LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
WANTED FOR ENGLAND,—A CRUSADE.
[To TIM EDITOR Our TIM "SNCOTATOR.1 SIR.,—The importance of the question raised in this corre- spondence is seldom realised. The false idea that it is un-Christian to be a soldier is far more widely spread than is supposed. Even those whose conscience revolts against the notion that discipline, subordination, and sacrifice of self for country can be otherwise than in harmony with Christ's example and teaching often seem to admit by their silence that there is some doubt in the matter. Christians should be more outspoken, and boldly teach what is so evidently the fact, that no profession is truer to the spirit of the Saviour than that of a soldier in his country's forces. We are dis- tinctly told to render to the State the things that are the State's, and that must include our lives if a State is to con- tinue to exist. Our duty to the State comes first, and unless we do that, how can we hope to render ourselves to God ? If we love not our earthly kingdom that we have seen, how can we hope to love (or be loved by) the kingdom of God that we have not seen ? One of your correspondeute has already drawn attention to the fact that it was of a soldier that our Lord said: "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." But the point has not been accentuated that this was a man under authority, and so actually serving under a far more rigorous discipline than any that prevails now, and compelled to carry out to the letter the order of heathen commanders. Soldiers in this country at least serve a Christian State, whose policy, subject to human imperfections, is directed by the nation itself. By all means let Christians do all they can to ensure that that policy shall be in harmony with the spirit of Christ. But having thus done all that is possible by gentle moans to keep our homes inviolate, and to beware of entrance to a quarrel, let us, being in one, bear ourselves that the opposers may beware of us. It is difficult to speak temperately of the non-resistance fallacy, and we can only charitably believe that its supporters would under certain provocations be untrue to their principle. They would have welcomed the Spanish Armada with its racks and thumbscrews. What about another Armada that is in course of preparation P—I tun,
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