The Irish standard., 1914-12-05
From the National Capitol
BY Stanton Lawtou

it may grow and strengthen under con-
ditions equally honorable, advantage.
GUS and pleasing to all. Is it too much
to hope that here in this new world,
aloof from inherited animosities and
ancient grudges, there may arise q
new civilization whose watchword
shall be brotherhood, whose ideal shall
be service and whose dream shall be
the reign of peace and universal good
will?
And while we kneel with bowed
head before the Almighty Father, our
gratitude is enlarged and quickened
by the sorrows and misfortunes of our
brothers in other lands.
"A few months ago and men. COM
forted themselves with the radiant
hope that never again should the
wolves of war be let loose upon the
world. Men thought that the fires of
passion had burned low; that the
blood Of anger had cooled. that the
savagery in the hearts of men had
been softened; that never again would
man rise up to take his brothers life
with the approval and applause of
government; that the blushing dawn
| of universal peace was clearly dis.
! cernible in the heavens.
"The world looks on this raging
struggle between Christian nations to-
day, and sends up shout of horror at
what it calls the failure of Christian
ity; it should rather be appalled, at
the failure of men to give Christianity
it's fair chance to work out universal
peace. Comparatively few men and
women since the time of Christ have
really adopted Christianity as guide
to life and system of morals. The
Saints alone practiced Christianity
consistently. When our Lord said,
The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth
violence and the violent bear it away
they took His words literally and they
scourged evil impulses and appetites
into subjection; today men have lost
the very sense of sin. When He said,
Unless you do penance you shall all
likewish PERISH they wrought through
fasting and labor the publication and
refinement of their souls; today men
have forgotten even the processes of
penance. When He set up as the
standard Of conduct the question,
What shall it profit man If he gain
the whole world and suffer the loss of
his soul?' they frankly accepted soul
making and soul-saving as the chief
business of life, considering no other
failure as real failure if they succeed
ed and no other success as real sue
cess If they failed. When He said.
Blessed are the meek and blessed are
the poor in spirit they accetped JOY
fully and literally those sublime beati-
tudes at which the world has only
been amused or puzzled. II the primi-
tive discipline of Christianity could be
still enforced, and if each follower of
Christ shared with a needy brother
his surplus of the goods Of life, what
a multitude of economic questions
would be swept out Of the world IN
the instant of the conversion. The
dazzling vision that the Socialist dan
giles before the eyes of humanity
would seem dull and tawdry compared
to a world in which the Christmas
spirit prevailed every day; the irri-
descent dream of Utopia where the
richest are poor and the poorest live
in abundance, would cease to be a
dream If the love of Christ dominated
commerce and industry; the tyranny
of monopoly, the marauding of legal
lied bandits and the brutality of unre-
strained capitalism alike would van
ish if the Christian law Of justice and
right governed men.
To-day we are justified in the hope
that this vision of peace may be con-
firmed reality among all the nations
of America. May I venture in the
august and venerable presence to ex-
press the gratitude of all Americans
to the First Citizen of the Republic
for the lofty policy, the enlightened
action. the heroic courage, the sub
lime patience that have held this ma.
tion free from the allurement Of covet-
BUSINESS and the embodiment of war?
And may we not likewise give thanks
for the Premier who stands forth as
one of the worlds chifest apostles Of
peace, the persuader of nations. who
has bound the world henceforward to
strive for international arbitration.
So under favor of heaven shall it ever
be. Not statesmen of blood and iron;
not Mars shaking the world as he
walks; not the bark of the cannon nor
the shrek of the bursting shell; not
crowded graveyards and thronged hos
pitfalls and mutilated multitudes and
wan widows and helpless orphans, and
all the drear and dread accompani-
ment Of war shall be the ideal of our
American Republics. Rather let us
take for our guide and our philosophy
the law of that gentle Jesus, the sub
finest idealist of all time, whom the
frenzied brutality and materialism Of
the world would stigmatize as an en-.
thusiast and a dreamer. but whom the