battlefield, with twenty millions who have already been wounded,
nearly forty millions under arms, and whole nations organized for war and
the manufacture of munitions; with the flood tide of impurity and
immorality which war has brought in its train; with the barbarism and
cruelty, poison gas, flaming oil, and organized destruction used at
present on the battlefields of Europe, is it not time for the Church to
set her own house in order, to humble herself with shame in the very dust
for her criminal impotence and worldliness and sin, and to return to her
crucified Lord and Master? Is it not time that we seek a new vision of
His face, to renew our consecration before Him, and to seek a vital and
life-giving message first for ourselves and then for the world about us?
Not for "our country right or wrong," not for a Pharisaic
self-righteousness, but for Christ and His suffering world, for a whole
Kingdom, and a whole Church, must we reconsecrate ourselves.

As Fosdick says, "The issue was drawn: _Christianity would be a failure
if it did not stop slavery_. And from the day that this issue was drawn,
the result was assured. It was not Christianity that failed, it was
slavery. . . . This, too, is a climactic day in history. For so long
time the Gospel and war have lived together in ignoble amity! If at last
disharmony between the spirit of Jesus and the spirit of war is becoming
evident, then a great hope has dawned for the race. . . . The main issue
is clear. _Christianity will indeed have failed if it does not stop
war_." [6]

Is it not time that we turn to God in humiliation and prayer for an
outpouring of His spirit and a deeply needed revival of religion? In the
words of Admiral Sir David Beatty, the Commander of the British Fleet,
"England still remains to be taken out of her stupor of self-satisfaction
and complacency and until she be stirred out of this condition, until
religious revival takes place at home, just so long will the war
continue."

If at the call of nationalism the manhood of the nation has poured forth
in boundless heroism and self-sacrifice, at the call of Christ cannot His
Church rise again to its high vocation? If half of the zeal and passion,
half of the outpouring of life and treasure, of organization and
efficiency, that the State has put into this war could be thrown into the
cause of the Kingdom and of the eternal verities, the world would soon be
won. If Christians would but foll