Part 4 (2/2)
O Copernicus, we hail thee for announcing to timid minds that the earth, ”it is a globe.”
O Kepler and Newton, we celebrate you for a.s.serting it is true.
O Galileo, we honor and respect you for looking superst.i.tion squarely in the face and before highest potentates declaring: ”But nevertheless it does move!”
We commemorate you all master-minded men, Who have announced, and explored and unified the globe.
Surely these are not pygmies nor dwarfs.
But in achievement, they are t.i.tans, they are giants, They are the immortal pioneers of the world.
And these lives moving forward, have they all been lived for naught!
No! A thousand times no, O far-sighted men, now enlisting for new world movements!
Speak the message of the united seas with at least a prophetic international preamble And announce the coming of essential democracy for the world.
[C]THE OLIVE BRANCH AS AN EMBLEM OF WORLD PEACE
In history the olive has been n.o.bly emblematic of three virtues--peace, purity and industry with its attendant prosperity. And I mention these three virtues for which the olive stands because we will never in the world establish peace unless it is preceded in community, state and nation by virile-mindedness, which is the very secret of industry and prosperity wherever they are found.
Whenever the Greek looked out at a foothill mantled with an olive orchard, gently waving in the distance, a sea of bluish-green leaves; or seized upon an olive branch, he was reminded of the fact that no man was worthy of a crown of olives unless he was right-minded, peace-loving, and industrious. For, the placing of a crown of olive twigs on the brow of a person was the highest distinction that could be bestowed on a citizen who had merited well of his country.
Not only were the n.o.ble-minded statesmen and poets thus honored, but also the athletes who, by scrupulous care and development of the body, gained physical victories at the Olympic games. The harmless and commendable victories of peace always result from well-developed manhood. And so on the last day of these games the victor received, in front of the temple, the crown of wild olives gathered from the sacred tree. For the olive was sacred to Minerva, the G.o.ddess of wisdom and therefore of purity, peace and prosperity.
Among the Romans also it had a similar significance. The olive crown of the Roman conqueror at an ovation and those of the equites at the imperial review, alike typified the gifts of peace that, in a barbaric age, could be secured by victory only. I say all history has a.s.sociated the olive with these three superb virtues, wherever the olive tree has grown. But if secular history has offered the olive branch to the conqueror in honor of a peace secured through contest or war, the surprising thing about the olive in Biblical history is that it represents peace as coming directly to an individual, community, or nation because of a Christian-mindedness--a type of mind that is controlled by reason, justice, love, intelligence, and purity of thought.
For, what do these striking verses in the Prophet Zechariah mean?--
”'What sees't thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold with a bowl upon the top of it and his seven lamps thereon.
”'And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereon'.”
What do these beautiful verses mean? Simply this,--that the source of all peace, individual and international, is that type of mind which Christ and Christian statesmen have. The two olive trees, one on each side of the candlestick, stand for Christian character--one for the stern moral character of the prophet, the other for the mercy of the true religious teacher. And the candlestick stands for work, for service for mankind and the nations. And as both of the olive trees supply the light with oil, so we are not to seek for peace on earth with the sword, but by increasing the number of men whose service for humanity is controlled by Christian morality and justice, mercy, and kindness.
These are the men who will bring peace. G.o.d increase the number! These are the men that providence can use to correlate the nations into essential democracy. These are the men who are worthy of a crown of olives! These are the men that we must depend upon to correct the compa.s.s of the s.h.i.+p of the world, as it moves forward against the besetting fury of antagonistic waters, bearing its prow day by day and year by year against the unwearied enmity of hateful waves, until it reaches the haven of essential international peace.
[D]THE INEVITABLE DRIFT
For the earth-- The white enfolded, or green Easter world, Warmed by nature's heart into a new bursting life-- Like the universe, the earth is a perfect spherical creation, And because the world is a sphere, the most perfect of figures, Animated and endowed with purpose and reason, It is therefore much better than all other forms.
And so man, with humanity-love and reason gifted, Feeling that he is a part of all that thrills in sod, sky or sea, Developed, demands the fullness of the globe's life as his home.
And to look not beyond a continent or nation, Is barbaric, retrogressive and sinful; For He that said, to the child of every race, ”be thou perfect,”
Thereby also commands to be naturalized to the sphere.
And this, O armies and bigots is the inevitable drift!
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