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THE writer's life has been spent under the influence and teaching of the "Churches of Christ." The antagonism between war and the principles of the Prince of Peace - the belief that "God is forgotten in war, and every principle of Christianity is trampled underfoot" - were early and indelibly impressed on both mind and heart. The discipline and dismissal of members who joined the "forces" by Churches of Christ, told of their uncompromising attitude towards war. The statements of representative Brethren were never called in question.
A. CAMPBELL: "he precepts of Christianity positively inhibit war ... no wonder, then, that for two or three centuries after Christ all Christians refused to bear arms."
DAVID KING: "I have visited many Churches, conversed with Brethren, and received letters from many others, and their testimony is one ... that the only weapons which a Christian can use without offence to the Lord, are those which are not carnal ...
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Being followers of the Prince of Peace, we will not, because we dare not, deal out death and destruction - the work of slaughter cannot be ours ... And they would implore every one upon whom the name of the Lord has been called, as they value the favour of the Lord and eternal life, to stand with those who, in the past age and now, have proclaimed. 'We are Christians and cannot fight.' I am convinced that I express the mind of the brethren in this country. If it were called for, I would undertake to obtain a declaration from the Churches of the United Kingdom." British Millenial Harbinger, Vol. 15 p.28.
It is said now, that if these Brethren had been living today they would have changed their attitude to war, and other questions, too. The point is, "Were they right then?" Did they correctly interpret the mind of the Lord? If so, to what would they have changed? The following resolution passed by the Annual Meeting of 1900, during the Transvaal War, is clear and emphatic:
"As loyal subjects of the Prince of Peace, we, delegates and members of Churches of Christ in Great Britain and Ireland, in Annual Meeting assembled in Liverpool, feel it to be our duty to record our solemn protest against the military spirit now so prevalent in British Society generally, and to express our deep grief and regret that this spirit so largely permeates many sections of the Churches professing to be Christian, and which spirit we believe to be out of harmony
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with and antagonistic to the teachings of our Lord." Year Book, 1900, Bible Advocate, Aug. 17, 1900.
Certain it is that the teachings of our Lord do not change, however much His professed followers may.
Still more recently, on the very outbreak of the great World War, the following resolution was passed:
"The Annual Conference of Churches of Christ assembled in Wigan thanks His Majesty's Government for their determined efforts to maintain the peace of Europe. Seeing that these efforts have unfortunately proved unavailing, we would now respectfully call upon the Government to maintain absolute neutrality in this deplorable war, as being in the highest and best interests of our national life." Year Book, 1914, (p. 164).
What need of further testimony as to the attitude of the "Churches of Christ" from their earliest days to the year 1914?
But what pen could describe the transformation of the following years? The military spirit, deplored by the Annual Meeting at Liverpool, soon permeated the Churches of Christ. Leaders urged our young men to enlist and fight for King and Country, and scant sympathy was given to those who stood for the old attitude. With the coming of conscription, we saw our young men turned down by tribunals of which leaders in their own Churches were chairmen. Brethren, some of whom were elders in the Churches, sat on magisterial benches and handed their own Brethren over to their persecutors. The words
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of the Master had almost a complete and literal fulfilment: "And brother shall deliver up brother to death ... And ye shall be hated of all men for My name's sake." (Mark 13:12-13).
When Brethren appeared before the magistrates and stated they were members of the Church of Christ, and had always been taught that war was contrary to the teaching of the Master, letters, of which the following are samples, appeared in local papers, in different districts:
A LIBEL ON A CHURCH.
"Sir, - Will you allow me as a member of that Church to protest against a statement going forth from one who evidently thinks more of his own skin than of his duty to his King and Country, which is calculated to give the impression to your readers that these peculiar views are held and taught by that Church. As a matter of fact, the very opposite is the truth ... the Roll of Honour, containing the names of those who have gone to serve their country in its hour of need, is of sufficient length to justify pride on the part of the Church members."
"Sir, - As Chairman-elect of the Conference of that body (the Church of Christ) may I be allowed to say that neither the publishers nor the contents of the Apostolic Messenger are representative of the views held by the great majority of our members. Our sons have offered themselves as freely in proportion as those of any other religious body, because like them, though we hate war as such, we hate injustice, tyranny, and inhumanity even more. Many of our men have already fallen, and our Roll of Honour would demonstrate that on the whole our patriotism and loyalty to be powers that be are beyond question."
The Editor's comment is well worth quoting here:
"We find reprinted in the current issue of the Apostolic Messenger what is described as a leader from the Bible Advocate of November 8, 1901, stating, 'The atmosphere of militarism, the demand made upon him
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who enlists in the army, make it impossible for a Christian to be a soldier ... When a man enlists he disowns the most precious qualities of manhood.' As we to understand that the otfficial organ of the Churches of Christ has renounced this article of its creed?"
There was no answer to this poser.
The secretary of another District Committee wrote to the local paper stating that the attitude of the C.O. Brethren, who had just appeared before the tribunal
"Must not be taken as representing the position of the Churches whose general attitude to the war is more rightly interpreted by His Worship the Mayor, ... whom we are honoured in having as one of our esteemed leaders. We wish the young men who have gone from us at the call of their native land to feel that they certainly have our deepest affection and regard in the sacrifice they are making."
The Official Organ, the Bible Advocate, Feb. 4, 1916, contained the following: "'The Friends' have offered to lend help to churches that take the view that all war is objectionable. We as a people do not take that view, but we think individuals can secure alliance with them." After being trained up to the year 1914 by the Churches of Christ to believe that war is 'antagonistic to the teachings of our Lord,' when the time came for acting on those principles, we were directed for help to the Society of Friends! Comment is needless.
Enough has now been written on the attitude of the Churches towards war, past and present. I have done little else than give the facts. At the last Annual Meeting held at Liverpool, August, 1920, a resolution, as follows, was passed: 'That the Conference never has condoned and sanctioned war.' Again, we make no comment. All that we have written and know of the attitude of the Churches of Christ
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towards war, goes to prove the truth of Mr. J. Morgan Gibbon's statement at the meeting of the Congregational Union: "The conscientious objector stands today where we all stood yesterday, and where we shall all be standing again tomorrow, or the day after." History repeats itself; our trying experience during the past six years was no new thing, as J.R. Lowell has well shown:
Then to side with truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause brings fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just,
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,
Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,
And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.
For humanity sweeps onward: where today the martyr stands;
On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands;
Far in front the cross stands ready, and the crackling faggots burn,
While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return
To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn.
Sonnet on the Castle of Chillon.
Eternal spirit of the changeless mind!
Brightest in dungeons, Liberty, thou art!
For there they habitation is the heart -
The heart which love of thee alone can bind;
And when thy sons to fetters are consigned -
To fetters, and the damp vaults dayless gloom -
Their country conquers in their martyrdom,
And Freedom's fame finds wing on every wind.
Chillon! thy prison is a holy place,
And thy sad floor an altar, for 'twas trod,
Until his very steps have left a trace
Worn, as if they cold pavement were a sod,
By Bounivard! May none these marks efface!
For they appeal from tyranny to God.
Lord Byron
"The following prisons bear testimony to the moral courage and spiritual faith of these brethren: Wormwood Scrubbs, Winchester, Wakefield, Knutsford, Hull, Shrewsbury, Dorchester, Dartmoor, Durham, Manchester, Liverpool, and Northallerton! I visited numbers of them in some of these prisons, and the times spent together with these men in such circumstances were times of inspiration and spiritual power. They were lights in dark places; salt of the earth. We thank God for their witness."
R.K. FRANCIS.
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