Now Christianity took this instinct, and pointed out that it was foolish to use your courage in cutting the throats of other poor silly fellows, besides being wrong; and that there were other enemies better worth fighting against, such as the 'despotisms and empires, the forces that control this dark world the—spiritual hosts of evil arrayed against us in the heavenly warfare'.[1]
And for some centuries all went well. The despotisms and empires showed fight; and Christians found that they needed the sword and shield and breastplate and helmet and the whole armour of God. They died in many forms of mortal agony, they proved then: courage to the utmost; Christianity had found the 'moral equivalent of war', long before William James asked for it.
Men, after all, only want to be men. They want the strong simple things, they want comradeship; and they want the fire of the Spirit to burn at white heat sometimes.
'One of the lessons I learnt,' says General Smuts, speaking of his experiences in the Boer War, 'was that, under the stress of great difficulties such as we were then passing through, the only things which survived were the simple human feelings, feelings of loyalty to your fellows and feelings of comradeship and patriotism, which carried you through dangers and privation.'[2]
