Judsonia weekly advance., 1920-03-25


 cause if you loved Irene Il week ago you love her tonight"
 "Edith," he said, "there is no way of explaining this. You can't under stand. I know you have given your self up to a life of service, and l honor you very much, and all that, but there are some things you won't be able to understand. You can't under stand just how much I loved Irene Have you never known of love being turned to hateY
 "No. Other impulses may be, but not love. Love can no more turn to hate than sunlight can turn to dark ness. Believe me, Dave, if you hate Irene now you never loved her. Lis ten: Love beareth all things, believ- eth all things, hopeth all things, en- dureth all things !"
 Not all things, Edith: not all things"
 ''It says all things"
 Dave was silent for some time. ] When he spoke again she caught diff ferent sound in his voice-a tone as though his soul in those few moments had gone through lifetime Of expe- rience.
 Edith" he said, when you repeat. ed those words I knew you had sotne- thing that have not. knew it, not by words but by the way you said them. You made me know that in your own life, if you loved, you would be ready to endure all things. Tell me, Edith, how may this thing be l doneT
 She trembled with delight at the new tone in his voice, for she knew that for him life would never again be the empty, flippant, selfish, ire sponsible thing which in the past he had called life.
 "In your case," she said, "the course is simple. It is just a case of for giving"
 He gazed for time into the street, while thoughts of bitterness and re- venge fought for domination of his mind. Edith" he said, at length, must I-forgive?"
 | swered. q merely say if you are wise you will. Nothing, it seems to me, is so much misunderstood as forgiveness. The one who is forgiven may merely escape punishment, but the one who forgives experiences a positive spir- itual expansion"
 "Is that Christianity" he ventured. lo of b,,c val n other side is service. If you are will 1 ing to forgive and ready to serve don't think you need worry much over the details of your creed. Creeds, after all, are not expressed in words but in lives. When you know how a man lives you know what he believes always"
 Suppose I forgive-what then?"
 Service. You are needed right now, Dave-forgive my frankness- your country needs you right now. You must dismiss this grievance from your mind, at least dismiss your resent ment over it, and then place yourself at the disposal of your country"
 "That is what I had been thinking of," he said. "At least that part about serving my country although I don't think my motives were as high as you would make them. But the war can't last It is unbelievable"
 "Tm not so sure" she answered gravely. Of course I know nothing about Germany. But do know some thing about our own people. l know how selfish and individualistic and sordid and money-grabbing we have been; how slothful and incompetent and self-satisfied we have been; and fear it will take long war and sac rifices and tragedies altogether be- yond our present imagination to make us unselfsh and public-spirited and clean and generous. I am not wor- rying about the defeat of Germany If our civilization is better than that of Germany we shall win, ultimately, and if our civilization is worse than that of Germany we shall be defeated utimately-and we shall deserve to be defeated.
 But I rather think that neither of the alternatives will be the result. l rather think that the test of war will show that there are elements in Ger man civilization which are better than ours, and elements in our civilization which are better than theirs, and that the good clements will survive and form the basis of a new civilization. better than either"
 "If that is so" Dave replied, "if this war is but the working of immu- table law which proposes to put all the elements of civilization to the supreme test and retain only those which are iustiable by that test, why should Tor anyone eIse-fight? And" he added, as an afterthought, what about that principle of forgiveness?"
 "We must fight" she answered, be cause it is the law that we must fight; because it is only by fighting that we can justify the principles for which we fight. If we hold our principles as be- ing not worth fighting for the new civil lization will throw those principles in