The fact that man has discovered no celestial body which contains elements other than those of the earth is more than a hint of the unity of creation" and its movement towards a single purpose.—Adapted from Josiah Strong.

IV 
The Mariners' New Inspiration

THE FIRST TRIP THROUGH THE CANAL

On August 18, 1914, the steamship Ancon made the first regular, continuous trip, with a complete cargo, through the canal, the steamer Cristobel making an experimental journey a few days previously.

The Ancon, with Colonel Goethals on the bridge, left Colon on scheduled time, passed through the locks and within ten hours entered the waters of the Pacific at Panama. And twenty-four hours after a small fleet of ships of commerce made the passage of the canal, the opening of which the world is now celebrating on the Pacific Coast.

The commendable spirit displayed by America in the opening of the canal is an indication of what may be expected in the future as far as the United States is concerned in perfecting equitable plans for international co-operation.

The New York World puts it clearly in these words: "Today the canal lies open to all the nations of the world upon equal terms. The United States has acted with entire good faith, and in the observance of its treaties discriminated against none and reserved no exclusive rights to itself. Beyond the collection of tolls, which are uniform to ships of all flags, it has assumed none of the privileges of national ownership at the expense of friends and rivals in trade. It has achieved a moral triumph no less impressive than the material victory won by its engineers over nature in the piercing of the isthmus."

THE ANCON

Sail through, Ancon, most prophetic ship
 Hastening from the heavy sobbing of blood-stained seas.
 For thou art more than keel and hull,
 Than armor bearer and a man freighted deck
 Thou shoulds't be the Mayflower of the coming democracy of the world.

*   *   *   *   *

Looking through the vista
 Of this earth-rent canal—a telescope,
 Mirroring a city in the western skys—
 Clearer, clearer, clearer, becomes the vision
 Of the alluring ideal halloed by a glowing sun.
 Nearer, nearer, nearer doest thou sail,
 Until now behold thou doest glide
 Out onto the Pacific, secure in peaceful freedom.
 Until the eastern war clouds being dispelled,
 On, on, on thou canst sail into the haven of the essential republic of the world.

THE ALTRUISM OF COL. GOETHALS

There is no more beautiful example in history of international altruism than that displayed by Col. G. W. Goethals, who will for all time be remembered as the one who successfully completed the Panama Canal. And if all men were like him in spirit the brotherhood of the nations would begin tomorrow.

For when the National Geographic Society honored Col. Goethals with the presentation of a medal, at its ninth annual banquet held at Washington, D.C., which was attended by the president of the United States, his cabinet and the diplomatic representatives of every great foreign nation, these are the words—entirely free from American provincialism—that the eminent engineer used in responding to the presentation of the medal by President Woodrow Wilson:

"Mr. President, it is an easier task to build the Panama Canal than it is for me to find words to express appreciation of the honor conferred upon me by the National Geographic Society and the distinguished manner in which the presentation of the medal has been made. This medal represents the satisfaction of the National Geographic Society at the practical completion of the canal and its approval of the services rendered.

"Those services are not only individual services but national services. The French were the pioneers in the undertaking. But for the work that they did on the isthmus we could not today regard the canal as practically completed. But for the English we probably would not have known the means of eradicating malaria; the death rate would have been great. Among individuals we have national representatives in the Spanish and the English in our laboring force.

"The canal has been the work of many, and it has been the pride of Americans who have visited the canal to find the spirit which animated the forces. * * * And so in accepting the medal and thanking the National Geographic Society for it, I accept it and thank them in the name of every member of the canal army."

Goethals is truly a world citizen. And The National Geographic Magazine well defines his spirit in these terse words describing the completion of the canal:

"Atlantic—Goethals—Pacific."

V 
World Pioneers

LAND AND SEA BREEZES

The land is better for the sea,
 The ocean for the shore.

—Larcom.

*   *   *   *   *

"The tide is rising, let the land be glad. The breathless, rollicking, happy tides, whose comings are in truth the gladness of the world!"—Quayle.

