Before I had left the States I had not only been a pacifist, but I had been neutral as well. Any person in my former congregation could testify that I never spoke one word from the platform against the Germans, but now I have no hesitation in condemning them with vehemence and opposing them with violence. It might seem to some as though this was a strange attitude for a minister of Christ to take, but I was led on as inevitably to this position as the compass needle seeks the pole. I had no choice. I could not help myself, but today I am proud to state that I accepted this conclusion and that deliberately and boldly I will defend it. In a Utopian world one can act in a Utopian manner. And a Utopian world is a beautiful theory. But it is a theory and a dream. You and I today are living in a world of stern, cruel fact; in this world of fact we find the stern, cruel German. We find him here in possession of a land which he has stolen by stern, cruel, and murderous methods. He intends to keep that land, perpetuate those methods, and steal more land by identical methods. These are the methods he knows and employs. These are the only methods he respects or that make any impression on him whatever. Then we must use stern methods against him in order to overcome and thwart him and restore the world to normal methods and life. Otherwise he will encroach and impose his system upon the whole world and his method will be the permanent and the universal fate. [Illustration: _Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N. Y._ THE BURNING OF A FRENCH FIELD HOSPITAL. The hospital was hit by an incendiary shell. So sudden was the blaze that only a few of the Red Cross ambulances could be saved. The hospital and surrounding buildings were razed to the ground.] If we see a wolf we meet him with force. If we deal with a kind man we meet him with kindness. If we meet a reasonable and intelligent being we answer him with reason and intelligent argument, and if we find vicious, violent men, whether burglars, I. W. W.'s, or Germans, we meet them with police, with militia, and with force. In a world of fact this is the only way we have of meeting such. We cannot confront a real and stern and urgent situation with a hazy theory, beautiful as it may be. In the meantime, if we do, we will have no country. We will have a Germanized world, and from our recent experience of Germanism we are convinced that this would be defiantly opposed to the will of God.