track. To establish in America a government "of the people, by the people and for the people," He tutored Washington to command a revolution; and to make the world safe for democracy, in its last great struggle with the powers of darkness-aye, to lead a wandering world, from Egypt's house of bondage, to Canaan's Better-land, He bent above the Valley of Virginia and chose for the leader of His legions that mighty Moses of humanity's new Exodus: Woodrow Wilson. THE GREAT ARMISTICE. [Extract from the President's address delivered before the Georgia Historical Association in the Senate Chamber, State Capitol, Atlanta, Ga., April 12, 1919.] On the eleventh day of November, 1918, in a little border town of Northern France-a date and a place luminous in the annals of time-the greatest of world-wars came to an end. The victorious general was a French soldier, whose name is on every tongue in Christendom: Ferdinand Foch. To him, Von Hindenberg's army was surrendered, not a gun withheld. The plume of the haughty Teuton smote the dust. France was avenged. Her ancient wrongs were righted. The fortunes of 1871 were reversed and the signing of an armistice marked a new era in the world's calendar. Its sequel, in a Treaty of Peace, still waits to be consumated. But if the prayers of a bleeding world are answered the signatory powers will be inspired of God to make future wars impossible; so that, when the instrument is finally perfected, it will sound an age-long truce to battle. Today, on the banks of the Seine, the eyes of an expectant world are riveted. One of the most impressive spectacles in human history is the great Peace Conference in Paris. More thrilling than the scene in Philadelphia, in 1776, when the continental patriots signed the birth certificate of a new America. More thrilling than the scene at Runnymede, eight centuries ago, when the barons wrested from King John the Great Charter of English freedom. It even approximates in majesty the scene at Horeb when the Decalogue-penned by Jehovah's own hand-was sounded amid the thunders of Sinai. This great Conference is a Congress of the Nations. It holds in solution all the elements of the drama. The artist who can paint it must be cast in the molds of a Michael Angelo. Its true historian must write with the pen of a Carlyle. Its real poet must be inspired by the muse of a Milton. Its issues are momentous. Upon them hangs the future of the race. Its work is to re-build, to re-create, to evolve out of chaos, not a new Europe but a new world. Its goal is this: the dethronement of tyranny and the emancipation of man. Both in its character and in its personnel, it is history's most august assemblage; and upon its action Time waits with his heaviest artillery to thunder its accents to the centuries. These men are forging the hinges on which ponderous gates are to swing. They are laying the foundations on which future empires are to rise. They are unlocking the hidden springs from which ceaseless fountains are to flow. They are defining principles and fixing policies which are to shape the course of history for a thousand years. It is the day-break of a new creation, the like of which has not been witnessed on this planet since the morning stars sang together. "Out of the darkness of night It is daybreak everywhere." The most colossal figure at this great Conference, its outstanding personality, is the President of the United States. There, in a conclave of the world's master-minds, he overtops them all. In his own person, he typifies the commanding genius of America. It is a task for Hercules and a burden for Atlas which events have laid upon the shoulders of this man; but his gigantic brain, his fearless courage, his clear vision, and his stalwart character, are equal to the hour's demand. Criticize him if you will but match him if you can? For a president to cross the ocean during his term of office is something new to our western minds. It is strange enough to be startling. To some of us it suggests the fear that we are drifting upon an unknown sea-cut loose from our ancient moorings. It sets aside all precedents. It departs from all traditions. But let us not be needlessly alarmed. Divine wisdom sent him to Paris. God's hand is in it all, and Jehovah is with His prophet. I bring to you this message of optimism. "There's a divinity that shapes our ends." Despite the hell-born furies which have rocked this planet, the tides of righteousness are rising, the bounds of Christendom are widening, the drift of humanity is heavenward. "All's well with the world." Peace brooding over ashes will restore its lost Edens-will revive its wasted energies. In the wake of this war will come fairer beauties, clearer visions, sweeter airs. There is an eternal law of compensation; and wrought in the forges of this mighty conflict-aye, wrought of shrapnel and of cannon-in Time's mysterious alchemy, transmuted into precious metal-we will see ere long a chain of gold, reaching upward to the Throne of God. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. [Extract from an address delivered at Elberton, Ga., on Memorial Day, April 26, 1919, under the auspices of the U. D. C.] Criticized by many, the League of Nations is to my mind the greatest thought of the centuries-the divinest measure of reform into which a Christian civilization has flowered. I speak advisedly when I say that it registers the most stupendous forward movement which freedom has measured since its birth. It gives to the weaker nation the protection of the stronger. It holds in stable equilibrium the forces It pro of government. It sounds the death knell of war. vides a permanent basis for peace. It gives new life to industry by beating swords into plow-shares and spears into pruning hooks. It is not a partnership or a combination in the interest of a favored few but a concert of all the powers, leagued together for the common good. The idea may not have originated with Mr. Wilson. I care not who fathered it-it was born in the vision of a seer. I care not who assails it-it is shot to the core with the genius of statesmanship. It is Christianity applied to a planet. It is Tennyson's dream fulfilled, “of a parliament of man." In no sense of the word does it impair the Monroe doctrine. It only makes it stronger. It only reaffirms it in universal accents. The farewell address of Washington need not affright us with its specter of entangling alliances. Our path of duty is plain. It lies before us in the sunlight. We are not meddling in European affairs. We are safeguarding a world. We are broadcasting a Declaration. Nor is it the gospel of a new evangelism which we preach but the gospel of America-according to Thomas Jefferson. God hath made us our brother's keeper. Of one blood hath he made all races and tribes and kindreds. We have not been entrusted with liberty that we might squander it upon ourselves. The fatherhood of God implies the brotherhood of man; and the whole round world is one great family. Whomsoever we can help is our brother; and he who needs us is our neighbor. We owe something to the nations that sit in darkness; and if any there be amongst us who cry "halt"-then, in the flaming words of Whittier"Go brand him with disgrace Whose thought is for himself alone And not for all his race." The balance of power has failed. It was a miserably poor makeshift at best; and unless a League of Nations be formed, with an adequate police power at its back, the fruits of victory are lost, our sacrifices have been for naught and our brave boys have died in vain. It cannot be formed without America; but, in the providence of God, this was why America loomed on the sight of the Inspired Sailor. It constitutes one of the very things for which Washington won a Yorktown and Columbus discovered a continent. Not only will the League of Nation's have America's vote, but in supporting it, America, true to her mission, will point the way. She does not dread the result; but, come what may, in the spirit of Patrick Henry, she commits herself to its fortunes-"sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish." 1 WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THEM: THE KAISER AND THE SULTAN? [Extract from an address delivered at Elberton, Ga., on Memorial Day, April 26, 1919, under the auspices of the U. D. C.] Before this Peace Conference adjourns, it must fix the status of a certain individual now recuperating in Holland: William Hohenzollern. It must prescribe his mode of exit. In the name of the Lusitania we demand it. In the name of an outraged Belgium we demand it. In the name of a world's widowhood and orphanage we demand it. Every dictate of justice-every law of righteousness-every precept of Holy Writ-points to a flaming sword for this mountebank's extinction. Too long already has he encumbered the earth. Napoleon was banished to the Isle of St. Helena. But compared with this ex-kaiser, Napoleon was an angel of light. was at least a brave man and a military genius. Hohenzollern is none of these, but a cad and a coward. "He who would paint thee, villain as thou art The devil would disdain to own thee for his ghost." He The Infamy-thy name is Hohenzollern! Murderer of inno |