that force is the
will of God."

"How? I do not understand. Tell me."

"Since you command me to speak plainly, sir, I will, and perhaps I can
best tell you what I mean by recounting my own history. My father
belonged to a Community in England who believe that all war is sinful,
and I was brought up to accept his doctrine; he took the teaching of
our Lord literally."

"What teaching of our Lord?"

"What we call the Sermon on the Mount: 'Ye have heard it hath been
said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you,
that if a man strike thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other
also. Ye have heard it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbour
and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, love your enemies'; I was
taught to believe that, sir, and to regard all war as a crime.

"For some time after this war was declared I refused to volunteer. I
was trying to be a Christian, and I did not see how a man who wanted to
be a Christian could be a soldier."

His interrogator looked at him, evidently in surprise: "You believe
that?"

"In a deep vital sense I believe it still, sir."

"Well, go on."

"That was why I refused to volunteer for the Army, when Lord Kitchener
sent out his appeal that he wanted half a million men immediately."

"Why have you changed your mind? It might be interesting to hear," and
again there was the suggestion of a sneer in the voice.

"I read some German books, and got to know what the Germans actually
thought; I realised the ideas which lay at the heart of Germany, and
then I knew that if Germany won this war, all liberty would be gone,
all our free institutions would be destroyed, and that the spirit of
war would reign more and more throughout the world. I saw that what to
the Germans was right, was to us wrong; that the Germans' Gospel was
different from ours."

"Different! How?"

"I saw that the Germans gloried in war; that they regarded it as
necessary; that to them those who asked for peace committed a crime. I
heard one of our Members of Parliament say that he had been in Berlin
at a Peace Conference, but that Conference was broken up by the order
of the German Government. I read the works of authors whose words are
accepted as gospel by the dominant party in Germany, I realised the
Germans' aim and ambitions, and I knew that if they succeeded, peace
would for ever be impossible in the world. Then I knew I had a call
from God, and then I no longer