________________
INTERNATIONAL PEACE
149
inen and nations do not undo the damage they have done to weaker men and communities. The distinction of colour must go ; that of religion itself inust cease. There shall be no inore favourable treatments, zones of influence or commercial privileges, for one set of men against another ; and the lynching of the niggers' must stop. It is only when this has been accomplished, in the hearts of men, not in words alone, that we shall be deemed to be seriously contemplating a step that will no longer fall in the category of unpractical wordy camouflage. We must show sincere repentance, undoing what damage we have done to one another as nations, and start with a clean slate for the future, If any one think that a mere referring to the moral precepts contained in religious scriptures will be able to wipe out evil from the hearts of inen and the world both, let him ponder over the following from Mr. J. M. Robertson's "Short history of Christianity", which is not quoted here in a spirit of malice, but as furnishing a purely psychological basis for the investigation of the causes of the failure of different religions, to persuade man to live happily with his fellow man, what is true of Christianity being also true of most other religions.
“ It is in regard to the influence of religious teaching on international relations, however, that the saddest conclusions are forced upon the student of Christian history. The foregoing pages have shown how potent has been organized Christianity to promote strife and slaughter, how impotent to restrain them. If any isntance could be found in history of a definite prevention of war on grounds of Christian as distinguished from prudential motives, it would have been there recorded. So flagrant is the record that the Christian defence veers round from the position above viewed to one which unconsciously places the source of civilization in human reason. Yet even thus the historic facts are mis-stated. The énormity of Christian strises in the past is now apologetically
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
