The Serbian people have shown their individuality only in the dark time
of their slavery. The saint and the heroic kings died, but their souls
lived still in the hearts of their people, in the white churches they
built among the green mountains, in their deeds of mercifulness and
repentance. The enslaved people were conscious that there were no more
kings of their own who represented all that was the best in the Serbian
soul, and that they, the people, have now themselves to represent the
Serbian name, belief and hopes before God and their enemies. And they
have done it.
At the time when Columbus sailed over the seas to find a new continent
in the name of the most Christian King of Spain, the Serbian suffering
for the Christian religion had already begun.
At the time when the famous English thinker Thomas More wrote _Utopia_,
preaching brotherhood among men based upon religious and political
freedom, the Serbs stood there without any shadow of religious and
political freedom, dreaming of and singing about the human brotherhood
founded only on the ruins of both tyranny and slavery.
At the time when the great Shakespeare wrote his tragedies in ink, the
Serbs wrote theirs in blood.
At the time when Cromwell fought in the name of the Bible for the
domestic freedom of Parliament, the Serbian leaders gathered in the
lonely forests to tell each other of the crimes that they saw defiling
the Cross, to confess to each other their cruel sufferings and to
encourage each other to live.
At the time when Milton wrote _Paradise Lost_, the Serbs felt more than
anybody in the world the loss of Paradise.
At the time when Livingstone went to dark Africa with the light of human
civilisation, Serbia was ruled by darker powers even than Central
Africa.
At the time when the great English philosopher Locke wrote his famous
book on the education of men, the people of Serbia had no schools and no
teachers at all; they educated themselves by the memories of the great
deeds of the heroes of the past, by looking at their kings' churches,
and by glorifying a death for justice and a life of suffering.
At the time when Adam Smith wrote his famous work, _The Wealth of
Nations_, the Serbian nation possessed only one form of wealth, and that
was the inward wealth of the glorious inheritance of strong belief and
of bright hopes. All other forms of wealth that it saw around in the
large world, including its own physical life, belonged not to it but to
its enemies.
At the time when your learned priests and bishops discussed the subtle
theological questions of the relations between time and eternity,
between justice and forgiveness, between the Son and the Holy Ghost,
between transcendence and omnipresence, our priests and patriarchs had
to defend the religion of the Cross from the aggressive Crescent, and to
protect the lives of the oppressed, and to lead and inspire the souls of
their flock. I think both your and our priests did their duty according
to the time and circumstances under which they lived and worked.
"FOR CROSS AND FREEDOM"
has been our national motto. It is written on our flag and in the hearts
of each of us. Our motto never was "For existence" or "For vital
interests." That was an unknown form of language to our kings of old,
and that is still a language very strange for our ears to hear to-day.
We never fought indeed solely for a poor existence in this world. We
fought always rather for the ideal contentment of this terrestrial
existence. We fought not for life only, but for what makes one's life
worth living--"For Cross and Freedom!"
The Cross is mentioned first, and then Freedom. Why?
Because the Cross of Christ is the condition of a real freedom. Or,
because the Cross is for God's sake and our freedom is for our sake. We
should fight for God's sake first and then for our own. That was the
idea. Or, because Cross and Freedom are two words for the same thing.
The religion of the Cross involves Freedom, and real Freedom is to be
found only in the religion of the Cross.
"For Cross and Freedom!"
A Serbian proverb says:
The Cross shines better in the heart and the Crescent in the hand.
Another:
Why are there so many Mohammedans in the world? Because the Crescent
pays every day during life to its followers, and the Cross pays only
after death.
Have confidence in Christ and follow him even into the house of the
Devil, because He knows the way out.
Twelve poor apostles did more good to man than the twelve richest
sultans.
In vain you will ask from God any good without suffering. For suffering
is the very heart of every good, of glory, and of pleasure as well.
Every drop of Christ's innocent blood must be paid for by a lake of
men's blood.
It is better to die for the Cross than to live against the Cross.
When you fight for Freedom you are helping every slave in the world, not
only yourself.
Freedom is an atmosphere which makes the sun brighter, and the air
clearer, and the honey sweeter.
To die for the Cross and Freedom means two lives and no death.
A wolf never can so badly enslave a fellow-wolf as a man can enslave a
fellow-man.
It is not easier to live in freedom than to fight for freedom. One must
fight for freedom as an archangel, but one must live in freedom as a
saint.
All men that God created can live on the earth. God gave space and air
enough for all, if men only would give goodwill.
When you pass the tomb of a man who died for Cross and Freedom, you
should bow your head low; and when you pass the palace of a man who
lives for wealth and pleasure, only turn your head the other way.
I observed during this world-struggle the conduct, deeds and words of
our Serbian neighbours, and I was in the end both very sorry and very
glad. I was very sorry as I read the declaration of a Bulgarian
statesman: "We Bulgars must be on the side of the victors." I was very
glad remembering that never in the whole Serbian history have such words
been uttered by a responsible person. Our kings of old said very often
that Serbia must fight on the side of justice, even if justice has for
the moment no visible chance to be victorious. Our saint King, Lazare,
refused on the eve of the _battle of Kossovo_ to negotiate with the
Turkish Sultan, whom he regarded as a bearer of injustice and an enemy
of Christianity.
