The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-02-06

it is net moral strength but moral
weakness. Even the Bible says, if it
be possible, 80 far as in you lies, live
peaceably with all men; but the con-
ditions of peace are peace with honor,
not peace with oppression, insult and
imposition. The law of kindness
should be the law of life, but kind
ness is not indulgence, kindness is
not blindness, and even Christ, who
was incarnate kindness, famed out in
great passion gusts against the hy-
pocrisy of scribes and pharisees,
"vipers," and braided the scourge of
cords and used it on the backs of those
who DETAINED and degraded the holy
place. We are to be patient, but pa
tience and imposition should not be
yoked together. A nation does not
need self-esteem but it does need self
respect, pride of national character,
that in no self-laudation should make
other nations respect its flag; and
that which nations peers would not
dare to do, its interiors in strength,
greatness and intelligence should not
be permitted to do.
The treaty of arbitration, now before
the Senate is significant, as marking
the Towering and fruitage of long
growing causes. Had it been a spor-
adic impulse it would be without sig
niticance, because it would be without
permanence, but it comes through
long processes of national and moral
evolutions, and it is hopeful because
significant of the changed conditions
of humanity. The heroes of history
are the heroes of war, and liberty
owes much to the clash of swords and
the strife of battle, but war is terri
BILE, garlanded as it is with the deeds
of heroes, adorned as it is with pa
tient valor; splendid as have been the
trophies of liberty, war is the worlds
great evil. Its battlefields have been
fertilized with human blood and it's
monuments rest on broken hearts.
The tears it has caused would make
rivers, and the graves that it has dug
are numberless. The heaviest bur-
dens borne by nations are those of
war, and next to their vices the might
lest leeches on the industry of men
are the standing armies of nations.
The greatest soldiers condemn war as
the prince of evils. War is barbar-
ism, said Gen. Sherman; and those
who have fought with patriot courage
on bloody fields do not welcome, but
dread war, while "they only jest at
scars who never felt a wound" To
be sure, there is something worse
than war. An indifference to the
welfare of a nation that would palli-
ate wrong by compromise, that would
refuse to defend the oppressed be-
cause conscience slumbers and cour-
age is dead.
But, with all the history of epast
behind us, the disputes of nations,
like the disputes of individuals, ought
to be settled by intelligence, rather
than by animal strength. The duel
has disappeared from civilized So
ciety, and the contests of individuals
are settled by our courts; and why
should not the larger disputes of ma
tions be settled by courts of arbitra-
tration, where equity and justice shall
legislate with wisdom and conscience?
We are living in an age which hon
ors humanity and gives promise of
great strides in civilization. Right,
not might, is honored now; reason
sways nations, and not passion; the
love of order, and not the lust of con-
quest. The wheels that turn are
of industry, not those of war; and the
burrows of the harvest field are more
alluring than those of the battlefield.
1t is felt that peace hath its victories
not less than war, and slowly and
surely the Prince of Peace is ruling
mankind.
England has covered her lawns
with monuments to Nelson and Well
ington. France has raised memoir
ials to Napoleon. The days will come
when these will seem to be the rec
ords of barbaric age, and men
will raise memorials to those who
have saved life, rather than to
those who have destroyed it; to
statesmen who have preserved ma
tional honor by the ways of peace;
to inventors, who have enlarged in
dustry; teachers who have trained
men in intelligence and righteous
ness; philanthropists, who have en-
riched the poor by their sympathy
and helped them by their benefac-
tions. We need, amid the discour-
agements Of life, its failures, vices,
cruelties and expressions, to get all