Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 177, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1917 — OBLIGATION RESTS UPON THOSE AT HOME AS WELL AS SOLDIERS AT FRONT [ARTICLE]

OBLIGATION RESTS UPON THOSE AT HOME AS WELL AS SOLDIERS AT FRONT

By REV. CHARLES STELZIE.

•For those who cannot go to war —as well as those who will go to the front — there is a distinct obligation to dedicate themselves to the task of helping on the great new brotherhood of the world. This brofherhood will be founded upon therevolutlon ‘which is sweeping through every country on the globe, and which is working Itself out through the war, from the effects of which no nation can escape. Nor can this movement for the brotherhood of man be retarded by petty hates and spites or by the ambitions and intrigues of kings and cabinets and the heartless machinations of contemptuous politicians. For hundreds of years the race of men has been getting ready for this world brotherhood. And all the signs point toward the fulfillment of the noble ideals which has been vaguely, though persistently floating through the hearts and minds of those who, each in their day and generation, brought their con trtbuti ons toward this world democracy. The Russia of hundreds of years is no more —the czar is gone forever. The Germany of generations has closed itself in—to be opposed by every for-ward-looking nation, and by the largerminded Germans themselves, until It has been crushed for all lime. England self-confident, self-satts-fled, luxurious. with class spirit highly developed—though sound at heart — has seen the need of closer and sincerer co-operation with the wider-vls-loned nations of earth.France —light-hearted and of|en heroes and martyrs in its veins—can never again be what it was..

And America—we are being shaken out of the ruts of commercial success and money making—and brought to a higher sense of the appreciation of the higher values of life which we heretofore only half understood. Out of this will come a purified world, seeing new ideals and holding truer aspirations. But if these are to be realized, there must be great and constant individual devotion to thecause of democracy and brotherhood. When enough of us catch this “vision splendid” and determine to live it out—making the sacrifices demanded of us in shop and office and Store—while those who are at the front are doing their share to “make democracy safe” —then “the day” will have arrived. For this may every man of us fervently pray and work. There's a scripture passage to the effect that “righteousness exalteth a nation.”_„ This means justice, whatever else may be Included In the definition. And don’t let’s forget that no nation can be righteous until its citizens are just. Nor can there be a world democracy until there is In It at least the same standard of fair dealing. The coming of the world brotherhood depends less upon platforms and pronouncements than it does upon our readiness to give to our.brothers their Just due. And so that no man may escape “conscription” in this larger task, let it be understood by every one of us that there is'no class or condition in society which is free from the personal obligation to give every other man the same square deal demanded by each of us for ourselves.