I was very sorry to see that Greece broke her pledged word and
thoughtlessly refused to keep her treaty with Serbia, whereas France
with England, who had no signed treaty with Serbia, came and did what in
the first place it was Greece's duty to do. I was still more glad and
hopeful in regard to the future of mankind, seeing a great difference of
moral views between the leading nations of human civilisation like the
English and French, and a small nation like the Greek, which is
commencing to learn again what many hundred years ago Greece taught all
other nations. And I was very glad remembering that in our _own_ Serbian
history there is no case of such an example of infidelity or even of
hesitation to fulfil the pledged word of the nation.
In this respect the Serbian women excelled as well as men. Therefore,
and because I am speaking before you, brothers and sisters, whose
country may be proud not only of a large number of great men of every
kind, but of great and famous women as well, I must mention the
memorable qualities of the Serbian women in the long fight for Cross and
Freedom. What sacrifices _for Cross and Freedom the Serbian_ _women_
have made cannot be enumerated from this pulpit, but only slightly
touched upon in a few examples. I take just three splendid names:
Miliza, Yerina and Ljubiza.
_Queen Miliza_ was a lady of a peaceful domestic character. But she was
also the wife of the most tragic king in our Serbian history, of King
Lazare, who perished with all his army on the field of Kossovo fighting
for Cross and Freedom against Islam rushing over Europe.
She had nine brothers--nine brothers and a father. All were killed on
Kossovo together with King Lazare, and Miliza survived that catastrophe.
After the death of King Lazare, Queen Miliza ruled the country together
with her son, Stephen the Tall. But Sultan Bayazet asked three things
from the new rulers in Serbia. Firstly, he asked for Miliza's daughter
Mara for his harem. Miliza gave her daughter. Then Bayazet asked a
second, more dreadful thing, namely, that his unfortunate mother-in-law
should build a mosque in Krushevaz, the Serbian capital at that time, so
as to have a place where he could pray when he came to visit her. There
existed and still exists a beautiful church built by King Lazare. Now
Miliza was constrained to build, close to this dear monument of her
husband, in which she prayed every day for his soul and for the
salvation of Serbia, a Turkish mosque. She agreed silently and she
protested silently. Then Bayazet asked a third still more dreadful
thing, namely, that Stephen the Tall should help him with his troops in
a time of danger for the Turkish Empire. Queen Miliza with a broken
heart advised her son to sign such a treaty in order to save the rest of
the State and people. But very soon it happened that Bayazet needed and
asked for Stephen's help against the formidable Mongol conqueror
Tamerlan. Stephen hated both the Asiatic monsters--Bayazet and
Tamerlan--equally, and it was more profitable for him to break the
treaty with Bayazet and to help Tamerlan, who had more chance. But he
remained faithful to his pledged word. Bayazet was beaten, taken
prisoner and encaged as a beast by Tamerlan. And Stephen, after having
fought splendidly for his ally with the Serbian cavalry, came home. When
thinking over the present conduct of our Greek ally, I am reminded very
often of this noble and loyal king of my country. Queen Miliza could not
endure any longer all the terrible changes from bad to worse; she
transferred all the power to her son, built a wonderful monastery,
Ljubostinja, near Krushevaz, where she as a nun found a retreat in which
to pray and to live, until the end of her weary and melancholy life.
_Queen Yerina_ was the last Serbian ruler in the country, which slowly
sank into slavery. She was very intelligent and very energetic. The
Turkish Sultan took two sons of hers as hostages. She gave them up, and
she continued to rule the country. But both of her sons were blinded by
red-hot irons and sent back to their mother. Even this did not break
Yerina's energy. She constructed great fortresses all over the country
to protect the people from the enemy's invasion. She never had any rest,
thinking and working to save Serbia. She offered the most obstinate
resistance to the Turks as well as to the discontented faction among the
Serbs. Many of her contemporaries were ungrateful to her and called her
the "cursed Yerina," but still posterity bestows upon her great
admiration and sympathy.
_Princess Ljubiza_ came on the scene of our history only a hundred years
ago, in the days of the Serbian revolution and resurrection. As Queen
Miliza and Yerina sacrificed all to save the honour of Serbia, so
Ljubiza did her best to help her husband, Prince Milosh, to liberate the
country from the Turks. Once after the Second Revolution broke out, the
Serbian troops were engaged in a bloody battle on Morava River. But the
Turks were in an overwhelming majority, besides that they had better
arms and more munitions. The frightened Serbian troops fled. Ljubiza
saw that the situation was quite decisive for the whole future, ran to
meet the soldiers, and to admonish them to go back and fight.
"What wretched soldiers you are!" she cried. "Are not the Turks made of
flesh and blood as you? Cannot their blood be shed as yours? Whither are
you running? Home? But we women only are at home. Well, come home, take
our distaff and spin, and give us your rifles; we will go and fight."
The soldiers were so ashamed and encouraged by this remarkable woman
that they turned back and began to fight anew so fiercely that the enemy
was confusedly beaten and dispersed, and a decisive victory won by the
Serbs.
For Cross and Freedom fought the Serbian women directly or indirectly,
not only the queens and princesses, but all the peasant women as well,
if not otherwise, then at least in giving life and education to the
fighters, whom powerful England repeatedly called her worthy allies.