"'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. God 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 compass of the ship 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!
ESSENTIAL DEMOCRACY
It may be helpful to relate, in just a word, what is meant in this volume by essential democracy, essential united earth and similar expressions. Springing from the Christian idea that all men are created equal in the sight of God, in opportunity, it stands for that type of society in which the essential power of government is wielded by the mass of the people.