The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1907-05-27
JUST WAR DOES GOOD
ARCHBISHOP IRELAND THINKS
CONFLICT AwAKENs PEOPLE.
Catholic PreIate Prays for Peace, But
Believes the Sound of Battle
ArOuses Higher Emotions
of Men.

st. Paul, Mimi. March 26.-Arch-
bishop John ireland. in a memorial
day sermon preached at the Cathedral
today to members of the G. A. r. and
officers and enlisted men from Fort
Smelling, glorified just war and took
the ground that nothing else will 80
bring to the people a sense of right
eousness and awaken in them the spirit
of disinterested self-sacrifice, SO nec-
essary to the life of a great and high
minded nation. The Archbishop said
in part:
THE highest mark of virtue is the
giving of ones life. The highest en-
bodiment of patriotism Is in those who
are soldiers of their country, even
saying to 1t. Country, speak and / am
ready, even unit death Hence the
honor which we owe to country and to
the country's flag is due to the men
who by special mission are the guard
ians of the flag whose work every day
Is a work of supreme devotion; whose
hearts blood is ever ready to flow
rather than to allow dishonor or de-
feat to rest upon the flag of their
country. We cannot disassociate the
soldier from the flag. as we cannot dis
associate the flag from the country.
America needs it's soldiers. Much Is
said of universal peace, of methods of
arbitration by which peace shall be Sc
cured without recourse to the sword.
We bless peace; we pray for it's COM
ing. Peace Is ever the ideal; but will
the ideal ever come until we have
crossed the thresholds of the kingdom
of the skies? No doubt We should
work for universal peace, holding up
ever before our minds the idea; we
must labor so that war will be not
necessary, so that when war does come,
1t be in forms least cruel Let US Gull
tivate among nations love for one an
other, so that war shall never be de-
clared by one against another unless
there is absolute necessity; so that
when, on the very battlefield, the SOL
diers of one army meet the soldiers
of another. whether that other be his
captor or his captive, he will say, We
are brothers
Terrible Is war; fearful is the bat
tie; yet the battle re-echoes righteous
ness, when it's purpose Is holy and no.
BILE, the battle is sublime. Nothing
more grand. more magnificent than the
advance of tens of thousands of men
bearing their very lives in their hands
in defense of just and noble cause.
In that moment they are lifted far
above the cold inspirations of earth;
they ascend in the nobility of their
sacrifice to the very skies. A battle
for justice is a high lesson to the
whole people; that there is something
more worthy of love. more worthy of
life than gold and silver, than count
ing houses and ships of commerce. 1t
invokes into action the most beauteous
of virtues; 1t freshens and strength
ems the whole spiritual life of a ma
ton. May war seldom come; may the
need of war seldom confront the coun-
try, but withal we are permitted to
ask, what so well as a just war will
bring home to the whole people the
sense of righteousness. and awaken
in them the spirit of disinterested self
sacrifice so necessary to the life of a
great and high minded nation?"