NOT till Christ reigns. There may be a peace of exhaustion, a sullen peace, but real, actual peace will not come to stay till the King of Kings reigns. The utter failure of the peace propaganda under the Hague Convention shows that peace will never come permanently till the basis of it is God’s.
This peace propaganda has an endowment of £2,000,000; a palace costing several millions; a library on international peace of 75,000 volumes; stained glass windows from England; gates from Germany; marble interior from Italy; silk tapestries from Japan; porcelain from China; marble statuary from the United States of America; carpets from Turkey; minor gifts from small states. Yet what is it all worth?
Five of the monarchs and presidents, whose pictures hang on the walls, have been assassinated since the palace was built. Since the present war began, it is reported that three visitors were being shown over the deserted building by the caretaker, and they fell to blows in the very place dedicated to peace. They were German, French, and one other nationality. They quarreled so violently that actual fighting took place between them.
Think of it! 75,000 volumes on international peace in the library, and Belgium devastated, Louvain in ruins, Northern France a smoking ruin, Poland overrun, millions of men engaged in slaughtering each other.
The question arises on many lips, Why does God allow the war? Is Christianity a failure?
The answer is obvious. There are 75,000 volumes on international peace in the library. They can all be done without. Let them be gathered into a mighty pile and burned.
And what then? Put in their place a Bible.
Let the individuals, who make up the nations, govern their lives by it, and what would be the result? Peace, blessed peace, would come like a gentle dove to the anguished heart of the world, and still its passions and its fears. There would be no need for navies and armies, no need of frontiers to be fortressed; no need of mighty cannon and armored Zeppelins; no need of strikes; there would be no poverty, no injustice. Then men would beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation would not lift up sword against nation, neither would they learn war any more (see Isa. 2:44And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:4)).
The present war is not the result of Bible teaching, but diametrically opposed to it.
Christianity has not failed, but the lack of Christianity has brought about the present state of things, and men are slow to perceive it.
Why does God allow this war?
Why does God allow a child to burn its finger when it thrusts it into the fire? To teach it to avoid fire in the future. To avoid a recurrence of the pain. To avoid a greater catastrophe. The child knows no better, but yet it has to learn its lesson.
Why does God allow this war?
Why does God allow a man who drinks prussic acid to be poisoned? The man is aware of what he is doing. No one thinks of blaming God in this matter. The nature of prussic acid is well known. The man is blamed for his folly, and he rightly deserves the consequences of his act, Why does God allow this war?
Why does God allow tares to grow instead of wheat, when the farmer deliberately sows tares? No one is so foolish as.to ask such a puerile question.
Why does God allow this war? We answer, the nations have been sowing the wind, and they are reaping the whirlwind. The lesson is a stiff one. But it is needed, and by it God is chastening and warning the nations, lest a more dread thing happens to them.
France has sown the wind of infidelity, and she is reaping the whirlwind.
Germany, Protestant only in name, has undermined the faith of the nation by the teaching of Higher Criticism. Her professors in the universities, her pastors in the churches, have sown the wind, and they are reaping the whirlwind. They are more responsible than Krupp for this terrible war.
Heine, an outspoken German Jew, prophesied over forty years ago the very happenings of today, even to the very details of the destroying of cathedrals. He saw clearly that the carrying out of Bible principles would save the nation, and the lack of them would destroy it.
Though pity goes out to poor, stricken Belgium, and admiration for her gallant but unavailing defense against overwhelming odds, yet was it for nothing that the Congo blacks moaned in their agony in the shades of their tropical forests when avaricious Belgians mutilated them by the hundred for not bringing in enough rubber? Surely God saw, and Belgium is being spoken to by her sorrows. She sowed the wind; she has, indeed, reaped the whirlwind.
Russia has cruelly persecuted the Jews for long. Language fails to express the horrors God’s ancient people have gone through at the hands of “holy Russia!” Does the Jew groan and sigh in vain? Surely the God of Sabaoth has heard. Russia has sown the wind. Behold the whirlwind.
Look at Turkey and the Armenians. The same story is told.
Why does God allow the war? Look at Britain.
Is she a Christian nation? Are not the vast majority of its people non-church-goers? And many who do go to church are mere nominal professors. Is pleasure not pursued after by the multitude, with no thought of God? Is the land not in reality pagan?
A more terrible awakening than what is happening in the present is before us. Are the nations hearing? Alas! no. Is Britain humbled? No!
The vast majority of those who ask the question, Why does God allow the war? are men and women, who emphatically don’t want God in peace time. When the sun shines, when business prospers, when health is theirs, God would be an intrusion. How unutterably mean to whine out, Why does God allow the war? when their past conduct has been each, They have done without God hitherto, and now they are learning how terrible it is to do without Him in times of stress. Above all, how terrible it will be to do without Him in—ETERNITY.
But on the strength of that verse we do expect that individuals will hear; may many take heed to these things.
Let the individual take heed to what is happening, and learn therefrom its lesson.
How solemn to see enacted on the Continent of Europe, on this colossal scale, the truth of Holy Writ: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Gal. 6:7,87Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:7‑8)).
Whether it be the nations, the unconverted individual, or the Christian, this principle holds good. Without this restraining principle at work, things would be so awful as to beggar description. Man would destroy himself.
God is speaking. He has spoken quietly, then louder and still louder, and men are still deaf. He will speak yet louder, and make them hear.
But before He speaks His loudest the Lord shall come, and translate His Church to glory. What an encouragement for the Christian to read, “Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from [out of] the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Rev. 3:1010Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10)).
But one thing is certain: There can be no true lasting peace either in an individual’s life, a nation’s, or the world’s, unless Christ comes to rule.
Does He rule in your life? Is He your Saviour and Lord?
Or, if a Christian, does He really govern your life? One book is sufficient, and, if practiced, will prove that Christianity is not a failure, but triumphant, and that God does not encourage war, but is the God of peace. I know Christians who really practice Christianity, and their lives are veritable libraries of Christian apologetics.
Peace is coming! Hallelujah! But not till the world has been chastened for its sins, not till judgments unparalleled shall have swept over the guilty nations, not till Revelations 4:1 to 20:4 has been fulfilled; and then Christ will come—peace will come—rest will come—joy will come.
Then no such foolish questions as, “Why does God allow the war?” would escape our lips.
But see to it, dear unsaved reader. Learn the lesson to be learned from all that is happening. Come to the conclusion that God must not be left out of your life. You can do without God in health. Can you do without Him in death? You can do without Him in time. Can you do without Him in—ETERNITY? Make your choice, but oh, let it be wise.
Bring God into your life. Repent of your sins, trust the Saviour of God’s providing. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”