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PATRIOTISM

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THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

THE
HIGHER PATRIOTISM

BY

JOHN GRIER';iIBBEN

PRESIDENT OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

1915

copyright, 1915, bt
Charles Scribner's Sons

Published June, 1915

TO
J. D. H.

PREFATORY NOTE

The essays and addresses which I
have compiled in this volume have been
suggested by the present European war.
The first, " Higher Patriotism," appeared
in the North American Review of May,
1915; the second, "Preparedness and
Peace," is an address which was deliv-
ered at the Lake Mohonk Conference on
International Arbitration in May, 1915;
the third, "Might or Right," is an ad-
dress which was delivered at the Lay-
men's Efficiency Convention, at Synod
Hall of the Cathedral of St. John the
Divine, New York City, in October, 1914;
the fourth, "Martial Valor in Times
of Peace," is the Baccalaureate Sermon
which was delivered in Alexander Hall
to the graduating class of Princeton
University, on Sunday, June 13, 1915.

J. G. H.

CONTENTS

PAGH

The Higher Patriotism .... 1

Preparedness and Peace .... 23

Might or Right 40

Martial Valor in Times of Peace 54

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

When we in America speak of the
love which we entertain for our coun-
try, it is well for us to recall the va-
rious phases of changing significance
through which these words — "our coun-
try"— have passed during the last one
hundred and fifty years of our history.
When our fathers referred in loyal de-
votion to "our country" they had in
mind not only the colonies on our At-
lantic shore, but the mother country of
England as well. Loyalty was natu-
rally British, for America then belonged
to Great Britain by right of conquest
and possession. But it was not possible
to hold our country within the limits of
this original sovereignty. Through the
[1]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

successful struggle for independence a
later generation of our fathers claimed
the land bought and sealed by their
blood as belonging exclusively to them-
selves and their children for all time.
The former ideas of patriotism neces-
sarily experienced a like revolution and
were translated into terms appropriate
to a new environment and a new inter-
pretation of loyalty. The sons of the
English, Scotch, and Dutch settlers and
soldiers of the Revolution could proudly
say: "This is our country." And yet,
even as they said this, our nation was
passing beyond their exclusive control.
For suddenly men of alien races and
alien tongues were sharing our birth-
right with us. This was not a revolu-
tion, but an evolution, natural, inevi-
table. It was not only the treasures
hidden beneath the soil, and the wealth
of the very soil itself, which lured these
strangers to our shores, but far more
[2]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

the spirit of liberty and the chance of
a new life in a new world.

And to-day not only we of the old
British stock, but also the representa-
tives of every race and nationality the
world over, have the like privilege of
taking the words "our country" upon
their lips with the same enthusiasm of
sincere and loyal patriotic devotion. We
are a composite people. The ends of
the earth meet in us. Consequently, the
idea of patriotism in our land cannot
be racial or narrowly confined. And
particularly it should not be without a
sympathetic understanding of the needs
of humanity. For while we are merely
a part of the world, yet the whole
world is in a certain sense a part of
us. No corner of the earth, however
remote, is without a representative some-
where among our people. The better
we understand ourselves, the better shall
we be able to understand the world at
[3]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

large. Consequently, our sympathies at
least must be cosmopolitan. For us,
particularly, it is natural that the love
of country should find its complemen-
tary expression in the love of humanity.
Madame de Stael has said that "the
patriotism of nations ought to be self-
ish." This must be interpreted, how-
ever, within certain limits. And it is
the office of the higher patriotism to
define and to transcend these limits.
As no individual dare live unto him-
self, so also no nation dare live unto
itself; it fails to fulfil its destiny if it
is wholly self-centred and self-absorbed.
But is it natural to love a stranger and
an alien as we love our own kin and
kind? Most assuredly it is, if we are
discriminating as regards the sense in
which we use the word "love." The
word indeed has two quite distinct mean-
ings. There is the love which is identi-
fied with affection — that affection which
[4]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

is bred of intimate intercourse and com-
munity of interests and desires. It is
the love we cherish for the inner circle
of family and friends. There is, how-
ever, another sense in which we use the
term "love." It is in this sense that
we are exhorted to love our neighbor as
ourselves — nay, to love even our ene-
mies. This type of love is quite an-
other matter. It signifies a certain atti-
tude toward all mankind, showing itself
in a twofold manner in a disposition
to respect every man's rights and
a willingness to minister to his needs.
"To do justice, to love mercy": these
are the cardinal doctrines both of relig-
ion and morality, according to the old
Hebrew prophet. It is easier to obey
the second than the first of these com-
mands. It is easier to respond to the
appeal— especially when it comes to us
at a time of calamity and wide-spread
suffering — to love those in distress and
[5]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

to give them true sympathy and sub-
stantial aid, than it is to maintain both
the spirit and the letter of justice in
our dealings with those who are not in
distress and who neither ask nor need
help of us. Nevertheless, the love of our
fellow men is only a name, and there-
fore a mockery, unless it recognizes and
respects the law of just and fair deal-
ing not only between man and man,
but between nation and nation as
well. It is of little avail to show mercy
to those from whom we have withheld
justice. Compensation for injury does
not absolve us from the guilt of inflict-
ing the injury. Love for the peoples of
other lands, beyond our borders, with
whom we may be brought into more or
less intimate relations means, primarily
and essentially, a disposition to deal
fairly with the alien nation irrespective
of the circumstance as to whether that
nation is weaker or stronger than ours.
[6]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

We need to-day particularly clear
thinking and strong conviction, upon
this fundamental principle of conduct.
This truth requires no explanation. It
does not wait upon proof. It needs only
to be emphasized and driven home, so
that it may become not only a matter
of individual appropriation, but also
a part of patriotic tradition. This is
the time to reassert our political con-
victions as regards the relations of our
country to all peoples of the earth. We
should recognize the moral foundations
upon which a nation must rest if its
stability is to remain secure.

Where do we find the clearest ex-
pression of the moral worth and moral
grandeur of this idea of justice both
individual and national? Where do we
find the most profound recognition of
the sovereign nature of the law of jus-
tice? Without question, in Germany.
It is not von Treitschke, nor Nietzsche,
[7]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

nor Bernhardt who speaks for Germany
or who represents the German tradi-
tion. They may represent the spirit of
their age, but it is an age that is passing.
It is Immanuel Kant, the great German
philosopher and prophet, who expresses
Germany's most profound thought in
words which have an eternal signifi-
cance. I call him a prophet because
he speaks for his people, and indeed
for other peoples also and for all times;
his is a universal language. His philos-
ophy is rigorous, uncompromising in its
insistence upon a profound reverence for
the law of justice and an obedient sur-
render to its commands. And this law
finds expression with him in two fun-
damental moral maxims. First, always
act as you would wish to if that action
were to become a universal law. Sec-
ond, always treat man as an end in him-
self, and never merely as a means to an
end. That is, our individual conduct
[8]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

must be judged by a standard which
admits of universal application. Our
convenience, or necessity, or desire, or
indeed any particular consideration what-
soever, cannot be weighed against the
universal demands of the law of right.
Moral law admits of no particular in-
terpretation. What is right for one is
right for all. What is duty for one
is duty for all.

