AN EYE FOR AN EYE.
[COMMUNICATED.]
11HE principal lesson which is presented to us by the operations in the Ruhr is that the policy of an eye for an eye, whatever its other merits may be from the point of view of human justice, as a practical pro- position completely fails to work, as was expected by the few who take history as a warning instead of a guide. We are accustomed to speak and write of Christian nations and Christian civilization, and it is not proposed here to discuss whether there is or can be any such thing as a Christian nation ; the point is that in matters of national or international policy there is no evidence that it exists anywhere at present. Christ's command that we should love our enemies, which superseded the Mosaic law of an eye for an eye, was obviously meant as a prac- tical doctrine which would work, otherwise it is not likely that He would have given it. Also it was given to ordinary human beings for their own use and benefit.
In recent years, however, it has been repeatedly declared, and in most unexpected quarters, that in particular cases the doctrine had limitations-; in fact, that our enemies had only to make themselves sufficiently unpleasant and barbarous for us to be absolved altogether from any obligation whatsoever of attempting to carry out the principal doctrine of the Church which the State has established as a proof of the national faith. The difficulty, I suggest, arises from an entirely wrong con- ception of what Christ meant by love ; and those, includ- ing professing Christians, who hold the doctrine up to ridicule, veiled or not, as unpractical in certain eases, seem to assume that we are called upon to approach an enemy fresh, let us say, from a submarine outrage and fall upon his. neck. But the principal cause of misunder- standing arises, I believe, from a confusion of thought, by which the act and the agent are looked upon as one and the same thing. Now, if there be brought to our notice a case of leprosy, for example, or any other physical .disease, most of us are filled with an intense pity for the sufferer and an equally intense loathing for the disease, and all are more or less moved with a desire to help if we eau. No men, probably, are held in greater honour than those scientists, and indeed others, who devote and often give their lives in order to free mankind from the dangers of some physical scourge, and in highest honour of all are held those who suffer and give most because of their pity and consequent love for the sufferers, most of whom they cannot possibly ever expect to see or hear of. This admiration, by the way, is a striking testimony to the love for high ideals which is more strongly entrenched in the bosom of the ordinary citizen than many who profess to act and speak for him, from whatever platform, ever seem to be aware.
Practical idealism, then, suggests that what is known as the modern" German mentality," with all its products in peace and war, should be regarded as the effects of a carefully cultivated and terrible germ on the minds of the citizens of a nation whose very virtues of thoroughness and docility render them peculiarly susceptible to the resulting malady in its most virulent form. Practical Christianity and practical common sense point alike, as usual, to an entirely new form of treatment for the sufferers.
Had the Allies, for example, as the sole condition of peace, insisted upon occupying and controlling, so to speak, every mine and factory of ideas, from the Press and Pulpit down to the elementary schools., in Germany it is conceivable that something really practical might have been achieved ere this, and at a saving of cost which would have gone far towards restoring the devas- tated regions as well.
With regard to the security which France seeks but which no one has yet defined, here, too, practical idealism suggests that no real security, which is simply a state of mind, will ever be attained by the erection or maintenance of material barriers, of what kind soever, between nations, but only by the demolition of the existing spiritual ones, such as fear, hate or suspicion, and it is only by practical Christianity that such barriers can possibly be removed.
Among the greatest impediments to true security are those material safeguards which are supposed to ensure it, but which in practice only emphasize its absence and retard its attainment. It has been said that some at least of our late enemies behaved as wild beasts. There are three ways of treating a wild beast : you can kill it, cage it, or tame it. The first is its own way ; the second cannot be prolonged indefinitely. We are therefore left absolutely with the third, which, in the case of a human, temporarily forgetful of his humanity, or never having had a real chance of learning it, is simply the Christian way— healing the sick. And if it be asked how this can be done in practice, I would answer that never in the world's history has there been anything approaching the facility with which healing ideas may be transmitted to-day to multitudes all over the world, in a fraction of a second.
Indeed, it would seem that science has been, uncon- sciously may be, paving the way until, to the immense power of the Press, is added the miracle that a man may, without leaving his study, ask and receive an answer from the ends of the earth to his question, "And who is my neighbour ? " Here is a true story of one who, simply as "a German" might have been hated, but who aroused quite different feelings in the late War. It was told to me by an officer who was present, and happened in the East African operations. An English subaltern, suffering from fever, was captured by the enemy, to whom presently was sent, under a flag of truce, a bottle of whisky with a request that it might be administered medicinally to the prisoner. The enemy commander sent a message in reply that his men had not seen anything at all resembling whisky for months, and that even German discipline could by no means 'assure that the English commander's wishes would be carried out. As it was not possible to retain both, with honour, the prisoner was being returned.
It may be said that this is an isolated case and that the German nation, as a whole, behaves as though it had no honour. Be that as it may, it is at least possible that in a nation of sixty millions peradventure ten righteous shall be found, and we have a precedent for being slow to hate for the sake of ten. For there is no saying what such a leaven may be capable of, given the neces- sary chance and encouragement. Provided, too, that other Christian nations are spiritually whole and so 'competent to practise the healing which they profess
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