Spiritual Aspects of the War

Spiritual Aspects of the War"

By Dr. George H. Brimhall

We ask, what is education? And reply, education, in the

widest sense, is a preparation for complete living. The answer

calls forth another question. What is complete living? Our

response is, complete living consists in doing the duty of the

hour.

What is the duty of the hour? It is making the world safe

for that freedom that will be safe for the world. A freedom

that shall reduce danger to the minimum, and increase safety to

the maximum; a freedom that shall never permit license to in-

vade the domain of liberty; a freedom that shall make even the

sorrows of life bear a dividend of happiness.

In the deluge of death of this hour the race is aroused to

the stupendous fact that man can not live by man alone. The

yearnings of the souls of those sleeping on a couch of mortal

suffering are rudely awakened by this terrible war. They cry

aloud, Give us foreverness; a foreverness of individuality, a for-

everness of kindred, husband, wife, son, daughter, father,

mother, sister, brother; a foreverness not only of friendship but

of friends ! From the little book A Heap 0' Living we insert,

Riley's Coming Back

There must be great rejoicing on the Golden Shore today,

An' the big an' little angels must be feelin' mighty gay:

Could we look beyond the curtain now, I fancy we should see

Old Aunt Mary waitin', smilin', for the coming that's to be,

An' Little Orphant Annie an' the whole excited pack

Dancin' up an' down, an' shoutin' "Mr. Riley's comin' back!"

There's a heap o' real sadness in this good old world today;

There are lumpy throats this morning, now that Riley's gone away;

There's a voice now stilled forever that in sweetness only spoke

An' whispered words of courage with a faith that never broke.

There is much of joy and laughter that we mortals here will lack,

But the angels must be happy now that Riley's comin' back.

The world was gettin' dreary, there was too much sigh and frown

In this vale of mortal strivin', so God sent Jim Riley down,

An' He said: "Go there, an' cheer 'em in your good old fashioned way,

With your songs of tender sweetness, but don't make your plans to stay.

Coz you're needed up in heaven, I am lendin' you to men

Just to help 'em with your music, but I'll want you back again."

*An address delivered by President George H. Brimhall, Brigham Young

University, before the Utah State Teachers' Association, Salt Lake Taber-

nacle, January 3, 1918.

484 IMPROVEMENT ERA

And Riley came, an' mortals heard the music of his voice,

An' they caught his songs o' beauty an' they started to rejoice;

An' they leaned on him in sorrow, an' they shared with him their joys,

And they walked with him the pathways that they knew when they were boys.

But the heavenly angels missed him, missed his tender, gentle knack

Of makin' people happy, an' they wanted Riley back.

There must be great rejoicin' on the streets of heaven today

An' all the angel children must be troopin' down the way,

Singing heavenly songs of welcome an' preparin' now to greet

The soul that God had tinctured with an everlasting sweet;

The world is robed in sadness and is draped in somber Mark:

But joy must reign in heaven, now that Riley's comin' back!

This poem is one of those fountains at which the soul, thirst-

ing for immortality, drinks and is refreshed.

The great God has lent not only singers to cheer, and proph-

ets to warn, but he has lent heroes to protect humanity. As

Riley offered his genius, these heroes offer their lives; as God

lent Riley to give men cheer, so he lent our gallant soldier and

sailor boys to give humanity emancipation.

We have preached peace from the house tops, while the

pages of scripture have proclaimed war. Has the wisdom of the

wise perished, and the understanding of the prudent come to

naught?

Though cannons roar and war clouds darken the sky, it is

the morning of the day of a new spiritual awakening. Above

the din of battle is heard the song of immortality. Its echoes

roll from the trench to the fireside. It carries comfort to the

home and courage to the battle front. Hear the voice of the

world-famed joke-maker, Harry Lauder:

"And then, one day, it suddenly came to me, as if in a revelation, that

I had not made use of something in which I had always believed. All this

time, while I had been raging against the cruel fates which had taken my

son, there had been comfort and peace in store for me, and I had not

known it. And that comfort and peace lay in my belief in God, and a

future life beyond this earthly sphere.

"While the pain and grief had been blinding my eyes, God had been

waiting patiently for the first sharp agony to pass away, and when it did

he gently lifted the veil from my eyes and showed me the promised land

beyond. I mean that suddenly I realized that I had not seen the last of

John, and that we were sure to meet in another world.

"Oh, that I could convey unto you the healing balm that that thought

was to my soul! I would that I could picture to you the joy of the thought

that I was to see my John again at some future date, just as if he had

simply gone on a long journey, and was waiting for his mother and me to

come to him. And I brought his image before me, and imagined him

holding out his arms to his mother and myself to fold us within his loving

embrace, and in the joy created by the picture I was able to assuage some

of my pain and distress, and return to an almost normal state of mind.

"And because of the great comfort that my belief and faith in the future

life have brought me, I have become humbly grateful and thankful that I

never mocked the name of God or cast him from me at any period of my

life. Because I know, I am convinced, that he has helped me to bear this

SPIRITUAL ASPECTS OF THE WAR 485

great blow by making my conviction that this life is not the end, stronger

than ever.

