Dominion Day a reminder to work together to fight evil
This column first appeared in the Victoria Daily Times on June 30, 1939.
Iwonder what we will do this year on Dominion Day. We have had our Empire program, our mass formations and parades. We have decorated the streets, we have made our speeches.
The air still throbs with comment on the royal visit. “How often did you see them?” is our form of salutation still.
Dominion Day this year seems to have about the same chance for a celebration as a birthday that falls on Dec. 26.
Even so, let us put up all the flags, get together and talk it over. I believe we have all advanced in our thinking since last year. And the Royal Visit [May 29] has stirred something in our hearts. We have now a new conception of the monarchical system. The King and Queen have symbolized to us the freedom that lives beneath the flag. Our Empire is not something to boast of, it is something to thank God for humbly, all kneeling, and that is to be felt rather than said.
It would be a great advance in our thinking if we would leave off blaming other people. There were mistakes made during the royal visit. But no one was deliberately guilty. Mistakes were sure to be made in so great an undertaking. Every hostess knows it is impossible to have even a tea without some heart-burnings afterward. These days are too serious for us to spend our energy criticizing each other, pleasant though it be to contemplate other people’s shortcomings.
I heard one of the radio commentators describing the royal visit in Washington, and in speaking of Lincoln’s monument as the King and Queen drove by, he said all the negroes in the parade bared their heads in grateful reverence, and his comment was: “Maybe some day some man will arise who will emancipate the white man, too.”
It was an arresting sentence, full of humanity’s deep longing. We are always looking for a sign, some great manifestations, something written on the sky in letters of fire. The Jews were so intent upon the coming of the Messiah that when He did come they did not recognize Him. They had filled in all the details of His coming with their own imagination, making a conquering Messiah, clothed in majesty and glory, who would destroy their enemies. In Jesus of Nazareth they saw only a poor man’s son, to whom the common people flocked for comfort and healing.
In days gone by, God gave great messages to people whom He could trust, John Wesley, Lord Shaftsbury, William Booth and many more. These men towered above the level of humanity, like mountain peaks. Since their time, humanity’s jewel has been raised. Knowledge is now no more a fountain sealed. Every one has access to it. It is not leaders we need now so much as followers: not captains but privates. We all know enough.
On this Dominion Day, when our hearts are still glowing with the pleasure of the royal visit, we must find ways to express our heightened patriotism.
There has never been a time when united public opinion was needed more. We thought we had won our liberty, “the right to live by no man’s leave.” We thought that was settled and signed for. Now we find that there is a flow in the title, and we may have to fight for it again.
We have an enemy to be overcome, as clear, definite and merciless as the prairie fire that swept out of Manitoba’s Tiger Hills one hot, windy Sunday afternoon in the early ’90s. Every person in the district, young and old, sprang into action, for the danger was a real and visible one. Feuds and family quarrels were forgotten. I cannot remember that there was any particular leader. We were all No. 1 firefighters.
Now the enemy that threatens civilization today is a belief in force and fear. It springs from black selfishness, supported by godlessness. The world has gone wrong in its thinking, and when the mind is darkened and distorted, disaster is bound to follow. There is only one remedy.
Just as the settlers mobilized to fight the fire, so there is now in the world, among the people who see the danger, a definite movement to restore sanity, and apply the principles of Christianity, not only in the home and in the state, but in international affairs as well. It is born of desperation, for everything else has failed.
Canada may be destined to have a great part in developing this new mentality. No nation in the world has a greater opportunity. No one need wait to be asked to sign on in this army, nor do we need to register, or to have uniforms made for us, or someone to show us how to form fours. We begin where we stand and begin with ourselves.
Our Liberator came over 1,900 years ago, and gave us clear direction. He said, in effect: “Selfishness kills, generosity invigorates. Don’t waste your time disputing over trifles. Do a bit more than you have to. Go the second mile. My spirit will guide you.”
During the recent visit of the King and Queen, human hearts were strangely stirred and softened. Old sores were healed. Old quarrels washed out. King George put a wreath on George Washington’s tomb. American bands played Rule Britannia.
With miracles like these in our minds, it should be easy for all of us on this Dominion Day to dedicate our lives afresh to a new level of thinking, and a higher standard of giving. We are citizens of no mean country!