The Gavelyte, December 1908

174 THE GAVELYTE, citizen of the world. He realizes that he is but one of the great hrutherhood of men. Be sees the beneficent advantages to be obtained bv peaceful re– lations towards the whole human race. As he S(•es the struggles going on in the world about him there arises iii him a feeling of responsjbility and a desire for larger action. He :,:;eeks to find a solut;on of the problem in the study of the history of man. He observes the tendencies of the various races. And inspired by the growth of nations he seeks earnestly to promote the interests of all mankind. Opposition seems but to make him stronger. He pressE>s steadily onward sustained by an unfaltering trust in Him, who is ever the friend of the just. The citizen of the world must first have the interests of his own com– munity at heart. Next, those of his state and then of the nation. But g-reater than the state or nation and overshadowing both of them, should be hi, love for the world and bis devotion to its interests. The citizen of the world has the broadt>,;t and deepest patriotism. To become a citizen of the world, a man must be above mere party or faction. He must have in mind the interests of all. All thru the annals of history we see arising such men. Socrates, the Grecian philosophPr, once said, "I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world." Charlemagne, by bis victory, saved Europe for the Christians, and by his encouragement, learning was revived and man ushered from the Dark Ages. Late in the seventeenth century, while other European nations ha<i climbed high on the ladder of civilization, Russia harl scarcely begun the ascent. Other rulers had tried to raise the country from its degradation, but it remainPd for Peter the Great to really ac– compli h it. By th~ introduction of foreign ideas into the manners and cnstoms of his own people, he revolutionized the condition of the nation. When he laid the foundation of t. Petersburg and of the empire no one dreamed of his marvPlous UCL'es~. Thru his efforts, Russia, in two centuries, has risen from ob curity to a rank among the greatest nations of the earth. In our own history no figure tands ont more prominently in the interest of humanity than does Abraham Lincoln. He was the architect of · his own fortunes, and rose by every opportunity . By his mastery of every emergency, and by his fulfilment ef every duty he proved himself, not only ,