[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] read with interest Miss
A. Ruth Fry's article champion- ing the cause of the Conscientious Objector, willing to suffer imprisonment for " following the ' Prince of Peace' "—and the reasoned and temperate arguments of the Reverend G. H. Woolley and the Reverend P. B. Clayton in your issue of November 14th.
There are two written of in the Bible who share the same epithet in the minds of Christians to-day. One is the Good Shepherd. When a certain man fell among thieves, had the Priest and Levite and a man of Samaria arrived on the scene when the miscreants were still at their work it is possible that the two first-named might, as they did later, have passed by, indifferent (or feeling that the use of force to protect the weak was wrong). One cannot imagine the third taking a scat by the roadside until such time as the robbers had obtained all they wanted, and departed, when he could with a clear conscience offer assistance to the victim. Had he taken a more active part in the proceedings one can believe that he would still be known by the adjective attached to him to-day.
May I quote what I can remember of a sermon I once heard preached by a saint of God on the Sunday following an Armis- tice Day ? The preacher said something like this :
" There are people who think that the man who does not take up arms when his country is in danger, or the weak are opposed by the strong " (I have lately been in Dinant, and realize something. of what the brutalities of war meant there)
that this man is in some way more a follower of One, who said that there would be times when His coming would send not peace on the earth, but a sword, than is he who springs to the defence of his land or of the helpless. Those who truly think in this way have a right to their opinions, and as this is a free country they have a right to voice what they think ; but the country that values its reputation for sanity keeps such people locked up.
" Some of those who fell fighting may have been frail and weak mortals as far as their morals and conduct of life went— it may be that they followed Christ only once; but that once they followed Him along the Via Dolorosa, and gave their lives a ransom for many."
Does anyone really believe that such are less followers of our Lord than those who will go to prison rather than prepare themselves to defend their Fatherland ? The man who fights may hate War and all its works, but there is something even
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