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Sunday-School Department
Patriotism in Our Sunday-Schools.
Thanksgiving Day this year will be
a memorable one for our beloved country. More and more a national
religious holiday, the themes of patriotism, of patriotic appreciation
and patriotic obligation, will be exalted with greater solemnity,
sincerity, and unanimity than ever before.
The article which follows this, from
the hand of Mr. Herbert Lee, instructor in the Portland High School,
is timely and inspiring:—
The sacrifice of our late President
to morbid fanaticism urges upon us the imperative necessity of right
thinking. The assassin is himself a victim to his terribly mistaken
zeal for what he regards as reform. We are sorry for McKinley; we
are also sorry for Czolgoz. Our hearts bleed for such men. Can we
do nothing by more thoughtful instruction to make more secure the
lives of our presidents and at the same time free from this sad
species of mental obliquity the minds of many of our suffering fellows?
Let us in our schools and in our debating-clubs
emphasize the law of progress that history and science so abundantly
prove. Let us teach that evolution is the law of the universe; that
things develop, that nations grow. Let us remind our over-zealous
reformers that [90][91] though a revolution
destroyed many abuses in France, it did not save her from falling
under a complete despotism within ten years. Let us reiterate, and
never cease to do so, that there is no royal road to learning or
any other really valuable thing. Thus may men come to see that a
nation can never be reformed merely by the removal of a single individual.
Only as a people becomes permeated with high moral principles, only
as men come to be actuated by the true spirit of fraternity, brotherly
love, genuine Christianity,—only then, and not until then, will
tyranny and oppression cease from off the face of the earth. Therefore
let those who are willing to risk their lives for the sake of their
fellow man strive to help him by working with him, reasoning with
him, dissuading him from evil, persuading him to good—in short,
loving him.
Let us more and more draw attention
to the inexhaustible patience of Jesus. When the “sons of thunder”
came to him urging him to invoke the powers of heaven against a
faithless and a worthless generation he turned to them with that
tender look of mild surprise in his eyes, and with not a little
sorrow exclaimed, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.”
And have we not all heard the watchword of General Gordon, who by
his sublime life and character inspired into healthful action all
who met him? It was but this: “With the help of the Almighty, I
will hold the balance level.” Yes, less sensationalism, less notoriety,
less talking for the newspapers; more quiet steadfastness, more
real helpfulness, greater self-poise, let us have. So shall we more
truly be faithful, earnest citizens.
H L.
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