"Peace on Earth" and the WORLD AT WAR! Incongruous? Have nearly 2000 years of proclaiming the teaching of the Prince of Peace been of no avail?

One might well gather from the rumbling of explosives, the agonized cries of masses of men locked in mortal combat, the mass enslavements, the horrible sacrifice exacted from combatants and non-combatants alike, the whir and stir of machines geared to produce lethal weapons, and the regimentation of social order the world over for the primary purpose of waging war, that "Peace on Earth" has no more reality than a pious dream.

"Peace on Earth" is no pious dream. It is a practical reality that has but temporarily gone into an eclipse. It is the one certainty that inspires the Allied nations to resist those forces that would destroy peaceful living.

We confess to God that we, as nations and as individuals, have ignored the revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ and have wrought upon mankind the terrible judgment that comes to those who trespass God’s laws. It is too late now to undo the past. We are now learning, the hard way, that God must not be ignored in the future. Whereas the immediate causes are manifold, the primary cause is national selfishness rooted in individual selfishness. We must start by practicing at least as much "brother of man" among races and nations as we have learned to practice among our forty-eight states.

Peace is more than cessation of hostilities. (The "peace" in Poland today is not peace.) Peace is to men of good will. In spite of present warfare, mankind is closer to the goal of peace than ever before in history. We know more of other races and other lands than ever before, and we really care about them more than ever before. As never before in warfare, mankind is concerned about winning peace, not in terms of empire and privilege, but in terms of brotherhood.

An eclipse comes when a dark body, or a shadow, dims celestial light. God grant that never again shall we permit the darkness and shadows of human creation to dim the Light that came into human experience at Bethlehem.