There are some Lutheran pastors in Germany who work for an ideal,
who detest the propagation of hate. Why, one may naturally ask, do
they not cry out against such a pernicious practice? They cannot,
for they are muzzled. When a pastor enters this Church of which
the Supreme War Lord is the head, his first oath is unqualified
allegiance to his King and State. If he keeps his oath he can
preach no reform, for the State, being a perfect institution, can
have no flaw. If he breaks his oath, which happens when he raises
his voice in the slightest criticism, he is silenced. This means
that he must seek other means of earning a livelihood--a thing
almost impossible in a land where training casts a man in a rigid
mould. Thus these parsons have their choice between going on
quietly with their work and being nonentities in the public eye or
bespattering the non-Germanic section of the world with the mire of
hate. I regret to say that most of them choose the latter course.

While I was in Germany I read a lengthy and solicitous letter from
Pastor Winter, of Bruch, addressed to Admiral von Tirpitz, who had
just retired for the ostensible reason that he was unwell, but
whose illness was patently only diplomatic. The good pastor
expressed the hope that his early recovery would permit the admiral
to continue his noble work of obliterating England. Pastor Falk,
of Berlin, is a typical fire-eater. His Whitsuntide address was an
attack upon Anglo-Saxon civilisation and the urgent German mission
of smashing Britain and America. The Easter sermons of hate, one
of which I heard at Stettin, were especially bloodthirsty.
Congregations are larger than usual on that day, which is intended
to commemorate a spirit quite the opposite to hate. The clergy are
instructed not to attack Prance or Russia, and so it comes about
that, as I have previously pointed out, in Prussia, Hanover,