"In closing, I presume you would like to know more fully my opinion of war, and in giving it I will say that if you murder a man by shooting or stabbing him you are merciful, but if you kill him by exploding an eleven-inch shell, in many cases he will be torn to fragments and his dismembered body scattered over an acre of ground. In other instances that I have seen at Mukden and 203 Metre Hill, men have been mortally wounded and left an unrecognizable mass of flesh and blood, which for days heaved with anguish and life, while others, after hours and sometimes days of agony, died with broken bayonets protruding from their backs, having entered as gallant breasts as ever swelled with breath and life.
"I have forsworn war for ever, after the dreadful scenes which I have witnessed, and there were scenes which I did not witness, in far-off Russia and Japan, which were infinitely more appalling, where was seen the dreary sobbing of broken-hearted widowhood and the piteous wailing of hungry, fatherless children. Added to this was the pale-faced sorrow of sisters bereft of brothers and sweethearts, who had lost those who would have been nearer than brothers, and who now with broken hearts ceased to live and began only to exist in hopeless despair. The Russians met in their foes armies trained after the pattern of the German military system, and none of us ever again desire to cross weapons with men trained as those are, who have learned from that land of advanced scholarship and military superiority. The Japanese were foemen worthy of their steel, but instead of their arms being dishonored fresh lustre was shed upon them."
At the close of his address Mr. Devoau was applauded to the echo, after adding as a rider that in his denunciation of war he would, of course, make an exception of defensive operations.
The next Sabbath in the morning service Mr. Melvin started the tabernacle congregation by announcing that as he would soon reach the retiring line, and as the immense congregation, with its many needs, overtaxed his strength, he had long thought of an associate who, when he retired, would take full charge. Continuing, he said: "I have spoken to Mr. Devoau and asked him if he would not abandon the thought of a life so selfish as that of making himself one of the foremost iron founders in Canada and join me in the work of preaching and teaching. His answer has been favorable, if it is the will of the people, and he has further said that if it is their will he will accept it as the Master's will."
A meeting of the officers of the church was called for Tuesday evening, when the matter was discussed, and Mr. Devoau's profession of faith heard, when he told them that he was of French-Canadian parentage and could not subscribe to every technicality. His frankness and fearlessness won every heart, a vote was taken, and he was unanimously called to be associate pastor of Mount Zion.
CHAPTER VI.
FURTHER TEACHINGS AND HOW THEY ARE ESTIMATED.
After his ordination the new preacher took his place in the pulpit once every Sunday, and being now a close student of theology as well as of other subjects, he soon became an eloquent and powerful speaker, and the entire congregation was delighted with him. The last Sunday of the national year, Mr. Melvin announced a sermon on "The Ideal Relationship of Capital and Labor," prompted by the recent trouble at the foundry between employers and their hands. The preacher of the day said: "Beware of so-called socialism, for it trenches very closely on the borderland of anarchism, and after having listened to lectures and sermons an hour long and read many books upon that much-abused topic, I am constrained to turn to the teaching of the Man of Nazareth, and find in that teaching something more rational and common-sense than elsewhere. In the first place our Saviour recognized property rights when he said, 'Render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God the things which are God's.' This doctrine is for the workingman as well as for his employer, and enables both to procure homes for themselves and hold them in their own right.
"We cannot fail to recognize the fatherhood of God, and if so then we must recognize the brotherhood of man, for all men truly should be such. If you and I have come to that point where we regard every man as our brother, on the authority of Jesus Christ, the social problem will be solved, and the capitalist will regard and treat the man who toils for him as the son of his Father God, and the toiler will regard the employer as not only his brother, but co-heir with himself to an incorruptible inheritance. Much depends, brethren, on the exercise of that charity which translates love. Love one another and you will use one another aright. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and there was life as the wounded Israelites looked upon it, so there is life in a look at the crucified One, and there is more than that, there is adjustment of relationships between husband and wife, between pastor and people, between citizens and their chief magistrate, between capital and labor. I can do no better than lift my hand toward the sky and utter that little classic, 'Ecce Homo,' and He is the Man of Sorrow."