not for existence, not for sea, not for wealth, but for Cross and
Freedom, for the Christian Cross and for the Freedom of the smaller
nations. It means in other words: for God's cause. For who created the
small nations if not He that created all great and small things in this
wonderful world? Or who has the divine right and sad duty to
exterminate, to suffocate, to enchain, the small creations of the
Highest if the Highest wants them to exist? Great Britain justified her
greatness by entering this war so as to protest against the violation of
right, even by those who agreed to this right, and to protect the small
and poor. It is easy to be physically great, but it is difficult to be
morally great.
Great is the power which violates the right, still greater is the power
which protects the right. To destroy is much easier than to build. To be
great and to be proud means not to be great at all. To be great and to
be modest means real greatness and belief in God. For who can be proud
believing in God? Or who can feel God in this Universe and still say, I
am great? Our modesty is only our confession that there is a God. Since
we see both ends of our life--birth and death--so near us, we must be
humiliated.
Yet who can see any end of God, either in the past or in the future?
Where are all the greatest empires of the past? All is dust under the
feet of the Eternal. Whither are we all going, great or small? To be
dust under His feet. From this dust will survive only the small portion
of God's spirit that dwells in this dust. All our thoughts and
feelings, and deeds and strivings, and struggles and passions, which are
directed towards dust will die together with our bodily dust. Only that
portion of our being which is directed towards God will survive, will
continue to live in the presence of God, will see God. For God only can
see God.
Fighting for Belgium, for Serbia and Montenegro, for Armenia, Poland and
Bohemia, for all the poor and oppressed--Great Britain is fighting for
God's cause. For whose cause indeed is Belgium's and Serbia's, if not
God's cause? I wonder who would protect all the oppressed in the world
if not this country, in which God's word is more taught and learned than
in any other, and which is endowed with all good gifts that God can give
to mortals? Yet fighting for God's cause, one fights best for one's own.
Yes, we fight always best for our own cause when we have it least in
sight. England entered this war not after a long calculation; she
entered the war spontaneously and only afterwards she put the question
to herself: Why did I enter this war?
Now England is conscious why she entered the war. She knows now that
somebody else pushed her into this Avar, and that she is fighting for
somebody else's cause. This somebody else is--God. The sons of Great
Britain going to the East to fight are going the same pathway as their
ancestors went in the time of the Crusaders. The same way, the same aim:
to save the honour of the Cross and to fight for Freedom! It is the
pathway of supreme suffering, but also the only pathway of real glory
and merit. Any other way for England's greatness was impossible. England
had to choose either the way of pettiness or of greatness. She chose the
second. God bless England!
We pray to Thee, our Father, in order not to change Thy will but ours.
Thy will be done! If Serbia is an impediment to human civilisation and
an evil, as our German brothers think, Father, make of Serbia a salt
lake before they make of her a cemetery. Yet Thy will be done and not
ours. We are thine in our righteousness and in our sins. What is,
indeed, the whole of our planet? A small grain of dust. What are we,
then, on this small grain of dust? We, men, either great or little? We,
nations, rich or poor? We, the churches, either right or wrong? One word
only I dare to say: the silence in Thy presence shall be our name, and
our prayer. Even on the brightest and most peaceful day of our life,
there is no true light except Thee. How much more we need Thy light in
the darkness of the present moment! We are a small grain of dust under
Thy throne, but remember, the only grain of dust which can consciously
worship Thee. That shall be our only glory and pride among our brothers:
animals, plants, and stones. But in worshipping Thee we become fellows
of the stars. Lord, be our everlasting Sun and cast Thy light on every
star, now and for ever. Amen.