in the time when the Serbian body was in chains. Although the Serbian
body was enslaved, the Serbian soul was still free and active. Here are
some proverbs made during the time of slavery and abasement of the body:
It is better not to be born than to misuse life.
The sun sees everything and keeps silent; the foolish man knows nothing
and still talks.
Why does God send suffering to the best of His children? Because the
weak cannot endure it.
The tears of the weak are accusations of the strong; the tears of the
poor are accusations of the rich; the tears of the righteous will be
transformed into diamonds under the throne of God.
A king asks another king: How many people do you govern? But if God
speaks to a king, he asks: How many people are you helping?
Even the dry leaves cry out when trodden on; why should not the trodden
man cry out?
It is better to give life than to take life. If you give life, you do
what God does; if you take life, you do what Satan does.
Some men are better than others, but there is no man so good as God and
no one so bad as the devil.
Some people are dressed in silk and satin, and others are dressed in
rags. Very often that is the only difference between man and man.
There is a great difference between a learned man and a good man. The
learned man can do good, but the good man will do good. The learned man
can build the world up, but can destroy it too; the good man can only
build it up.
A man's judgment lasts as long as a man's life, but God's judgment lasts
as long as God.
It is better to dress the soul in silk and the body in rags than the
reverse.
If life does not mean work, then life is worth nothing.
Work and virtue are sisters, as well as idleness and vice.
Work and prayer are two eyes on the same face. The man who works only,
without praying, has one eye only; and the man who prays without working
only has one eye too. The man who neither works nor prays has no eyes,
and walks in darkness.
Neither be boastful of life nor fearful of death. Death is conditioned
by life, and life by death.
You can kill me, but my son will live; you can kill my son, but my soul
will live.
The Kingdom of God is coming as quietly as the moonlight, and it will
come fully when men learn not to live in convulsions and not to die in
convulsions.
There are only two nations upon the earth: that which weeps and that
which laughs.
Now I would like to indicate slightly what The English Political
Interests in Serbia are. Little as she may seem, democratic Serbia is
still the greatest moral factor in the big Slav world. She is admired by
other subjugated Slavs because she succeeded without anybody's help in
freeing herself. She is envied by all other Slavs, from near and from
far, as well as from other neighbouring nations, because of her nearly
perfect democracy. Serbia is the only democratic state among the four
independent Slav states (Russia, Montenegro, Bulgaria). And just in this
terrible war it became clear to all the world that Serbia was the only
democratic state in the Near East. Turkey is governed by an oligarchy,
Bulgaria by a German despot, Greece by a wilful king whose patriotism is
overshadowed by his nepotism, Roumania is ruled more by the wish of the
landlords (boyars) and court than by the wish of the people. I will say
nothing about the very profanation of democracy in the dark realm of the
Hapsburgs.
Serbia not only means a democratic state, but a democratic nation; that
is to say, that not only are the Serbian institutions (including the
church also) democratic, but the spirit of the whole of the nation is
democratic. After all, this democratic spirit of Serbia must be
victorious in the Balkans as well as in the Slav world.
You know that England's glory has always been to stand as the champion
of democracy. England's best interests in the Near East now more than
ever imperatively require her to support democratic Serbia against her
anti-democratic enemies. How different Serbia is from all her
neighbours was clearly proved just by this war. She is alone in the Near
East fighting on the side of the democratic England and France against
Prussian militarism and autocracy. That does not happen accidentally,
but because of the Serbian democratic spirit. This spirit is very
attractive for all the Slavs who are under the Austro-Hungarian rule.
Many of them are looking towards powerful Russia to liberate them
(Poles, Bohemians, Ruthenes, Slovaks). Yet they do not wish only
Freedom, but _Freedom_ and _Democracy_ together. Therefore they are
looking with one eye towards Russian power and with another towards
Serbian democracy. It is clear that the English victory over the Germans
must have as the first consequence the liberation of all the slaves in
Europe. In this case all the Southern Slav people in
Austro-Hungary--Serbs, Croats and Slovenes--wish to be one unit with
democratic Serbia, as it was formulated lately by the Southern-Slav
Committee in London, and all the others--Poles, Bohemians, Ruthenes and
Slovaks--wish to be _like_ democratic Serbia. Consequently Serbia is a
kernel, a nucleus of a greater Southern-Slav state, and at the same time
the inspiring and revolutionising power for all the down-trodden Slavs.
This kernel for five hundred years was the little, but never
subjugated, Montenegro, but lately the Piedmontal role has been
transferred to Serbia.
The English political interest in the future Greater Serbia, or
Yougoslavija, is of the first importance. The Southern-Slav state will
number about fourteen millions of inhabitants. This state will be the
very gate of the East. Yet Serbia is not only the nucleus of the united
Southern Slavdom, but the very nucleus of a Balkan Federation also, in
which the Greco-Roumanian element should be a good balance to the Slav
element in it. I repeat I like my little country just because it is so
comparatively little. But by necessity it is to become much larger. By
necessity the whole of the Serbian race is to be freed and united. By
necessity the Southern-Slav state and the Balkan Federation are to be
realised. Some of our neighbours may be against that, but all their
opposing effort will be in vain. Every intrigue against the Serbian
ideals of freedom and unity cannot effect a suppression, but only a
short prolongation of the period of its realisation. Behold, the time
has come, the fruit has grown ripe. All the Serbian race has now been
plunged into slavery. United to-day in slavery, they have now only one
wish--to be united to-morrow in Freedom.
