The Lancaster news. (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, November 13, 1914, Page 2, Image 2
9
DOES GOD_
Sermon Preached by Rev.
of the First Baptist Ch
ing from I. <
Someone has suggested that. In
these days of conflict and strife, the
uppermost question in the minds of
thiukinr men and women is the re
llglous one. Ill other words, we
are asking ourselves: lias I'lirislianity
caused this tearful war? Is
this the fruit of centuries of the
teaching of Jesus? Is this terrible
conflict sent as a punishment Toi
sins 1 >ng indulged iu? And soiue of
us, with hushed breath, have conic
back to the really fundamental
question: "Does God Cause War?
And it 'Is to a discussion of that
question that 1 desire to direct your
attention this morning. Hut let ine
say at the outset that I make no
claim to answering it fully. I am
not here to say. even with the light
of God's word, what lie can or cannot
do. I am only trying to lead
you idoug some paths which 1 think,
in the presence of this catastrophe,
might lie helpful to \nur thinking
and your faith.
As we start out, however, t m iv
bo well to put tills quest ion squarely
before us. Hoes God cause war?
To the question thus asked. w<
would liiako an emphatic deni >1.
II* e not he either >>f i.il war.;, lot
history proves tlr t tin i.- have been
wars in whi< h lie had no part. Let
us look at it in another way: Ai
no wars to he traced to Him? Perhaps
we will not be so quick to answer
this question, for a little reflection
will show what seems to have
been the hand of the Almighty in
some of the wars wli'eh wore waged
upon the earth. Then take it this
way: Are some wars caused by
Clod? We will hesitate here, because
we have shut up our conception
of God. or rather because, perhaps.
it is so narrow and little that
we do not want to appear to dishonor
llim by ascribing war to Hint.
So, we would answer this question
somewhat agnostically: "We do
not know."
Perhaps it will surprise you when
I quote as my text the words which i
are to be found in the first part of
the 22nd verse of the 5th chapter
of First Chronicles. They read: 1
"For there fell many slain, because
the war was of God." At once the
question is raised: "Is that text
true? Did the writer mean what
1 > was saying?" Now, in order t<>
clear the ground, let us look for a
few moments at the text. The statement
is nerfertlv nlnln nnJ ti,...... '
r.j difficulty in understanding it. 1>
simply states that lnuny wen- killed
because the war was of tiod. Now,
I hardly think that it can he charged
that the writer del borately falsified.
For the reason given for so
many slain could just as easily have
been some other. At least, as far
as we can see, the writer stated exactly
what he believed to be true.
He thought or believed that Clod had
brought on the war. and that the
number of slain was traceable to
this fact.
Let us try to get behind the text
to the state of mind of the writer.
How could he. if he had such exalted
ideas about God. have attributed
the war to Him? There are
two or three answers to this. First
of all the religion of the common
people of Israel never rose as h'gli
as did the religion of the prophets
and other leaders. They thought
?f God, Jehovah, as a trihal deity,
only much stronger and better than
the gods of the trills around about
They, therefore, when the war went
in their favor, had no compunction
in ascribing it to Jehovah, and when
it went against them they thought
of God, as having brought disaster
upon them.
But, to take a higher view of the
matter we must look to the conception
of God as it war, held by the
prophets and the religious people of
the time. If there is one fact thai
stares the reader of the Old Testament
in the face, it Is that the Hebrews
had the habit of tracing all |
things back to God. Fie was the'
ground and the reason of all things,
moral evil excepted. Earthquakes,
floods, pestilence, famine, all of the
Joys and the vicissitudes of life were
traced to Him. This was in keeping
also, with their habit of describing
God in the language of men. He
saw, He laughed. He got angry, He
repented. It must be Insisted, how.
ever, that along side of this, incongrounds
and paradoxical ns it might
seem, went a high conception of
God that lifted Him above the
heavens and made H!.m ruler over
all; that robed H'm in light and
hr* 1 ir?on/1 oir/.l*?/l 41?
......., a.... vmiou mo inrune wim
righteousness .
Do you wonder, then, that in keep
in* with this fundamental way of
thinking, the Hebrews had no hesl
CAUSE WAR?
J. H. Thayer, Th. D., Pastor
urch, Last Sunday MornDhron.
