The world has just passed through a ghastly experience of war at its
worst. Never in history has there been such slaughter, such agony, such
waste, such desolation, in a brief space of time, as in the four
terrible years of conflict which German militarism forced on the world
in the twentieth century. Having seen it, I know what it means.

Now we have "supped full with horrors." We have had more than enough of
that bloody banquet The heart of humanity longs for peace, as it has
always longed, but now with a new intensity, greater than ever before.
Yet the second course of war continues. The dogs fight for the crumbs
under the peace-table. Ignorant armies clash by night. Cities are
bombarded and sacked. The barbarous Bolsheviki raise the red flag of
violence and threaten a war of classes throughout the world.

You can never make a golden age out of leaden men, or a peaceful world
out of lovers of strife.

Where shall peace be found? How shall it be attained and safeguarded?
Evidently the militarists have assaulted it with their doctrine that
might makes right. Evidently the pacifists have betrayed it with their
doctrine of passive acceptance of wrong. Somewhere between these two
errors there must be a ground of truth on which Christians can stand to
defend their faith and maintain their hope of a better future for the
world.

Let me begin by speaking of _Peace in the Soul_. That is where religion
begins, in the heart of a person. Its flowers and fruits are social.
They are for the blessing of the world. But its root is personal. You
can never start with a class--conscious or a mass--conscious
Christianity. It must begin with just you and God.