Guest Editorial

By Lucy W. Peabody (President from 1927-1935)

"Long before nations had organized for disarmament and treaties against war, the greatest and most effective Internationalism called for a spiritual league, based not on a treaty of Versailles, but on the Treaty of Bethlehem. The first Christmas Eve in Palestine, nineteen hundred years before radio was known, there came a song on the air with a message from heaven to humble shepherds. Then the risen Lord gave the Great Commission: 'Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel.' Every Christian is subject to this divine draft for Internationalism.

"Internationalism today seems a modern proposition, yet as we go back into the beginning of the Church of Christ, we find the last wish and command of our Lord was not for His own people or His own country. The world vision comes to us from God Who 'gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' 'Whosoever' applies to every race, every people."

"We rejoice that in our Association of Baptists, we have been led by the Spirit of God to the very simple program left us by our risen Lord."

[From Peabody, Lucy W., A Wider World for Women, Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, 1936, and The Message magazine of Nov-Dec., 1932]