5:22.
tation in doclarlng, "For God caused
this war?" They looked past the
horror, tho suffering, the evil, and
saw only the ultimate end of things.
Still another reason, perhaps, why
the ancient people so unhesitatingly
assert that God caused war. lay in
(hf fact that their clea of the future
life was ditu. Not that their great
men ?iid not have a glimpse at the
iruui mil inn? uie \asi uouy 01 men
thought of this Hie as TT1H life, anil
??t" the life to come but as a mere shadow.
In other words, if Hod was going
to bless a man at all he would
do it in this life. You ran easily see,
therefore, how the mind, particularly
when war had brought some
great temporal gain to the nation
vould assert that the war was
caused by Hod.
Hut let us go a little further. It
might be objected that we are
here dealing with the Old
To lament. Now tt must be
admitted that the Old Testaji
<m has a gre: t deal to say about
war. You never get very far away
from its rumble and Its roar. It i*
ever before you. Hut it would be tin\
!-? to discard I he book merely for
that. Meoause. if you look at English
history, American history, indced
the history of any nation which
has distinguslicd itself in tlie world
you will lind a great deal about war
So we ought to accept it just as it is
written, and ask ourselves what we
can learn from it.
Hut more than that is true. Look
at tin* New Testament. It is true
j that in tlie Second Covenatnt, in the
tlospel, \er\ little is said about war.
Hut we lind this to be true, John the
Haptist was approached by soldiers
on service, those in actual warfare
way is to ?ee in it the battle of the
Spirit of Ood against the evil in the
world.
And none of us will deny that Ood
Is a Ood of battle in this Benge. In
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ptTiiaps, ana asked by them what
I they should do. He tells them, but lie
does not make the occasion one to
deliver a homily against war. Jesus
himself, without commenting on the
question, draws a lesson from the
kings who went against each other
and how they would sit down and
hrst count the cost, while in that
description of the destruction of the
lloly City, lie pictures the gathering
of the Roman hosts, hut never seems
to turn aside to condemn it. In fact
he prophesied that it would happen,
and one cannot resist the inference
that it was coining with all of its
terror because of the way the people
had acted toward him.
Hut a futher examination of the
New Testament will bring out other
far'-.. The Apostle !'; ul was familiar
witli tiie soldier and his uccountreinent
lie spoke of the Chris! an
soldier, of his warfare and the light
of faith. And when you look
further into the matter, you lind that
tlie New Testament itself ends in a
perfect whirlwind of war. as it is
pictured in beautiful apocolypCc
form in the Revelation.
So. in the face of all this, I take
it. that one of the most pertinent
questions which we can ask i?: j
"Does hud Coiuo aF..fi" ? ? -> ? * '
w?. ..aw v* ui . /vim as i
intimated at the outset, I am not going
to try to settle the question, but
rather to point out some lines of
approach.
In the first place, therefore, I suppose
that we will all agree that the
Bible represents God as a God of
conflict. Even Jesus said: "I came i
not to bring peace but a sword M
Taken in a broad way, the Old
Testament, ever since the exclusion
of man from the Garden, represents
God in <onflict with the evil forces of
the world. There is no intimation
here that God tries to shun the battle.
He !s represented as hating
evil, and as desiring to destroy It.
And our hearts do not for one instant
deny this picture. We cannot
think of God as peacefully regarding
the giant evils of the day
For instance, we all admit now that. |
while there was no command in the
New Testamen against human slav_
I ery, that God was against it. The
principles of the Master were !n
ceaseless conflict with the spirit of
the world, until at last human slavery
was doomed. And the same
might be said of all of the gaint
moral evils of the day. Our papers
but a few days back recorded the
triumph of the forces of temperance
over the forces of Intemperance.
That is one way to view it. Another
THE LANCASTER NEW
I fact the very thing that makes us
shrink from ascribing to Him human
warfare, makes us ussort witli
i the same breath that He is a holy
God, and that He cannot look with
it lie least allowance on sin, that
He is in a great conflict against it,
and that He will one day overthrow
. It.
Hut, when we come to look at the
other side, wo reach a difficulty.