The second maxim insists upon the
supreme consideration which is due the
rights of human personality. Man as
such is to be regarded as an end in
himself. He is not a thing, but a per-
son, and to treat him as a person is
the first law of all human relationship.
Kant, moreover, believed that these doc-
trines were applicable to nations as well
as to individuals. He dreamed his dream
of all the nations of the earth living to-
gether in a federation of mutual respect
and friendly co-operation, a dream of
[9]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

universal peace. One day it may be
realized. Whatever his dream may be,
his teaching as to individual and na-
tional duty is clear, and with the voice
of a prophet he spoke to the German
people nearly a century and a half ago,
and he is speaking to Germany again to-
day, and, indeed, to all nations of the
earth, for his message is not for any par-
ticular land or any particular time, but
for every age and every people. And we
do well to give heed to his message. There
is always danger of injustice through a
false idea of patriotism. It is a funda-
mental moral fallacy that any act whatso-
ever, done as a supposed service to one's
county, is thereby self -justified. We dare
not disregard the rights of others for the
sake of a nation's glory. The strong na-
tion dare not exploit the weaker for its
own advantage either in war or in peace.
A nation, as an individual, has a personal-
ity which must be respected. This marks
[ 10 1

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

the limit of national self-assertion and
self-aggrandizement. Necessity is no ex-
cuse for injustice. The plea of neces-
sity seeks to particularize the universal
law of right. Kant's voice is raised in
protest against such procedure. The
German tradition of moral integrity and
honor is against it. As Kant has in-
sisted, there is only one necessity in the
whole world, and that is the necessity
of obeying the law of right. Germany
of the past appeals to Germany of the
present in words which have been so
often heard in the philosophical discus-
sions of the last century — "Back to
Kant." They apply as well to the su-
perficial political philosophy of the day.
I profoundly believe that the most sig-
nificant result of the present European
conflict will be to establish one and the
same ethical standard alike for nations
as for individuals, so that national pledges
will be jealously guarded from reproach
[11}

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

and shame. The common sense and the
common conscience of the people will
demand this.

The world has been very slow in
recognizing the moral responsibility of a
nation. Indeed, in the evolution of our
ethical concepts there are three distinct
stages which mark the progress of hu-
manity toward a more adequate reali-
zation of the fundamental principles of
morality. The first is the stage of in-
dividual self-realization in which the
chief concern of life seems to centre in
maintaining the existence of the indi-
vidual and promoting his self-seeking
desires. The second stage marks the
awakening of the social conscience, where
one comes to recognize his duties to his
fellows and the obligation which he is
under to preserve their lives and to pro-
mote their welfare as well as his own.
In the third stage there is the recogni-
tion not merely of the obligation which
[ 12]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

the individual owes to others, but also
the obligation which the social group
itself, whether the clan or the tribe or
the nation, owes to other social groups
with which it comes in contact. This
third stage is in the process of realiza-
tion. It has not as yet been fully at-
tained. We are developing, however,
toward a clearer apprehension of our in-
terracial and international obligations.
Much still remains to be thought, to be
felt, and to be done. We as a nation
have established a tradition of fair deal-
ing with other nations. It must not
only be maintained in the same spirit
as that which characterizes our rela-
tions with Cuba, or with China — as in
the return to that country of our indem-
nity fund — but we must also endeavor
to discern our responsibility and to in-
terpret it in the light of the larger events
and the greater needs of the world.
It is perhaps not necessary to urge
[13]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

the necessity of expressing an active
sympathy and assistance as regards
those who at present are overwhelmed
by the disaster of the European w^ar. To
help at such a time as this is not merely
a duty — it is an instinct. And our
country has responded to the call which
has come across the sea in a manner
so prompt, so generous, so altogether
admirable, as clearly to reveal the great
heart of the Western world. The need
of suffering humanity is to-day bring-
ing America and Europe nearer together.
Not only has our heart been touched,
but our imagination has been so stim-
ulated that we do not find it difficult
to recognize the foreigner as our brother.
In a very vivid sense we are conscious
that we too are carrying the burden of
the world's misery. There is certainly no
room for national complacency, no oc-
casion for national congratulation, be-
cause we are free from the great war's
[14]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

toll of life and of possessions. We too
feel constrained to go down into the
valley of the shadow of death with our
brother; for the shadow which has
fallen upon the Old World is upon the
New also.

After this war is concluded and the
day of peace begins to dawn there must
immediately follow a period of recon-
struction— not only a reconstruction of
material resources, but also a reorgani-
zation of the fundamental ideas and
purposes of life. Our part must neces-
sarily be a large one, for we must lend
our strength to the nations weakened
by the ravages of war. We can no
longer claim that we are freed from
the complications of Old World affairs,
and from all responsibility concerning
them, because of our isolation. The
separation of the two continents is not
wholly measured by space, but by time
as well, and time has been so enor-
[ 15]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

mously decreased, and communication
has been made such an immediate af-
fair, that we can no longer feel that we
in America live in a world of our own.
We are passing through times in which
the spirit and temper of great peoples
are being tried as by fire, and we must
appreciate the fact that as a nation we
must do our part in the great endeavor
to save the soul of the world and es-
tablish the things which remain. In
Europe the continuity of civilization for
the time being has been interrupted.
Industry, commerce, art, science, litera-
ture, education, international intercourse,
have been checked or have ceased alto-
gether. The flower of young manhood,
the hope and the promise of the com-
ing generation, have been sacrificed.
Light has given place to darkness, life
to death. Much that has been gained
in centuries of progress has been irrep-
arably lost. All the forces of civiliza-
[ 16]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

tion which make for peace and prosperity
and the joy of life continue, however, here
in America unbroken and undiminished.

We hold in our hands the threads of
the past and of the future; not one of
them is broken. There is therefore a
peculiar obligation resting upon us to
conserve these treasures of human crea-
tion which make for peace and the wel-
fare of mankind. After these days of
desolation have passed there is need of a
new heaven and a new earth. The world
must become better; and it is our privi-
lege as well as our duty to put forth
every effort to make it better. There-
fore, in this period of anxiety and un-
certainty it would be well for us con-
sciously and seriously to consider how
we may better prepare ourselves for the
task which will surely devolve upon us:
the labor of building anew the world.

