The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-09-07

ironist or the cap ana pehS VI 'h
tester. Ii he renounces the hope or
Christianity he renounces also very
transcendental hope. But he VIII not
set his hone on a lower God than that
Of the Christians.
That is why tho Frenchman rarely
falls into the modern mood OF pride
which consists in theorizing upon ar
rogance and making q virtue OF II.
France has often known the satisfac-
ton Of victory, tho pomp OF wealth
and the halo Of intellectual spiendor'
and many a time has boasted OF her
triumph. The symbol Of this victory
is the Gallo cock. But the very fact
of having symbolized their vanity IN
this little animal Of the poultry yard
shows how the French can laugh NJ
their own vanities and prevent their
laughter becoming pride, or pride the
law of their conduct.
And so we see that from the begin
ming Of the war the neighbortng Eagle
has never stopped Growing, while the
cock has kept on pecking silently
You cannot make a principle OF pride
in a nation which has known no other
God than a spiritual, transcendent and
creative God, for this nation 10 aware
of the abyss between the creature and
his Creator; neither its believers nor
its sceptics will ever boast Of their
Identification with God, nor OF per
sonifying Him on earth, nor OF being
His mediators. When a Frenchman
prays he says God help mel" He
does not say God is helping me-
When q nation or a king speaks OF
the Deity in familiar expressions such
as "our God not meaning the God
to which they trust themselves, but
the God who belongs to them, or such
phrases as our old God" God our
friend" or God our Ally" the fire.
quency with which the name OF the
Deity Is invoked may mislead simple
souls and induce them to believe that
they come from a devout people or
king. But the more subtle Christian
will feel scandalized, for he knows
that this kind Of familiarity toward
the Deity is not Christian, for our
God Is not familiar to us on these big
brother terms. And IL he Is versed in
tho sense of other religions he will
realize that this big brother" god has
only a name in common with the God
Of the Christians. He Is another god.
His nature is different. He Is akin
to the Penates, the god Of nature, the
national pagan gods.
We may treat these gods as friends
or allies, because they are not es-
sentially different from ourselves:
they are the very creature exalted to
divinity. Wotan, the leader of the
hosts, the chief Of Valhalla, the giver
of victory, is nothing but an expan-
sion of the Kaiser; and Thor. the
smith god. is an extension OF Krupp.
Thor is revealed in big Bertha" Wo-
tan Is the blind onslaught Of the
German regiments upon the French
trenches. These pagan gods never
disappear entirely from the German
mind. Heine prophesied eighty years
ago the reawakening OF Thor to emits
the cathedrals of Christ. To-day We
have the monuments OF Bismarck in
Hamburg, tho station OF Leipzig, the
monument to William I. in Coblenz,
the emphasis upon the word "colos-
SAL; everything in modern Germany
makes us feel. in fact II not in name.
the resurrection of the old religion
! of the giants. What is typical of the
worshippers of the giants is that they
w IOl dSplIc " d uDIcTcuI ana
world than this. but to this very world
only on a grander scale. 1t is a
quantitative religion and the deep
est longing of modern German phi
losophy during the last century was
the final reduction of quality to
quantity.
Let us not blind ourselves: It is
Formidable religion. 1t is the religion
Of courage and of effort. Wotan is
Courage; Thor, Effort. Tho warriors
OF Wotan deemed 1t shameful not to
die upon the field OF battle. When
natural death came to surprise them
on their beds they would cut their own
flesh so that Wotan could receive them
as warriors.
The last appearance Of Wotan was
to King Olaf Of Norway, when Olaf
was sailing along the shore from
heaven TO heaven. Wotan, says Car
lyle, addressed the King thus: ayes,
King Olaf, it is all beautiful with the
sun shining on it there, green. fruit
ful, right fair home for you. and
many a sore day had Thor, many a
wild fight with the rock Jotuns be
fore he could make It so. And now you
seem minded to put away Thor King
. Olaf. have a care!"
A blending Of courage and effort is
certainly powerful. Strong are these
gods OF Effort and Courage. But they
: lack the "abidingness' of the God on
the Cross. For we may be with our
God when He shows His omnipotencc.
but we are still more with Him when
He shows us the wounds on His
flesh. We are all right with Wotan
and with Thor so long as we arc
, winning. 1t is in defeat that tho
, question arises: Are these real gods?
What help do | gain from worshpping
, Force when | have no force" One
gives them up.
, Although their worshippers may not
give them up, their protection is as
dangerous as their anger, for they are
cruel. one Of the Germanic mon
archs, King On, sacrificed nine of his
/, sons to Wotan to prolong his own life:
the death of every son gave him
another ten years spell of life. But at
: last his own people forbade him TO
sacrifice his tenth child. and King on
died, And the legend is bound to be-
= come history.