Sermon Preached by the Rev. Carleton Lacy, Agency Secretary'
of the American Bible Society, at Union Church Shanghai, on Empire Day, May 24, 1925
The celebration of any great na-Jas the bringer of peace that we tional holiday, especially in recent forget he. declared plainly, "I years since the close of the Great|came not to send peace, but a War, raises consideration of the' sword."
'The angels' chorus is 60 problems that confront the human joyous that we seldom hear the Yace as we look hopefully forward solemn words of Simeon to the to the abolition of warfare and the young child's mother, "A sword shall establishment of international goos-pierce through thine own' soul will, Whatever views we may hold So often do we turn to the 14th, fo the means most desirable for 15th, and 16th chapters of John to attaining to the consummation de-, find the words of peace and comfort vently to be wished for, there can' and consolation that we overlook de only general agreenient among the words of warning, the promises sincere Christian people in praying of hatred, weeping and sorrow, and earnestly and working unceasingly that Christ's spirit may be £0 completely regnant as to make all na-ions and races live 'i and concord with men of other colour Who are yet children of God and so are our brother men, This being so it may seem strange to choose as the text for our thoughts this evening the words of jesus as recorded in the tenth chapter of Matthew, 84th verse,—Think mot that I came to send peace on T came not to send Peace, but a sword."
Jesus, the Prince of Peace, is the world's' great disturber, For 19 centuries the gospel which he preached has been troubling the world, and that is just what he promised it should do, It is what he intended it to do, It is a failure if it does not do that. The tragedy of Christianity is that it is not the plain' prediction of 'a. clea ight through society, separating, Lose who for Christ's sake suiter from those who rejoice at thir suffering.
Tt has been so century after century, and the honest, impartial historian will have to' admit that [the gospel of Jesus has very often Keen the cause of contention and strife, Bloody massacres, bitter Persecution, warfare, these have followed in the train of the ambassadors of the Prince of [Feace, That isthe charge being laid against the missionary enters today. We are told that the teaching" in Christian schools has upset the social order, hat it has thrown the government into confusion; that. Christian vile age's refuse to conform to approved traditional practices, and. so" bring! division into the clans; that traders moral questions with which the community has been. confronted. The hideous traffic in opium is laid bare in our courts and by our news-Papers, we see its damning effects jon every side, and the churches appears to have no organic respon sibility or corporate interest. The charge is freely made that prosstitution is wantonly practised in defiance of law within a stone's [throw of our church doors—and we leave it for a few of our members their personal capacity to voice their protests in the papers or serve on some committee and risk their personal popularity, while the church contents itself with making' an occasional contribution to the budget of the -Moral Welfa League. The Municipal Council offers "us now an opportunity to lift a litre of the load from the backs of little children Jand we wish the enthusiastic work-well while we mind our business and say our prayers, These are divisive matters. Some in the charch might take a different point of view. "We have all we can do to keep our Sunday services going and we dare not cast a sword into the community, "Think not that T came to send peace on the earth," said Jesus, "I came not to send Peace, but'a sword." The Church of Jesus Christ in the world and right here in Shanghai needs to take up that sword and wield it. vigorously until this community turned upside down and right sid Shanghai Drifting to Hel Need I add that the dynamic of such a fight must be the love of Christ-—the love of righteousness? There, is a rugged loyalty coldier's Christianity,—expressed in many of the lines by Studdert Kennedy. I came across these the other day:—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.