A PLEA FOR YOUTH
Snt,—May I, as a young man who will become liable for military service in the course of the year, express my apprecia- tion of Mr. R. A. Lawrie's letter in your issue of January 12th?
He has said what thousands of us are thinking in our hearts. We realise only too well that the folly of politicians and states- men has now to be redeemed by the blood of young men. The fact that we realise the need for this redemption prohibits us from calling ourselves conscientious objectors.
Just as nineteen hundred years ago Jesus died upon the Cross for the sin of the world, so today thousands of men are preparing to give their lives in order that the world may be made free from the power of evil.
" They have not died in vain." How many times during the last twenty years have we heard those words uttered? And yet we know that even after ten years of peace in 1930 it was clear that they had died in vain. Another awful carnage is necessary to make us realise that we neglect the Christian message at our peril.
And can we be sure that our sacrifice will not also be in vain? Our politicians use fine phrases, but they did that, too, in 1915. Mr. Chamberlain is only repeating the words of Mr. Asquith and Mr. Lloyd George during the last War.
But, in spite of it all, we are not really despondent, because we are convinced that even though countless more generations have to undergo what we have to, ultimately God -will indeed be able to work out His Purpose in the minds and hearts of men.—Yours faithfully,
C. R. P. RAYMER.
6 Wake Green Road, Moseley, Birmingham, 13.
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