1647 ^ Concerning Peace and War BY William Hathorn Mills CONCERNING PEACE AND WAR By WILLIAM HATHORN MILLS San Bernardino, California BARNUM & FLAGG COMPANY 1919 Copyright ^\ APR 22 1919 ^ul.A516284 ^ In the Valley of Decision (Joel III. 14.) MIGHT against Right — the brute Beast boasts Its mailed fist and sharp sword, Talks of its "Day," and sends its hosts To prove it Earth's war-lord. Right against Might — to guard His own, And make the evil cease, The Lamb goes forth, and takes the crown That crowns Him Prince of Peace. Contents Page In the Valley of Decision 3 Laus Deo •- 5 A League of Nations '. 5 Der Tag 6 R. I. P 7 Lama Sabachthani ? 8 A War of the Lord 10 Lux e Tenebris 11 An Antichrist 12 Megalomania 13 Hearts of Oak 14 Parta Quies 15 Faithful Unto Death 16 "Their Wonted Fires" 17 An American Citizen 18 A Man 19 A Veteran : 20 A Portrait 22 The Cro-Magnons 22 Survivals 24 Distress of Nations 25 How Long, Master? 26 Note. For details of facts see "Men of the Old Stone Age," by H. F. Osborn, and "The Living Age," February 16, May 18, June 1, July 27, October 19, 1918. Laus Deo NOW thank we God for that the Right Has triumphed gloriously, Has won at last the longdrawn fight Against brute tyranny. For Freedom and for Truth we fought: For little nations' weal; They called; with all our strength we sought To answer their appeal. Thro* good days and thro' evil days We waged the bitter fight, Till— God of battles! Thine the praise— We broke the tyrant's might. Was Verdun hill Har-Magedon? It saw a strife at least That smote the pride of Babylon, And crushed the abysmal Beast. Now peace is ours; make. Lord of all, That peace world-harmony — An earnest of millennial Good-will and equity. A League of Nations THE war we waged is fought and won — Won for the Truth and Right— And now, thank God! our battling done. Peace dawns upon our sight. Our warriors all have played their part, But peace claims effort still; teach our statesmen, Thou, Who art The Prince of Peace, Thy will. Teach them to take for Rule the new Commandment given by Thee, And bid the whole wide world ensue Justice and Charity. Peace is a bond; Lord, make our peace * Union for common good: A binding pact that wars shall cease: A league of brotherhood. * Peace comes from a root PAK, to bind, whence also the Old Latin pac-ere, to bind. Other English derivatives are pact, compact, appease, etc. Vid. Skeat. Der Tag THE Day has come, but not the day The tyrant thought to see; It brings the ending of the fray. But not his victory. A day of gloom, of baffled schemes. Of prospect dark and grim. Of disappointed hopes and dreams — That's what it is to him. But what is day turned into night For him, and black despair, Opens to stragglers after Right A vision bright and fair. A day most surely of the Lord, It bids us lift our eyes Up to the hills, and look toward The promised Day-Star's rise. An earnest of what is to be, It pictures to our sight The downfall of iniquity, The triumph of the Right. "The Day." Ah, lift the insulted phrase To its supremest height, And reach toward the dawning rays Of the Eternal Light. R. I. P. 1. HIS life — aye, all that he could give — He gave — this warrior, nameless here. But new-named in a loftier sphere. Who died that those he loved might live. 2. Crosses in rows — they tell the price Paid by our heroes for world-rest. And, telling it, make manifest The splendour of self-sacrifice. 3. Some of our friends were slain in fight, Some by mischances; others, bound On peaceful errands, U-boats drowned; But all were martyrs in God's sight. 8 Soldier and sailor, Red Cross knight And dame, the innocents whose blood Is on the tyrant's head, all stood For Liberty and for the Right. Therefore we think of them as dear To God, and very neav to Him; Therefore our commendative hymn Is as a wreath upon their bier. 4. Our dead — we chant their requiem; Lord, make Thy Face to shine on them, And grant them rest for evermore, Who won us peace by waging war. 5. He fell, not in the forefront of the fight, But, fever-smitten, in a camp at home; Yet, none the less, he died for Truth and Right, Who, when his Country called, answered, "I Lama Sabachthani? HOW could the Lord of Righteousness Suffer our agony? How could He watch our long distress, And bear it? Mystery. Our cause was His. We fought for Right, We fought for Liberty, For Innocence oppressed by Might, For Tmth, for Equity. 