The Friends Peace Testimony
InWorld War I (US)
Part II, cont.
Some Particular Advices-- Concluded
As to the former we believe the Master to have been a religious teacher in normal times whose words were addressed to individuals lining in those times. We cannot think that He would have remained neutral against organized savagery. In the political affairs of a nation we are to "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s." Jesus made known His attitude by the questions His hearers asked Him. We cannot think that if the long history of Germany’s intrigue and barbarism was related to Him and the question asked--Is it lawful for us to rise and resist the aggression of this mighty power by force of arms, or covet bondage for ourselves and our children ?" that He would have answered--"Let the giant have his way, resist him not."
Rather, we believe would He have said, "They that take the sword shall perish with the sword and in such a cause whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose Ms life, the same shall save it." We remember His words in the 23rd Chapter of Matthew and his armed forcible driving of the money changers from the temple with the destruction of their property; His statement that He came not to send peace but a sword; His injunction to His disciples to sell their garments and buy swords; His prophecy that wars "must needs be," and many other sayings that were not the language of slavish submission to aggression and evil but of manly resistance. His teaching that we love our enemies can, we think, be made to mean complete non-resistance to national aggression and evil only by tearing them out from the rest of the New Testament and their setting in Oriental thought and life as well as by ignoring the conduct of the Master Himself.
It is perhaps reasonable to believe that God works through human instruments and that He wishes us to be "His Hands" for reward and punishment. This course has, we believe, been patiently and forcibly stated to us by the President of the United States who has shown us that the "right is more precious than peace." We proclaim our loyalty to the Cause of Civilization, and to the President of the United States, and our willingness to help in all ways that may be opened to us by the Inward Light, which is the foundation of our faith.
Although representing a large body of opinion, in the interests of space only a few signatures are appended.
Fred. W. Taylor,
George W. Lukens,
Isaac H. Clothier, Jr.,
Morris Clothier,
Wm. C. Sproul,
J. Willis Martin,
Edward Martin,
Charles E. Mather,
George K. Johnson,
Howard Cooper Johnson,
Joseph Wharton Lippincott,
Robert M. Janney,
William Byron Forbush,
George L Mitchell,
Benjamin Walton,
Lawrence P. Sharples,
Caleb S. Miller,
Edwin J. Durnall,
Allan Farquhar,
Harold B. Stabler,
J. Gibson McIlvain,
James A. Bunting,
Robert Riddle,
George J. Watson,
James Buckman,
James Dixon,
J. Russell Smith,
Dr. Edward Palmer,
Edgar J. Taylor,
A. H. Tomllnson,
B. Clayton Walton,
Howard W. Lippincott,
John A. Miller,
Philip M. Sharples,
J. Chandler Barnard,
Philip T. Sharples,
John Russell Hayes,
Hugh Mcllvain,
William J. Serrill,
George B. Miller,
Isaac Roberts,
David L. Lukens,
Rowland Comly,
Wilmer Atkinson,
Henry Gawthrop,
Nathan B. Gaskill,
Robert B. Lamb,
Charles E. Hires,
Edwin J. Johnson,
F. Warren Marshall,
William S. Ingram,
Horace Roberts,
William P. Haines,
Thaddeus S. Kenderdine,
Edwin B. Newcomer,
Howard E. Jones,
Joseph T. Bunting,
Albert G. Thatcher,
Lewis F. Shoemaker,
William P. Painter,
Henry Shreve,
James A. Walker,
Walter H. Jenkins,
J. Carroll Hayes,
Garrett Kirk,
William P. Leedom,
Clarence Vanderbeck,
George H. Brooke,
Alfred Marshall,
Richard Mather Marshall,
Walter Clothier,
C. B. Cochran,
John Burt,
Jos. S. Levering Wharton,
Walter E. Cox,
William S. Hallowell,
Dr. James Tyson
Frederick C. Field,
Samuel L Borton,
Samuel M. Brosius,
George B. Farquhar,
Asa M. Stabler,
Norman Mellor,
Maris M. Hollingsworth,
Swithin Shortlidge,
E. Wharton Shortlidge,
H. Lewellyn Chandler,
B. Frank Mercer,
J. Walter Jefferis,
Henry W. Marshall,
J. Howard Thompson,
W. Penn Hoopes,
Thomas W. Sidwell,
Isaac H. Clothier,
Thomas M. Bartlett,
George L. Bartlett,
Charles Evans,
Joseph W. Swain,
Albert Stabler,
Elliott Richardson,
Emmor Roberts,
Horace Mather Lippincott,
Marshall P. Sullivan,
Harvey Ellis,
William J. Cooper,
Isaac G. Darlington,
Edward C. Wilson.
