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Show When Our Boys Come Marching Home sat It is not long before the boys will be coming home They will-not be the same boys they were when they went away. No man can go through what they have gone through and come, out -unchanged. They have learned in the school of life some great lessons. Have we learned anything? , I I They have learned the meaning of brothrhood. Toi Americans who have fought by the side of Italians, the , I Italian can never be a Dago. To Englishmen who have, fought by the side of Frenchmen the Frenchman can nev-, erbe a Johnny Crawau, To Anglo Saxons who have by, the side of East Indians the. East Indian can never be a barbarian. On the battlefield the walls of class, of race, of creed, have been battered down. The prejudices have been dissolved in the atmosphere of a common service. 1 They have learned the value both of cooperation and of competition, The greatest combination America has ever ev-er known is the combination of four million American soldiers in cooperation with millions of Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Italians, fighting to make the world free. The keenest competition Amrica has ever seen is that of , individual soldiers competing with each other in a strife, not as to which could get the biggest booty or the highest Honors,, but asto which .could render the largest and the most perilous service. No price has been too great for the to nay for the nrivileee of serving. There lies before me as I write the order of a commanding general of an American brigade, reporting to a mother the death of her son "somewhere in France." During hoary bombardment of Brigade P. C. and vldnlty.a .very important message, requiring secrecy, speed anT full conception con-ception of its importance was specially Intrusted to. this officer . for delivery to regimental commander. Fearlessly braving the I storm of hostile shells he delivered the message. Upon his way I back to Brigade P. 0. he was struck with shell fragment, severely I wounded and rendered unconscious. Upon being picked up an ) ' carried to the dresslBg station, he, with great, great effort, routed I . alaueir ..vsatoi.vUe. sustaal poer. attending him to !,.' notify "''' '"'tsWlffifr ' C retorts '0, Klapeed back to uncon- f&Wm&B. :.;;. tr- j' (4taattCM ea Page WH) . I When Our Boys Come Marching Heme ' ' J. -.-. - . -, J (Continued from Pago Oio) , t " -..!.. - ' -- i sclousness, his single thought being full anA'idinplete discharge i- ' of duty', disregarding his own serious condition. fjjfj When our boys,who in "this spirit of self f orgetf ulnesa li have offered then lives in service to their fellowmen, re-m re-m .turn, what will" they find? Will it be the old spirit of m. comptition every .one for himself and the devil take the J-T hindmost? Or will it be the newspirit of service, a spirit .which fuses cooperation and- competition and makes of these aforetime, enemies friends and allies? Owbpys have learned the reality and terribleness of sin: "Sin is lawlessness," says the Apostle. They have learned to hate lawlessness. They have seen a nation pb-sessed pb-sessed by self conceit, proclaiming to the world through the official declaration of its Prime Minister that "necessity "ne-cessity knows nb law." Thy have seen the soldiers of that nation throwing off all restraint and giving themselves them-selves to their passions in disregard of the laws of war, the laws of nations, the laws of humanity, and the laws of God. In devastated lands, desolated homes, polluted and ruined churches, burned villages and towns, the anguish of helpless women and children robbed of their loved ones, our soldiers have seen written ki language which they can ,- . never forget the solemhswarhing. of the sacred writer: 'a, "Self will, when it hath' conceived, beareth lawlessness; f , arid lawlessness, when it is full grown, -brlngeth forth digth." ' - p In their home' country, America, a great and perhaps growing church, bearing.the name of Christian, has been telHnVthem that there is no evil except in our own imag inings that God is goefd'and God is all, and therefore all isfgood. fn some colleges and universities professors have been telling 'them that evil is only good in the mak-. mak-. ing, that it is only immaturity, that time and growth cure all things. In current literature and current conversation they have been incited to think that the edvil is not so Dad as he is painted, and sanction to this doctrine had been given by great names. Said Hume: "Were one to go round the world with the ihtentlori of givinga good supper; sup-per; to the righteous and a sound drubbing to the wicked he "would frequently, be embarrassed in his choice, and would find the merits and demerits of most men and women wo-men scarcely amount to the value of either?! To these philosophies our soldier boys can never again give con- tjf sent They have seen too clearly jthe merits of virtue, m they have' realized tooydeepjy0 the reality of wickedness, $f and they' have learned' to'-Kate, 'with a relentless hatred, '? 8p caP16 ,tne ferodties they havev witnessed. Tesa The battlefield experiences ,of the last; two years have been a tremendous education of the American sonsclence abroad. What have they done to educate the American ceMdenceathome? Have they called us out of our chambers cham-bers of ;eaw? Have they taught us to see things as they arffy-ftf realize, that evil is not a figment of preachers, t . t&m&mfttoe and harmless thing, but a living spirit incarnate in;iiidivjdual men arid in masses of men? I' -' thaf Quily and Ingo are real men, and that a nation may become plague stricken with an epidemic of ferocity? Will they find at home only a hatred of the Germans? or will they fin da people who sees a possible German in every ev-ery braggart and every bully, and who hate the cruelties which grow rank on fields of peace as much as they hate those whoch grow on fields of battle, and those which grow on American soil as welUas those which grow on the soil of Germany? Our boys have learned that life is one long campaign that good and evil are engaged in a life-and-death struggle; strug-gle; that so long as that struggle continues pacifism is disloyalty; and that it" can never end except by the unconditional un-conditional surrender of the forces of evil. They have learned that theer can be no victory except by self-sacrifice., They have grown optimistic, not because "God's in His heaven, all's right with the world", but beause God is in His world, the comrade of those who are making it all fight; not because life is a peaceful and happy heaven, bt because the victory which can be won only by the shedding shed-ding of blood is worth all the blood and tears it will