forth in favor of it and gave to it the role of Christ the Messiah. The executive committee of this Federal Council met in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and on December 12, 1918, it passed an endorsement of President Wilson’s plan for a League of Nations. It adopted the following Declaration (quoted in part):

The war crisis of the world has passed, but a world crisis is upon us.

. . . “Are we to lapse back,” asked Lloyd George, “into the old national rivalries, animosities and competitive armaments, or are we to imitate the reign on earth of the Prince of Peace?”

The time has come to organize the world for truth and right, justice and humanity. To this end, as Christians we urge the establishment of a League of Free Nations at the coming Peace Conference. Such a League is not a mere political expedient; it is rather the political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth.

. . . The heroic dead will have died in vain unless out of victory shall come a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.

The Church has much to give and much to gain. It can give a powerful sanction by imparting to the new international order something of the prophetic glory of the Kingdom of God. What is the Kingdom of God, if it be not the triumph of God’s will in the affairs of men, “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”? And what is this vision of a world-federation of humanity organized on a basis of justice and fair-dealing, for the effective and impartial maintenance of peace, if it be not of the Kingdom of God?

The Church can give a spirit of good-will, without which no League of Nations can endure. . . .

The League of Nations is rooted in the Gospel. Like the Gospel, its objective is “peace on earth, good-will toward men.” Like the Gospel, its appeal is universal.

Let us implore our Heavenly Father, God Almighty, that the Peace Delegates of the Nations may be guided by the Divine Spirit and enlightened by the Divine Wisdom to the end that they may embody in the new fabric of the world’s life His righteous, loving and holy will. . . .

31. What did the Council’s Executive Committee do for having the above documents presented, and what did it send to President Wilson?

³¹ The executive committee of the Federal Council of the Churches also passed supporting Resolutions. One of these was for the appointing of a “suitable Special Commission representing, so far as practicable the Protestant Churches of America, to present the above documents to the Peace Conference of the Allied and Associated Nations.” Following the adoption of the Declaration and Resolutions, a recommendation was acted upon and a cablegram was sent to President Wilson at Paris by the executive committee, advising him of its action. Later, a letter dated December 18, 1918, was addressed to President Wilson, enclosing a copy of the cablegram, the Declaration and the supporting resolution. It also told of the appointing of the Special Commission to present officially the Declaration to the Peace Conference soon to convene.e

(To be continued)

“Caricatures of What Christ Intended”

Speaking of Christendom’s churches, British clergyman H. R. L. Sheppard, at one time canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral, wrote in If I Were Dictator: “Christianity is not in possession. . . . While religion attracts, the churches frequently repel by their strange and inhuman attention to secondary and irrelevant affairs. . . . It is impossible to suppose that the complicated forms which Christianity has so far assumed are any better than caricatures of what Christ intended.”