Kansas University Weekly.
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risk more terrible; every coming year makes the burden less bearable. Thus the Charybdis will swallow its own waters. The great sin of Europe will devour its own progeny. Disarmament, the logic of events, must come.
But even should a war come, yet reason must conquer. The Spirit of Truth that has contended with and conquered so many fallacies and mistaken dogmas, will not go down before this gigantic evil of evils. It is only gathering strength and intensity from resistance. Wrong cannot prevail against right, hatred against love, error against reason and the strength of an enlightened conscience.
All the evidences to the contrary notwithstanding, that great Sabbath of Nations, when they shall learn to war no more, is sure to come.
A reign of universal peace may seem the wild dream of a visionary, but "we are such stuff as dreams are made of." All the great achievements of civilization were once derided as visionary, and but three years ago, with unprecedented pageants, the whole world was celebrating the triumph of a dreamer. Even as the power of the ancient Roman Empire was doomed in its hour of unchallenged supremacy when the Prince of Peace lay in his manger at Bethlehem, so the spirit of militarism, now apparently at its highest, is in reality losing its iron sway over the minds of men. Before the sword can be finally sheathed, it may be that the soil of Europe is again to be drenched in blood. The darkest hour in the history of the world may be yet to come, but it will be a darkness that presages dawn. We know not when war shall cease.
To our brief span of mortality the period of strife yet to remain might seem long, knew we its duration, but to Him in whose sight a thousand years are but as yesterday, it is nothing. We clearly see His bow in the clouds, and it is a covenant of peace.
"Down the dark future, through long generations. The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease; And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations. I hear once more the voice of Christ say, "Peace!"
Washington as a Soldier and a Statesman.
The world makes no mistakes in the recognition of true greatness. The final rewards bestowed upon men are ever commensurate with their just deserts. He who stands for something positive and right, a great soul through whom thousands speak, wins applause and fame unsullied and unbroken though turned about by the mighty tides of time.
The unselfish deeds of heroism and the unrewarded, self-sacrificing lives of intrepid, fearless men, have shaped the fortunes and destinies of the race. These are the characters whose names shall not perish from the earth. These are the characters who shall live the hope and the inspiration of the world.
Their deeds are written in letters of gold. Lips touched with the divine fire of eloquence pronounce their praises. Lofty monuments proclaim in a language more powerful than that of spoken words their undimished glory. These men have not died. No man ever died who was fit to live. No man who ever stood for a great principle is numbered with the dead, but abides ever in the hearts of those whom he lived to bless.
Such is Washington to every American citizen, and such he shall be. He is so endeared to the hearts of the American people that they love his very faults, few as they were. For this reason his birthday, the 22nd of February, has been declared a national holiday and set apart as a fitting season for recounting his noble deeds and the resulting blessings upon the present generation.
The recognition of this day is a duty incumbent upon both old and young. To the mature the history of Washington is familiar. It is the first lesson children learn at their mother's knee. Then in maturer years they learn what an important part he played in the making of our country.
What a model life! How replete with purity and truth. What strength of virtue! What grasp of intellect! Indeed, had he not the purest soul that ever abode in a tabernacle of clay? He moves before us like some grand embodiment of virtue and power. Whether bowed in fasting and prayer before God in behalf of his country or making his way through the broken ice of the angry Delaware, in the midst of a midnight storm; whether facing the enemy or wearing the wreath of victory, he is the same self-contained, noble minded man. We rob his character of much of its brilliancy if we entertain the idea that many have formed of his over meekness and gentleness of disposition. On the contrary he was, when a boy, of excitable temperament; when a man, of strong and terrible passions. But he had these passions so completely under control that but few knew of them.
Unlike many other great men of our country Washington was of a wealthy family. He himself early came into possession of property sufficient to place him among the wealthiest in the land. He had a beautiful home, a retinue