There is certainly need at this time of
transition that we should establish a new
[ 17]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

scale of values in our estimate of life.
We have become, during the past gener-
ation particularly, too prone to estimate
the reality of all values in terms of that
which we can weigh or measure or count.
But material standards are not sufficient
to express those values which possess su-
preme worth. Even in the handling of
material things in the midst of a world
of practical business affairs we must set
for ourselves some standard which in it-
self is not material. In the throes of
its new birth the world to-day needs a
new industrial conscience, a new sense of
social responsibility, a new standard of
national integrity. We must realize that
the strength of a nation lies ultimately
not in its natural resources, or in its
methods of efficiency, or in its numer-
ical superiority, or in its army or navy,
but in its moral and spiritual vigor. All
of us are one in our desire to have peace,
peace universal and permanent which
[18]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

will dominate the world, but it is im-
possible to command peace or to seek
peace as such directly. We can secure
peace only by striving to realize in our
lives the things which make for peace.
It is not a matter of resolution, but of
consecration. If we seek righteousness
and cause it to prevail in the world,
peace will inevitably follow.

It is no light task; and that we may
be prepared for the opportunity when
it comes we must be willing to submit
ourselves to the discipline of self-re-
straint. We must learn to endure hard-
ness and to simplify our mode of living.
It is not merely that we as a people have
enjoyed too much ease and too great
luxury, but we have sacrificed too much
for this luxury and this ease. We need
the strength that is born of self-denial.
We should be ashamed to waste our time
and energy in profitless pursuits while
our brothers are agonizing in this death-
f 19 1

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

struggle of the nations; ashamed also
to waste our money or indulge ourselves
in unnecessary expenditure while our
brothers are starving and destitute. In
spite of the noise of battle, a sacred
stillness has fallen upon the world which
we even in our pleasures must both
recognize and respect. It is necessary
also to appreciate that the work before
the coming generation is to be in a new
day, a day of larger opportunity, of more
exacting demands, of heavier burdens.
Only the strong man will be adequate
to the task. If he is to be ready when
the call comes, there must be a fine
tempering of his soul. It is a matter
not only of efficiency or of skill, but of
the living sources of power.

It may be urged that the duty to
which I am referring is exceedingly in-
definite. That may be true, because
the highest order of duty is always indef-
inite. The supreme responsibility which
rests upon us all is that of discovering
[ 20]

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

for ourselves the duty which marks the
line of greatest possible service. I be-
lieve that the will to serve will always
find the way.

The coming generation, which is to
make new history for the new world,
may well pledge "The Day" with all ea-
gerness and enthusiasm — that day when
they will be called upon to realize the
sublime idea of patriotic devotion, the
nation for the world's service. It is
true of nations as of individuals that
the greatest must become servant of all.
A man will serve his country according
to the degree and extent of the idea
which he has conceived of his country's
mission and destiny in ministering to
the intellectual, moral, and spiritual
needs of the world at large. The great-
est achievements of the greatest nations
have been their international contribu-
tions to the treasures of human thought
and human feeling irrespective of race
traditions or national frontiers. Greece,

THE HIGHER PATRIOTISM

Rome, Italy, France, England, Germany,
are great not by might nor by power,
but by virtue of their philosophy, their
art, their law, their religion, their sci-
ence, and their literature; by all the
discoveries and inventions of the mind
of man which have increased the di-
mensions of human life in its length and
breadth and depth. What they have
done exclusively for themselves passes
away; what they have done for the world
remains. For a nation to place all peo-
ples of all lands under a debt of con-
scious obligation because of her service
to humanity, to send forth light from
her high places to illumine the earth, to
realize within herself that righteousness
which exalteth a nation, to champion
the cause of justice, and to sacrifice the
glory of conquest for the reign of uni-
versal peace — this is indeed to conquer
the world. And happy are they who
have a part in it.

[ 22 ]

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

The proposition which should meet with
the thoughtful and tolerant considera-
tion of every American citizen is this,
that the policy of a wise preparedness
of our military forces in the United
States is not incompatible with the great
peace movement which this gathering
represents. I do not advocate prepared-
ness for war, but a preparedness against
war — a preparedness which in the event
of the catastrophe of war itself will pre-
vent the enormous initial sacrifice of
human lives which has characterized
every war in which the United States
have been engaged throughout our past
history.

It is to me a matter of serious con-
cern that even the most extreme advo-
[ 23]

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

cates of non-resistance at the particular
time of this great world crisis should
welcome the support and co-operation of
those who may differ with them on the
subject of national preparedness, but who
are quite as eager and enthusiastic to
proclaim and maintain the cause of uni-
versal peace. I deplore the lack of tol-
erance on the part of certain pacifists in
their obvious scorn of those who would
temper zeal with wisdom in the effort
to prepare against the possibility of war,
while at the same time putting forth
every effort to secure the blessings of a
permanent peace. No cause is ever pro-
moted by a spirit of Pharisaism, and I
for one object to being regarded as view-
ing the subject from a less elevated moral
plane because I believe that the policy of
preparedness is a matter of pressing na-
tional duty. In this great world cam-
paign to establish that universal moral
order which is the sole guarantee of
[ U ]

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

peace, no one should repudiate the con-
victions and efforts of those who with
heart and soul seek the same end as
himself.

There is no virtue in providing an
inadequate defense of our land. There
are only two logical positions to take in
reference to this question. One is that
a country such as ours should completely
disarm and offer no defense whatsoever
to any foe, or, on the other hand, that
it should plan wisely and systematically
an adequate defense. I assume that
there is no one at the present time so
ignorant of the spirit of the American
people that he would not be willing to
admit the truth of the following propo-
sition, namely — that if our country is
drawn into any war, although against
our will and against our desire, we will
nevertheless fight to the finish for our
national honor and integrity. It would
be entirely futile even to discuss the
[25]

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

question as to the advisability of our
country at the present time or in the
near future wiping out its army and
navy and pursuing the policy of absolute
non-resistance. Therefore, if we have
an army and navy which no doubt would
be used in the time of a national emer-
gency, what conceivable idea of moral
obligation do we violate in insisting that
the forces of such an army and navy
should be efficient instead of inefficient,
should be adequate instead of inade-
quate ? No one, moreover, can deny that
our present military equipment, particu-
larly our army, has certain defects which
it would seem to be a wise policy to
remedy at once. It is well known that
we have only 90,000 widely scattered
mobile troops available for defense, of
which 60,000 are militia, and it would
take thirty days after any enemy landed
on our shores to concentrate the forces
of the militia. Behind this army we
\ 26 1

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

have no reserves to speak of, and a
deplorable shortage of men and guns in
our regular field-artillery. We possess
less than half of the needed military
field-batteries, and it would require three
months' training to make those which
we have of any avail against the forces
of an enemy. In the army reports it is
stated that it would be a year and a
half after any foreign enemy landed on
our shores before we could provide ade-
quate field-artillery, ammunition trains,
and ammunition.

