B. N. Michelson

“ In every man created in the image of his God there is this strange mystical susceptibility, this urge to lay all he has upon the altar of the ideal that he feels has the right to demand his uttermost. Nothing else so fully demonstrates man's spiritual nature: it is the one great fact that differentiates us from the brutes. ”

“ How great is the debt we owe to those who are bearing the brunt of the struggle—how deeply we realise our dependence upon the manhood of this nation! We cannot allow a day set apart for supplication to come and go without more than a passing thought for those who have sustained wounds or suffered hardship for the maintenance of our integrity and our rights of existence as a nation. ”

“ The land in which we live is overshadowed, its people perplexed and exasperated by the fears and resentments of a fierce and desperate War: and we must needs strive for balance, both mental and moral, if we would not be swallowed up in the morasses of hate and vengefulness. Whilst we turn to our God for help in maintaining our just cause, which we cannot doubt is indeed His cause, we still must guard our actions and our thoughts, to prevent the blotting out of the moral issues that are at stake. ”

“ Let us remember our heroes who have made the supreme sacrifice, not altogether with sorrow, but also with a solemn thankfulness—to God who strengthened them to play their part, to them for their simple example of duty done. ”

“ For these are the days in which human values are changing and the folly of human pride and the weakness of human strength are brought home to men—the old-time wisdom of the humble heart is vindicated once more. ”

“ The gallant stand of a gallant people is still continued both before and behind the German lines, where the Belgians are as stubbornly resistant to day as they were when their King drew his sword and said: “For us there can be no other answer.” And the passive resistance of the imprisoned millions in Belgium to the compulsion and cajolery alike of their would-be friend, the enemy, is a factor in the German subduing process the world outside must appreciate. But the Belgians are paying the price. Their resources are diminishing day by day. ”

“ It would be a wretched perversion of conscience to require of any man, condonation of the infamous cruelties and treacheries which have disgraced our foes during the last two years. The best elements in us rise in irrepressible repugnance before such pageants of wickedness as have clothed the famous name of Wittenberg with infamy and made the story of naval warfare a continuing record of wanton crime. ”

“ Men may be willing to die for one cause in one age, and in another for what may seem a different cause, but in the last analysis it will be found that that for which human beings lay down their lives is always what they regard as the Eternal Right. ”

“ On the one hand is man selfish, greedy, earth-bound, false and sordid in his aims. On the other, at repeated intervals, in great and solemn hours, comes this austere appeal for all he has to give—and he promptly gives it, joyously, willingly, without thought of reward, and derives a greater satisfaction from that self-giving than from all other kinds of gain together. ”

“ May we not hope that the crimes of Germany in the twentieth century provide no truer index to the national character than did those of revolutionary France in the eighteenth?
Psychology unites its testimony to that of History. Civilised man stands as the latest link of a long chain of advancement from aboriginal beasthood, and he retains within himself the germ of all his earlier traits, though these are increasingly suppressed and held in check by higher habitudes. ”

“ When we think that of the seven-and-a-half million Belgians left in Belgium, more than three-and-a-half millions are being fed by the free canteens or receiving relief in some form from the charity provided in the first place by the large-heartedness of the American people, we shall understand something of the vastness of some of the problems which arise only to be dealt with by outside agencies. ”

“ He is not a good man who fails to employ every possible effort to supply the needs of those dependent upon him in his own household. No less is he a moral failure who does not lend himself to support every noble effort for the succour of those bound to him by the ties of religious faith, especially when suffering has come upon them through their faithfulness. ”

“ Let us who remain be worthy of those who have been taken, worthy of the country that can rear such children. They have revealed to us the soul of the nation, the soul by which, far more than by its wealth or its prosperity [pg 011] or its material strength, a nation lives: and while the soul of England thus lives, England will maintain her greatness. ”

“ The sick and wounded of our soldiers and sailors have a claim we cannot ignore: their misfortunes have been brought about by their devotion to our country's cause. It is enough that they must suffer for us: we must see that everything possible is done to alleviate the pains they undergo. ”

“ The world's benevolence is dwindling and they are facing an immediate future wherein life's necessities will have to be defined in terms of the irreducible minimum. The whole nation, we are told, is growing so thin on the small ration that can be provided, that wasting diseases, due to under-nutrition, are increasing by leaps and bounds. ”

“ Israel must be faithful to his own, but his own includes not only the members of Israel's faith, who have the first claim upon him, but all the children of God, who are by the fact of their human birth, his brethren ”

“ This week-end will be a solemn occasion; it will draw together the religious bodies in a rare unity of thought and action. If there be in these times any who think themselves superior to the need of intercession and prayer they are not to be envied. ”