The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1915-02-25
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No Immodsst News Itemsl
THE DUTY OF THE HOUR FOR
AMERICA
CONTINUED from page ~

the very things that they for thirty
years have done. They tell us that
our chiefest need and our most per-
manent defense and our lasting Sc
curity is a battleship. which costs
millions of dollars and takes years
10 build, but which can be blown
TO the four winds with a little tor
pedo that can be made in day or
two and costs a few dollars. But
| want TO approach it from another
view point, and put the warning in
a different light. They say that we
must get more guns and ships and
shells. | want 10 point out a diff
Miss Drill Martindalt paid her
ferent kind OF armament. They are
dealing with one set Of forces. ]
will try to deal with another. And
one thing I admit, we must have
either theirs or mine. Our nation
must have forces either material or
moral, and the only question Is
WHICH Shall tHcy 10!
The duty of the hour for us is TO
seek how we may build the new
Jerusalem, the holy city, upon the
ashes of the old; and most OF all 10
ask ourselves what should be our
own state of mind and condition OF
heart at this moment, when the
world has lost its way. Our first
duty is not to condemn the world,
but to find out how it may come
again TO life and have 1t more
aboundantly than before.
For let us forget it not, far above
this, another battle is being fought
one OF whose armies may with right
and truth appeal TO God. Let us
rise out Of this conflict into the
higher one, which is not against
flesh and blood, but against the
spiritual hosts of wickedness within
the heavenly places of our own
souls, the battle of eternal and ulti-
mate realities and ideals.
IL will, therefore, be wise and well,
instead OF lamenting the national
misdeeds Of others, to make this the
solemn occasion when we turn our
eyes in word and seek in an in
yiolable solitude of our national per-
sonality TO stand face TO. face with
the divine reality, and having judged
our brothers, il we so must, proceed
then TO Judge ourselves.
The blame is universal. We have
all assented TO so-calltd balance
of power, equipoised upon sword,
with bullets in the scale for weights.
We have all agreed to secret alli-
ances other than for reason and
Justice. We all share the peril OF
the sword because we have taken
the sword. The differences are in
degree and not in principle and kind.
The conflict in Europe was no
mere accident. The ultimate caus-
es Of her woe are selfish ambitions,
material competition, unfair advan-
tages, suspicious, the doctrine that
might makes right, the confusion OF
moral with physical power, the
ruthless law OF the survival OF the
flttest; in all which the militarists
have been ably supported by the in
tellectuals and the aristocrats Of the
old world. 1t arises out of a false
philosophy Of human life, false
conception Of racial relationships,
and false view of human progress.
Are we free from the danger Of these
ultimate causes?
Oh, if the nations Of Europe had
only thought less about their foes
without and more about their foes
within. We blame them because
they are not democratic either in
form or in fact but perhaps there
is still greater danger to the nation
that has the form without the fact;
that raises hopes before its people
which ii does not enable them TO
realize, and ideals before the world,
which ii sadly fails to demonstrate
within itself.