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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
American writers on peace and against war
Women writers on peace and war
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Martha Shepard Lippincott
The World’s Crisis
“Peace be on earth,” O Jesus, Lord,
Where is the mercy thou hast taught?
It seems the mission of thy life
The sinful world hath not yet caught.
‘Tis seeking still the calf of gold,
And sacrificing lives to it.
How shall we answer for such waste
When at the judgment seat we sit?
The universal brotherhood
That thou wouldst have mankind to feel
Is turned to jarring enmity,
When we at mammon’s altar kneel.
Then strife and crime and war combine
To send their horrors to the world,
And men forget the flag of peace
That thou dost so desire unfurled.
The mind of mankind seems on fire
And burning to acquire vast wealth,
While love and happiness and peace
Will disappear as if by stealth.
Men kill each other for their wealth,
And nations now for mammon fight,
Forgetting all God’s higher laws,
As they their nation’s honor blight.
Will selfishness destruction cause,
Or will the nations cease to fight
Ere they have lost the power to see,
And follow in the Father’s light?
Let them regain their trust in thee,
Dear Christ, and learn thy loving ways,
Then earth will find its sin removed,
And blessed will be with peaceful days.
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