Page:War and the Christian Faith.pdf/22

to me, to see the obscene horrors and torments of the war, and then to utter the "Almighty and most merciful Father." Yet, individually, we are, most of us, ready to confess that good things are born of torments. "These are they that have come out of great tribulation": that is a text. But what artist does not acknowledge that his book, or his picture, or his statue has come out of great tribulation. Nay, I knew an editor who used to say that every journalist worth his salt had to rack his brains before he could write half a dozen lines fit to print in the paper. Now, racking, whether of brains or of limbs, is a painful process. It is possible, then, nay, probable, that horrible and painful processes may be necessary processes. There are terrible operations in surgery, burnings and cuttings, which give life to the indivi-