England is bound to Russia more by a political or military treaty, but
she is bound to Serbia, and through Serbia with all other democratic
Slav worlds more by spirit--just by this democratic spirit. This spirit
which divides the Slav world into two different camps, unites England
with one of them,--with the democratic camp, the champion of which has
been Serbia. A very curious spirit dwells in the little Serbian body, a
very curious and great spirit, which will, I am sure, give form to the
future Balkans as well as to the future democratic Slavdom. And be sure
this spirit is rather panhumanistic than panslavistic.
But after all, when I think of 400 million inhabitants of the British
Empire and remember such a poor topic, as my country, about which I am
just speaking, I must cry again: England, what is Serbia, that thou art
mindful of her? And the poor sons of Serbia, that thou visitest them?
Still, Serbia is an admirer and friend of England, and that is a good
reason why England should look sympathetically towards little Serbia.
There is a Serbian proverb: "A wise lion seeks friends not only among
the lions, but among the bees too." Of course Serbia needs England much
more than England needs Serbia. I will not now dwell upon Serbia's
material needs; I will tell you about what are Serbia's spiritual
needs.
To begin with the children, the Serbian children need good education.
Our schools give more knowledge than strength of character and a humane
cultivated will. Our national poetry and history have educated our
people much better than modern science did. Still we perceive that
science is necessary for a good education in our times. Therefore we
very much need to consult England in this respect. We well know how
English education is estimated all over the world. England can help us
much to educate the new Serbian generations in the best way, because
such a country as Serbia deserves indeed a noble and worthy future in
which to live. Don't you agree with me? Only I am afraid that I am
speaking of the best education of the Serbian children just at this
moment when it were perhaps more suitable to speak about the best way to
save them from hunger, pain and death.
The Serbian women need to develop their capacities more for social work,
so as to take a more important part in the organisation and cultivation
of their lives. The past of our women consisted in singing, weaving and
weeping. I am sure that the English women, whose sympathy for Serbia in
these tragic days will remain memorable for ever,--I am sure that after
this war they will come to Serbia and help their poor sisters over
there, teaching them and enlightening them. Yet I am again afraid to
dwell longer upon the topic of the enlightenment of the Serbian mothers
at the very moment when those mothers with their sons and daughters,
trodden down by the Prussian boot, look towards Heaven and silently
confess their sins, preparing themselves for a cruel death.
What do the Serbian men need? They need civilisation, or in other words:
the Bible, science, art. But they do not need the Bible of killing from
Germany, nor the science of killing and the art of killing from Germany.
They do not want the civilisation which means the large and skilful
manufacture of instruments of killing. They want the Bible which makes
good, and science which makes bright, and art which makes godlike.
Therefore the men of Serbia are now looking so eagerly towards England
and her civilisation. More English civilisation in our country, more
England in Serbia--that is our great spiritual need!
My illustrious chairman, the Most Reverend Archbishop of Canterbury,
wrote recently in one of his books: "We are everywhere trying in these
later years to understand and to alleviate human sorrow." [2] Yes, you
are. We Serbians feel your sorrows too. "To understand and to alleviate
human sorrow." That is the divine purpose of a humane civilisation. That
is the final aim of our terrestrial education--to understand each other,
and to support each other.
Do you think that it is difficult for a rich nation as well as for a
rich man to come into the kingdom of Heaven? I am a little embarrassed
seeing rich England now coming into this kingdom. Yet she is coming into
the kingdom of God, not because she is rich, but because she being
powerful humiliated herself, took the cross and went to suffer for the
poor and sorely stricken in this world. She humiliated herself going to
support Belgium; she humiliates herself hurrying to support Serbia; she
humiliates herself mourning so much for Armenia. But her humiliation is
the best proof of her true Christianity, as her fighting and suffering
of to-day is the very fighting and suffering for Christianity. Do not be
afraid of humiliation, citizens of the greatest Empire of the world;
behold, the humiliation is the very condition of real glory and real
greatness! For more than a thousand years, from this place has been
preached the Only Son of God, whose way to Glory, Greatness and Divinity
was through painful humiliation.
Do persist and do not weary in this way,--it will bring your dear
country nearer to God. Do persist in humiliation,--it will be the most
durable foundation of a glorious young England. Do persist in supporting
oppressed and poor Serbia,--it will be rewarded hundredfold to your
children and to the children of your children. Do persist in doing good,
that is my final word to you, my enlightened brethren and sisters. And
when I say _do persist in good_, I repeat only what for nine hundred
years has been preached within these walls by thousands and thousands of
servants of Christ, either well-known or unknown, but all more worthy
than I am.