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Show America Compelled to Take Up the Arms Forced Into Her Hands By CARDINAL FARLEY . ' Our country ia at war. T,he fateful hour haa etruck, fraught with momentous events. Solemn is the thought of it, and though reachless still the import of it, yet inexorable are its demands. , Long and anxiously had we hoped that our land would not be drawn into the seething vortex which has engulfed bo ,xnany of the nations of the world. Long and anxiously had we hoped that the lurid names of wa would not cast their baneful shadows ujion our shores. Our government withheld no effort to avert the peril, while our president employed the whole ascendancy of his great intellect and his high position for the prevalence of the ideals of a true, genuine Americanism. ; But what was so ardently and so whole-heartedly desired was not to be. Our country had to take up the arms that were forced into her' hands, had no choice but to grasp and wield the weapon wherewith to defend her honor, to vindicate the right and the justice of her cause, and to insure a triumph that will be the victory of civilization and humanity. In the solemn hour, then, when her fortunes are at stake, when all that she has stood for, and stands for, is jeopardized by the hazard of' impending warfare, will not her sons hearken to her call, will they not I buckle on the armor of the conflict and, rushing to her rescue, lift high her glorious banner of liberty and justice? Our president having spoken, and our national representatives having gpoken, the response to the voice of the authority they embody will be that we will rally around our flag with the comglctest fullness of devotion, and with loyalest hearts and sturdiest arms place all that we have and all that we are, at our country's service. We will not shrink, then, from any sacrifice in her behalf. We will do, in a word, what our fathers have done in this loved republic of ours from the time it was set up among the nations, and at every time that a hostile hand was lifted against her in the sweep of her beneficent, glorious glo-rious career among the peoples of the world. Our path of duty lies clear before us. May the blessing of Almighty God enable us to walk in it steadfastly and unwaveringly to the end. |