In view of these facts, the dictates of
common sense certainly would suggest
that we should prepare reasonably for
an emergency which it might be neces-
sary for us to meet by armed resistance.
The only valid excuse, however, for fail-
ing to prepare adequately for such a pos-
sible emergency is the conviction that
it would be wrong for us as a nation
to take up arms in any event whatso-
[27]

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

ever. No one can be so blind regarding
the significance of present conditions as
to take the position that a grave na-
tional emergency is not at least a pos-
sibility. I am aware of the fact that
there are many who would urge that
there is no such thing as preparedness
against war, but insist that the military
preparedness of a nation gives occasion
for war by provoking an aggressive mili-
tary spirit. I do not believe this. Pre-
paredness does not necessarily mean a
nation in arms or a nation inflamed by
the false dreams of a militaristic des-
tiny. This is conspicuously illustrated
in the case of Switzerland. They are
naturally a peace-loving people. They
also love liberty, and therefore have pre-
pared themselves to defend their lib-
erty against the world. They love peace,
and therefore are prepared to fight that
war may not cross their borders. They
are in no sense a military nation and
[ 28 1

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

I believe that the establishment of a
citizen reserve force such as that of
Switzerland in no sense leads to mil-
itarism.

What is militarism? It is the mad-
ness of a nation. Militarism is not
created by the army, but the nature and
scope of the army is determined by the
policy of militarism. Militarism is a
theory of state. Where militarism ex-
ists the government is a part of the
army, instead of the army being a part
of the government. With militarism the
idea of war dominates even the pursuits
of peace; and war becomes a public pol-
icy for the expansion of the country's
territory and the development of its
resources. Militarism is the internal con-
trol of the whole machinery of govern-
ment in times of peace as well as in
times of war. It means a military caste
and all the pomp and circumstance of
insolent power which thinks imperially

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

and prosecutes the policies of an ag-
gressive world domination. Its ethic is
the maxim that the end justifies the
means; its religion is the idea of a tri-
bal God of battles whose favor is propi-
tiated by the blood of its sons sacri-
ficed on the high altar of national glory
and fame; its inspiration, the love of
conquest, the greed of power, and the
passion of hate. I insist that all of the
traditions of our country are fundamen-
tally opposed to this conception of gov-
ernment and of national destiny. Every
conviction and every sentiment of our
past challenges the mere suggestion of
this state of affairs. Preparedness for
defense on our part can never degener-
ate into military display and military
insolence, so long as our people remain
loyal to those ideas which throughout
our history have fashioned and directed
our national policy. Militarism and the
love of war for war's sake are due to

[30]

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

a perverted vision and a false idea of
patriotism, and democratic America
is naturally hostile to any suggestion
of the autocratic military domination
of our government and of our institu-
tions.

It is not sufficient in this day merely
to cry, Peace ! Peace ! We must face the
undeniable reality of things as they are
and endeavor to think clearly and act
sanely concerning the actual conditions
both present and future of our national
life. We cannot command peace merely
by raising our voices and summoning it
to be and to prevail. Peace is not a
matter merely of engrossed resolutions
or of fervent sentimental appeal. The
lack of preparedness to meet any great
national emergency which may prove a
national calamity does not in itself cre-
ate peace. It may only serve to inten-
sify and prolong the horrors of war. We
secure peace not by seeking it directly
[ 31 1

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

or by invoking it, but by the endeavor
to create and maintain those influences
which make for peace.

I am not in sympathy with the peace
propaganda which is being prosecuted in
many of our schools, so far at least as it
endeavors to quicken the peace senti-
ment by impressing upon the minds of
the young children the horrors or the
economical losses of war. Such an ap-
peal never makes any profound or per-
manent impression upon young minds.
It is purely utilitarian and there is some-
thing about youth which is impatient
with the balancing of the profit-and-loss
elements in any adventure of life. In
my experience in dealing with young
men through more than a quarter of a
century I know that there is only one
kind of appeal which ever reaches their
conviction and commands their resolu-
tion— it is the appeal to their moral
sense of right, of justice, of fair play,
[ 32]

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

and of decent dealing, man with man, in
all the relations of life.

In an effort to inaugurate an era of
universal peace, we must begin by the
endeavor to promote the universal recog-
nition of the fundamental distinction be-
tween right and wrong, between good
and evil. It should be the aim of the
instruction in every school and college
in the country "to make certain things
impossible, and to make action against
them instinctive, with an instinct, like
a trained habit, that is above reason."
Let us teach our youth that righteous-
ness exalteth a nation, and that sin is a
reproach to any people; that there is
one law of righteousness for the nation
and for the individual, that the obliga-
tion to recognize and respect treaty
rights is as binding upon a people as
contract obligations are binding upon in-
dividuals, that the claims of the weaker
individual for just and even merciful
[ 33 1

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

considerations have no greater validity
than those of a weaker nation; that
there should be in the mind of every
American youth the complete elimina-
tion of race prejudice, and in its stead
the fostering of an enlarged sympathy
with every child of humanity on the
face of the whole earth; and withal an
ever-expanding conception of the being
and nature of God, that he is the God
not of our country alone, or of any
race or any tribe, but the Lord of the
world, and that no people are of such
superior breed as to claim the monopoly
of God. This is the true propaganda of
peace ! Let our rising generation be in-
vigorated by these elemental principles
of individual, national, and international
righteousness and then we may hope to
hail the dawn of the day of peace. The
nations of the world will be prepared
for international arbitration as soon as
they have been schooled in realizing the
[34]

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

significance of international obligation.
It is reverence for law which begets the
spirit of peace.

There are two fallacies whose opera-
tion in the minds of men tends to ob-
struct the progress of peace. I do not
know whether to characterize them as
fallacies of reason, or fallacies of in-
clination. The one comes to us out of
the past, the other is the product of
this present European war. The first
concerns the idea of national sovereignty.
It is expressed in the words: "There is
no law above the state." No more
damnable doctrine was ever uttered. It
is the root of all militarism. This con-
ception of the prerogative of the state
is the greatest obstacle to-day to the
consummation of the reign of universal
peace. Above every sovereign state there
are the immutable laws of righteousness
and the eternal decrees of God. It will
be of little avail for us to depict the
[35]

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

horrors of war and the blessings of peace
unless we can instruct and inspire the
youth of our land to

"Believe truth and justice draw
From founts of everlasting law."

