The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1962-07-20
Patriotism
Lesson for July ~, 1862

Patriotism is called love of
ones country, but it means more
than that. Country" can mean
hills and valleys, rivers and
mountains, as we sing in our
hymn. my Country, it's of Thee
l.. - But while these physical
surroundings can stir our hearts
tand even plain and ugly land
scapeS can seem beautiful if
they spell Home), real patriot
ism means love and loyalty to
the people who live in the land,
our fellow-citizens.
Patriot in Jail
In our time the accusation is
sometimes brought against the
Christian ministry that it is I'M
patriotic, which in the present
situation usually means Com
munist." This accusation is wild
ly false, but it is not new. Men
of God ~ just because they were
true men of God = have been
called bad names like traitor,
more than once. A notable ex-
ample is the Biblical prophet
jeremiah. He was easily the
most unpopular man in the cOun
try. Few believed him or be-
lieved in him. From the ruling
class right down to the masses.
he was considered to be a bad
character. More than once he
was put in Jail or under house
arrest as a dangerous character.
Yet he was, as history acclaimS
him. one Of the great patriots of
the Jewish people.
How do we know he was {. pa
triot if his contemporaries could
not see him in that light? For
one thing. we now know, as
his contemporaries would have
known in time, that he was right.
What he said would come true,
did come true.
Realism
Another reason why We can
see that he was a real patriot
was that he did not pretend that
all was well with his nation. He
was brave and clear sighted
enough to speak out against
abuses in church and state. He
swung a strong axe against the
trees of evil that overshadoWed
the land. He talked very plainly
about the sins and crimes of
men at the top. He did not even
pretend to believe that his coun-
try could come out victorious
after any wars they chose to get
into. He did not agree that God
loved the children of Israel bet
ter than he loved any other ma
ton, or that only in Israel could
servants of God be found. He
even publicly called Nebuchad-
nezzar, an invading king, a ser
want Of God. About the future of
his country he had no illusions.
He saw that their only hope was
to yield to Nebuchadnezzar and
to become a part of their en-
plre; but this the ISraeliteS could
not think of doing. Their recipe
for national security was mill
tary alliance with Egypt, a sui
cldal policy as jeremiah tried to
tell them. So they accused Jere-
miah Of being an enemy of his
country. But how much is a
country helped by people who
can never see anything wrong in
it?
A True Patriot
In all the hullabaloo over Jere-
miah, people in his city either
did not know. or would not
notice, some facts that marked
the man as a genuine patriot.
For one thing. he went to some
trouble to buy land. in an area
already controlled by invading
armies. The prophet thus ex-
pressed in a practical (and ex-
pensive) way his conviction that
$50 to speak there would always
be Judah. Furthermore, though
We know he had opportunities to
90 so. he never went over or
detected" as we say, to the
Babylonians. And at the end. so
as to stay with his own people
ne chose Punishment, poverty
and death rather than live in
comfort in Babylon. In the one
sided war between his own coun-
try and Babylon, he could see
that Babylon was stronger by
TAR; but his own people were his
own, and he loved them.
Prof. Harold Berman once
sails; If we really want to de-
feat communism there is only
one way to do it It is the
one thing that people who talk
about fighting communism gen.
orally fail to mention. We must
construct social order in which
the goals of justice. mercy and
morality take precedence over
economic security, political
power and chronological prog
CESS. Some would call the
writer of such lines no patriot.
hylf Vv,1,ot ~