tlbe Conservative *
was : "Unfortunately the military did
not arrive in time to protect the plows
and they "were smashed to pieces by the
peasantry. " The Russian mijik is no
more civilized than his plow.
Thus history , contemporary and an
cient , assures us that the plow is the
world's greatest invention , just as peace is
the world's greatest blessing. But the as
sociation of the two parts of this even
ing's theme depends not only on records
of agriculture , rescued from the ruins of
dead and buried nations ; it comes to us as
a part of that most precious legacj' of an-
tiquitjVhe chapters lilled with yearning
and threatening , gentleness and rebuke ,
lamentation and triumph , despair and
sweetest hope , coming down to us from
the great Hebrew prophets. The book
of Isaiah is full indeed of wrath and
wailing ; we see the present calamities
of the house of Jacob and the coming
calamities of Damascus and Assyria ,
the isles and all the enemies of the
chosen people , hanging all over it like a
dense cloud , the drear funereal blackness
relieved only by lightning flashes from
heaven's throne , hurling vengeance
for their luxury , riot and dissipation ,
vengeance for their faithlessness to Je
hovah , upon hapless multitudes. But
through these baleful clouds and apart
from these terrible flashes , are here and
there to be seen some gleams of celestial
radiance , of the bright sky that is to fol
low the gloom and storm wo see that
the prophet's true delight is less in the
bloody triumph to which he looks in
some passages , or in the exiiltation of
glutted ire which runs through some
others , than in such visions as these :
"And the wolf shall dwell with the
lamb , and the leopard shall lie down
with the kid ; and the calf and the
young lion and the failing together ; and
a little child shall lead them. * * * *
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all
my holy moitntain ; for the earth shall
be full of the knowledge of the Lord , as
the waters cover the sea. "
"Wrathful as Jehovah often appears in
the sixty-six chapters of this book , He
yet "shall feed his flock like a shepherd ,
Ho shall gather the lambs in His arm ,
and carry them in His bosom" and ,
again , "thus saith the high and lofty
One that inhabiteth eternity , whose
name is Holy : I dwell in the high and
holy place , with Him also that is of a
contrite and humble spirit , to revive the
spirit of the humble , and to revive the
heart of the contrite ones. For I will not
contend forever , neither will I bo always
wroth. " Here we are told "how beau
tiful upon the mountains are the feet of
him that bringoth good tidings , that pub-
lishoth peace , " and promised that "vio
lence shall no more bo heard in thy land ,
desolation nor destruction within thy
borders. " Hero also wo find what kind
of man will escape the perils encompass
ing his brethern : "Ho that walkoth
righteously , and speaketh uprightly ; ho
that despiseth the gain of oppressions ,
that shaketh his hands from holding of
bribes , that stoppeth his ears from hear
ing of blood , and shutteth his eyes from
looking upon evil ; ho shall dwell on
high ; his place of defence shall be the
munitions of rocks. " And hero we
meet the first utterance of that glorious
prediction which afterward adorns the
book of Micah :
"Out of Zion shall go forth the law ,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusa
lem. And He shall judge between many
peoples , and shall reprove strong nations
afar off ; and they shall beat their
swords into plowshares , and ( heir spears
into pruning hooks ; nation shall not lift
up sword against nation , neither shall
they learn war any more. But they
shall sit every [ man under his vine and
under his fig tree ; and none shall make
them afraid : for the mouth of the Lord
of hosts hath spoken it. "
It is not to the majesty , or ineffable
beauty of form , or purity and sincerity ,
of these passages that I would now ask
your attention , but to the point that
they are not poetry only they are prac
tical indications of what is possible , and
what may be made actual. Is a consum
mation such as the prophet sets before
xis worth having ? If so , then it is worth
bringing about. If worth having at any
time , it is worth having now. This
prophecy is not applied to "latter days"
because it is unsuitable for these days ,
but because that will then be a certainty
which is now but a possibility. Yet it
does not indicate a state of things that
will bring itself to pass by its own force
and transcendant merit , but something
that must bo brought to pass by the
work of men by you and by me by
all who are willing to labor for light
rather than darkness. Difficult I find it
to repress impatience with those who
carelessly cast aside the "millennial
prophecies" as though they related only
to some Jerusalem of remote futurity ,
and were without bearing on the con
duct of men of muscle and men of mind
in America in 1898. We must work for
these blessings ourselves with our
mind and muscle must see in them not
only beauty but duty.
Shall our nation , today , beat its
swords into plowshares , attentive to tlio
teaching of my text ? How blind are
they who fail to find in that very course
the essence of practical wisdom. We
boast , in these days , of our strength ;
but what , pray , has given us that
strength sword or plowshare ? Not
only are our triumphs in arms the direct
prodxict of capital , which the plow has
helped us mightily to store and which a
frequent resort to the sword would have
scattered , but the union of hearts and
hands that has blessed us at home , and
our freedom from all apprehension of
attacks from banded enemies abroad ,
are results that flow straight and true
from the general consciousness that wo
are a peaceful people. If we see in the
plow something more thau merely the
labor of the husbandman , regarding it
at the same time as an embodiment
of mechanical contrivance a typo of
mental power applied to material pur
poses wo may look upon the perfection
to which American inventive talent has
now brought that venerable implement
as a manifestation of that true eye and
exact calculation which , in "the men be
hind the guns , " brought to nought the
unquenchable courage and desper
ate daring of the Spaniard before Man
ila and Santiago. Whatever may bethought
thought of the old saying that we are to
win peace by being prepared for war , it
is altogether true that o * . en our victories
in arms are won for us by diligently fol
lowing the pursuits of peace. Wo
gather strength by storing , not by wast
ing by building , not by burning barns
and factories and cities. The sword
desolates , the plowshare cultivates and
improves. War is destructive , peace is
constructive. The sword wastes , the
plowshare enriches. War is barbarous ,
peace is Christian. The plowshare is a
symbol of that heavenly promise that
seed time and harvest shall not fail ,
while the most dazzling exploits of the
sword only serve to show that the paths
of glory lead but to the grave.
The willingness of patriotic Ameri
cans to accept the dread arbitrament of
war , a few months ago , in an interna
tional disagreement that seemed to have
gone too far to be settled otherwise ,
came only because they thought they
saw behind the brutish monster
a white-robed angel of mercy.
The bloody blade of battle seemed
but the surgeon's knife which
alone could remove forever the cancer
of Spanish authority and maladminis
tration on this western hemisphere.
From this belief followed their rejoicing
in the extinction of Spanish naval
power and the surrender of Spanish
fortresses. But such rejoicing is only
jiistified when victories are considered
as a means , never as an end when they
are looked upon as steps to an early ,
honorable and lasting peace and when
the whole country is content with secur
ing the result for which the war was
undertaken. Then only is it right to
rejoice over victories. If they serve to
kindle or strengthen a martial spirit ,
throughout our land and to stimulate a
desire on the part of our people to con
quer and subjugate other peoples , then
true lovers of their country must say as
was said of old , "A few more such vic
tories and wo are lost. "
The loudest-mouthed jingo in the land
is not more fully convinced of and im
pressed by the greatness of America than
I am , and it is the dearest wish of my
life that this greatness may bo preserved
and increased. But lot us pause and
reflect upon what constitutes it. Such
benefit as wars have brought has come
in each case from the destruction of a
hampering evil and not as a direct posi
tive effect of military strife. We could