Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1907-06-07
zl44[A|l.A No.
20 taIa,r
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pTETY AND PATRIOTISM.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem
they shall prosper that love thee. >
Ps. cxXii 6.
The remainder of the days when men
laid down their lives for their land
thrills our hearts with a new apprecia-
r0n Of our privileges and a larger,
deeper love Of country. No land is
Without the shedding of blood no
n9trotism is born, and by no other
means can a soil be consecrated to a
people.
The man in whom there awakens no
response to the call of patriotism, who
does not love one land above all others
because it is his own land, cannot love
anv land at all, cannot enter into full
living. for love for ones country and
service for her welfare are part Of the
soul and substance Of every true life.
Living or a city or nation Is reli
giOus service. It is mOOnshine for men
4 70 talk of loving heaven unless they can
4 love this earth and labor to make it
stands for simple evasion Of known
duty to the present by deferring them
q 10 nm indefinite future. The important
thing is not that you should go up to
the city of God but that it should come
down to us.
Patriotism, after all, simply is living
B for and working for others, those who
constitute the State or nation. 1t en-
# Iarges the love from the self center to
q the full social circumference. 1t teaches
to love the neighbor as oneself. 1t is
4 altogether imperfect and often perilous
until it includes those high religious
d motives Of altruism, service and rever-
encp for noble ideals and inheritances.
1t always has seemed so easy to pray,
"TV Kingdom come" and then to wait
for it to drop full orbed from the skies
that we have forgotten that every such
prayer waits for the endorsement of
our endeavor to bring all that that king
" dom means to US within reach of all
our fellows now, that no man really
believes in that ideal kingdom who does
not seek to make it Immediately real.
The best memorial that can be offered
for the sacrifice and service of days
long past is sacrifice and service for
some worthy purpose to-day. Religion
j. and patriotism become one motive, COM
rpIIing us to willingness to pay the full
price of citizenship. There is no better
way to honor the dead than hOnOrably
to live for the things for which they
died.
We hear no thrilling call to arms;
We feel no tidal wave Of martial en-
thuSiaSm. There is no call for those
. who will live. 1t is all the same, dying
On the field or fighting for the right
in the ward or city; the patriot is Civ
inc his life to his land. The dying or
e the keeping a whole skin are inciden-
81 tai the essential thing is that we give
ourselves.
Vain are all our dreams of glory past
q unless we are making the present good
y and the futures promise yet more
glorious. Too many evaporate their
patriotism in pride of yesterdays
mighty works or in tO-day's full dress
]. parade. The puppets Of passing enthu-
y SaSns, they mistake emotional men,
81 cries for enduring memorials.
When the captain of all the forces
calls the troops before him the scars
upon which he will look with greatest
love may not be those that remain to
remind us of sword wounds; they may
. he the sears Of hearts bruised and faces
tear stained, of backs bent and hands
made horny in loving, lowly service of
our fellows
Whoever loves his neighbor gloriffes
4 lie State; whoever helps his fellow citi-
Zen honors his city. The battlefield of
today is the slum and the highway;
he foes are greed and lust; the patrio-
tie motives will be many, including love
for men, high aspirations for our land,
0nfdence in the coming of the glorious
lily Of God. To fight against the things
hat keep US down, within and without;
q lay down our lives in daily living
Tor men is to become part of the
Curious army that follows the King.