And we might as well admit it at
the outset. Although God is the
author of what we might call the
moral warfare between the world
and Himself, can Ho be said to be
the author of that tiling which wo
call physical war? Now in order
that we might fully appreciate the
i difficulty, let us remember that the
moral acts of a man find expression
in his physical state. This is what
I mean. If we were perfect spiritual
beings, then all of our acts,
i whether moral or immoral, would
be reflected in the spir'tual state.
Murder would be a spiritual state,
and a thousand and one things
which find their expression in our
physical natures. Therefore, does
it not seem perfectly rational that
the conflict between right and
wrong should find some expression
in the physical man. Men who are
tighter each other mentally find it
hard to keep from fighting each
other physically: men who are ar_
Iravid against each other in a groat
moral battle, resist with ditllculty
the temptation to array each other
in physical combat. The one springs
out of the other.
Now, to use a concrete example
of what 1 mean, we will turn to a
page in our own history and one
which is familiar to every child. I
mean the story of American Revolution.
It is not to he denied that
the thoughts and tlie impulses of
liberty and democracy are to be
traced to the teaching of Jesus. Any
student will tell you that the Bible,
and that the words of Christ, are
the very words from which sprang
the longing for liberty and right in
the human breast, and that this
lunging lias marked its pathway j
along human history. One of its
crises came in our American Revo-1
lution. Now, 1 am not justifying all
that was done In that war. 1 do not
mitigate a hit of its cruelty, and its
evil. But I want you to look beneath
the surface at the reason for
it. Is it too much to say. reverently,
humbly, that flod planted the seed
in the human heart, which finally
bore fruit in that conflict which set
i lie A inert an people free? If you
ask me: "Could (!od not have done
it some other way?" I answer"1
tin not know." If you ask ine: :
"Can you reconcile tills with other'
filings which we know about (!oi?"
I say: "I cannot do it." But, the
fact is ever before us, that from
God's inspired word came the seed
which finally resulted in the freeing
of the American states.
And now, to come nearer to our
own time. Has God caused this
present war? Let us look at two
things. First of all, at least some
of the warring nations are n it for ,
the purpose of keeping faith with |
each other. I do not. of course, mean |
that this is the only reason. But (
this is one reason, ft is the con.
flict between tK^se who broke faith j
and those who *?pt it. And this i
keeping of faith <s a teaching of
God's word. "He that sweatb to
his own hurt, and changeth not."!
says the Psalmist. ft la the concrete
struggle for a moral thing.
Then look at the other side of it.
France, as far as we can see, was|
hopelessly plunged into infidelity;
Germany into free thought, England
into commercialism, Russia into
drunkenness, and Belgium into
atrocities in,Africa. In other words,
these people were dr fting away,
and were forgetting the God of their
fathers. Does God ever punish in
this world, or does He always wait
until the other shore is reached?
The loss of life is appalling, the
slaughter is terrific, but maybe, out
; EVER HAVE IT? !
???
If You Have, the Statement of This
Imncaster Citizen Will Interest
Yon.
Ever have a "low-down" pain In
the back?
In the "small," right over the
hips?
That's the home oflbaekache.
If it's caused by wlak kidneys,
IT riAon'a Vlilnewi
Lancaster people t >stlfy to their
worth. Read a case >f it:
Mrs. H. M. Park i, Market 8t.,
Lancaster, says: "I ached all over
and my back was a constant pain.
When I sat down I go , bo stiff across
my back I could hai lly get up. I
couldn't do any etc aping. I was
hardly able to do my louse work. I
1 finally got a box of >oan's Kidney
Pills at the Standard Drug Co., and
began taking them. YThey brought
me lasting relief from\the backache
and fixed my kldneys\up In good
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Price 60c, at all dealers. Don't
simply ask for a kidney remedy?
get Doan's Kidney Pills?the same
j that Mrs. Parks had. Foster-Milhurn
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S, NOVEMBER IS, 1914.
Y???????
America's Gi
Gn
The nio
endorsei
Tested i
1 Will Kr<
VJOOQ to the I
other d1
duces
? Or lmy per
soil, res
II 4!bs. or
nay ib?. bro
Kinds of
becomo
kJCCU per lb. a
next yen
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r orage inK. w
parcel p
Silage ZrT
money i
money i
E 1
,
LAUGH AT
I
of it all, will come the nations of '
Europe, chastened by fire.