"And that is what every American father and mother who loses a son

must do — have strong, unbreakable faith in the future life, in the world

beyond, where you will see your son once again. Do not give way to grief

as I did. Instead, keep your gaze and your faith firmly fixed on the world

beyond, and regard your boy's absence as though he were but on a long

journey. By keeping your faith you will help to win this war. For if you

lose it, the war and your own personal self — are lost.

"I spent many days in the trenches, in the rest camps, the hospitals, and

in the surrounding towns, and the most definite impression I carried away

was one concerning the spiritual atmosphere which surrounds the French

and English soldiers in France. I talked with some of the men for hours

at a time about their experiences in battle, about their thoughts of home,

about their feeling toward the enemy, but the one thing I came away with,

above all other impressions, was the conviction that every single one of

those men, no matter what manner of lives they had lived before, now

possesses a calm, clear conviction that if they fall in the thick of the fight,

they will pass into the life beyond.

" 'That's why we take such chances,' one man told me simply. 'Do you

think for a moment that if we thought that life held nothing for us than

the earthly body we possess, we would fight with such a confidence and

eagerness? We would not be able to, because we would be doing everything

in our power to preserve this life of ours.' But seeing men die as I have

seen them, I know better than to disbelieve in a future life. And because

we have no fear of death, every one of us fling ourselves over the bags and

on to the Huns with a fierce, almost savage joy. We are almost Japanese

in our fatalism, and because that spirit is sweeping among our men we are

going to win this war. We don't believe it possible that men who go into

battle, knowing that they are fighting for a righteous cause, and unafraid

of death, can be beaten back forever. Some day, at some point, the enemy

must weaken, and then we will sweep over the tops and nothing will hold

us back. We know it just as surely as we know the sun will rise tomorrow."

The sacrifice of our gallant youths has awakened us to a

clear understanding that there is not time nor place nor circum-

stance sufficient in this life for virtue to be its own reward. The

law of compensation demands a life beyond.

A single Job said, I know that my Redeemer lives; in this

hour of dire distress and bereavement, a multitude cry out, We

know that our brave ones live beyond the grave, where what

they lost by leaving us may be made up to them!

The fidelity of the Christian is answering the prayer of the

Hebrew. The yawning gulf of difference between the wor-

shipers of Jehovah and the followers of Christ is being bridged

over by using the fidelity of the Christian to answer the prayer

of the Hebrews, for the deliverance of his sacred city.

The awful cataclysm into which we are hurled reminds us

that heaven battled for the Millennium it now enjoys, the issue

then, as now, was liberty.

"And there was war in Heaven. Michael and his angels

fought against the dragon, and the dragon was cast out."

486 IMPROVEMENT ERA

This war is a terrible proclamation, that under the inspira-

tion of Lucifer, Cain still covets his brother's cattle, and con-

spires against his brother's life. Germany has fought no battles

on her own ground. The blood she has spilled has been in her

neighbor's dooryard.

The chief treasure of the trenchman is the Word of God.

This war has proved that Bibles are better than bottles, for camp

comfort and fighting line courage. Let our illustrious peace-war

President speak:

"The Bible is the word of life. I beg that you will read it and find

this out for yourselves, — read, not little snatches here and there, but long

passages that will really be the road to the heart of it. You will find it

full of real men and women not only, but also of the things you have won-

dered about and been troubled about all your life, as men have been always;

and the more you read the more it will become plain to you what things

are worth while and what are not, what things make men happy, — loyalty,

right dealing, speaking the truth, readiness to give everything for what they

think their duty, and, most of all, the wish that they may have the approval

of the Christ, who gave everything for them; — and the things that are guar-

anteed to make men unhappy, — selfishness, cowardice, greed, and every-

thing that is low and mean.

"When you have read the Bible you will know that it is the Word of

God, because you will have found it the key to your own heart, your own

happiness, and your own duty."

Our flag — the history of our Union — the symbol of our lib-

erty; as we look upon it, we find it blazing with what the poet

saw in it when he wrote :

"Flag of the free, heart's hope and home!

By angels' hands to valor given!

Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,

And all thy hues were born in heaven."

And when we sing, "Then conquer we must, For our cause

it is just, And this be our motto, in God is our trust," we pro-

claim with tones of the heart that the altar in the home is as

sacred as is the flag that floats over it.

The war has brought us face to face with a demonstration of

the truth of the Master's doctrine that it is more blessed to give

than to receive.

Our strenuous productiveness brings us into the attitude of

saying with all sincerity:

Now, while we stand on Freedom's soil,

Inhaling Freedom's air,

Be this the burden of our song,

Our morn and evening prayer:

O Giver of this goodly land,

May we who in it live

Be grateful most for this best gift,

The Grace of Power to Give.

SPIRITUAL ASPECTS OF THE WAR 487

Great cause, great time, great circumstance,

To open wide the heart,

To grow like Him who gave his all,

By giving now our part.

To fast betimes, with bread at hand,

And feed the hungry throng,

Of fragments make a plentitude,

In sacrifice be strong.