SIR WILLIAM ROBERTSON NICOLL
[An address delivered at an Intercessory Service in the City Temple on Friday, October 30, 1914.]
We hated war with a steadily growing hatred and abhorrence. We hate it more than ever, and look with longing for its end. A great and powerful movement for peace was at work in the world, and has not been defeated, though it has been stayed. But we never said that all wars were to be condemned. We knew too well that huge armaments were being piled up. We became familiar with the language of menace and hate. We had to say, "I am for peace, but when I speak they are for war." At last the storm burst upon us, and found us but partially prepared, while the enemy had prepared by all means—fair and foul. When the time came, we calmly took our side. Never in any previous war was the nation so united and so steadfast. We had not renounced our quest for peace, but we saw that something came before that. That something was righteousness. Our Lord Jesus Christ is first King of Righteousness, and then King of Peace.
First, righteousness. Had it not been for that we might have had a kind of peace. It would not have lasted long unless we had become so craven as to fear a fight in any cause. It would have been a selfish, ignoble, and cowardly peace, bought at the price of open and cynical treachery. We might have renounced our plighted word, our honour, our obligations. We might have torn up the scrap of paper and left little Belgium to her fate. But it could not be. It would have been a peace which would have made us the scorn of the whole world, and left us without a friend. Such perfidy and such ignominy would have been many times worse than war.
While the battles rage our hearts are often anxious and heavy. They will be for months to come. We shall have bitter news as well as joyful news. Our endurance and our faith will be tested to the uttermost. Consider how much more wretched we should have been if we had been out of
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