May we think of them with love and pity. May we banish
thoughts of bitterness, harsh judgments, the revengeful spirit. To do
this is in no sense unpatriotic. We may find ourselves the subjects
of misunderstanding. But our duty is clear--to be courageous in the
cause of love and in the hate of hate. May we prepare ourselves even
now for the day when once more we shall stand shoulder to shoulder
with those with whom we are now at war, in seeking to bring in the
Kingdom of God.
4. It is not too soon to begin to think out the new situation which
will arise at the close of the war. We are being compelled to face the
fact that the human race has been guilty of a gigantic folly. We have
built up a culture, a civilization, and even a religious life,
surpassing in many respects that of any previous age, and we have been
content to rest it all upon a foundation of sand. Such a state of
society cannot endure so long as the last word in human affairs is
brute force. Sooner or later it was bound to crumble. At the close of
this war we shall be faced with a stupendous task of reconstruction.
In some ways it will be rendered supremely difficult by the legacy of
ill-will, by the destruction of human life, by the tax upon all in
meeting the barest wants of the millions who will have suffered
through the war. But in other ways it will be easier. We shall be able
to make a new start, and to make it all together.
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