The sub-conscious mind of Germany, filled with these dominating ideas
of power and _Weltmacht_ and militarism, goes on, once set free, to
its logical end, and it seems clearer and clearer that there is no
real end to this struggle till we make the mind and soul of Germany
realize its crimes and mistakes, till they are sane again and talk the
A, B, C of civilization. The real reconstruction of the world begins
there.
That end reached and settlements justly done, we may consider schemes
for a League of Nations and practical possibilities of work in
international organizations to prevent disputes leading to war.
The work of reconstruction must be international, as well as national,
but the people who do, and will do, the best international work
are the people who do the best national work. The individuals who
are not prepared to spend time and service and effort to make
their own country better and nobler, are going to do nothing for
internationalism that is worth doing. The heart that finds nothing to
love and work for in its neighbour is the heart that has nothing to
bring to the whole world.
Again, there must be reparation by the enemy. We cannot reconstruct
this world rightly if we do not enforce justice. A nation that has
broken every international and human law is a nation that must be made
to pay for its crimes as far as human justice can secure it.
Our six thousand murdered merchant seamen, the thousands of passengers
they have killed, the civilians they have bombed, are marshalled
against them, and the horrors of their frightfulness, deliberately
planned and carried out against the peoples they have held in bondage,
their refusal to even feed properly their prisoners and captive
people--are we to be told to reconstruct a world without reparation
for these and their other crimes?
We shall have a reconstructed world with right foundations, only when
the nations know that justice is throned internationally, and that
every crime is to be judged and punished. There can be no new world
without living faith, without real religion. A cheap and sentimental
humanitarism is no substitute for real faith--philosophies that seem
adequate in ordinary times are poor things when the soul of man
stands stripped of all its trappings and faces death and suffering and
watches agonies. Then the abiding eternal soul knows its own reality
and its oneness with the Divine and eternal, and the sacrifice of
Christ is a real living thing--and in the men's sacrifice they are
very near to Him.