9 Aye, all our life is mystery; Yet, flashed thoro' the gloom. Come gleams of light from Calvary, And from the bursten tomb. Evil is not the end of things; Death is a door to life; A righteous One is King of kings; Peace is the prize of strife — That is the witness of the Cross, And the first Easter morn; Gain may be in apparent loss; Thro' travail joy is born. Evil is as a test; it tries Our wills; as we resist Its temptings or assaults, we rise Upward — toward the Christ. Sonship^ divine — that is the height Which beckons every soul; "Fight," says the Gospel, "faith's good fight, And you shall reach the goal." Christ fought His way back to the throne. He left to bring us life — Fought it as Man, that all His ovv^n Might conquer in the strife. Some day shall dawn upon our eyes A glory from above. Whose rays shall pierce all mysteries. And show that God is Love. 10 A War of The Lord HAD He been present as the Nazarene In Belgium, what time the bi-utal Hun Wrought his foul crimes, his cruelties obscene, What would the Christ, have done ? Would He, Who to the smiters gave His back, And stayed Saint Peter, when he would have fought, Have used His power to break the foes' attack? "We doubt it" — is our thought. But, doubting this, how can we think it right That Christian hosts should war to conquer ill — Should use as battle-cry "Right against Might"? Would that have been His will? Ah yes; He would have willed it; for His own He intervened e'en in Gethsemane. 'Twas for Himself that He would not call down Michael's chivalry. He would not fight His human foes; not so Could He have paid the debt He came to pay; Aye, but He fought man's spiritual foe. And broke his yoke for aye. And ever since He is with them who war To beat down evil and bring in the Right; His Spirit is in their hearts, and evermore Strengthens their hands to fight. 11 At times He flashes visions on their eyes, That manifest His Presence, as of the sign, A Cross, whose legend, blazed across the skies, Converted Constantine. At times He speaks; there comes to souls a word, Clear as a call of human utterance, As when the saintly maid of Orleans heard His voice, and rallied France. His angels are His ministers of grace. Yet His Sabaoth too— an "arm§d throng" That wars at all times, and in every place. With every form of wrong. And, when the Dragon and the Beast unite. In Earth's last strife, their hosts against the Lord, The White-horsed Rider shall go forth, and smite Them with His own sharp sword. Lux e Tenebris DEFORE the thousand years of peace ^ Can come to bless our troubled earth. All evil must be made to cease. And Earth must have a second birth. Aye, and, ere evil is subdued, It will exalt itself on high: Will rouse against the powers of good All hell — all that is devilry. Not lightly will that hellish force Fall backward, and give up the fight; 12 But He, Who rides on the white horse, Shall conquer and bring in the Right. That is the darkest hour of night What time the day-spring is toward; So evil rises to its height To fall before the /coming Lord. Satan is still a curse and power; Aye, and yet our late agony Foreshadows earth's redemption-hour — The triumph of Christ's victory. Thou, in Whose Name we waged this war, Bring in an Order which shall be N'ow, and till time shall be no more, An earnest of Thy sovranty. An Antichrist WHAT shall be done to him whose lies Plunged the whole world in trouble ? The doom of Babylon replies, "Double to him the double." To work out his insensate plan Of self-glorification, He slandered God, he slandered man, He slandered all Creation. He said that Frank and Slav were bent On schemes of wild ambition: He claimed to be God's agent, sent On a world-conquering mission. 