Hut 1 would not have you forget
one thing. We look this question
in the face, and answer it in the j
light of passion. We cannot see
rightly. Only, when wo come to J
look back upon it, will we be able
to realize just how much God had j
to do with it. Even now, some are j
saying: "It is the last great war,
it is the birth pang of peace.'' Some |
are even now, with prophet's vision !
secure peace, seeing that by the'
secure peace, seeing that by by the
power of war He s going to bring |
peace. Perhaps, even now, in the
hot lire of war and around the!
bloody carnage, the nations are
beating the swords into plow sheares
their implements of war into prunning
knives.
(P. S.?It is well, perhaps, to
remember that no human mind can
grasp the Infinite, that the real |
question lying beneatth and behind
all such discussion *.s the soveroitmtr i
" ' I
of (Jod, and how He tan ahhor evil
in the world.) J. H. T.
Why People Slionhl 1 ?\\ n anil Head
Hooks.
(By George W. Elkins, Financier
and Art Connoisseur.)
What 1 have to say about books
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I think most men acquire the fullness
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point where men who desire to
make a success adopt the reading of
scientific or technical books.
When 1 attended a conference or
a business meeting. 1 understood the
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COLUMBIA, H. Q.
eatest Grass Comes F
#w Sudan Cira
st wonderful grass of the age Introdu
1 highly by the U. S. Agricultural Depi
severely by the farmers in all Darts oi
ow anywhere sorghum does from the
'aciflc. Makes more and better hay tl
lant known. Under ordinary conditio
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acre the same sLtson. Adapted to all
lsting drought an\ standing rain. TaV
seed to sow an tu^> In drills and 16 tc
idcast. Quality of \ay equals timothy
livestock eat it bet^br than alfalfa. 1
a pest. Last spring t^< seed sold for ?
ml those who grew it tV>n expect to pin
r. It is now selling foV$l per 11). and
is the supply is lim'tod ami the demand
e will send p re Sudan C^hss seed pre
ost for $1 pt>r lb. in lots lbs. an
than one lb. considered. n^rger 1
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DROUGHT?SMIL!
New Canch
The Fr4it And <
Has Just i
Now let GUA the Cand;
these delicacies.\ As vou ]
quantities and them f
Also fresh Hom^Made (
Cream in the city deliverer
Phone
Yours ti
GUS BE
The Cand;
subject under discussion fully be-,!""
cause 1 had adopted a careful read-,
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I also found the readlug of biog- !
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Cornelius Vanderbllt, Alexander
Hamilton. Samuel Colt, Kfi Whitney,
Peter Cartwright, Daniel Drew and
others. In this way one acquires an
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Books o freference are invaluable,
and one must have them close at
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WAR 1
WAN
Mr. J.W.Will
stables Monday ar
16th and 17tlrt(
the army. They i
5 feet three inches
pounds or more ai
to twelve years olc
to $140.
Gregory-Ht
I I.AMAST
'rom Africa,
is***
cod and
irtment.
f Texas.
Atlantic m m 1
lian any 1VI<1.KC
ns prof
choice w m
sorts of Money
LOS 2 to
' 24 n,s \\T\
and all V HCil
A'ill not
ntraoro Other
will go
Incrcas- /-<
paid by l^fOpS
d under
ots by Fail
ind save * c*ia
to more
r mi
E AT RAIN
y Kitchen
Celery Season
3pened
y Man, serve you with
know he buys in large
or LESS.
Dandies and the Purest
1 anywhere in town.
95.
I'uly,
:leos
Man.
?? -j kCOTTON
Yes, the price*of cotton
is low and we inay plead
hard times, />ut times
would be harier should
your house be furned without
insurance.# Can you af- 1
ford to take ifie risk when
a few dollars will secure a '
policy in ?he Farmers'
Mutual ? S?e
R. THOS. BEATY,
Agent, I.Alienator, 8. C.
Or write
D. E. BONEY,
Manager, Yorkville, H. C.
ttULES
[TED
sap will be in our
id Tuesday, Nov.
> buy Mules for
must be 5 feet to
^and weigh 1000
ra^sound. Seven
I. Will pay $100
i Restock
100 COMPANY
KK, 8. C.
A