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Another year has passed, and once again I have been asked to write
a few words of preface to the Report of the Vegetarian Federal Union.
The Report itself is significant of the change that is passing
over the face of Society. The Vegetarian movement advances by leaps
and bounds; no longer despised and rejected of men, this doctrine
of the perfect way in diet begins to number its disciples in every
class of the community. The Jubilee Year through which we have just
passed, with its memorable meetings, was the fitting crown for the
first half-century of conflict; but as we turn our eyes from the
perplexed past to the fateful future - we may well rejoice in the
growing glories of the golden day.
There is no longer need for fear; the lions of the portal are vanished
and gone; the path of perfection begins to wander through dewy orchards
and past banks of fragrant flowers. It is no longer difficult to
be a Vegetarian; the shadow of the cross of sacrifice is lustred
with the shining of the crown of triumph. Even Saul is among the
prophets, and the prescriber of pills and potions begins to meditate
upon the mysteries of Hygiene. The Press is become our most faithful
trumpeter, and proclaims "urbi et orbi'' the marvels
of the coming change. Everywhere the spirit of Vegetarianism is
abroad; the world is becoming more tender-hearted; it is renewing
its youth, and the fire of a fervent faith is pulsing like the breath
of Spring through its palsied veins - the blind begin to see, the
ears of the deaf are unstopped - and, as the surging waves of hope
and joy burst through the icy barriers of destruction, the dumb
begin to sing, and the lame to leap.
Once again the promise of the first Paradise rings with delicious
music through the tortured air. "Be fruitful, and multiply
and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living
thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said: Behold I have given
you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth,
and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed
; to you it shall be for meat. . . . And God saw everything that
He had made, and behold it was very good." Here is the gospel
of Vegetarianism, pure and undiluted from the fountain-head once
more the centuries roll backward, and all the murky clouds of sin,
and shame, and sorrow are transfigured with the radiance of eternal
Love. Once again from Sinai's top there thunders the awful warning,
"Thou shalt do no murder - thou shalt not kill," and the
prophet makes clear the interpretation when he declares, He that
slayeth an ox shall be as he that slew a man." There may be
degrees of moral turpitude in the ghastly gamut of slaughter - but
there is no essential difference. The sportsman who ruthlessly destroys
the fowl of the air, or the hunter who relentlessly does to death
the brute of the field, come under the same condemnation - they
have broken that which they cannot mend, they have brought into
the world the curse of cruelty, and these curses in the divine Providence
come home to roost. The butcher, as he pole-axes the bullock or
cuts the throat of the helpless lamb, is the minister of Satan to
fulfil the lusts of the flesh.
How shall we escape this great damnation, this loss of love, this
lack of life, but by forsaking for ever the dark dominion of Death.
The world is awaking - the psychological moment is come - the pæan
of the Psalmist begins to clothe itself with actuality. "O,
thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end."
Who, then, will be so dull, who so apathetic as not to join in
the victory of the Vegetarians. Already, beneath the trumpet blast
of the last fifty years the walls of the jerry-built Jericho of
the shambles begin to tumble down. "Escape for your lives,
look not behind you," is the warning for the nineteenth century
Lot. In the divine arithmetic, a thousand years are but as one day,
and one day as a thousand years. It may well he that we have come
to the beginning of the end; as the river rolls near to the cataract,
the speed increases, and as the dominion of the truth draws closer
to the final catastrophe, so will the Redemption of the world make
haste. To every one of us it is given to-day to take part in stirring
events - the air is tense with conflict - Christendom calls for
a champion - the Armageddon of Alcohol draws nigh - the coming of
the Lord is at hand - the humblest worker in the Vegetarian movement
shall be the hero of the Kingdom of God.
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