Bible lessons," and teach +children to be human. + +But for the work of education to end when the child leaves the school is +one of the crudities of our elementary civilisation. The human material +is just becoming fit for the efforts of the educator when the child +leaves school, yet from that moment we leave it to the casual and +largely pernicious influences of its environment. Some day, perhaps, our +education department will be more seriously concerned about the youth +and the adult than about impressing a few facts of history and geography +on the memory of the child: even if it did no more than organise and +direct the innumerable foundations and voluntary organisations which +actually exist, and bring them into living and practical contact with +our splendid museums and libraries and art-collections, a vast amount +could be done in the education of the adult. Meantime a persistent, +comprehensive, intensely earnest propaganda of peace is needed. Since I +wrote a little work on those lines in 1899 I have had fifteen years' +experience of preaching the gospel of peace, and know well how +convincing are its arguments and how little it has to overcome except +inertia. We need only to help the imagination of the mass of people; to +put clearly before them the comparative easiness and the incalculable +value of the change. Christianity has not tried and failed; it has not +even tried. It has wasted its resources in generalities which have +proved wholly futile. We must speak as men to men; and men will be more +open to conviction when we plead that, not the supposed commands of a +Galilean preacher of nineteen hundred years ago, but their own highest +and most sacred instincts, bid them lay down their arms and inaugurate +the age of international peace. + +[Footnote 1: _The Service of Man_ (_6d._ edition), p. 16.] + +[Footnote 2: As I write, the Press describes Canon Green of Burnley as +saying that "the war is a divine judgment on the world--England for the +last ten years has been God-forgetting, drunken, immoral."] + +[Footnote 3: Let me again guard myself against misrepresentation. Were I +of military age, I should to-day be in the trenches. The men who, as +long as the military system is retained, expose their lives in our +defence have my entire respect and gratitude. It is the system I +impugn.] + + +Printed by Watts & Co., Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, E.C. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR AND THE CHURCHES*** + + +******* This file should be named 18650.txt or 18650.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/5/18650 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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