A BENEVOLENT DREAMER.
(TO TIER EDITOR OF TER "SPECTATOR.")
is with much regret that some of us read from week to week your strong advocacy of what is called a " spirited " European policy for this country. If this policy has been declin- ing of late years, has this not resulted from a conviction of its utter failure in the past, and from a growing persuasion among 'Christian men that armies and fleets are not the beat promoters in the world of liberty, order, and civilization, such as God designs should prevail ?
The doctrine that moral influence must have an armed force behind it to make it effective and real, seems to me a practical denial of the divine government of the world, little in accordance with the ordinary teaching of the Spectator.
I wish you would use your great influence not to promote that attitude and bearing between nations which has been so disastrous in the past, and which we all so reprobate in individuals, but rather to inaugurate a truly spirited and Christian policy between the civilized communities of the world.
Let England boldly declare that she has resolved no longer to place her confidence in the hideous and savage system of war for the settlement of disputes, and as an instrument of international justice; but that she believes in Christianity, and aims at a higher civilization than has hitherto prevailed. Let this be carried out by the maintenance of a conciliatory spirit,—by non-interference with other people's business, by the steady evidence of good fellowship, and even by the willingness cheerfully to concede when justice and forbearance demand it, and we may yet see the dawn of a brighter day.
The " spirited " policy that was accustomed to show itself by the display of the fist and the pistol has almost disappeared from the relationship of individuals. It still remains as a curse between Christian nations.
How is it to be got rid of, and the beneficent reign of interna- tional law substituted for that of mere brute force ? This is not likely to be brought about suddenly by a sort of Divine coup d'itat, and it seems almost childish to relegate so reasonable a hope to some distant future, when human nature shall be changed. I think the problem will have to be worked out, as other similar problems have been, by the mind and heart of the nation persistently uphold- ing "the more excellent way," and basing their convictions not on mere expediency, but on the plain requirements of the Gospel of Christ. As one step towards this, we want just now a little more true, outspoken courage on the part of Christian men, in opposing the clamours of those, whose only faith is in great armaments and dry gunpowder, and who seem to think that God is dead !
Those who believe in a living God, in a Christ who was no im- practicable dreamer (but who truly understood human nature and its wants), are bound, in the best interests of mankind, to confess their faith, and to speak out boldly and clearly. Is the influence of the Spectator to be wanting at this momentous crisis ?—I am,
[Assuredly the influence of the Spectator will be wanting to the theory of non-resistance either for ourselves or other nations, and this theory is, as far as we understand it, the writer's inter- pretation of Christian ethics.—En. Spectator.]
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