The days of sacrifice and cleansing are not closed. We have
harder things to do than were done in the heroic days of war, because
harder to see clearly, requiring more vision, more calm balance of
judgment, a more candid searching of the very springs of right.
Look around you upon the field of Gettysburg! Picture the array, the
fierce heats and agony of battle, column hurled against column, battery
bellowing to battery! Valor? Yes! Greater no man shall see in war; and
self-sacrifice, and loss to the uttermost; the high recklessness of
exalted devotion which does not count the cost. We are made by these
tragic, epic things to know what it costs to make a nation--the blood
and sacrifice of multitudes of unknown men lifted to a great stature in
the view of all generations by knowing no limit to their manly
willingness to serve. In armies thus marshaled from the ranks of free
men you will see, as it were, a nation embattled, the leaders and the
led, and may know, if you will, how little except in form its action
differs in days of peace from its action in days of war.
May we break camp now and be at ease? Are the forces that fight for the
Nation dispersed, disbanded, gone to their homes forgetful of the common
cause? Are our forces disorganized, without constituted leaders and the
might of men consciously united because we contend, not with armies, but
with principalities and powers and wickedness in high places? Are we
content to lie still? Does our union mean sympathy, our peace
contentment, our vigor right action, our maturity self-comprehension and
a clear confidence in choosing what we shall do? War fitted us for
action, and action never ceases.
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