THE STORM CLOUD'S SILVER LINING.

White Ribbon, Volume 23, Issue 273, 18 March 1918, Page 3

THE STORM CLOUD'S SILVER LINING.

The following extract is from an address by Mary Harris Armour, of Georgia, the American National Convention of the W.C.’LU.:—“Registration day was the saddest day l ever experienced. 1 awoke in the morning realising that thousands of mothers’ boys, and among them my own boy, were to be called to the colours to defend their country. My heart was heavy within me. Suddenly 1 remembered the admonition of the Scriptures, ‘ln everything give thanks,’ and 1 tried ,to recall something I could be thankful for in these troublous days. I thank God that this is not a civil war; that we stand together as an undivided people in this great calamity. “I thank God that I believe when this war is over, as a result of it all barriers of class and creed, of sect and section, will be broken down as never before, and knit together by sacrifice, and fused by fire, we will present .to the world the spectacle of a nation absolutely indissoluble. “I thank God that we have unsheathed a stainless sword. 1 believe the blood shed by our boys in France is holy; I believe we are making war on war, and that the result of this war will be a great world federation that will establish world peace. “I thank find that my boy is just as safe in France as in the United States of America, for 1 remember ,*hat my Lord hath said, ‘All things work together for good to them tha* love Him.’ The only safe plar;, all, for any man or woman is in the discharge of duty, for to such men and women alone is given the promise of the protec'ion of the Almighty. I did not raise my son to be a soldier, but neither d ; d I raise him to be a coward or a slacker, and if he must pay the supreme price on the battlefront, the path to heaven is no farther from France than from America. “And, finally, I thank God because I believe this war will result in the destruction of a traffic more infamous than war itself, the liquor traffic.” In closing, Mrs Armour declared: “I believe God waits to bring us to our knees, and when we ran fight under a stainless flag—the fl..g qf a nation emancipated from the liquor traffic we shall be victorious.”