The second fallacy is that this pres-
ent terrible war has developed certain
practises and usages which will revolu-
tionize the accepted restrictions of inter-
national law so that hereafter all imme-
morial obligations of nation to nation in
a state of war will be swept away. I am
willing to admit that after the closing
act of this great world tragedy there will
emerge a new international law, but
I will not allow for a moment that the
nations of the earth are capable of re-
turning to a barbarous code of interna-
tional relations. On the contrary, I am
persuaded that international ethics will
be placed on a higher and more secure
plane than ever before.
[36]

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

It is the weakest kind of sentimental-
ism gone mad to imagine that the cause
of peace is in the remotest degree ad-
vanced by teaching the children of the
public schools to sing the doggerel rhyme
beginning with the line: "I did not
raise my boy to be a soldier." What
does any parent know as to the destiny
of his child? How can he possibly say
that he did not raise his son for any
purpose whatsoever? If he has reared
him in the spirit of service and has in-
spired within him a passion for duty, it
is certain that his child can never es-
cape some service of honor and indeed
may be nobly doomed to a life of sac-
rifice and the death of a hero. Two
Princeton graduates went as medical
missionaries to China years ago and
were murdered in the Boxer uprising.
Their parents might well have said, they
did not raise their sons to die this hor-
rible death. It might be said quite as
[37]

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

well by the parents of another Prince-
ton graduate, Doctor Ethan Butler, who
is righting the typhus fever in Serbia,
that they did not raise their son for
this desperate adventure of service;
or by the parents of Doctor Donnelly
and Doctor Magruder, who have re-
cently died at their post of duty in
that same country and at the same
work, that they did not raise their sons
to be the victims of pestilential disease.
All, however, have reared their sons to
recognize the compelling truth that the
call of duty is man's sovereign command.
This is not a question of mere aca-
demic interest which we are discussing.
We as a nation are looking into a future
that is dark and mysterious. In the
high tension of international hate and
international suspicion the most insignif-
icant accident may chance to precipi-
tate for us a national catastrophe. And
in the great emergency, if it should come,
[38]

PREPAREDNESS AND PEACE

what shall we say? — Peace! Peace at
any price! By all means, let us pay
any price which can buy peace — restraint
of passion, long-sufferance, sacrifice of
material wealth or of every personal
convenience and comfort. Let us sacri-
fice it all, everything which can buy
peace. But let us not forget that there
are some things which cannot buy peace.
If we sacrifice them in order to secure
peace, the peace thus sought and dearly
bought becomes for us the veriest tor-
ment of a living hell. We dare not
trade honor for peace, we dare not be-
tray duty in order that we may bargain
for peace. We dare not indulge our-
selves in the enjoyment of the blessings
of peace, while we turn deaf ears to the
cry of distress, or to the summons of a
righteous cause.

[ 39

MIGHT OR RIGHT

We are all of us sadly conscious of our
failure to realize in any adequate meas-
ure the standards of right conduct which
we set for ourselves. Attainment falls
far short of purpose and desire. Through
want of courage, or it may be of in-
clination, or of sheer inertia, we fail to
obey perfectly the law of duty which
we recognize as imperatively binding
upon us. There is, however, a more
subtle kind of failure as regards our
moral endeavor and achievement which
is due to the unconscious shifting of
these standards of right and wrong them-
selves. It is not merely that we fail to
do that which we know to be right, but
at times the very idea of right itself is
strangely altered. The good insensibly
assimilates to itself certain elements of
[ 40]

MIGHT OR RIGHT

evil which we allow and accept without
full realization of the significance of this
moral alchemy to which the most fun-
damental of our ideas are oftentimes
subjected. The idea of right no longer
stands in its integrity, but is compro-
mised and even neutralized by conflict-
ing thoughts and sentiments. The things
which at one time held first place in our
estimate of life become secondary. Our
attitude toward men, and manners, and
affairs, experiences a radical change. This
in most cases takes place unconsciously,
or, if conscious of it, we refrain from
confessing it even to ourselves.

There are some, however, who are
both frank enough and bold enough to
announce their belief in the radical doc-
trine which demands a complete trans-
formation of essential values. For them,
good is evil and evil good, and they
seem not ashamed to avow it. The
conspicuous German philosopher of later
[41]

MIGHT OR RIGHT

years, Nietzsche, with a naive simplicity,
insists that the great need of our mod-
ern civilization is that which he desig-
nates as "the transvaluation of all val-
ues." By this he means the complete
transformation of certain ideas of su-
preme value into their direct opposites.
He declares, for instance, that the central
virtues of Christianity such as those of
self-sacrifice, pity, mercy, indicate an in-
herent weakness of the human race, and
that the strong man dissipates his en-
ergies through the offices of kindness
and helpfulness. Thus the law which com-
mands us to bear one another's burdens
must be regarded as obsolete. Every
man should be strong enough to bear
his own burdens. If not, he is a drag
to the onward progress of humanity,
and to assist him is to do evil and not
good. If you help the weak, you so
far forth assist in perpetuating an in-
ferior type of manhood.
[ 42 ]

MIGHT OR RIGHT

From this point of view the defini-
tion of religion given in the Old Testa-
ment should be revised — "Do justice,
love mercy, and walk humbly with
thy God." In doing justice we must
first be just to self; in loving mercy it
must not be at the expense of our own
interests and advantage; and we must
not walk so humbly before our God as
to give to the world the appearance of
weakness or lack of independence. As
Nietzsche insists: "The man who loves
his neighbor as himself must have an
exceedingly poor opinion of himself."
If the race is to be perfected, every-
thing and every person must be sacri-
ficed in order to produce and preserve
the strong man at all hazards. There
is a kind of "moralic acid," as Nietzsche
styles it, which is corroding the strength
of humanity in our modern day. We
have discoursed too much of character,
too little of power; too much of self-
[43]

MIGHT OR RIGHT

sacrifice, too little of self-assertion; too
much of right, too little of might.
Conscience not only interferes with suc-
cess but also prevents the evolution of
a superior type of man, that superman
who is not constrained by duty nor
limited by law, living his life, "beyond
good and evil."

