sles, we can catch it. Almost any one can be brave when he is in a brave crowd. One has no time then to be afraid, he is swept along by the others. War makes use of men in crowds. It masses together hundreds and thousands and millions. He is indeed a feeble creature who can be a coward on the battlefield. But in peace each man fights his battle alone. When he fights his own lower self, there is no one by his side to fight with him. When he is trying to get out of his mind a thought that is mean, or out of his heart a desire that is low, he must struggle in solitude. When the time comes for him to decide whether he shall tell a lie or speak the truth, do an unselfish thing or a selfish one, he is as lonely as Robinson Crusoe was on his Island before he found the man Friday. To be courageous in the battles of peace requires every bit of pluck we can muster. Indeed we do not have enough of our own. We need a little of what belongs to the Prince. I have spoken of every soldier of the Prince fighting by himself. This is true in one sense, and in another sense it is not true. One can be alone, and yet have somebody with him. There may be nobody present in the body, while there is somebody present in the spirit. The Prince one day said: "Men have left me alone, and yet I am not alone, my Father is with me." The Prince knew from his own experience that no soldier can fight successfully alone, and so he said to his soldiers just before he left them: "Lo I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." But there is still another reason why it is easier to do brave things in war than in peace, and that is because in war men are punished physically if they do not obey. If they are told to do a certain thing which is hard, and do not do it, they are taken out and shot. No soldier is allowed to remain in an army unless he does everything which the commander tells him to do. If he even hesitates, he is publicly disgraced, and held up to the scorn of all the army. It is easier, sometimes, therefore, for a soldier in war to do a heroic thing than not to do it. But in the battles of peace one can shirk and receive no physical punishment. No one will whip him, or put him in jail, or stand him up against a wall and shoot him. He can run away when he ought to stand firm, and he can act most disgracefully when he has a chance to be a man. When therefore a soldier in peace does heroic things, it is because the spirit of heroism is really in him. He fights courageously not because he is afraid of getting shot, for the Prince never shoots his unworthy soldiers. He simply looks at them reproachingly, in mingled anger and pity, just as he looked one time at Simon Peter when Peter had shown himself a coward. Did you ever feel uneasy and uncomfortable, and perhaps miserable after you have run away from a duty, or have done something contemptible and mean? I think you feel that way because the Prince is looking at you. He does not whip us with a whip. He punishes us with his look. He does not order us to be killed. He lets us live on, hoping that we shall do better. There is no virtue developed by war which is not more fully developed by peace. What do you think are the military virtues? Here they are: Obedience, and courage, and sacrifice. No one can be a good soldier in an army without these three virtues, nor can any one be a good soldier of the Prince without them. Loyalty to the Prince comes first of all. We must do what he says. It may be disagreeable, but we must do it. It may cause us pain, but that does not matter. It may lead to death, but even that should not hold us back. We are to obey the Prince no matter what it costs. He used to say to his followers: "Do not be afraid of men who kill the body. They can never kill your soul. Keep your soul clean and brave and true and you have won the victory." son. He expects us to be courageous. He can do nothing with soldiers who are cowards. Bravery is a virtue which is called for every day. It is needed in the home. Without courage boys and girls cannot tell the truth at all times to their parents. Without it one cannot do his duty in the school. There lived once in England a boy called John Coleridge PatteWhen he was old enough he went to school at Eton. He was a wonderful athlete and became the finest cricketer in the school. At an annual dinner a boy got up and began to sing a song which was not nice. What would you have done had you been there? The easiest thing to do at a time like that is to sit still and say nothing. And that is also the cowardly thing to do. John Patteson did not keep still. He spoke right out loud. He said: "If that is not stopped I am going to leave the room." The song continued, and he left. The next day he wrote a letter to the captain of the cricketers, saying that unless an apology was offered by that boy who sang the song, he would resign his place on the cricket team. I am glad to say that the apology was offered. John Patteson was a soldier of the Prince every day, and like the great Admiral Nelson he was not acquainted with Mr. Fear. When John Patteson finished his studies at Eton, he went to Oxford, and having completed his course there, he went as a soldier of the Prince to help some poor ignorant savages on a few islands in the Southern Pacific. He was just as courageous there as he had been in Eton. He taught the savages to read and write and count. He taught them also some of the English college games. It must have been tiresome sometimes for an Oxford graduate to teach little boys how to add and subtract, and little girls how to make beds and sew, but he was a hero and he always obeyed the Prince. I know you will be sorry when I tell you that one day when he went to a neighboring island where the people did not know him very well, some bad men fell upon him and killed him, and put his dead body in a canoe and sent it drifting out to sea. And that reminds me of the third of the military virtues-sacrifice. We sacrifice when we give up something which we like very much. A soldier makes many sacrifices, and this is the chief reason why painters have loved to paint him, and poets have loved to write about him. There is something in us which thrills at the sight of sacrifice. Even if we are not willing to make sacrifices ourself, we like to see others make them. Indeed the world could not get on without a lot of people sacrificing them |