Pages from an Old Volume of Life; A Collection of Essays, 1857-1881Holmes, Oliver Wendell
History
Pages from an Old Volume of Life; A Collection of Essays, 1857-1881
Holmes, Oliver Wendell
Essays
Here, too, side by side in the same great camp, are half a dozen
chaplains, representing half a dozen modes of religious belief. When the
masked battery opens, does the “Baptist” Lieutenant believe in his
heart that God takes better care of him than of his “Congregationalist”
Colonel? Does any man really suppose, that, of a score of noble young
fellows who have just laid down their lives for their country, the
Homoousians are received to the mansions of bliss, and the Homoousians
translated from the battle-field to the abodes of everlasting woe? War
not only teaches what man can be, but it teaches also what he must not
be. He must not be a bigot and a fool in the presence of that day of
judgment proclaimed by the trumpet which calls to battle, and where a
man should have but two thoughts: to do his duty, and trust his Maker.
Let our brave dead come back from the fields where they have fallen for
law and liberty, and if you will follow them to their graves, you will
find out what the Broad Church means; the narrow church is sparing of
its exclusive formulae over the coffins wrapped in the flag which the
fallen heroes had defended! Very little comparatively do we hear at
such times of the dogmas on which men differ; very much of the faith and
trust in which all sincere Christians can agree. It is a noble lesson,
and nothing less noisy than the voice of cannon can teach it so that it
shall be heard over all the angry cries of theological disputants.
Now, too, we have a chance to test the sagacity of our friends, and to
get at their principles of judgment. Perhaps most, of us, will
agree that our faith in domestic prophets has been diminished by the
experience of the last six months. We had the notable predictions
attributed to the Secretary of State, which so unpleasantly refused
to fulfil themselves. We were infested at one time with a set of
ominous-looking seers, who shook their heads and muttered obscurely
about some mighty preparations that were making to substitute the rule
of the minority for that of the majority. Organizations were darkly
hinted at; some thought our armories would be seized; and there are not
wanting ancient women in the neighboring University town who consider
that the country was saved by the intrepid band of students who stood
guard, night after night, over the G. R. cannon and the pile of balls in
the Cambridge Arsenal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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