January 3rd.-War the Burden of

the World.

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SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES.-Few in Bible days conceived of war as sin. It was generally regarded as an instrument of the divine wrath upon offending nations. Jewish war song calls the Lord "a man of war" (Exodus 15:3); in Chronicles it is recorded that there "fell many slain, because the war was of God" (I Chron. 5: 22); the Psalmist more than once says of God: "He teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight" (Psalms 18: 34; 144: 1). But this by no means makes war right. The Bible tells of war, but also shows its evils. Wars are born of lusts and coveteousness (James 4:1, 2). A frequent Bible phrase calls the sword "a devourer." On the other hand, the kingdom of God on earth is always conceived of as a reign of peace (Micah 4: 3). David was not allowed to build the temple because he was man of war (1 Chron. 28:3). There is no question of the Bible's condemnation of war, a condemnation all the more noteworthy because many of its writers, themselves, seem unaware of the condemnation. It is not they who condemn, but the Eternal Right which speaks through them.

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A World Burden

MILITARISM.-Militarism may be defined as reliance upon and exaltation of armed force. Militarism is not war; it is something worse; it is the spirit which leads to war. War is a feared result; militarism is a more fearful cause. Yet many people who deplore and condemn war, glorify militarism. European writers especially have lauded militarism. Cramb tells us that 700 books on military subjects appear in Germany every year. As one result, a million of homes in Belgium alone are well nigh obliterated. Progress, when militarism leads, means progress in savagery; invention means skill in murder. It is time that militarism be unmasked. People call this war a lapse into barbarism. The fact is that Europe was morally the same in 1913 as

in 1914. The war is a revelation of already existing barbarism. We are beginning to see what war is and what militarism is. This war with all its horrors and all its toll of woe may be infinitely worth while, if it teaches us to do away with militarism. WAR'S HUMAN COST.-The table of Wars and Their Cost on the following page is taken from the Report of the Massachusetts Commission on the Cost of Living, made in 1910:

Thus 5,098,097 lives were lost as the direct result of nineteen wars, an average of 268,000 lives to a war. And wars are growing more costly in life. The RussoJapanese war, a comparatively short one, cost 555,900 lives-more than twice the average loss by war through the century. The recent Balkan wars, lasting practically but a few months, are said to have cost more than 300,000 lives. The savagery of civilization is progressing. The present war will undoubtedly be the most costly in life ever fought. Who shall count the indirect human cost? How many men have carried through life a living death as the result of wars? How many have been crippled, disabled, incapacitated? How many widows, how many orphans, has war created! How many homes have been destroyed; how many families blasted! Let those count them for their beads who worship militarism and glorify it.

THE ECONOMIC COST OF WAR.-The following table shows that these nineteen wars cost $23.323,546,240, an average of over $1,000,000,000 to a war. Here, too, we are progressing in our madness. War is growing more expensive. Professor Charles Richet estimates the cost of a general European war at $50,000,000 per day, $1,500,000,000 per month, $18,000,000,000 per year. It now costs per month more than the average cost of wars in the last century per year.

But this is only the cost of war. Militarism is more expensive. The total peace cost of the armies and navies of the ten leading military nations of the earth is $1,983,571,000 per year. That is, in times of peace they spend each year nearly the

14.080.321,240

$23,323,546,240

5.098.097 16,822,200

average cost of two wars. This is aside from what they pay as interest on enormous national debts, mainly incurred to enable them to maintain these armies and navies. The world's total national debt is about $40,000,000,000. Its annual interest charge is over $1,000,000,000. A single Dreadnought costs $10,000,000 to build and needs another $1,000,000 per year to maintain it. Yet the present war seems to be proving Dreadnoughts nearly useless. Usher, in his "Pan-Germanism,” says that to fire a twelve-inch rifle costs about $1,000; yet gun crews are usually instructed to see how many times they can fire it in so many minutes.

THE MORAL COST OF WAR.-Said Erasmus centuries ago: "War does more harm

to the morals of men than even to their property and persons." Murder, rapine, theft, violence, these are ordinary concomitants of war. War, if not born of hate, engenders hate. The hate created by the Franco-Prussian war has lasted fortyseven years, only to be replaced, it is feared, by a new hate. Who does not see the hate this war is developing between Germany and England? War brings out the cruel, the vicious, the evil in men. It may at times call out heroic virtues, but these could be developed in other ways. It creates, encourages and lauds falsehood and deceit and teaches that they are right. Under the military spirit people sneer at virtue and know no right but might. The deepest moral wrong of war-and this is true of militarism perhaps more even than