The serious question which presents
itself to our minds at this time is whether
our modern world has not been uncon-
sciously incorporating these ideas into
its living beliefs — that is, those^beliefs
which reveal themselves in actual living
and doing, in daily purpose, in the adap-
tation of means to ends, in the deeds
which the world honors, and in the
achievements which it crowns with glory.
There are many persons who would not
have the frankness of Nietzsche to say
that might makes right, and that a
moral sense is the great obstacle to
progress, and that "vigorous eras, noble
[ 44 ]

MIGHT OR RIGHT

civilizations, see something contemptible
in sympathy, in brotherly love, in the
lack of self-assertion and self-reliance."
Our modern world may not explicitly
subscribe to such doctrines in their ex-
treme and exaggerated expression, but
nevertheless may be unconsciously influ-
enced by them. Our real opinions, how-
ever, are to be tested by our sense of
values as revealed by the things which
we crave, which we set our hearts upon,
which we strive early and late to gain,
and sacrifice all else in order to secure.
Have we not offered our prayers to the
God of might rather than the God of
righteousness; to the God of power
rather than the God of justice, the God
of mercy and of love ?

The time has come, in my opinion,
for us to take account of the things
which we really believe and of the God
whom we really worship. If we have
been following false gods, let us hon-
[45]

MIGHT OR RIGHT

estly endeavor to re-establish funda-
mental and essential values, to discover
anew what is of supreme worth, and set
our faces resolutely toward its realiza-
tion. The need of our modern world
to-day is the same as that of the an-
cient world at the time of the coming
of Christ. His message to the world, as
indicated by his teaching and his life,
was an arraignment of the ancient re-
gime as regards three crucial points.

First, the religious and moral beliefs
of that age had become purely formal.
There was the letter of conviction, but
not the spirit of it. The creed, the
ritual, the ceremony were there, but the
life had departed. And so to-day our
beliefs have lost vitality to a large ex-
tent because we have been content to
indulge in formulas oft repeated, which
have ceased to have significance for our
thoughts or for our feelings. We have
allowed ourselves to be betrayed by
[46]

MIGHT OR RIGHT

words which are mere sounds without
substance. We have verbalized our be-
liefs, and have depotentiated them of
vital significance. Take, for instance,
the phrases, "the fatherhood of God"
and "the brotherhood of man." They
have been so often upon our lips as to
become trite; their real meaning has
disappeared. It is easy to repeat the
words, and to be satisfied with the repe-
tition, and nevertheless remain wholly
insensible to their profound import and
under no compulsion whatsoever to obey
their sublime command. We assent to
the formula; but it does not become a
determining factor in our purposes and
plans. There is perhaps no age in the
history of the world which has so em-
phasized the idea of the brotherhood of
man as our own; and never in all his-
tory has there been such a denial of this
idea as by the present European war.
If the brotherhood of man had been the
[47]

MIGHT OR RIGHT

living, dominant idea of our civilization,
could this present tragedy of the na-
tions have occurred? If the world had
believed profoundly in the idea of God,
would we now be daily reading of the
ghastly scenes where human life is no
longer sacred, where love gives place to
hate, where the constructive forces of
the world are superseded by the de-
structive, and all the passions of man's
brute inheritance are given full play and
scope ?

Second, in the teachings of Christ
there was a remarkable expansion of
the idea of God. Instead of the tribal
God worshipped as the God of Abra-
ham, and Isaac, and Jacob, he substi-
tuted the idea of God as the Father of
all peoples and all races, the God of
the Jew and Gentile, of the Greek and
barbarian, of the bond and the free.
It was the great apostle of the Gentiles
who, at the centre of Greek civilization,
[48]

MIGHT OR RIGHT

announced this fundamental conception
of Christianity to the old world: "God
hath made of one blood all nations of
men for to dwell on all the face of the
earth."

This was the sublime idea of the God
of a united humanity. The God of the
tribe had given place to the God of the
whole world. That conception was very
foreign to the popular religious notions
current at the time of Christ, and it
seems still farther away from our ideas
of the present day. It is a very nar-
row and circumscribed view of God to
regard him as concerned merely for our
little insular affairs, to regard him sim-
ply as a God of the individual or of
the home, or even one's nation. He
transcends all these limitations of par-
ticular interests and particular needs.
He is not merely our God but the God
of all mankind. The children of Israel
called him the God of battle, the Lord
[49]

MIGHT OR RIGHT

of hosts — that is, the one who, like the
gods of Homer, would give victory to
them in their battles and who would
prove the personal leader of their hosts.
But Christ came to the world in God's
name to universalize this narrow tribal
idea of God, proclaiming peace on earth
and good will to men. It was the dawn of
a new era, the Christian era. That light
which shone upon the old world is dark-
ened by the cloud hanging low over
Europe at the present time. We can-
not think, however, that it is perma-
nently extinguished. To that light the
nations of the earth must again re-
turn.

Third, Christ gave to the world of
his day an enlarged idea of the area
of moral obligation. He insisted most
stoutly upon the expansion of the scope
of individual responsibility. This free-
ing of the idea of duty from the limi-
tations of race prejudice is a natural
[50]

MIGHT OR RIGHT

corollary to the idea of the universality
of God's relation to the world. Corre-
sponding to the tribal view of God there
is always an accompanying idea of the
restricted obligation of the individual.
To care for one's own family or one's
own clan or tribe and present a hos-
tile front to the rest of mankind has
always been the characteristic feature of
primitive morality. It was peculiarly
the teaching of Christ which brought to
the world the idea that the area of
moral obligation is co-extensive with the
world itself. There are no racial or na-
tional lines which can limit the extent
of our responsibility. The world to-day
needs to learn this lesson anew, and
it is evident that it must acquire this
knowledge through bitter and desperate
experiences. The natural tendency of
human nature is to particularize our re-
lations to God and bound our relations
to our fellow men; to narrow our rela-
[51]

MIGHT OR RIGHT

tions to God so as to embrace only our
direst needs, and to circumscribe our re-
lations to man so as to include in the
field of responsibility only those who
are our kin or our own kind. The time
has certainly come for us to take larger
views of the world, of man, and of God.
There is a great moral and spiritual en-
terprise in which the young men of our
land may play a large and significant
part. We look to them to express strong
and decided opinions in the face of a
great world crisis and to lead others to-
ward the goal of a regenerated human-
ity. To know the right and to main-
tain it, to fight against the wrong, to
impart courage to the timid, strength to
the weak, and hope to the faint-hearted,
to forget self in the service of others, and
extend a human sympathy to the ends
of the earth — this is the great vocation.
It is the call of the world, it is the voice
of one calling out of a distant past
[52]

MIGHT OR RIGHT

across the nineteen Christian centuries;
it is the "spirit of the years to come"
summoning men to establish the King-
dom of God upon earth.

[53]

MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES
OF PEACE

When Joab saw that the front of the
battle was against him before and behind,
he chose of all the choice men of Israel, and
put them in array against the Syrians:

And the rest of the people he delivered
into the hand of Abishai his brother, that
he might put them in array against the
children of Ammon.

