Serbia in Light and Darkness: With Preface by the Archbishop of Canterbury, (1916)Velimirović, Nikolaj
History
Serbia in Light and Darkness: With Preface by the Archbishop of Canterbury, (1916)
Velimirović, Nikolaj
Proverbs, Serbian; Serbia; Serbian poetry -- Translations into English
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.
SERBIA FOR CROSS AND FREEDOM.
_Delivered for the first time in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Stroud
Green, London._
I was a citizen of a small country called Serbia, and I am still a
citizen of a great country called The Universe. In my first fatherland
there is now no other light except the brightness of tears. But in my
second fatherland there is always the splendid and silent light of the
sun. My little country is now a great tear-drop, a shining and silent
tear-drop. A gentleman from South Africa wrote to me the other day and
asked about my country--"why it is so shining"? I replied: Just because
it is now transformed into a big tear-drop, therefore it is so shining
that even you from South Africa can see its splendour. I come as an echo
of the weeping splendour of my country which is now plunged into the
worst slavery. I come as a voice beyond the grave to your famous island,
brethren and sisters, not to accuse, not to complain, but to say by what
invisible bonds my country is tied to yours. I will say at once, plainly
and simply--by common beliefs and common hopes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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