OCR Text |
Show POWER OF THE CROSS. From the time that' the' bleeding Savior was nailed to it on the hill, of Calvary, the Cross has remained -the-. transcendent object of veneration to peoples of the Christian faith the world over. Schism, may abound, nations fall away, from religion, re-ligion, civilization decay in the lands where pagan art once erected monuments to false deities; but in none of these countries has the Cross been torn from the hearts of the faithful, though it be torn from the walls of courts tf justice as in France ' From Constantino of Jioroe to Nicholas of Russia, Rus-sia, it is -the Cross. From Nicholas of Russia to the end of the world, it is and will ever be the Cross. In war, as in peace, it is the Cross. Before Be-fore it. the eagles and battle flags arc as nothing. Raised aloft, it is the sign that gives hope, ' strength and courage to the soldier. If is the one thing which the converted criminal heholds last upon the scaffold. Redeemed from the shedding of our brother's blood in the horrible 'carnage of war, : it will one day be the emblem to signify the eon-cord eon-cord of nations and adorn the Temple of Peace. For He who died upon the Cross was a Man of : Peace. His coming was a promise of peace and good will to men, heralded through hosannas of ' angels. 1 It is not in human nature, however, to resist ; the influence of that mental picture presented on ; the banks of the Yalu. The first land battle of the : present, war yas fought there within the past few days. The: Russians .gave, way before overpower-: overpower-: in? numbers, but stubbornly contested every inch ; of ground. The dispatches tell us that the czar's soldiers,, those of the Eleventh Siberian regiment. : protested against the -command of their officers to fall back. Then advanced a priest to the front with uplifted cross. Then rang out the order for .charge with fixed bayonets. Then, amid the sound ; of blaring bugles, with the priest at their head, the Russians rushed upon the enemy, inflicting terrible slaughter and receiving the same in turn fr6m the. Japanese. v-; It is over. ; The Eleventh regiment,' like No- ' lan's Six Hundred at.Balaklava. is almost wiped out. They call the rolLat Kulien Cheng; The heroic he-roic priest did not answer. A bullet "pierced his heart on the field of: battle, and there he' lay with the cross, i.n his hand. ' ' ; : 1 Who. is ... the person;'', unmoved by reading .1 . .. '.;. ..........,.. such an "account of battle as -this one on the Yalu? "Who is tho one not electrified by the heroism of these Siberian soldiers? Who is it Avill sneer at .the incident related of the priest and the cross ? The agnostic, and the infidel, who believe in no hereafter. These will set up tho argument that tho fatalism of Shontoism is just- as potent as the superstitions of Christianity in the production of dogged, animal' courage. Call it fatalism or call it supertitionTit is faith nevertheless; never-theless; and pagan Jap and Christian Russian believe be-lieve hi a future state of existence. It is this condition con-dition of ;n)id which makes heroes of serfs in this, twentieth century.. How. many aguosties and infidels, believing in no hereafter, dare go into battle and fight as the Russians aiid' Japs fought the other day on the Yalu? : ''.' '" ' ..' . - ' |