And he said, If the Syrians be too strong
for me, then thou shalt help me: but if the
children of Ammon be too strong for thee,
then I will come and help thee.

Be of good courage and let us play the
men for our people, and for the cities of our
God: and the Lord do that which seemeth
him good.— II Sam. 10 : 9-12.

The scene which these words picture

is a characteristic description of the

spirit which is provoked by war among

a people who believe they are fighting

[54]

MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

for a righteous cause — the choice men
of the nation called to take their stand
at the place of greatest danger, united
by the common bond of mutual co-
operation and helpfulness, fired by the
spirit of courage and manly endeavor,
and experiencing withal a quickening of
religious zeal and enthusiasm. It would
be a pity, a very tragedy indeed, if the
youth of Europe should attain this new
view of life through their present des-
perate conflict, and here, in this land of
peace far from the horror and disaster
of war, our young men should fail of
such a vision, and a new birth of moral
and spiritual power. There are some
who have formulated for themselves
a philosophy of national destiny which
maintains that war is a dire necessity in
order to regenerate and reinvigorate a
people fast approaching a decadent state
due to the deteriorating forces of ma-
terial greed and the emasculating influ-
[55]

MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

ence of luxurious ease and self-indulgence.
From such a point of view war is the
great national prophylactic. It is in-
sisted that war arrests national disease
and decay, revives the national con-
science, unifies a people, and gives a
new meaning to the spirit of loyalty
and sacrifice; that it is only by the
baptism of fire and blood that the re-
generation of a nation can be accom-
plished. Thus a new national conse-
cration is born of national peril and is
maintained even through national defeat.
Is this the only way to realize the
true end of a people's destiny? Must
we confess that it is necessary for us
first to descend into hell before we can
begin to climb the steep ascent of heaven ?
Who can answer this question? I can-
not. We of an older generation can-
not answer it. The answer is with you
of the coming generation, you who are
to play your part in the new day of
f 56 1

MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

your labors in the world awaiting you.
I am profoundly convinced that it is
possible for you to prove in your own
lives that martial valor may be illus-
trated in times of peace as well as in
war.

Let us not deceive ourselves that
peace is in itself a blessing. We can
make it a blessing; but we can make
it a curse as well. The old Hebrew
prophet, you remember, declared the
curse of Moab in the words: "Moab
hath been at ease from his youth, and he
hath settled on his lees, and hath not
been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither
hath he gone into captivity: therefore
his taste remained in him and his scent
is not changed." Moab failed to with-
stand the test of peace and prosperity;
therefore was compelled to suffer ac-
cordingly.

What is peace? Peace is a situation,
an external setting, the guarantee of a free
[57]

MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

exercise of all our powers, without fear of
the menace or intrusion of a foreign foe to
challenge or control that freedom. How
will man use his freedom thus guaranteed
by peace ? How will a nation realize the
rightful fruits of liberty where its own
sovereign purposes know neither let nor
hindrance? We often speak of a peace-
ful scene in nature. Man enters, and
the place of peace may become the set-
ting for murder or a retreat for prayer.
Peace is the clean sheet upon which man
may write the record for good or ill; it
is the opportunity which man may no-
bly use or shamefully abuse; it is the
unknown quantity to which the human
factor alone can give determinate value.
Who, then, will lead the way in the reali-
zation of the true possibilities of peace?
Who will prove that the spirit of peace
may become the spirit of valor, and as-
sure the solidarity and progress of our
nation ? Who but the choice men of our
[ 58 1

MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

land — the men of exceptional privilege,
who by a process of natural selection
have passed from one degree of excel-
lence to another in the arduous disci-
pline of mind and character through
years of preparation for a life of service?
When facing the peril of war, it is
this type of man who has always re-
sponded most readily and most promptly
to his country's call to arms. In the
crisis of peace, a crisis fraught with the
untold possibility of good or evil, the
need of such initiative and such example
is none the less imperative. The choice
men for the position of difficulty and
of danger — this is the natural necessity
and programme of war. Peculiar ability
creates peculiar obligation. It is the
toll which life exacts of excellence of any
kind whatsoever. Peace as well as war
calls for the self-sacrificing activities of
superior men. But it may be urged
that peace has no particular danger, no
[59]

MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

particular difficulty, such as war presents.
The danger and difficulty are not the
same — that I admit. But peace has its
difficulties and dangers quite as real.
They are not so evident, however. They
are indirect, invisible, subtle, infinitely
complicated and far-reaching in their
effects. The danger which is imminent
and immediate we brace ourselves to
meet because we must. The danger
which is remote and problematical it is
natural to ignore.

We fail, moreover, to reckon with those
dangers which may not affect our own
day and generation. There is a certain
crude and cruel selfishness attaching to
each living generation which induces a
singular disregard of the generation to
come. So long as we do not reap the
harvest of our sowing, let those who are
to follow, we say, meet their own dangers
and perils as best they may. If this is
not a conscious utterance in defense of
[60]

MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

present-day neglect of social and national
obligations, it is at least the unconscious
working hypothesis of many who would
enjoy the comfort and convenience of
the day of peace, while wholly oblivious
to that sense of duty which the true
appreciation of such privileges naturally
creates.

The first recognition of the duty aris-
ing from the peace and the liberty which
our republic provides comes with the
realization that we are not a mass of
many millions of separate individuals,
each with his own particular interests
to maintain and preserve, but that we
are one people, enlisted in the service
of a common cause. This idea of a
common cause which is the inspiration
of all the heroic deeds of self-sacrifice
in the time of war, we must endeavor
in some way to make potent in the ac-
tivities and pursuits of our people in
the time of peace. All soldiers are com-
[61]

MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

rades in arms. Can we not also recog-
nize the bonds of comradeship in the
common work of the world, in our com-
mon lot and our common destiny as
brother men? Is it not possible to feel
the thrill of comradeship in our common
fight against the forces of ignorance, of
evil, of vice, of intemperance, of injus-
tice, of disease and premature death?
To save his comrade from death when
under fire the true soldier will run every
risk of personal danger and hold his own
life cheap in his all-absorbing work of
rescue. Amidst the perils of peace you
too will hear the call for help from many
a comrade against whom the tide of cir-
cumstance is running hard.