*   *   *   *   *

How much earth's flowers, hills, valleys and human life owe to the sea breezes. And how indispensable are the clear mountain streams to the sea, in pouring fresh water into its salty heart.

*   *   *   *   *

How joyful are the waters, when the earth yields up its hosts of travellers, merchants, ambassadors, missionaries, educators, homeseekers and international statesmen to relieve the lonesomeness of its wide-flowing deep. All hail to the many ships that pass by sea!

*   *   *   *   *

"The earth is rude, silent and incomprehensive at first—
 Be not discouraged—keep on—there are divine things well enveloped;
 I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell."

—Walt Whitman.

THE PIONEERS OF THE WORLD

O far-seeing seers,
 Looking over the shoulders of empires and nations, unconsciously dwarfed with prejudice,
 Telescopic in vision, down the vista of the centuries,
 You know not how far and deep you thought,
 Nor what beginnings you wrought;
 For we hasten to crown you, the world pioneers.

*   *   *   *   *

Call the roll of the men whose minds have companioned with the globe!
 Who were these staunch henchmen of a race,
 Getting their inspiration from a pillared cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night,
 And negotiating with the continents and seas of an earth?
 Who were these world pioneers?

*   *   *   *   *

Courageous Magellan, you were the first of the spheric heroes,
 Who with your fifteen braves looking out from an isthmian cliff, civilization's bleakest frontier,
 Out upon an untrailed, unsailed, trackless deep,
 Was the first to push away from an Astec—hugged shore,
 And send westward your creaking craft so mightily propelled by an explorer's tireless heart,
 That when at Maclan island the red man's arrow struck you to the earth,
 The mighty spirit of your immortal soul so fired your companion's wills,
 That they with invincible force encircled the globe—
 Past the Celestial Empire, doubling Cape Good Hope
 And into Seville Roads, they came!
 The first to complete the voyage about the sphere!
The first to exclaim, "the world, the world."

*   *   *   *   *

And inconquerable Cyrus Field you were one;
 Who by linking Valentia and New Foundland,
 Awakening to mutual speech two continents that were mutually dumb,—
 Was, in spite of repeated breakings and the cowardly desertion of avowed friends,
 The first, O indomitable knight of a world's progress,
 To successfully lay the Atlantic cable.
 The first to start a conversation between two hemispheres
 And with initial message to yonder shores proclaim:
 "Europe and America are now by telegraph united
 To God be glory, in the highest
 And on earth peace and good will toward men."
 Indispensable pioneer, you wedded the continents as Goethals united the seas.
 And now the voice of man is naturalized to a sphere.
 It can be heard through the nations, around the world.
 Whether Caucasian or Mongolian—he can talk about the globe.

*   *   *   *   *

And distance-vanishing Fulton, you were one;
 Who—launching upon the waters the first steam-propelled ship, the Cleremont,
 From who's experimental hull leaped into existence
 The Savanah, the Great Eastern and Britannia,
 Each moving faster, faster than the one before—
 Was the first to draw together the continents, like some Colossus with a shortening cord of time
 Until from coast range to distant shores
 And from distant shores to coast range
 Each new speeding steamer brings us closer,
 Making more certain the intermingling of the races preparing for the brotherhood of man.

*   *   *   *   *

And great Augustine, dissolute as a youth
 But angelic as a man, you were one;
 Who—the humblest and the quickest to recognize
 That since the day of Christ all noble men were sent,
 And that constrained and resolute with Paul and with Peter they had gone—
 Was the first—thank God you appeared—to marshal the good men for conquest,
 To organize into missionary ranks the vision'd souls of the church,
 Dispatching spirit-armored heroes from Rome to early England's soil
 And preventing the annihilation of Christian hope and truth.

