Israel Hwasser

“ When again such waste becomes general, the meaning and position of humanity changes. She no longer constitutes the divine kingdom of peace on earth, but instead the central area of ravages and battle; she is no longer the peaceful guardian of nature, but the great destroyer of peace, who clouds the mirror-clear surface of the river of life and in the temporal creature in general wipes out the expressions of purpose, harmony and wisdom. ”

“ Not only from the night of ancient times do huge fighting memories emerge, which with the bloody brilliance of their hero's life, like the terrible flaring flames of the northern lights, captivate the gaze of the amazed spectator and seem to ceaselessly call to feats and battle, but also during our later history another close to a century has rising period of almost wonderful success on the path of conquest affixed an indelibly brilliant war glory to our name. ”

“ If this provision for the Swedish people is the real one and if we could be able to understand its demand so completely and deeply that our way of thinking hails it as its highest law, the future opens up a new path for our community life, which is indeed steep and requires both efforts and sacrifice, but which leads not only to peace and happiness, but also to the sunlit heights of true honor, to that saving and protective kingdom of real refinement, whose eternal foundation is faithful love for the highest common goal of humanity. ”

“ The true love of country in such a people has no strong and living root, by virtue of which it can endure even in the days of adversity and triumph over the temptations of self-interest and vanity. The longing for foreign lands and a prejudiced reverence for foreign customs, laws and conditions then often turn into a gnawing disease of the mindset, which eats away the true courage of life, the power both for action and for suffering, and permeates the withered heart with the poison of the indefinitely gnawing dissatisfaction. ”

“ If again, during such an internal battle, the people hear the gentle exhortation, to throw off no less the tight armor of the desire for conquest, which only constricts its breast, than the bloody clothing of revenge, which with horrible dream images confuses its thoughts, in order to be able to fully perceive the true content of freedom's holy calling, it should understand that it then hears the voice of its savior. ”

“ Through the mutual battle of all these hostile forces, both peace, light and power disappear from the inner world of man, and his own thoughts flee from there in terror, because there is nothing but doubt and worry, darkness and impotence. It is under such conditions that in nobler and stronger personalities the eternal longing for truth awakens with supremacy over all other desires, and tries to fight in all areas of imagination and concept to attack the kingdom of lies, in order to thereby win the certain and clear view of truth, the restored conviction heavenly happiness. ”

“ The bitter experience of adversities and losses, which subsequently fell to our lot, has not been able to completely cool this once-awakened longing for the happiness of the conquerors and the glory of war, but instead it has evoked for the sustenance of the follower the corrosive feelings of revenge and resentment, which with the deluding phantoms of horrible brooding incessantly troubling our thoughts, and preventing us from perceiving with perfect freedom and clarity the meaning both of our position and of our future. ”

“ That peace, as soon as it exceeds the measure of a shorter shift for rest and recuperation, makes the soul slack, dove and low-minded because it only encourages weakness, to self-interest, to narrow aims of life, to low and petty pursuits, whereas war, on the other hand, restores the lost of the mindset tension, and fosters nobility and power in that it evokes the direction towards the high and great in life, is one with us, both by poets and others, so often expressed opinion, that one can hardly doubt its real root in the general way of thinking. ”

“ But even more deeply, than through the desire for conquest, a nation is degraded and its true destiny unfaithful through the desire for revenge. There is scarcely any of those false directions of thought which arise from the power of the passions, which to the same degree as the lust of revenge darkens man's reason and suppresses his will, which makes him free even to madness, terrible when he can satisfy his desire, but contemptible and ridiculous, as she lacks the ability to do so. ”

“ If she again forgets this demand and falls away from the highest object of her fidelity, the hand of fate seizes her, and her being must, through its destruction and ruin, give homage and confirmation only to the power of time and decay. Each people, therefore, at the same moment it steps out of its merely natural position and becomes a member of the kingdom of humanity and freedom, has a decree presented to it proceeding from the holy order of Providence, the fulfillment of which constitutes its true reality, the only infallible basis for its existence , its happiness and its precocity. ”

“ It is there, more than elsewhere, that on the one hand education is regarded as an end and not merely as a means, and on the other the inner living basis for its development and progress is kept sacred and protected against the oppression that arises through the preponderance both of the external and of the traditional. It is also because of this that the freedom, independence and peace which Germany, after many years of unheard of fighting, has finally won in recent times, is of such great and pervasive importance for the entire civilized world and its future. ”

“ It is again the good of men, the power and demand of the holy, faithfully praising, will, which constitutes the only eternal foundation of this kingdom, because it is at its calling voice that the heavenly dweller descends on earth and makes humanity victorious over the forces of destruction. Belief in the sacred gives man power to develop his essential inner self and thereby understand the highest and real purpose of his being, his destiny to become the servant of heaven and as such make the earth the true home of peace ”

“ But the loving care a people exercises over the organic life of its homeland is a necessary condition, not only for its external prosperity, but also for the development of its own human interior, for the appearance in it of the true character and ennobling power of humanity. The caregiving call by nature essentially belongs to man's destiny, and thus she cannot fully perceive the demand of the follower and be faithful to it, if she neglects the former, misunderstands its meaning and despises its obligations. ”

