The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1898-03-25
PULPIT EDITORIALS.
Delivered by Dr. Frank Crane at Trinity
Church, Chicago. Preceding the Usual
Sermon Sunday, Feb. 81, 1898.
ARMS AND THE MAN.
Copyright, 1881

concerning the Dreyfus incident is the
immense significance of one little hui
man life. That is all 1t amounts to. II
Is one man, and confessedly rather q
poor specimen at that, against a great,
gllttering, shoulder strapped and
plumed institution called the French
army. Some enthusiastic Frenchmen
are deliberately pitting the value Of one
soul against the entire prestige and
power of the military profession. No
where but In France could this be done
80 dramatically. And the soul seems to
be getting the best of 1t.
Captain Dreyfus, from all accounts.
appears to be rather a bedraggled hero.
He was not grand, magnificent, nor
otherwise describable by Gallo superla-
tives but just an ordinary army cap
tain with the virtues, vices, glister and
foibles of his class, he perhaps having
the vices and foibles a trifie empha-
sized. He was not companionable. His
Fellow Officers disliked him. Some say
1t was because he was connected with
Jews. But that is the last epithet Of
malice. Race hatred is the meanest,
ugliest and most tigerish thing in civil
lied beings. The fact seems to be that
he was an unpopular, while Major Es-
terhazy was popular-I was going to
say rascal, but thinking better of it
Will say-gentleman. Gentleman Is the
most convenient and wide word In our
language; 1t can include every sort Of
man, from Claude Duval to John Hall
fax. / trust therefore to get into no
trouble with these truculent warriors
II shall call them-gentlemen. Ester
hazy was the kind Of man that one
siaps On the back and calls "sly dog"
winking the eye the while: Dreyfus
rs the kind of man one would look in the
eye, winkless, and call a "sneaking
cur" both of which terms equal the
same thing, but by the paradox Of our
social system, setting all mathematic
axioms at defiance, do not equal each
other But-we are all honorable men.
Strangely enough, the very individual
insignifcance Of the central figure Of
this unique episode serves to increase
the significance of the episode. The
pother assumes all the more import
ance because there is nothing in the
personality Of the man to account for
1t. 1t is as if Providence had arranged
that 1t is not Dreyfus, and not an army
captain, and not anybody's relative, nor
the owner of any moneybags, but only
a human being" that can cause all
this blood to boil. And what we OBJ
serve in this case is not an isolated in
stance: for the most prominent fact in
our civilization is what M. Esterhazy
might call it's chicken heartedness, or
M Iaf ioht
ness to whatever causes pain or threat
ems life. The revolutionary ancestors
of the present dramatis personae in
this theatric incident did not chop down
kings and make thrones into kindling
wood for nothing Liberty, equality,
fraternity" means the apotheosis of the
individual, his rights and privileges as
against the whole world.
80
1t Is common view among super
fetal readers to consider the French
revolution a real failure, a cataclysm
of unmeaning horror. That is mis-
take There never was a profounder
success. Fearfuily, turbulently, extrav-
agantly, as are most French moves
upon the chessboard of destiny, this
revolution marked the visible rise of
the imperial Individual out from his
burst manacles of INSTRUMENTATION into
his sovereign estate. What took place
then tragioally in France came also
to pass phlegmatically in England, tor
tuously and tardily also throughout the
remainder of Europe. Had the close Of
the eighteenth century seen no such
revolution, Dreyfus and ten thousands
of Dreyfuses would have been quietly
garroted when they got in some illus
trious highness' way and the common
people would have held their breath.
But to understand the profound roots
of this incident we must go even deep
er into the past than the era of Euro
pean revolutions. Preceding this was
an era of religious revolution, called
also reformation. The outburst in
politics and society was the afterclap
of that outburst in religion Of which
Luther was its chief figure. Revolt
against state tyranny issued naturally
as consequence of revolt against &C.
clesiastical authority. That both re-
volts were attended with adventurous
Incidents Of cruelty and horror was not
due to the idea that underlay them so
much as to the stubborn opposition that
was put In their road. The violence Of
an explosion, both of gunpowder and of
a social idea, depends not upon the vi
cious power Of the explosive SO much as
upon the tightness and strength of the
wad with which you would confine II.
80
And you must dig yet deeper to find
where this motive of the essential roy
atty Of the individual originated; you
must, indeed, dig down even to Judea
and to the teachings of Jesus. He II
was that placed such a supernal value
upon the life OF lone Of these little
ones" He 1t was that weighed the
whole world with a human soul and
showed the ponderable superiority OF
the latter. Like the sunshine, beaming
upon field of icebergs, shines for many
days without apparent effect, but at
length, when it's warmth has pene-
trated the mass. makes here and there
cracking noises and premonitory shud-
ders, and at length commissions, dis
ruptions, detonations, schisms, and In
the end leaves nothing but the placid
waters Of the sea where once stood