13 His troops swept Belgium's country-side, And left the corn-crops stubble; The little folk struggled and died; What must he pay ? "The double." They sacked fair towns of France, and turned Cathedrals into rubble; Treasures they could not take, they burned; What does he owe? "The double." Each word a lie, each act a crime, Each thought a profanation. He sets a record for all time Of self-wrought degradation. Now his wild dream is past and gone — Gone like a bursten bubble; Eemains the doom of Babylon, "Double to him the double." Mega lomania POWER unlimited is not for man; It is as an intoxicant that blunts Man's conscience, till the drunken soul affronts All Right, and calls dov/n Heaven's indignant ban. So fell Napoleon's castle in the sky; So fell of yore the old-world tyrannies; So falls, like Lucifer never to rise Again, the Hohenzollern dynasty. V/hence comes the ambition of cosmocracy — * Of world-wide rule ? The Fathers reckoned it 14 An emanation from the abysmal pit — Gehenna's answer to man's selfish cry. Satan would rule the world; the impulse is Satanic — born of pride — for these would-be World-rulers all seek their- own dignity; But God is Lord, and Heaven and Earth are His. He waits, yet ever gathers in His own; The day will come — is in the coming now — When all the nations of the world shall bow. As of one heart, one will, before His throne. * Kosmokrator — in Ecclesiastical writers of evil spirits, from Ephes. VI. 12. — "the world-rulers of this darkness." Hearts of Oak THE merchantmen, that occupy Their business on the sea. Mayn't be the ocean's chivalry, Who keep its waters free; And yet they serve a ministry, Grand as the warship's deeds, Who use the ocean's liberty To meet all countries' needs. Cargoes they bear of food-supplies For hungry folk's content; They sail with stores of merchandise, Whithersoever sent. Aye, and they bring together lands Far-sundered by the sea; 15 And thro' them East and West shake hands In friendly courtesy. To carry on their industry They plough a perilous path O'er the wild waters, and defy Tempests' and billows' wrath. All this in peace; in the world-war They faced, as never a one Of all their craft had faced before, The U-boats of the Hun. It mattered not; with never a doubt, Tho' thousands of them lie Full fathom five, they stuck it out, Dogged to do or die. Aye; they are manned by hearts as brave As ever fought a fight — Hearts that fear naught so they may save Brothers in evil plight. Duty their watchword: duty done Their vision and their aim: They claim and take their place upon The honour-roll of fame. Parta Quies THEY are not dead — the friends who gave Their lives for Freedom and for Right; They kept the faith; they fought the fight Christ fought, and triumphed o'er the grave. 16 Thro' divers forms of death they went, But one the life to which they won — The life to which all duty done Is as a pathway of ascent. The many mansions of the • blest, The radiant meads of Paradise, Its fair and happy companies, Have welcomed them. They are at rest. Unwearied, undisquieted, Unvexed, they serve love's ministries, And, as they serve their service, rise From grace to grace. They are not dead. Faithful unto Death MILLIONS of graves — all memories Of generous blood outpoured To stay the brute atrocities Of mailed list and drawn sword! Not all in vain the apparent loss Of gallant lives and true; That, which was witnessed by the Cross, Is witnessed here anew. Peace is the prize of war; true peace Was born on Calvary; Its birth alike and its increase Are of Christ's agony. What hinders peace? Lust, falsehood, pride- Tempers that, when man fell, 17 He g-ot from hell; but, as He died, Christ broke the gates of hell. That they might help to clear the way For peace these champions fought; It's ours to see to it that they Shall not have died for naught. '*Their Wonted Fires'' WHERE are the gallant souls whose names Live in all history: The splendour of whose exploits flames Like stars across the sky? Thro' fairer, loftier spheres than this Their deathless spirits roam; Aye, yet return at times, ywis, To Motherland and home. The spirit of Drake yet haunts the seas That beat on Devon's coasts; Roland, Jeanne d'Arc — their presences Still, lead the Gallic hosts. What time the Austrian legions swept Down upon Italy, Forth once again Aetius leapt, And broke the enemy. Aye, and we wonder now and then Whether it may not be That heroes' souls take flesh again. To serve some ministry. 