Page images
PDF
EPUB

The

Goddess

of Peace

Slow to Wrath, but

The

Christian
Soldier

Peace is a goddess only when she comes with sword girt on thigh.-American Ideals.

The American people are slow to wrath, but when their wrath is once kindled it burns like a consuming flame.

Addresses and Messages.

Let it be a matter of pride with the Christian in the army that in the time of danger no man is nearer that danger than he is. Let it be a matter of pride to the officer whose duty it is to fight that no man, when the country calls on him to fight, fights better than he does. That is how you can do more for Christianity, for the name of Christians, you who are in the army. Let the man in a civil governmental position so bear himself that it shall be acceptable as axiomatic that when you have a Christian, a graduate of a missionary school, in a public office, the efficiency and honesty of that office are guaranteed. That is the kind of Christianity that counts in a public official, that counts in the military official-the Christianity that makes him do his duty in war, or makes him do his duty in peace.

University of Cairo Address,

Unjust war is to be abhorred; but woe to the nation that does not make ready to hold its own in time of need against all who would harm it; and woe thrice over to the nation in which the average man loses the fighting edge, loses the power to serve as a soldier if the day of need should arise. University of Berlin Address.

Woe to the Nation

that Will not

Fight

Words

The leaders of the Red Terror prattled Deeds not of peace while they steeped their hands in the blood of the innocent; and many a tyrant has called it peace when he has scourged honest protest into silence. Our words must be judged by our deeds; and in striving for a lofty ideal we must use practical methods; and if we cannot attain all at one leap, we must advance towards it step by step, reasonably content so long as we do actually make some progress in the right direction.

Address before the Nobel Prize Commission.

May

Cover All

I speak as a practical man, and whatever Arbitration I now advocate I actually tried to do when I was for the time being the head of a great Questions nation, and keenly jealous of its honor and interest. I ask other nations to do only what

Arbitration I should be glad to see my own nation

May
Cover All
Questions

do.

The advance can be made along several lines. First of all, there can be treaties of arbitration. There are, of course, states so backward that a civilized community ought not to enter into an arbitration treaty with them, at least until we have gone much further than at present in securing some kind of international police action. But all really civilized communities should have effective arbitration treaties among themselves. I believe that these treaties can cover almost all questions liable to arise between such nations, if they are drawn with the explicit agreement that each contracting party will respect the other's territory and its absolute sovereignty within that territory, and the equally explicit agreement that (aside from the very rare cases where the nation's honor is vitally concerned) all other possible subjects of controversy will be submitted to arbitration.-Ibid.

VI

Heroes of Peace and War

Hence it is that the fathers of these men and ours also, and they themselves likewise, being nurtured in all freedom and well born, have shown before all men, many and glorious deeds in public and private, deeming it their duty to fight for the cause of liberty and the Greeks, even against Greeks, and against Barbarians for all the Greeks.

PLATO: Menexenus.

Come, Peace! not like a mourner bowed

For honor lost and dear ones wasted,

But proud, to meet a people proud,
With eyes that tell of triumph tasted!'

LOWELL.

« PreviousContinue »