THE HEROISM OF THE CROSS.

White Ribbon, Volume 32, Issue 380, 18 March 1927, Page 3

THE HEROISM OF THE CROSS.

“You cannot kill a wrong idea, except with a right idea. This warfare is the most heroic of all, and heroism will always move mankind. It is the heroism of war, not its cruelty, that leads all the world after it. Whose heart is not stirred, whose breath does not come faster, when the soldiers pass us in the street? Look at their faces, and realise how much they are prepurtd to sacrifice. Everyone of them faces death, and there are things w^rs* 1 than death, and they go gaily to face all these things. Is it not heroic? Well. I tell you that there is a mightier heroism still

—the heroism, not of the sword, but of the cross; the adventure not of war, but of peace. For which is the braver when all is said —the man who believes in armaments, or the man who stakes everything on an idea? Who is the great adventurer —he who govs against the enemy with swords and guns, or he who goes with naked hands? Who is the mighty hunter—he who seeks the quarry with stones and slings, or he who, with St. Francis, goes to tame a wolf with nothing but the Gospel? We peace people have made of peace a dull, drab, sordid, selfish thing. We have made it that ambiguous, dreary thing—“neutrality.” Hut Peace is the great adventure, the glorious romance. And only when the world concvives it, so will the world be drawn after it again. “I, w'hen I am lifted up, will draw’ all men unto Me.” MAUDE ROYDEN, “The Great Adventure.”