Eternal God a tribal God.  The unconscious humor in the statements of one or two men as to their tribal God idea has added to the gayety of nations.  But when any view is laughed at, it is doomed.  From the very moment that the doctrine of election, that made God love a few aristocrats and pass the non-elect by, became a matter of joke in the comic papers, that theory was dead.  Not otherwise is it with this idea of a tribal God.  When Barry Paine begins to say,

    Led by William, as you tell,
    God has done extremely well,

the tribal idea has been relegated to the theological scrap-heap.  The peasant’s view must go.  In this age men must be citizens of all countries and of the universe.  God is a sun Who shines for the poor man’s hut as truly as for the rich man’s palace.  The Judge of all the earth is also the Father of all the races, and He will do men good and not evil.

In view of the events of the last few months, all Americans now realize as never before the futility of war as a means of settling disputes.  Indeed, it may be doubted whether any war has ever settled any question.  Defeat did not convince the South that they were wrong in their idea of State rights or slavery.  If the South has given up both ideas today it is because time, events, and social progress have changed their view, not because the sword convinced them.  Bismarck’s victory at Versailles and von Moltke’s at Sedan did not settle the dispute with France.  To keep one billion dollars of indemnity Germany must have spent five billions on forts and armies in the government of Alsace and Lorraine.  Germany’s apparent victory simply put Germany’s trouble with France out at compound interest, and left the next generation of Germans to pay several billions of dollars of accrued debt through hatred.  Plainly it is folly not to reconstitute the map of Europe.  The frontier lines of the geographer should exactly coincide with the racial lines.  The German race, with their peculiar ideals, ought not to try to govern the French race.  It is an expensive experiment.  It is an impossible experiment.  The plan is doomed to failure in advance.  And when the day of payment comes it is quite certain that the questions at issue will not have been settled by regiments of soldiers.  They must finally be settled by an appeal to some court of arbitration that will do justice and love mercy; that will insist upon the rights of the smaller States, and make it impossible for the great ones of the earth to trespass upon the property and the liberties of brave little peoples.

Imperialism Confuses Men’s Judgments.