Árdís - 01.01.1947, Blaðsíða 10

retum. Their khaki was crimsoned by their life-blood. Little white
crosses, row on row, blossomed “Where poppies blow, in Flanders
fields.” Official messages from our nation’s capital brought heart-break-
ing tidings to many a Canadian home. Henceforth, moumful hearts
would be warmed with the blessed memory of heroic young men, who
had shown the greatest love of which men are capable; for “Greater love
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
(John 15:13).
Armistice and victory finally brought an end to that first World
War. The aggressor, who unresisted would have dominated and enslaved
the world, was vanquished at last and laid low. But, what an awful price
was exacted in blood and treasure to attain the consummation of the
hope of peace-loving men and women.
Twice in the span of a single generation have our sister nations, the
United Sates of America and the Dominion of Canada, been obliged to
go to war for the defence of those ideals and values which Christian
people cherish above life itself. The very flower of our young manhood
has been sacrificed on the altar of humanity in two wars, fought for the
preservation and extension of the Four Freedoms which must become
the unchallenged possession of every man who bears in his heart and
life the image of God.
It can hardly be branded as sacrilege, if we maintain that our valiant
young soldiers who laid down their lives in the cause of human freedom
have thereby followed in the path of our Lord and Savior. For the Sal-
vation of mankind, Jesus Christ sacrificed His life upon the cross. For
the salvation of mankind, our young men in uniform sacrificed their
lives upon fíelds of battle. Yet, we must observe a distinction and a
difference; for our Lord’s sacrifice, accepted by the Heavenly Father
and guaranteed by the divine power of His resurrection, constituted an
all-sufficient atonement for the sins of all mankind. As such, it can never
be abrogated nor equalled. Nothing can be added to nor taken away
from the perfect redemption He has earned for us, which becomes ours
through faith and the indwelling grace of the Holy Spirit of God. But,
even as the moon reflects in a measure the borrowed light of the sun,
so does the splendid self-immolation of our martyred youth purchase
for all mankind a new period of grace wherein to build upon the ruins of
the old a new and better world, wherein shall dwell righteousness.
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