18 If so, the heart of him, who was Sans peur et sans reproche. May beat, re-incarnated, as The heart of General Foch. Assurance lies beyond our keij; And yet the Tishbite seer Lived in the Baptist's life again, As the Christ's pioneer. Who shall deny it then? And who, However that may be, Can doubt that loving hearts and true Keep faith eternally? "Love strong as death" — said the wise man- Aye, stronger; Charity Lives on thro' chance and change, nor can Death end its energy. The love of country and of kin Abides here and beyond; Who quickens it our hearts within. He will not break the bond. An American Citizen AMERICA will miss him — her strong man. Her stalwart, strenuous son — Dead, ere his life had compassed its full span: Dead, ere his work seemed done. Rough-rider, statesman, ready of pen and tongue, But readier still of hand — 19 We think of him as not the least among Those who have ruled our land. Aye, for he grasped the thing called "politics" — The politics of his time — And purged it — purged it of the graft and tricks That made the craft a crime. His work, his influence, made for righteousness; His word was as his bond; Rough diamond he was, but none the less A very diamond. His life speaks — ah, what memories it awakes! Surely all souls of men Are better for his vision of what makes A patriot citizen. Mistakes he made, no doubt; what doer of deeds But makes them? His "big stick" Smote fiercely, but abuse of privilege needs Smitings threefold and thick. A fighter born, he fought for Truth and Right — Fought to make evils cease; He did his best — did it with all his might; Now may he rest in peace! A Man l^ELTIC and Basque — a fighting strain, ^^Aye, and clear-headed too; Of it come thinkers, keen of brain, And warriors good and true. 20 It proved its grit in days of yore When Viriathus wight Met and beat back the Roman war In square, straightforward fight. And so, when France called for a son To smite the brutal Boche, The Pyrenees answered anon, And sent Marechal Foch. Fire from the Kelt: will, as of rock. From Ebro's ancient, brood: Wit from the great Cro-Magnon stock All this is in his blood. If he's a man, who instantly Leaps forth to meet a need, And meets it, this emergency Called forth a man indeed. Note. Foch comes from Keltic foex, fire. A Veteran WHEN we have come to seventy years, We mostly long for rest — Rest from life's round of doubts, and fears, And toil, and ceaseless quest. No longer do we tax our brains Or bodily energies; We use what little strength remains In quiet ministries. 21 That is a common rule of life; Aye, but it wasn't so, When duty called him back to strife, With Premier Clemenceau. Six years beyond the allotted span Had marked his bodily frame; Aye, but the spirit of the man — That was not less aflame. "The Tiger"! Well, there's tiger's grit And pluck in the old sage. And tiger's dash, but never a bit Of tiger's greed and rage. He had to face graft, treachery, Intrigues, counsels of fear; The Roosevelt of his country, he Cleared the whole atmosphere. Foch saw to matters at the front; Clemenceau ruled the State; Each in his own sphere bore the brunt, And each stood fast as Fate. Some baulked; Clemenceau didn't care; To each and every one His answer was — "Je fais la guerre"; He played the game, and won. Statesmen are rare; yet, as the war Swayed nations to and fro. It found some, and, well to the fore, Premier Clemenceau. 22 A Portrait A KINDLY face, a friendly pair Of eyes, that frankly meet my gaze, Smile on me from my secretaire, And light the gloom, of gloomy days. It speaks — that face; there's that in it That greets and questions; that implies Good-humour, resolution, wit. Equal to any enterprise. In the dark hours of doubt and fear, When France staggered in evil plight, It seemed to say, "Be of good cheer; God is, and ^\^ll defend the Right". And now that peace has put an end To the foul crimes of brutal might. It asks, with twinkling eyes, "Ah, Friend, Do you not see that I was right"? Thanks, Marshal Joffre! Your countenance Has been to me a cheering sight; I guess that Belgium, Britain, France, Read a great gospel in its light. The Cro-Magnons THREE hundred centuries of years Before this present year of grace. Westward, from where Mount Elbruz rears Its height, went forth a mighty race. 23 Big-framed, big-brained, bred to the chase. Lovers of peace, yet apt to war. They dwarfed in wit, in art, in grace, All races that had gone before. In wit? Ah well — they might have met Our brainiest heads, and held their own; Their art still speaks in statuette, In frescoed ceil, and graven stone. Men of a prehistoric age. No rude