*   *   *   *   *

Noble prophet! Little did you know, O Augustine, what you had done.
 Unbrazened in the face, illuminated with the divine,
 With the crystal eye of goodness looking light and health into pagan nights,
 And cowering Lust's mountain hurling hosts,
 Followed by new recruits, since then the ranks have grown.
 Men have come one by one and year by year
 Until fifteen thousand heralded volunteers and ninety thousand native workers
 Now can be seen from glad heavens Missionary Ridge, offering light and character on heathen fields!
 Far-reaching, sea-exploring, colonizing England in its youth saved for enlightenment!
 Christ inspired it! But you achieved it!
 And today, as the oceans and the continents are united,
 So five hundred and sixty-five million followers are gradually demanding that the races and the peoples
 In essential Christianity—the good recognizing in other faiths—shall be one.

*   *   *   *   *

And mind-emancipating Luther, thou art one—
 Fearing only God and truth.
 Hating naught but sham and falsehood!
 For traveling back from our day into medieval darkness—
 (The chains, hear them rattle! But also hear them snap in a true reformers clutch
 Causing multitudes to rise from superstition
 And stand upon their feet, erect in the freedom of a simple faith)—
 We there behold the pioneer of intellectual freedom,
 A simple monk, commanding the low-browed ignorance of a whole dark continent to think,
 Awakening the western world to science, to true religion and to thought;
 Until the mind of the sullen masses of Europe now is brooding,
 And in America it is voting,
 While the public mind of the world is becoming more and more habituated to reason for international concourse.
 For the Bible, the rocks and the skys are unchained,
 Because Luther lived and honestly dared for the truth!

*   *   *   *   *

These are the men—inspired by Him who altered times calendar and began an Easter day—
 Who took epochal steps for the world's conquest.
 That directly achieved in encircling the globe.
 But there are others, a host of others, worthy, noble, world pioneers.

*   *   *   *   *

O indispensable pioneers, see them moving out in history,
 Just as bravely, just as necessary, often giving inspiration to the first,
 Most of them impelled forward by Columbus and Copernicus—
 The inspirers of explorers, the pioneers of the pioneers.

*   *   *   *   *

Consecrated to humanity and the world, look backward and see the host of sphere-ward moving men;
 See the explorers—with Columbus, Balboa, Drake, Desoto opening up a new west.
 See the scientists—Darwin, Spencer, Huxley, daring to say that God is in life.
 See the philosophers—Aristotle, Plato, Hegel, Kant and Eucken.
 See the missionaries—Judson, Carey, Thomas, Livingstone, Moffat and Morrison.
 See the inventors—Stevenson, Watt, Marconi, Edison and Bell.
 See the patriots—Solon, Savonarola, Cromwell, Henry, Lincoln and Gladstone.
 Mighty huers through the forests,—
 See them laboring for a nation in some special task or knowledge,
 But incidentally and emphatically for the world.

*   *   *   *   *

And turn your eyes from the past to the present to observe your own world inspired sons!
 See them moving toward the international congress and the Hague,
 The greatest educators, ambassadors and financiers,
 See them increasing in their numbers, for they also will be counted with the world pioneers.

*   *   *   *   *

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 asserting it is true.
 O Galileo, we honor and respect you for looking superstition 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 Titans, 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 nobly 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 noble-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 goddess 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 associated 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. 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.

The one thing that it is important to remember is that a monarchy or an oligarchy is not necessarily an antithesis of democracy—only absolutism in the form of a monarchy or oligarchy or plutocracy is an antithesis to democratic principles.

Many governments which live under the standard of a republic are not democratic in spirit at all. Mexico has virtually been a despotism. The Spanish-American states, especially until recent years, were nothing but a specie of military tyranny. And France has often been only a bureaucracy in structure and in state.

By essential democracy we mean the gradual triumph of the principles which emphasize the equality of man before God, and which are everywhere coming into increasing recognition throughout the world.

One author says that before the middle of the nineteenth century all the great European states, with the exception of Russia and Turkey, had adopted a constitution limiting the power of the crown "and investing a considerable share of political power in the people, and in most of them a representative legislature of the parliamentary or British type was adopted." While in Switzerland, Norway and Sweden alone on the continent democracy has reached a type of true efficiency. And these triumphs must be remembered by the people for the sake of future inspiration and courage; and because it may help one to interpret the present European war as an agony incident to the progress of growth.

