Doctrines of Prayer, Faith, and Peace by James Hastings: Hastings, James - Doctrine of Peace: 0.3. Preface

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Doctrines of Prayer, Faith, and Peace by James Hastings: Hastings, James - Doctrine of Peace: 0.3. Preface



TOPIC: Hastings, James - Doctrine of Peace (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 0.3. Preface

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PREFACE.

MY father has left a volume on Peace. Shortly before his death he corrected the final proofs. It is fitting so, for during his life he preached peace.

In his ‘Notes of Recent Exposition’ in the Expository Times he wrote of the Copenhagen Conference, and quoted these words of Dr. Jowett: “I was impressed with the grave necessity of demonstrating our will-to-peace as men demonstrated their will-to-war. . . . Behind Governments and politicians, behind diplomatists and militarists, there is a great silent world of men and women yearning for peace. Delegates from every land spoke about it. . . . The people are not numb; they are only dumb. They do not lack heart, they are only in want of a voice. They cannot demonstrate their desires. They cannot speak so as to make Governments hear and heed. They need an organ of expression, and where can they find an organ except in the Church of the Living God? What is the Church for but to be a mouth for the dumb, an instrument to utter the silent yearnings of the purest and the best in every land?”

But Dr. Hastings believed that a further duty is laid upon the Church. The people are not all seeking an “organ of expression,” for they are not all seeking peace. A fresh moral force to move them to the will-to-peace is needed. He hoped that preachers in all Churches would make Peace a message in the coming winter. “Long before the Genoa and the Copenhagen Conferences were held,” he wrote, “the conviction came to us that Peace must be preached beyond everything else, and a volume was prepared to serve as the basis of discourse. . . . The whole Biblical doctrine of Peace is discussed in it—the Peace of God and the Peace of Christ, Peace with God, with Conscience, and with Men, and, above all, the question of Peace or War.” This is the volume.

EDWARD HASTINGS.