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THE HESPERIAN
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dispelled, the balances resume their former relations, unless,
perchance, the instrument itself has been injured and made
incapable of rendering a true result. Yet man, in all his
wisdom, stands before the scales of justice and strikes and
strikes, eagerly noting the result, cries: Heboid, justice is mine!
Can he not realize that the balances will inevitably swing back;
that force cannot control them permanently; that he is impos.
ing upon himself a folly ond delusion? Nor can he further
engage in the deception by pointing out an apparently favor
able result due to an incorrect registering of the scales, for
though the material instruments of balance may be sprung and
broken the eternal scales of justice areas impervei table and
indestructible as He who made them. An infallible hand has
fitted ami adjusted them and they partake of the divine per
fectness and permanence. How weak are the physical forces
of man and nature, when taken from their sphere. Hring to
bear on a question of right and wrong all the mighty arma
ments of earth; let the millions of dead arise and arm and join
the hosts of the living; let wind and wave and tide throw
their resistless powers into the combat; let the rolling thunders
and flaming lights of the skies be enlisted in the conflict; let
the pent up energy, in this earth, with all the accumulated
force of a thousand years, burst forth and sweep into the
struggle, unite, combine and concentrate them all, and let them
charge sjs a mighty unit of force and they are powerless. Hut
let the crowning feature of man step forth, but let reason hold
sway, and that problem with a world of force could not con
quer is solved and solved aright and solved forever.
The advocates of war tell us that it forms national charac
ter. The soldier may be stirred by feelings of deepest patriot
ism; his blood may be fired with the examples of heroic and
illustrious achievements; he may be spurred to deeds of bravery
and inspired to acts of noble generosity; he may have the firm
est belief in, yea, his pulses may throb with the conviction
of the justice of h's cause, but the blunting, stultifying, scar
ing effects of the battle-shock can never fail to rob him of his
sublimest qualities. Our national character was formed when
the Puritan suffered midst snow and rock and forest to found
a home in freedom, and died from hardship and exposure in
the love of that liberty he believed God given to every man;
it was formed when the western pioneer planted his homestead
on the tractless prairie and fought for sustenance while con
verting these wild and lonesome plains into lands of usefulness
and industry. They tell us man is made perfect through suffer
ing, yea, but of a diffcrnt stamp is found in pitiful abundance.
They scoff at the idea that civilization is leaving the barbarism
of war behind; stating, as grounds, the fact that war is becom
ing more scientific, showing therefore increased interest and
preparation. Nay! 'Tis but one feature of advancement
away from war. Ever' throb of machinery as it forms new
instruments of death is but the drum-buat that marks the pace
of the onward march to a new and nobler method.
Hut the question arises, what of the hopes of arbitration?
Iook at Europe! She trembles and lies panting in expecta
tion of war. Training armies and steeled forts proclaim not
puace. It may lie that that unhappy continent will again be
ravished by the destroying blasts of war; it may be that a tide
of blood is once again to sweep over the furrowed face of the
land, mcthinks I hear the voice of the prophet, with kind
ling look and inspired mien, proclaiming: It shall bear away
upon its floods, thrones, crowns, k'ngly vestments and queenly
robes, and under its waves their occupants shall sink to their
eternal rest. For midst that dread choas and universal strife,
the pure light of liberty, not as a fleeing meteor but as a fixed
star, shall blaze forth and illumine the path of the common
man. Then shall lie come forth from the wrecks of powers
and build anew. For himself shall he raise a temple dedicated
to libertj with all the word menus. This shall be the result
of his labois, the reali7ation of his oppoitunity. If thus the
freeing of the masses of Europe nnd their formation into
republics shall be effected, then indeed comes quick response
to our question, for to America's enlightenCvl appeal theie will
come back from nations whose people are citirens as we fire
citerens, an enlightened answer.
If war come not, yet will reason conquer nnd emperors
czars, kings nnd queens be brought to listen to the dictates
of its voice. The advnncing spirit of the ages has contended
with many and mighty problems. Fallacious principles and
mistaken dogmas have been infused and ingrained and so
woven in the henits and minds of men that for their perpetuity
they fought as for life itself. Yet steadily the spirit of truth
and progress was held upon its course. Centuries have
watched its approach; the light of its eternal flame has thrown
its hopeful glimmerings far out upon its path and again
darkened the despairing ages as the mists and obscurities of
opposition lose before it in contending mass: the sorrowing
years beheld its glorious light o'erwhelmed and wept. Hut
gathering strength and intensity from resistance, silently Its
rays struggled nnd pressed nnd pierced until they again burst
through the clouds and revealed, in all its original purity and
lustre, their beauteous and undying source. That spirit yet
lives and continues upon its course. As in the past so in the
present and in the future those principles that arc erroneous
and untenable cannot stand. The principle of war is opposed
to the spirit of progression and must fall. Von, even this
"gigantic evil of evils," world wide as it is spread, covering tlic
earth ar with a pall, uninterrupted in its sway of six thousand
years, permeating nnd moulding the institutions of man and
now holding in its grasp the destiny of every nation on earth
cannot prevail against right and justice, the migltt of reas-fin
and the strength of enlightened conscience.
The past iktc.iia hot!, ) ,inl di.'iovcry, it rcvonls both
price nnd that purchased; b th prayer and the answer. " Not
without result were saci licod the life years ot thecatlyscholnr,
were heart! the ngonit-d groans of tortured martyr, were wit
nessed the sufferings of II m w.i die I u.n tlie cross. Then
let the forces of enlig lte.iuv a; n id progression move onward;
education and Christianity are to ex and their power rtnd In
fluence; they arc to multiply their means and strengthen their
energies; their monumental works are to reinforce the noble
men and women who live in their service and cncoiirfigc them
to continued effort mid labor; they arc to maintain their cause
through the roynl manhood and womanhood of this age anil
hasten the dissemination of their blessings. They constitute
the spirit that uplifts and lead, humanity onward; they arc the
forces that cleanse and purify and awaken, that build nnd
shape and mould in new and nobler form.
Through the shaping ot these mighty events changing
scenes revcnl themselves, intermingling and crowding upon the
mind's vision. Heboid a tribunal for the nations of earth, a
pailiaineut of man, wherein abidos justice for all; a w'orld
under one King, and that King -Reason. What next? Mighty
armies, navies forts and arsenals vanish; a tide of wealth
flows inward upon the lands; commerce tliroln, with a stronger
beat; homes for the poor and wretched are built; hospitals for
the sick and disabled arise; institutions of learning thicken in
whose wnlls arc taught the everlasting principles of peaqe
founded on reason , national honor rests upon the same basis
fare of citi'cns of whatevei country has become the common
concern of all mankind. All hail the day when international
law shall become a universal law; when the star of peace shall
shed its perpetual light over a world that has outgrown the
need of ironclads, outgiown the need of standing armies, and
has realized the dream of Tennyson, when
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