Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-05

America could not shrink in the face of
her right and her duty.
"A friend loveth at all times, and
brother Is born for adversity."
On the common ground of adversely
america Is now standing by the SIDE OF
an that is mightiest and best among the
free nations of Europe. In that fact and
in its sequel lies the supreme spiritual
compensation Of this awrul war.
Again and again in the agony of our
sorrow and loss and deep. unfathomable
mystery of 1t, we have cried out of our
bruised and wounded hearts. What is
God doing In this world of his chill
dren?"
But now we see. In His inscrutable
way He is healing all the old wounds of
the nations He is drawing together the
races of men who have been too long
asunder. Out of the storm of battle He
is bringing forth great brotherhood of
His scattered people, such as the world
has never seen before
Just as war, Notwithstanding all it's
brutalities.is creating new comradeship
among the men who are fighting at the
'front.', so that coming out of every class
and condition all distinctions have dis
appeared with the civilian clothes they
have taken off and the soldiers uniforms
theN have put on, and nothing remains
to the wel)-to-do man and the workman,
the highly born and the lowly born, the
educated and the illiterate perhaps the
ex-convict and the ex-clergyman except
the brotherhood in wilicn they daily face
sudden Sand untimely death, standing
shoulder to shoulder In the same
trenches. sleeping side by side in the
same dugouts. and thus sharing together
CT 40 ,i,
their duty and their lives
Binding Nations Together
Even so, the organized barbarity we
call war is binding together the civilized
nations into great new spiritual fellow
ship.
The friendships that are born in mis-
fortune last longer than those that are
born in happiness"
Let us pray that the fellowship of free
peoples which the war has brought to
pass may not end until It has laid the
foundations of a lasting peace. With nc
lower hope than that could we keep our
souls alive in the midst of all this suffer-
ing.
If we had to believe that what we our
selves are going through would have to
be gone through again by our children
and our grandchildren who are now liv-
| ing in the fullness of their childish joy,
the whole world would be broken-hearted.
But our hope is sure, and our expecta-
| ton will not fail. The night has been
long and dark and echoing with cries of
pain but on the forehead of future we
| think we see the light of dawn. and
when that day comes we know what il
will be.
It will be yet a greater day than that
of seven score years ago, when America
was founded on her far-off continent. a
nation that was consecrated to liberty
and dedicated to the rights of all. II
will be day of freedom from the shadow
of the sword which has darkened the
sleep Of men for more than a thousand
years. II will be a day of liberation
from the tyranny of the strong. from the
enslavement of the weak. from the sub
jugation of the silent masses who have
shed their blood age after age at the
feet of crowned criminals who have
sought for nothing but their selfish do
minion and gained nothing but their
guilty glory.
1t will be the independence day Of the
world.