primeval superstition. Heroism, at
its truest and best, is spiritual. It is "an obedience," says Emerson,
"to a secret impulse of an individual's character." It needs no other
stimulus, hides in no gorgeous trappings, craves no companionship in
suffering, accepts no rewards of merit or applause. Contemptuous of
"external good," it seeks its own counsel and obeys the mandates of its
own spirit. Heroism of this kind flourishes in times of war as in all
times of terror. But so essentially brutal, hideous, cruel is every
circumstance of war, that even the noblest heroism is degraded and
defiled by it. It is only when the arms of the flesh are broken and cast
aside, and the soul stands naked before its Maker, that heroism becomes
transcendant in obscurity, loneliness, persecution; when all things that
the world can give have failed and dropped away it reveals itself, like
a star at midnight, shining to the glory of Almighty God. Emerson has
summed it all up, in his introductory lines to his essay on Heroism--

"Ruby wine is drunk by knaves,
Sugar spends to fatten slaves,
Rose and vine-leaf deck buffoons;
Thunder clouds are Jove's festoons,
Drooping oft in wreaths of dread
Lightning-knotted round his head;
The hero is not fed on sweets
Daily his own soul he eats."

* * * * *

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
by
Elbert Russell

THE QUAKER OF THE FUTURE TIME
by
George A. Walton

THE CHRISTIAN PATRIOT
by
Norman H. Thomas

THE CHRISTIAN DEMAND FOR
SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION
by
Harry F. Ward

RELIGION AS REALITY, LIFE AND POWER
by
Rufus M. Jones

HEROES IN PEACE
by
John Haynes Holmes

William Penn Lectures are published by the Young
Friends' Movement. Copies may be obtained from
the Headquarters, at the Central Bureau Office,
154 N. 15th Street, or from Walter H. Jenkins,
140 N. 15th Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Paper-bound
copies at -- cents; in cloth, -- cents.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEROES IN PEACE***

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