barbarians were they; Cultured, refined, they mark a stage High up on man's ascending way. Visions of life beyond the grave Had come to them, and,_when they laid Their dead to rest in grot or cave, With reverent care each bed was made. For some ten thousand years they held In Western Europe foremost place; Then passed, as in an honoured eld. Yet leaving records of their race. Records? Aye, living memories. Not simply tokens of their skill; For all about the J^yrenees You'll find Cro'-Magnon manhood still. Were they of our forbears? Maybe. The question's moot; but, anyhow, Since they made homes in our Countree, Their presence should be with us now. 24 Aye, and their memory should uplift Our hearts to noble thought and aim; What should we be if men o' the Drift Were such ? Shall they put us to shame ? Survivals THE European Continent In prehistoric times Was given to experiment In peoples and in climes. Thro' glacial, interglacial, Postglacial, times she passed; And settled, having proved them all. That she preferred the last. She tried the Heidelbergs, and then Neanderthals — both these Were of the genus Homo — men. But not sapientes. She gave each race in turn a lease, But, as they didn't suit, Having arranged their obsequies. She gave them both the boot. They passed into oblivion. Frozen, or swept away By the great race of Cro-Magnon — A race that came to stay. Sapientes were these? Ah yes; In all ways they made good; 25 Neyer had Caucasus, I guess, Sent forth a finer brood. They kept for five-score centuries Their pride of place, and, when They broke up into colonies. They hadn't finished then. /\ There are Cro-Magnons yet, as round The Pyrenees, and, where Right in the heart of France they found A home, on the Vezere. They chose the South and West; a few Neanderthals, and their Ancestral Heidelbergers too, Remained up North — somewhere. But, while the Heidelbergs may live Resurgent in the Boche, The great Ci'o-Magnon hearts survive In men like General Foch. So long as it can breed such men — So strong i' the arm, so stout Of heart, so keen of wit and ken — A race is not played out. Distress of Nations '"THRO' tribulation must we win •*• Into the Heavenlies; Thro' tribulation enter in The Eternal Presences; 26 We must be purified, and they Must break. down all that blocks their way. This earth of ours is, as it were, A floor, whereon alway Our human corn is threshed, and where The chaff is cast away; And of the things that purge the floor. And thresh the grain, are Pain and War. How Long, O Master? SPIRITS of evil haunt the air, It seems, here, there, and everywhere. What does it mean? That what the seer Foresaw far off is now and near? He saw the armies of the Beast From North and South and West and East Gathered to w^age their final fight Against the powers of Ti-uth and Right. Not only men, but devils too, Were niarshalled in that impious crew; And the false prophet's prophecies Were backed by evil spirits' lies. We thought and hoped, when the brute Hun Collapsed, and victory was won. That Peace w^ould rest on us, and bless Our hearts with quiet happiness. 27 Scarce had the roar of battle ceased When came fresh tokens of the Beast — The Bolshevists* atrocities, And mutterings of new blasphemies. Aye, and it is as tho' this ill — This curse of self-love and self-will — Had, like the Spanish plague's offence, Become a world-wide pestilence. Look where you will, there face you those On whom the Beast's sign-manual shows — The mark that brands, as antichrists, Huns, Turks, "Red Bonnets", Bolshevists. How long, Lord, how long — we cry — Shall Earth be vexed by devilry? How long shall Evil boast its might ? How long shall Wrong affront the Right? We pause and listen. From the sky Comes back no answer to our cry; But thro' our hearts echoes the word — "Lo, I am with you — I, your Lord". "Faint not", it says, "but do the Right With all your will, with all your might; Do in My Name that which you do, And you shall find My promise tine. "By word and deed preach Holiness — Reverence, law-abidingness; By word and deed preach Charity — Fellowship, Justice, Sympathy. 28 "I stand, as Stephen saw Me, still To succour all who do My will; I come to chase all wrongs away." * * * * "Amen; so come, Master" — we pray. LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS