African and European Addresses eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 184 pages of information about African and European Addresses.

African and European Addresses eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 184 pages of information about African and European Addresses.

Another thing, gentlemen, and now I want to speak to you for a moment from the religious standpoint, to speak to you in connection with the work of this mission.  I wish I could make every member of a Christian church feel that just in so far as he spends his time in quarrelling with other Christians of other churches he is helping to discredit Christianity in the eyes of the world.  Avoid as you would the plague those who seek to embroil you in conflict, one Christian sect with another.  Not only does what I am about to say apply to the behavior of Christians towards one another, but of all Christians towards their non-Christian brethren, towards their fellow-citizens of another creed.  You can do most for the colleges from which you come, you can do most for the creed which you profess, by doing your work in the position to which you have been called in a way that brings the respect of your fellow-men to you, and therefore to those for whom you stand.  Let it be a matter of pride with the Christian in the army that in the time of danger no man is nearer that danger than he is.  Let it be a matter of pride to the officer whose duty it is to fight that no man, when the country calls on him to fight, fights better than he does.  That is how you can do more for Christianity, for the name of Christians, you who are in the army.  Let the man in a civil governmental position so bear himself that it shall be acceptable as axiomatic that when you have a Christian, a graduate of a missionary school, in a public office, the efficiency and honesty of that office are guaranteed.  That is the kind of Christianity that counts in a public official, that counts in the military official—­the Christianity that makes him do his duty in war, or makes him do his duty in peace.  And you—­who I hope will be the great majority—­who are not in Government service, can conduct yourselves so that your neighbors shall have every respect for your courage, your honesty, your good faith, shall have implicit trust that you will deal religiously with your brother as man to man, whether it be in business or whether it be in connection with your relations to the community as a whole.  The kind of graduate of a Christian school really worth calling a Christian is the man who shows his creed practically by the way he behaves towards his wife and towards his children, towards his neighbor, towards those with whom he deals in the business world, and towards the city and Government.  In no way can he do as much for the institution that trains him, in no way can he do as much to bring respect and regard to the creed that he professes.  And, remember, you need more than one quality.  I have spoken of courage; it is, of course, the first virtue of the soldier, but every one of you who is worth his salt must have it in him too.  Do not forget that the good man who is afraid is only a handicap to his fellows who are striving for what is best.  I want to see each Christian cultivate the manly virtues; each to be able to hold his own in the country, but in a broil not thrusting himself forward.  Avoid quarrelling wherever you can.  Make it evident that the other man wants to avoid quarrelling with you too.

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African and European Addresses from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.