cost. The" enigmatical text, the.quzzle of theologians for centuries, cen-turies, has gained for them a new significance: "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." Lif? has given to the doctrine of sacrifice for these boys a new and deeper meaning than theology had ever given 10 it. From a private letter of one of our soldier boys, a good friend of mine, I am permitted to copy an extract. Two brothers, devoted to each other with an unusual devotion, de-votion, were serving at the same, point on the front, and both went "o"?er the top" at almost the same time, though not'together. One gdt back safely, though dangerously gass'ed; the other, wounded by a shell, vwas brought DacK to die. The living .one writes: Would tha't I could tell you as much about 1 but t am 'still In doubt about his condition. The day before wo went "over the top" he went on partol Into No Man's Land after somo Hun machine gunners and snipers, f did not know that ho had gone uatU he was brought Into the trench on a stretcher at night, seriously ser-iously wounded by machine gun bullets. Despite the fact that ho "had lain out there alone for four hours or so, with his wounds, he "was1 absolutely clear In his thoughts, and what is more, magnificent magnifi-cent beyond description in 'telling me his story. Such heroism was nerer surpassed. We took him to the first-aid station Just before be-fore we began our advance. I cannot tell you what the outcome will be, but I am lrgreat hopes of his recovery, brave and clean- lived that's what counts In a situation of this kind. I am optimistic; I believe all is coming out rght But also, I look upon death and suffering la a different light. I saw too many men, some my best comrades, who will never handle rlflo again. But, oh, it was worth it! What are compared to the task we are achieving r Multiply this typical letter by a thousand and that thousand by another thousand, and ask yourself the question: ques-tion: What spirit do these boys possess? And then ask ypurself : In what spirit shall we wel- . come them? Do we mean that the self sacrifice of the last' two years shall be only an episode in American life? Or shall It be the beginning of an enduringchatige in the American character? j To many of these-boys there has come a new experi- K ' . - ' ' it. ence f death. The grave is no longer a cell ; it is an open H door. Something lies beyond. What? They cannot tell. - gH 1 hey have no vision of a celestial city, none of Elysian , M fields. Ihey have no theory of immortality. But to them M death has become only one more step in the Great Ad- H venture to which they gave themselves when they conse- H crated their lives to tlie service of thier country and their H fellow man. That consecration was not the consequence H of any unthinking emotionalism. They weighed the ques- H tion carefully. Into theone scale they put ease, comfort, H home, their youthful ambitions, liberty of action, their B comfort, discipline, probable pain, possible death, but al- H so their honor, the honor of their country, and their love H pfor their fellow men. These outweighed the others. It is H true that .some went under compulsion; but most of them 1 vent gladly and the reluctant soon caught the spirit of H I the enthusiastic. The achievement which inspired them H they counted as worth dying for. If death were the end, the achievement would still be worth dying for. But they H no longer think of it. as the end. It has become to them a H new beginning. ,, H j How shall we receive them? Shall we chill their new- M ly enkindled enthusiasm by reciving them into homes M drapd in the pagan emblems of the hopelss sorrow of H ihose who can see only a tomb from which the stone can M never be rolled away? or shall we intensify their faith by M our own unquenchable faith in the inextinguishable life M of love, service and self sacrifice? M And our boyd have acquired no! there has been be- fl stowed upon our boys in this the greatest hour of their'- M lives a new experience of the Eternal.-. It may not be a M new faith in the creedal definitions of God. It may be H that those definitions have been swept away by their ex- . H periences. Their faitfr may be as vague as Matthew Ar- H nold's faith in "a Power not ourselves that makes for ,H righteousness;" it may be as vague as Herbert Spenser's H faith in "an infinite and Eternal Energy from which all . H things proceed." But it is a faith from which all things ' H proceed." But it is a faith, from which they cannot if 'H they would escape, in a Power greater than their own. 'LLI One soldier wriees home: '"AH the infidels are In H the rear. Every one here at the front believes in God and H i the future." Another writes: "There is no fear here ex- H I cept the fear of God." Still another: "We are at last wil- ,H f ling to act as though we believed in both God and immor- 'H ! tality." Bliss Kirkland in her little book "The New B & Death," sums up her study of these soldiers experiences in H the following two sentences: H " A power is certainly at worw is it God or devil, H ior no one aares longer vo can it vjhuuuc. tivci mauiiu .kgfl answers trod." ? ": And again: "He is not the God of theology. He is 'M sometimes frankly an evolutional GodHimself traveling - with His universe towards perfection." iM These boys have been caught up in a tidal wave of ' H human thought and feeling which man did not create and "M man cannot control, and which is sweeping the nations ,l of the earth toward a future which man can but dimly , :M foresee. They have felt the Eternal vPower .'and realize tH it as only they can realize it who have experienced it. And M in this hour of victory victory beyond their expectations l they have felt also the Eternal Goodness. They are de- H voutly glad that God has not fought their battles for ,H them; that he has not performed their duty and let them M escape the trial ; that he has trusted them to fight his bat- .,H ties with him and share with him the glory of the victory. H Their exuberant joy is also a reverent thanksgiving. 'H This is not true of all. There are some careless-and H indifferent spirits who will be careless and indifferent H still. But many, if we may judge from their published . letters most of these boys will have passed through these experiences without some new vision, of truth, som new understanding of life. What greeting shall we be pre- pared to give them? Into what atmosphere will they Come? Shall we chill them with our skeptisism and our H indifference? Or shall we be ready to see the truth they see and share with them in their new life, that we and -' they together may build the new world of faith in God and the future, and of love and hope for our fellow man? ' Lyman Abbott in The Outlook. N J im ms Ma H |