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though now past manhood's prime, he draws his sword in defence of family, of home, and of native state. Some have said that he followed a lesser loyalty at the expense of the greater. Not so, not so, he followed the pure white banner of duty. We pause not to consider the political arguments of the situation, nor evident compromise of the fathers as to whether or not supreme loyalty was due to state or to union of states. There is no question today that the ultimate allegiance is to the nation. But for those of fifty years ago the question of greater loyalty was eternally decided by a man's being true to his conscientious conviction of duty.

The mighty decision which men of a half century ago had to make is not the one that our generation has to face, but every day we have to settle questions of lesser and greater loyalty which shall tell just as emphatically on the destiny of our characters and of the society of which we are a part. Self-preservation is the first law of nature, but which is more precious, life or honour? If one is drowning, he is unworthy the name of man who does not rush to his assistance. To which does one owe the greater loyalty, to comfort or to development, to mere camaraderie at school and college, or to the development of educative habits? To which does one owe the greater loyalty, to self-indulgence or to strong, self-reliant manhood? Stevenson wrote when reflecting on Robert Burns dead at thirty-seven: "He died of being Robert Burns,

he grasped at temporary pleasures, and sure happiness and solid worth passed him by." To which does a man owe the greater loyalty, to truth or to tradition? to success or to principle? to money or to morals? "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Does a man owe a greater loyalty to himself, or to his work, or to his family? Does he owe a greater loyalty to his family, to his country, or to his religion?

Man was made for the full development of splendid physical life, to enjoy broad acres and mighty winds of heaven, but he was made with a capacity greater than this. He was made to eat bread, but Religion was given to cure the body as well as the soul, but not to cure the body alone.

not bread alone.

In the settlement of the question of greater and lesser loyalties Dante gives a suggestive idea in the succeeding circles of increased guilt which belonged to those who inhabited that frozen realm of traitors. We may be somewhat surprised to find disloyalty to one's own kin, like the fratricide of Cain, classed as a less heinous treachery than that of disloyalty to country. Is not the bond of flesh and blood closer and more sacred than that of even native land? Yet the universal instinct proves that Dante is right. Whenever a country is in danger it calls its citizens to sacrifice, if need be, every tie of home and kindred for her defence, saying in effect: “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not

worthy of me; he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." In discussing this doctrine of Dante, Mr. J. S. Carroll says: "Instinctively we feel that to sacrifice family for country is noble and to sacrifice country for family is base treachery to a higher claim. But if country is thus greater than kindred, is it not still greater than friendship? Yet traitors to friends are set in the third ring, as if worthy of a darker doom. The reason seems to lie in the principle laid down that both kin and country are bonds created for us by nature independently of our choice; whereas just this is the mark of friendship, that it is a bond of our own creation. By the very act of choosing a friend we create a special faith, and he regards treason to a faith which we ourselves have called into existence as more heinous than treachery to a mere involuntary bond of nature."

To use Dante's fourfold division, Christ is our brother, our fatherland, our friend and benefactor. To be disloyal to Him is to be worthy only of the icy realm of Cocytus, where is condemned every traitor.

3. It is imperative to discriminate between lesser and greater loyalties.

The good is evermore the enemy of the best. Christianity and Christ have no hesitation in claiming absolute mastery and right of way

Loyalty to Christ means loyalty to His truth, to His ideas, to His love, to His church, to His work.

Grant that Christ is the supreme loyalty, in a world of many demands shall the word, "He that loveth father and mother more than Me is not worthy of Me," be put to unexceptional and scrupulous practice? If this word be construed as demanding universal ascetism and denial of any other obligation whatsoever than that of constant and sacrificial attendance on the part of every one to a life of extreme devotion that knows no other consideration, we answer, "No." If every person were a Francis of Assisi, there would be none to furnish the support wherewith the ministry of service actually could be given.

What needs to be borne in mind is that the lesser loyalties are all provided for in the program of Jesus and take their place naturally in the supreme loyalty to Him. Loyalty to father and mother was part of the program of Jesus. He especially rebuked those who followed a legalistic law that put temple dues above filial service. Yet He does not mean for that loyalty to forestall an acceptance of His program, His love and His devotion. His demands of loyalty are imperious and can know no admixture.

What the world needs more than liberty and better material conditions is overwhelming sense of loyalty to a great cause.

*

Royce calls attention to the need of loyalty on the part of the rising generation. He says, "Our young people grow up with a great deal of their

* Page 220.

attention fixed upon personal success, and also with a great deal of training in sympathetic sentiments, but they get far too little knowledge, either practical or theoretical, of what loyalty means."

Again, in his " Philosophy of Loyalty," Professor Royce states the imperative of loyalty with strength and vigour. Says he, *“As our philosophy of loyalty states the case, the moral law is (1) be loyal; (2) to that end have a special cause or a system of causes which shall constitute your personal object of loyalty, your business in life; (3) choose this cause, in the first place for yourself, but decisively, and so far as the general principle of loyalty permits, remain faithful to this chosen cause until the work that you can do for it is done; and the general principle of loyalty to which all special choices of one's cause are subject, is the principle: Be loyal to loyalty, that is, do what you can to produce a maximum of the devoted service of causes, a maximum of fidelity, and of selves that choose and serve fitting objects of loyalty."

What he states in the terms of philosophy we would uphold in the Christian way of life. Christianity in its essence is loyalty, loyalty not to self, but to service; loyalty not to success, but to striving; loyalty not to time, but to eternity. Here was the measure of that loyalty: "Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Loyalty to * Royce, "The Philosophy of Loyalty," page 201.

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