It is true that the victory of the principle of democracy has been checked by the persisting of the military spirit in Europe and the wonderful industrial expansion in both Europe and America. In England also the triumph "has been delayed by the prevalence of aristocratic traditions which still grant privileges and rights to a social class based on berth and inherited wealth." While in American the simplicity of the colonial life and the absence of the people from the aristocratic classes of Europe promoted a vigorous and commanding growth of the democratic ideas. And this is why the nations of the world in their struggle for democracy are looking to America, because she has the most nearly of all nations realized the democratic ideal.

In light of what has already been accomplished, how inspiring then becomes the lure of the ideal of world democracy. Essentially it is splendidly possible. The people crave it because it is God-born. They love to think and work and vote for that far-off divine event. And more than that the words, monarchy and oligarchy, are so out of date that they are anxious to be in spirit and letter citizens of a republic. And wherever the leaven is working thrones are in danger, because great things are going to happen on this God-guided globe, in the interest of humanity.

Let it be remembered that there are fifty recognized governments in the world; and that of this number twenty-six are republics, twenty limited monarchies, with democratic features, and only four absolute monarchies. The very thought of this is an inspiration and shows that all the nations are rapidly moving in the direction of essential world democracy.

A PRAYER FOR WORLD CITIZENS

Our Father, who art in heaven—the God of humanity—hallowed be thy name.
 Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in the whole earth as it is in heaven.
 Give the nations this day their daily bread;
 And forgive them their trespasses as they forgive the nations that trespass against them.
 And lead them not into the temptation of conquest or self aggrandizement, but deliver them through their rulers from this evil.
 For thine is the world kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.

At the Congress of Religions held at the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893, when the question came up as to what would be an appropriate devotional appeal to be used in opening the Congress, the representatives of every religion and faith of the world unanimously agreed that the Lord's Prayer found in the Sermon on the Mount would be acceptable to all. And the one given above is an adaption from the Lord's Prayer, given in order that it may be seen how well its spirit could be adapted to world democracy.

VI 
World Citizens

[E] PRECEPTS FOR WORLD CITIZENS

Never allow the glory of the world vision to keep you from performing your daily duty, be it humble or great; remembering that you are a part of the whole and that the fullness of the world's life will not be expressed if one member of the body fails to perform its function. Remember that vision is worthless unless it helps you to take hold of the handle of service with a firm grasp and a new enthusiasm; but also that it is necessary to enter into the spirit of the world vision a few moments at the dawn of each day.

*   *   *   *   *

Do not be deceived into looking upon national bigotry as patriotism. For the interests of humanity are always primary to the interests of the nation. What is good for the whole world is good for each continent and government.

*   *   *   *   *

Begin to urge a national individualism among established nations which insists less on rights and more on duties; which recognizes that the greed for territory is the "original sin of the nations." God divided the world into nations so that they might help, not destroy each other; and when they admit this they will begin to inaugurate essential world democracy.

*   *   *   *   *

Cultivate the spirit of "give and take"; recognizing that there is good to be absorbed from other nations into the international life as well as from your own.

*   *   *   *   *

Do not labor for a world peace which is to depend on "treaties, or skillful diplomacy or mutual fear and equal preparedness for war;" but for one which is based "on the common interests and sympathies and on the mutual needs and services of a world organism, in which each nation is a member of a world body-politic."

*   *   *   *   *

Urge a more mature development of an international conscience; remembering that an ethical standard can be established for the world as it was evolved from the individual to the tribal and then to the national standard of ethics.

*   *   *   *   *

Do not forget that a man of another race is not a different kind of animal than yourself. For one has well said: "The strangest thing to me is that people who are so different are so much alike."

