Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-04

{ lofu. 10 All THESE Things
of the garden. and the long journey begun
to the height of knowledge and power.
In Through Nature to Cod John Fiske
avoices the higher thought; ITO say that
the ways of Providence are inscrutable is
still something more than an Idle plati-
| tude. and there still is room for the be-
lief that could we raise the veil that en-
shrouds eternal truth. we should see that
behind natures cruelest works there are
secret springs of divnest tenderness and
| love"
At least we know that because man has
had difficulties he has grown strong We
see that because he has been confronted
with pestilence he has prosecuted with
grim determination his search for the laws
of health and disease. We understand that
| a powerful motive to human effort, con-
slant incentive to higher achievements In
every field, has been what oftentimes in
anguish of soul, man has denounced as evil
and wrong.
Impossible is 1t adequately to tell the
story of war. AS far back as we can go
We know that mans passions have burned
hot. He has coveted his neighbours OK, or
ass, or wife, or field, and he has sailed
forth with bow or sling or club OF gun to
possess them.
The man assailed has waged a war for
freedom.
If all the stories of all the wars could be
told and written down, as John declared
of the sayings of Christ, II suppose the
world itself could not contain the books
that would be made" What an awful rec
ord is that. although imperfect and in
complete, which history has succeeded in
preserving What scenes of carnage and
bloodshed, what tales of suffering and an
guish. what tragedies of youth and age, In
the short annals of this one nation where
God has put us to dwell! In the midst of
1t all the smoke clouds our vision. Far
away we discern better. We recognize the
evil. We know God wills Its determination.
But we see that still in war as in peace
He is omnipotent. In Ills mighty hand
God holds the balance OF every battle. In
favor of the higher cause, the crucial con-
f1icts of every generation have been de-
cided
In the second place, we must not forget
that there are the two divisions of our
subject. Glorious as are the issues Of war
a the best 1t Is a dread necessity. Stand
ing on the eastern front of the Capitol, al
most within the shadow of his tragic end.
Abraham Lincoln delivered the greatest adj
dress ever heard upon American soil.
"Fondly do we hope" said he, 'fervently
do we pray that this mighty scourge of
war may speedily pass away. With
malice toward none with charity for all,
with firmness in the right, as God gives
to the right, let us strive to finish
the work that we are In; to do all
which may achieve and cherish just and
lasting peace among ourselves and with all
nations
Had those words been uttered two thou
sand years ago they would have been
bound up in the pages of the Bible. Had
Lincoln and Lee lived in the age of the
judges we should read about them and their
exploits Sunday after Sunday in the
CHurCHeS. WHAT was ulVlne, however, IN
their works and words is no less divine
because it belongs to the history we call
secular instead of that we call sacred.
To men of large vision all Is sacred. The
Bible of the race is not finished. With the
force of holy writ comes every earnest
sincere call to peace. II make peace and
create evn,'' said Isaiah voicing the word
of God, but after all, evil was to be the
incident and peace was to be the end
What work is that before US! Why
sigh for the opportunities of earlier
age? Is any reform In which men have
laid down their lives nobler than the cause
Of peace everywhere In the world? Upon
any class of society is the responsibility
greater than upon those who have taken
the name of Christ?
Religion" said Secretary Hay at Boston
last fall religion Is the remedy
1t is the work of religion to teach men
to curb their passions. Whatever may be
the creeds of Christendom the duties Of
religion are summed up in one great COM
mandment, Thou shalt love the Lord, thy
COD, with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul. and with all thy mind. and with all
thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself"
When this is no longer an ideal but a real
ity, wars between nation and nation, mass
es and classes, men and men, will be abol-
ished.
Blessed are the peace societies. They
perform an important work.
Blessed are the conferences upon arbi-
traton. They leaven the thought Of the
world.
Blessed above all, however, are the
''peacemakers.' the individual peacemakers
who curb their own passions and reconcile
their brethren one to another, ''for they
shall be called the children Of God"
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