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Majesty Nicholas well remembers
how, in the late war with Japan, your regiments were blessed as they
marched to the front, preceded by the sacred icons of your religion.
If war is breaking God's laws, was it not foolish to expect blessings to
follow misdeeds, and what good did these blessings and sacred icons
accomplish? Japan was victor in spite of prayers, blessings, and
holy icons. In other words, a so-called heathen nation, free from
graft, recognizing all sanitary laws, defeated a Christian nation, whose
army was followed by prayers and carried into battle its sacred images,
which availed nothing against organization, patriotism and all absence of
sacred images.
Right is a principle that does not always have to be fought for. It
is, it always was and always will be. It was established long before
the first bird sang.
If in one of your schools in Russia the teacher gave the children a
problem in mathematics, would all the prayers of the church, would all the
sacred emblems of Russia help to solve the problem? No! There
is no way to solve the problem but to learn and understand the principle
of mathematics.
Principle is never seen -- it is only the harmonious working out of
principle that is seen. And so must the rulers and potentates of the
earth understand that peace is the result of principle, on which the
Universe is founded, which principle was understood by Christ when he
preached the Sermon on the Mount.
I also ask your Majesty, "Would this be mutiny?"
There can be no doubt but that Your Majesty desires all the people of
Russia to be Christians; to be members of the Greek Church. That is
what the world thinks, at any rate, as all your regiments are accompanied
by religious advisors, religious emblems and banners.
Suppose that one of your regiments had a priest who recognized the
Brotherhood of Man -- who understood the teachings of Christ to mean just
what he said -- and that in an address to the soldiers he voiced in an
inspired way the reality of love and the unreality of hate, and that the
men who heard that address felt the truth of what he said and were ready
to die in the right, rather than kill their fellow men in battle; and on
the day of battle refused to obey the orders of their officers, as to them
it was an unspeakable crime to kill. If they so grasped the
teachings of Christ, as given to them by their spiritual advisor, and
refused to obey the officers' orders, would it have been mutiny, punishable
with death? Was their priest guilty of sedition for preaching the
pure teaching of his church? If so, it may in the future be
dangerous to allow followers of the Master to accompany your armies.
It might cause a revolt that would cost you your crown.
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