“ We must give up the false objects of the worship of our ancestors, but the firm fidelity which animated it we should retain. We should understand and obey the call of peace, but not as a means for our individual happiness and trifle, but with a clear understanding of the importance of its higher goal, we should as freely and courageously, as our fathers, for its achievement fight both against spiritual and worldly enemies, and in this battle we, like them, should vigorously and honestly sacrifice everything, even life. ”

“ The human being is, in its highest and innermost meaning, a sacrifice, and the greatness of her way of thinking has its root in the fact that this sacrifice is carried home by her herself lovingly and with free will, for only thereby does the human within her own breast win victory over the perishable . This our ancestors did, and the character of greatness, their feats thereby acquired, is therefore not an empty and false guise, but real and true. But they sacrificed to false gods, to rapacity, desire for revenge, hatred and the enticing idol of their own glory ”

“ Men's opinions may be clouded in many ways and concepts confused, but as long as reverence and love still maintain dominion over their will, religion has reality with them and they become partakers of its protecting and sustaining power. But if the will completely falls away from these higher spiritual powers and becomes completely independent of them, the real basic features of human behavior disappear from the face of the soul and the lower, degrading and oppressive drives of nature gain dominion over her interior. ”

“ Do not be seduced, you little crowd, but with newly awakened hope raise your eyes again to the great goal of life and continue within the inner world the holy battle, I within it outer started. Trust in God again, and you will once again, as before, both win and keep the victory! ”

“ But at a higher degree of development of society and education, it assumes, as it seems, a milder and nobler appearance, but which, however, in the act itself implies a deeper waste and is more terrible in its consequences. It is, namely, when man wants to snatch his race away from the eternal dominion and himself take over the board of humanity and its destinies, wants to put himself in the place of Providence, to praise his own reason as the source of truth and his will as the holy law of justice. ”

“ But to become the organ of the restless desires of revenge burning in the depths of our people's temper, You were too high-minded, too human, too wise for that: and when You defeated the temptation, which the success of the conquest meant, this became in Your hand a means, through the liberation give new life to reawaken one of the strongest people's forces in the Nordics, which has been suppressed by external oppression for centuries. ”

“ But how should a people speak to nature that it may gain instruction from her? If it turns against this teacher of his with the invader's desire for conquest that only calculates profit and wants to claim her gifts as plunder, her voice becomes mute and her face is veiled; but within the invading people's own interior, she has allies in her unbridled urges, who eventually grow into terrible avengers of her violated peace. ”

“ Science proceeds from faith in the sanctity of truth, and if this faith ceases, its life must be extinguished. But to achieve her goal, she must go through the purgatory of doubt and question, doubt and test all human notions, even the highest. This is inevitable, if even within the realm of concepts the victory of truth is to be won, and piety errs greatly and perceives incompletely the demand of the holy, if she is thereby wounded and thus tries to hold back the progress of science with external inhibiting measures. ”

“ But even more profoundly, the command of freedom to improve the position of the workers has been misunderstood or distorted by those who used it as a call to the secularists to hasten the act of destruction of society, which in any case in the future must be the final consequence of their depravity, if this may continue and grow. It is possible that this call for many came from good intentions and zeal, but then it testifies to extremely limited and low concepts, not only about society and its needs, but also about the future and the destiny of humanity. ”

“ The courage with which our forefathers defied danger and regarded life as precious, when the god of war demanded it as a sacrifice, still shines through the ages with a magical glow, and we seem to be committing a disgraceful infidelity against the call that its reverently preserved memory for us contains , if we let the love of war die out in our breast and consider the call of peace as higher. ”

“ These battles can be fought successfully and to victory only by men who love truth and justice higher than themselves and can thus suffer the utmost and sacrifice everything for them; men who can fight against hatred, without hating themselves, and endure with patience both reproach and persecution, when these befall only themselves and not the thing exalted above their individual interests, which is the object of their highest love. ”

“ The oppression can still continue and it will not be milder until its exercise is simply transferred from the holders of power to those of wealth and knowledge. It can thus happen, and no doubt has happened several times, that what was called and to the outward form was also the gift of freedom, in fact meant nothing other than a cessation of the duty of care, whereas that which in ancient times had the appearance of merely oppression, many times, if not always, was the condition and means of real care. ”

“ This battle with the lie and delusion, which proceeds from the innermost of the mindset, is called science, and it is from this that our time has its deepest and noblest meaning, because it is mainly in science and its pursuit that the sacred now, more than in any past era , has real life; and it is really from its fighting forces that one can hope that the kingdom of peace on earth will still be able to be prepared. ”

“ The glory of war has a dazzling luster to the common imagination of man, and most of the greatest personalities of history have fallen to its temptation. Even You have drunk deeply from its intoxicating cup, but Your heart beating warmly for the higher demands of humanity did not lead it to fall away from the love of peace, but with pious zeal You laid down the rich laurel wreath of Your victories on this and humanity's altar ”

“ When man again meets nature with the warm love, the true zeal, which is immediately instilled in him by the deep feeling that the vocation of life's caretaker has a necessary connection with his destiny, then it is that nature not only opens its rich hand and liberally bestows upon her the means for the existence of her being, but also reveals his beautiful countenance and initiates her into the revelation of life from his holy interior, and teaches her, in wisdom and patience, in reverence and confidence. ”