*   *   *   *   *

Encourage the spread of the new knowledge which has given to us a clearer understanding of disease and through eugenics a vital interest in those racial qualities which shall improve future generations, remembering that when the bodies and minds of the races are at their best they will be more open to reason and more cordial to the spirit of harmony among the nations.

*   *   *   *   *

Do not be too much alarmed about the talk of foreign labor, or interracial marriage. But take up the torch of enlightenment and fulfill today's duty, remembering that in due time the co-operative council of the Occidental and Oriental mind will see that all problems are justly solved according to the best interests of the whole race.

*   *   *   *   *

Insist that as soon as possible there be inaugurated a permanent international court at the Hague, which shall be endowed with the power to act as well as discuss, in behalf of the interests of the whole world.

*   *   *   *   *

Finally, put on the whole armor of a faith in a deity which is not tribal nor national but the God of humanity, that you may be able to defeat prejudice. Stand, therefore, having your manhood girt about with a broad intelligence; having on the breastplate of righteousness wrought from the essential morality of the races. Having your feet shod with the gospel of world peace, your judgment made discreet with the gospel of contact and your soul made heroic for service by an invincible faith in a better humanity, such as was possessed by the Son of Man.

BEAUTITUDES FOR WORLD STATESMEN

Blessed are the poor in spirit. For in leaving the prejudice of restricted nationalism they will gain the inspiration of the world view and possess more of the kingdom of heaven.

*   *   *   *   *

Blessed are the meek, those possessing the childlike but world view point of Christ, for they shall inherit the environment of the earth.

*   *   *   *   *

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. For the ethics of true religion is to be sifted from the chaff of superstition, and righteousness is to cover the whole earth as the waters cover the seas.

*   *   *   *   *

Blessed are the merciful nations. For they shall obtain mercy in return from other nations, and learn that impulsive retaliation is too costly and that patient and honorable conciliation makes for world peace and national prosperity.

*   *   *   *   *

Blessed are the peacemakers. For now that the nations have entered through the united seas into a neighborhood; they—by encouraging disarmament and teaching the gospel of contact as well as good will—will hasten the day when the nations can live together without war in the spirit of council and peace.

*   *   *   *   *

Blessed is he who is persecuted by people whose minds are filled with race prejudice, national pride and selfishness; for he has discovered the secret of seeing good in all nationalities, of detecting the soul behind the color, and shall be honored by humanity as a pioneer of international brotherhood.

*   *   *   *   *

Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for so persecuted they Him who said "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven and in the councils of the world.

*   *   *   *   *

Blessed are the pure in heart. For they shall see God as transcendant and immanent in the resurrected Christ. They shall find His spirit in all life and behold His glory wherever they journey throughout the wide world.

*   *   *   *   *

Blessed is this noble brotherhood of manly souls. For ye are not only the salt of the school, the city, the state and nation; but also of the earth. Yours is not the light of bigoted patriotism. But ye are the light of the world. And your city placed upon a hill cannot be hid.

*   *   *   *   *

Blessed are these pathfinders who do not fear the seas, for they have discovered that the very waters are resolutely moving toward freedom; and they are being led forward by a pillar of light into the promised land of the essentially unified races.

THE WORLD'S NEIGHBORHOOD

Remember that a new world neighborhood has been created, bringing important points on the globe into closer proximity by one-half to two-thirds of the former distance, through the short route of the Panama Canal.

*   *   *   *   *

Therefore, a new commandment is given to each nation, namely, "to love thy neighbor as thyself," by entering by thought and co-operation into such policies as will make for the best interest of the entire new world neighborhood.

*   *   *   *   *

Do not think that other nations are unapproachable. But remember that North and South America, with all Europe, "are more closely related in point of time and common interests than were the original Thirteen States when the necessities of commerce forced them to form the compact of the Union; that the two geographical extremes of the colonies were as far separated as Berlin and the Barbary States or as London and the Black Sea."

*   *   *   *   *

Do not think that the short route through the canal is merely a path for commerce's ships, or only a highway for navies or state dignitaries; but remember also that it is a short route to the Hague and international congresses.

