18 MARCH 1916, Page 12

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS. [To TER EDITOR OP THE srEcrAtins.1 Six,—As a

" conscientious objector " for twenty years, freed from sectarian trammels by the war, I would urge Mr. Armstrong to

open his mind to the whole teaching of the Lord. He will remember that just before His betrayal He said : " but now, he that bath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one." True, Matthew recounts that after one of them had smitten off the ear of Makhus (which act had been neither checked not forbidden), the Lord ordered him : " Put up again thy sword into his place," adding, " for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." It was a needed revelation. The principles of the Kingdom had to be proclaimed before a called-out nation could be formed that would be prepared to lay down its life for them. Surely this is Britain's day for action, and what Briton shall fear to perish by the sword for the Kingdom's sake ? The express injunction is not to fear those that kill the body but those that kill the soul. When Mr. Armstrong and all other conscientious objectors see that it is for the principles of the Kingdom that is not of this world that our sword is bared, then the sects that reap their little harvests of unstable souls shall disappear, but not till then.—I am, Sir, &c.,

LEWL9 LONGFIELD.