The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1910-06-03
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always be popular, for patriotism is
God-inspired virtue. But by pa
triotism / do not mean a clustering
hectoring and noisy arrogance.
do not mean the frothy bravado OF
jingoism. / do not mean spirit that
finds expression in the ribald songs
of the music hall. 1t was with such
sentiment in mind that DR.. John
son declared: Patriotism is the last
refuge of scoundrel' By that
statement he meant that when a
mans own life is ragged, and when
there is everything to be ashamed
of in his own career, 1t is very easy
and IL is very comforting to brag
about ones country. You may de-
pend upon it that If man be bad
his patriotism can never be good.
"But by patriotism l mean that
love of country and fear for country
which find their true express
sion in the writings of many an Old
Testiment prophet, also in the
speeches of Washington, of Jackson,
of Lincoln, and of our own Roose-
welt, also in the poems of Milton,
Whittier and James Russell Lowell.
For these men while they speak in
glowing terms of the bounty and
abundance God had provided for the
people of which they were a part,
yet there is no mistaking the lofty,
strenuous speech in which they ex-
hort their countrymen to find their
true welfare in a national life of
which God can approve. That is
true patriotism, and it is neither
loud nor arrogant. But 1t is the
most unselfish of all virtues. 1t is
so woven out of a thousand strands
of memory and of affection and of
hope, that there is no passion on
earth save perhaps the love of a
good woman, that can make a man
so valiant to live. or so ready at the
to die.
"The memories of a great past
are in that kind of patriotism of
presidents, law-givers, statesmen,
captains, poets and philosophers.
The recollection of immortal deeds
is in it, when the ground was DYED
with blood that hallowed it. There
is in 1t the indefinable appeal of the
hills and praries and fields where
men were born-I love thy rocks
and rllls, thy woods and tempted
hills And over it all there is the
dim and awful sense that a nation
Is the creation of Gods providence,
In whose great story the hand of
God has moved.
IF drunk with sight of power we
lose
Rude tongues that have not Thee
In awe:
Such boasting as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the law.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget, Lest we forget.
mo sentiment Is more human
han true patriotism, and none is
more signally divine. 1t takes the
learest memories of earth, and links
hem with the high purposes of
heaven. Know we that the Lord He
S God. 1t is He that hath made us
md not we ourselves. And so grad
tally in a nation there is created
hat love of country, which roots in
he homestead, yet reaches to Gods
hrone, and which when it finds ex-
'ression as it did during the civil
var of this country, has an accent of
authority.
"But true patriotism must have
true home. You cannot imagine
rue patriotism existing in coun-
ry like Russia or Turkey, where
reedom is trampled in the dust,
where persecution reigns, and where
rue liberty is unknown. The ma
ions where true patriotism dwells
re the nations whose history and
resent status indicate a political
mo moral advancement.
Among such nations stands the
United States. With a history that
an scarcely be measured by centpr-
es this country has attained a po-
ition of unparalleled splendor. 1t
las played an important part in the |
Idvancement of the world. It's
ecord is crowded with thrilling in
idents. A man Is blind who cannot
zee the hand of God in the develop |
nent and distinction of this country. |
true national greatness is |
Inherited and breathed by those who |
I've in 1t. We have hill and plain. |
ivers and seas, fleets and camps, |
tiles and states, we have UNIVERSE
les, churches, arts, commerce and |
harities. We have great glories,
reat records, great allies and great
The capitalized legacies of the
asst, and the throbbing ,potentiali-
les of the present have become an
instinct and a force that move this
eople on to an unparalleled destiny.
Fair is our lot, o goodly is our
heritage,
(Humble We my people and be
fearful in your mirth:)
For the Lord our God most High,
lie hath made the deep as dry,
He hath smote for a pathway to
the ends of all the earth.
"And this nation literally owes its
Vistence, under God. to the men
hose memory we are gathered here
} revere.
when this nation was threatened
18th dissolution, when it faced the