*   *   *   *   *

And do not fail to recall that brave men opened up this international highway—not through forests or smoking prairies, but through mountains, swamps, rocks and hills—in order to hasten the day of essential world democracy.

*   *   *   *   *

So think clearly enough and you will surely see that the completion of the Panama Canal is virtually the discovery of a basis of essential world unity. He who walks by land or sails by sea can now read the will of God.

*   *   *   *   *

With increasing numbers we are now arriving at the day that Whitman speaks of in the following words:

"The main shapes arise!
 Shapes of democracy total, result of centuries
 Shapes ever projecting other shapes,
 Shapes of turbulent manly cities,
 Shapes of the friends and home-givers of the whole earth,
 Shapes bracing the earth and braced by the whole earth."

*   *   *   *   *

The key that is in tune with all other keys of its own instrument is in tune with all harmony on the earth. And the man that has attuned his life to justice and liberty in the community in which he lives is in accord with freemen in every land, loves the vision of world-wide liberty and prays for its realization.

*   *   *   *   *

Tagore, the Hindu poet, says: "I have learned though our tongues are different and our habits dissimilar, at the bottom our hearts are one. The monsoon clouds, generated on the banks of the Nile, fertilize the far distant shores of the Ganges; ideas may have to cross from east to western shores to find a welcome in men's hearts. East is east and west is west—God forbid that it should be otherwise—but the twain must meet in amity, peace and mutual understanding; and their meeting will be all the more fruitful because of their differences; it must lead to holy wedlock before the common altar of humanity."

VII 
The Sea's Highest Decree

WHAT ARE THE SEAS ABOUT?

The deeper one goes into the subject of world democracy the more one is convinced of the necessity of calling to one's aid the help of true religion in formulating a world consciousness.

Walt Whitman, whom many may regard as somewhat unwise in some of his utterances, was absolutely right when he intimated that world democracy could not be formulated without religion.

And today there is nothing that is going to help people so effectively to grasp and feel at home with the ideal of an essential union of the nations, as the modern teaching of the immanence of God. If we are a part of the whole world, and if God is in the seas as well as the flowers and hills then we will not dread them, for they are our inspiration and helpers.

Not only does the teaching of the immanence of God in the seas help the nations into closer fellowship. But what is more than that, it helps the soul of man to find in the waters a purpose. The seas themselves seem to be up to something.

No man felt this secret of nature with keener appreciation than the late Prof. J. J. Blaisdell of Beloit College, Wis. For in one of his lectures, the notes of which, I still have, he says:

"Nature is expressive of a purpose. And no one has gotten the good of nature until he has got the momentum of the mighty work that it is working. Its face is steadily set forward. It is not static. It is not a current running down. It is an achievement. When you stop and think of it you are led to reflect that its onward movement is so stupendous toward the working out of a far off divine event that if you should throw yourself across its track you would be annihilated in a moment.

"I have stood on the shore of Lake Michigan on a stormy day in December and the rhythm of that lake seemed to be the echo of the march of the universe treading its victorious way into the future. It is about something—its face is steadfastly set to go to Jerusalem. The firmness of great souls is but its child and copy; and responded to, it is the breeder of great souls.

"Now until we become alive to the expressiveness of purpose in nature, a purpose expressed in feeling and ready to lackey man in his pilgrimage, we fail to understand nature and lose much of the blessedness of living in this world.

"And my simple question is, how comes about this expressiveness? Why, simply there is a person who is projecting himself through this embodiment and it is the revelation of him, just as our friends' ways express the person of the friend behind them."

How grand are those words! And how helpful to men who desire the very co-operation of the seas in fulfilling their plans in unifying the races! For if Prof. Blaisdell was thus inspired with the thought of the co-operation of the waters of Lake Michigan with the historic purposes of man, what should the true freeman feel as he looks out over the Pacific? I can only tell you what I have felt in the words on the following page:

THE ALTRUISM OF THE SEA