As a model, Frederick the Great is repugnant to the soul of America. We may not all be Christians, but the claim that we are a Christian nation is justified by the fact that our ideals are the ideals of Christianity,--of justice toward all, of the love of mercy, of equality of opportunity for all, and of fraternity among men, of all races and creeds. Peace is one of the grandest things on earth; but, as Dean Howard Robbins reminds us, it is only a means to an end,--namely, this end: the coming of the kingdom of God. If war is required for this end, then we must for a time sacrifice peace.
Who seeks and loves the company of great Ideals, and moves among them, soon or late Will learn their ways and language, unaware Take on their likeness. --PRESIDENT SAMUEL V. COLE.
THE Venerable Bede wrote of a king of Northumberland and his counselors as debating whether the emissaries of Pope Gregory should be allowed to present to their people the Christian faith. A gray-haired Chief told of a little bird, which on a stormy night flew into his warm, bright dining-hall. It was a sweet moment for the bird, but his surroundings were unnatural. He was frightened, and presently out he flew into the storm again.
"He came out of the dark, and into the dark he returned," said the old Chief. "Thus it is with human life. We come we know not whence. We depart we know not whither. If anybody can tell us anything about it, in God's name, let us hear him."
And thus came the missionaries into Britain and made it a so-called religious nation.
Our religious journals have discussed from many standpoints the possibility of making our own a religious nation. A formally "established" religion is especially forbidden us. We all admit this to be wise, and that Church and State should be separate. Yet there are few thoughtful people who do not realize that each individual has his spiritual part, which must be fed and nourished, and that this cannot be done by culture alone. When a series of sex-films was on display in New York, and good people were wondering whether more of good than bad would result to the young who flocked to see them, one distinguished man said to another, "Knowledge alone will never make men virtuous,"--and no truer word was ever spoken, as the spectacle of highly educated Germany amply proves.