"For the healing of the nations." Revelation 22:2
Additional readings: Deuteronomy 7:1-11, Psalms 145, Psalm 146
We rightly think of our country as our mother country or our fatherland, and so we call our love of country "patriotism," from the Latin "pater" meaning father.
Our country performs many uses for us: it protects us, it educates us; and it provides many things for our health and usefulness. We are apt to take these things for granted, and to give only half-hearted obedience to our country's laws, and to become indifferent to her welfare—and this even though we in America are blessed beyond the peoples of many other nations.
We should realize that we always receive much more than we can give. We ourselves have done little to make our country what it is. The land that has been cleared and brought under cultivation, the towns and schools and churches which have been built are very largely the labor of our fathers who have gone before us, into whose heritage we have come.
Yet another aspect should be brought to our attention. The Lord’s providence has been with us. It is He who formed this land through long ages before man appeared on the earth. And it is He who is the source of all the enlightenment and progress of our people. Our love for our country cannot rightly be separated from our love of the Lord.
There is a striking statement in the writings of our Church "Man can think nothing nor will anything from himself, but everything inflows, good and truth from the Lord through heaven, thus through the angels with man, and evil and falsity from hell, thus through the evil spirits with him" (Divine Providence 308). The Lord’s kind providence is over all things. In wars the balance is always in His hand. Generals do not win victories from their own wisdom, but they are gifted with perception from the Lord. Armies with overwhelming power are sometimes defeated. Napoleon, one of the greatest of generals, was led to make a slight mistake, and so was defeated. General Foch was inspired to perceive where the weak point of the German army was, and he held a greatly superior force in check. And in the last war Germany was led to invade Russia and so exhaust itself. It has always been so, and so it always will be.
It is helpful to remember this at the present time. New powers of destruction have been invented and many live in fear that men will destroy the earth and themselves. But this invention came by permission of the Lord. Men could not have found it out of themselves alone. The Lord's power is over it; the control is not out of His hands. There is enough goodness and wisdom, there are enough men of good will among these peoples of the world no that man can be entrusted with atomic power. Otherwise the Lord would have withheld the knowledge. The Lord Himself is present in the world through those who seek to know Him and to learn and do His will.
The marvelous inventions of recent years have brought the nations into closer contact with each other. Our own people, and today especially our young men are scattered over the whole earth. And by the press and radio the news of the world is brought to everyone everywhere. We see, as we never did before, the problems of the world, the sufferings of other peoples and their need of help. And we too are suffering, and suffering particularly because of war and the fear of future war.
Under the Divine providence the nations are being brought together and the arguments for putting an end to war were never so strong and so convincing as they are today. It is a good sign that we are beginning to look beyond our own borders and to take worldviews. A selfish nationalism is not true patriotism. We are beginning, slowly and somewhat reluctantly, to see that our national interests should not be in conflict with the interests of other nations and people. We have doubtless made many mistakes and shall make many more, but we are learning to see ourselves as others see us, and learning slowly to cooperate in larger ways than before have been dreamed of.
This day was set aside at first to honor those who died for their country in the Civil War. It has become a national holiday to honor those who at any time have served in the armed forces of our nation. And it is coming more and more to have within it the hope for a universal peace, when men will study war no more.
The race to accumulate invincible armaments is a mad race. Its goal is unattainable, and it can end only in ruin. There are very strong economic reasons for not entering into such a race, but the economic factor is not the primary one and of itself can never succeed in leading the nations to abandon war. Peace cannot be attained by any economic or civil adjustment. It depends upon the development of an unselfish spirit, the spirit of brotherhood among nations and peoples. This means that we should regard the welfare of the world as above the advantage of anyone.
There is, I believe, a general and growing recognition of the fact, and it is to the Church that we must look for the origin and development of this spirit of brotherhood which alone can make peace possible. We read, "The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish" (Isaiah 60:12). It is by Christian love and by Christian truth that the way of peace can be found.
"For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore" (Isaiah 2:3-4).
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Redeemer and Savior of mankind. There is no other. It is His spirit going forth into the world which illumines, strengthens, protects, and blesses mankind. The trouble is that people only half-believe in the Scriptures, and instead of looking to the Lord, they look to external devices and expedients to attain their purposes. Our commerce, our inventiveness, our efficiency, our education, our culture all ought to lead us to happier and more beautiful lives. Like trees they should yield their fruits. But they do not yield their fruits. For some reason the leaves wither and the fruits are bitter: rivalries, commercial warfare, strikes, poverty, and war. Even our own national security is threatened.
The Church itself has a responsibility for the success of the efforts toward world peace. It cannot settle economic problems which arise and which require much study and wisdom to solve. But it can stand for and help to develop that spirit in which alone a settlement of difficulties is possible and from which comes wisdom in our natural affairs.
There are laws which are the prime requisite of true prosperity, of true manhood and womanhood, of all happiness and peace. These laws are in the Lord's Word which He has put in our hands and which He has caused to be spread throughout the world. We love our country when we defend it against external enemies, but that is only a part of true patriotism. Love of our country means primarily seeking to have the Lord's laws established in the minds and hearts of its people.
The fundamental laws of all good life are summed up in the two great commandments. Men have never been able to dispute successfully the truth of these laws. Men never have really challenged the wisdom of them. They have only failed to live according to them. All lasting good and peace does depend upon a genuine love to the Lord and to the neighbor.
We should ourselves believe this. We should teach our children to love their country and inspire in them the desire to serve it and to make it an increasingly better country in which to live. So we should teach them that without love to the Lord and the neighbor there is no safeguard to their own security and happiness nor any safeguard to the security of our nation, or to life in this world, or to happiness and peace in the world to come.
Without knowledge of the Lord and obedience to His Word there is no security. Love to the Lord is the tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. Jesus said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy: soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law all the prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40).