In the early career of David there
gathered about him a band of soldiers
at the cave of Adullam, desperate men,
"every one that was in distress, every
one that was in debt, and every one
that was discontented."
[62]

MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

War has a peculiar fascination for
men of this type, men who have had a
chance in life and have failed to realize
its possibilities, men whose adverse con-
dition from birth has seemed to deny
them every chance, men also who have
lacked the resolution to make a chance
for themselves in spite of untoward con-
ditions. Conscious of the galling burden
of a useless life, they hail the opportu-
nity of war, that at last they may prove
themselves of some service in the de-
fense of the common cause of their
country. Such lives may be made valua-
ble in times of peace also if they can be
saved from becoming a part of the
wreckage of a nation. You will find
them in the communities of which you
are to become active citizens and where
you are to play your part in the work
of the world. You cannot escape them.
They will be at your very doors. They
need some one to think for them, to
[63]

MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

plan for them, and to rally their broken
spirits to engage in some enterprise which
will provide them scope in a united ef-
fort to realize a higher and better order
of life. There is no village or city in
this land in which there is not some
potential power for good of this kind,
power however inoperative, power gone
to waste, or, as so often happens, power
which is basely misdirected in the courses
of evil. To make this power actual and
to direct it toward useful ends requires
thought, sympathy, and patience, and
above all the overpowering sense of the
common bond which unites all men of
all classes in a common lot and destiny.
It would be well for us to recognize
and confess that the great obstacle to
the progress of our people in the devel-
opment of national vigor and rectitude
is the growth of a selfish individualism
which has no thought for the common
good and the public weal. In a letter
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MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

recently written by a young British offi-
cer to his mother a few days before he
was killed in action, there were found
these words:

Units, individuals, cannot count. We live
our little lives and die. To some are given
chances of proving themselves men, and to
others no chance comes. Whatever our in-
dividual faults, virtues, or qualities may be,
it matters not; for, when we are up against
big things, let us forget individuals and let
us act as one great unit, united and fearless.
Some will live and many will die, but count
the loss not. It is better far to go out with
honor than survive with shame.

Is it possible that the manifestation
of such a spirit is necessarily confined
to the scenes of war? Is a nation's
honor at stake only in times of immi-
nent peril? I crave for every one of
you a like spirit of consecration for the
tasks of peace. Forget yourself as an
individual, be willing to lose yourself in
the mass, work in it and through it for
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MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

the integrity of the whole. No nation
has ever been conquered by a foe from
without unless there has been developed
some inherent weakness within. If we
can withstand the dangers of peace we
need never fear the danger of war.
You too will soon be up against great
things; therefore be of good courage
and play the men for your people.
To be of service in pursuing the offices
of peace requires a peculiar courage and
manly spirit. In peace your duty will
not come to you as it does when there
is a call to arms with the enemy already
crossing your country's frontier. You
must go forth to meet it. You must
either discover your duty or else create
it, and then swear allegiance in your
own name to its high behests. Cen-
turies ago the knight errant rode forth
on the adventure of service, to cham-
pion the cause of the weak and the
wronged wherever they might be found.
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MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

For him there was no clear call to
any definite undertaking. But, compelled
by the knightly spirit, he resolutely set
himself to seek the undiscovered duty
somewhere beyond the far horizon. There
is no place in our modern days for this
type of noble adventurer. He has dis-
appeared with the conditions and oppor-
tunities of the age in which he flourished.
But the same spirit may reappear in an-
other form, to meet the needs of another
age, again

"To serve as model for the mighty world
And be the fair beginning of a time."

It may be regarded by some as the ex-
pression of a too extravagant optimism
if we declare our belief that the world
is entering upon a new time in its his-
tory, a new order of things, in which the
law of justice and the spirit of mercy
will universally prevail. The very dark-
ness, however, of the present time creates
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MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

a persistent belief that there must be
some brighter light ahead. No robust
spirit can be permanently pessimistic.
You are called to play a part in the
building of a new world. Such a voca-
tion is your inspiration.

Moreover, he who has felt within him
the compulsion of a commanding cause
is led instinctively to recognize the fact
that the sacrifices of duty thus self-im-
posed are an offering on the high altar
of the eternal God. Patriotism in war
is usually crowned with religious zeal and
enthusiasm, sometimes with reason, some-
times without. The spiritual impulse is
elemental; great occasions always tend
to revive it. Shall not the patriotism
of peace also realize that the better order
of things for which it strives is in some
manner identified with the establishment
of the kingdom of God on the earth?
There are some who, all too readily dis-
couraged, complain bitterly that the pres-
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MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

ent European tragedy proves Christian-
ity a failure. On the contrary, I believe
that Christianity is approaching its su-
preme test. It rests with the coming
generation, to which you belong, to re-
store to the law and love of Christ its
ancient power. The will to believe is
sufficient to carry the strongly intrenched
height in the face of the enemy's fire.
The will to believe is powerful also to
cause the kingdom of God and his Christ
to prevail against the evil of the world,
"against the principalities, against the
powers, against the spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places."

I am told that several years before
the present war there was formed in
France a league of young men for the
purpose of the moral and spiritual re-
generation of the youth of their coun-
try and the consequent development of
a nobler type of manhood. They called
themselves the Young France. I would
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MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

that you, in the vigor of your enthusiasm
and ambition, might emulate this splen-
did enterprise, and endeavor through
the consecrated spirit of a Young Amer-
ica to bring a new promise and a new
hope to your native land, and through
your land to the whole earth.

This year of your graduation, 1915,
will prove a memorable year in the
world's history, a year of war and dis-
aster whose dark shadows have fallen
upon the whole earth. This year must be
redeemed by the labors of the years im-
mediately to follow, your working years,
the years of your opportunity, which will
call for extraordinary men to meet the
exigencies of extraordinary times, strong
men to undertake the difficult task, to
bear the heavy burden, to pursue the
hazardous enterprise — men of conviction
and of courage, capable of forgetting their
own interests in following the sovereign
call of duty. One of the most pitiful
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MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

characters described in the range of fic-
tion is that of "the man without a coun-
try." Equally pitiful, it seems to me,
in this day of the world's need, is the
man without a cause, a cause to serve,
to maintain and defend even to the sac-
rificing of one's own life. The greatest
misfortune that can possibly overtake
you is to follow the fashion prevailing
in some quarters to-day of repressing all
enthusiasm, and from a detached point
of view to regard with cold indifference
the labor and struggle of your brother
men.

I refuse to entertain the idea even as
a possibility that any life before me is
going to waste, self-centred, self-indul-
gent, and self -destroying. For every one
of you I hope and pray there may come,
in the closing hours of your university
career, some mighty inspiration of a holy
cause, some vision, indistinct, far away,
it may be, of the Holy Grail for you to

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MARTIAL VALOR IN TIMES OF PEACE

seek and for you to find. It is my ear-
nest wish for you all that you may attain
an abundant measure of success in the
life before you, but I would remind you
that the secret of success may be found
in the words of the blameless knight,
Sir Galahad, as he started upon the holy
mission of his adventurous career:

"If I lose myself, I save myself."

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