AN ANTI-PACIFIST STORY.
[To rim EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.", BIR,—I have seen lately in more than one paper, as in your issue of August 19th, a letter reciting the story of the clean- ness of hands of the Society of Friends in regard, to war for two hundred and fifty years. This calls to my mind a story which I heard lately, and which, with your permission, I will repeat—with variations. It is said that two monks were sum- moned to heaven, and that each, having put on his whitest robe, set of rejoicing. They walked along the same road, but on opposite sides, being of different, temperaments and pace. A circumstance delayed one, and so it happened that the other reached home first. He carefully shook the dust of earth from his feet and, stepping over the threshold of heaven, stood before his Lord.
"Welcome, brother ! " said his Lord. "You have come with a clean robe and clean feet, and your place of joy is waiting for you. But where is your fellow pilgrim, whom I expected to arrive with you? "
"My Lord," said the monk, "I was a few yards in front and I heard a shout and, looking back. I saw my brother attacking a man. I called to him to remember that we were the servants of the Prince of Peace, but his face was crimson with passion, and he only replied with unseemly language. There was a beautiful girl with the other man, and I fear—I fear—for, alas! the flesh ,is weak."
His Lord called two Shining Ones and said : "Take My brother to the pleasant places of heaven and to the companions who like him have kept their robes clean in the earthly journey."
Presently the other monk stumbled over the threshold of heaven, with dusty feet and his robe stained with blood and mud, and fell on the golden floor of heaven like a drunken man.
His Lord raised him up and said: "Welcome, brother ! But how comes it that you are in such a state—bleeding, and dirty—and your face red with passion?"
And the man said: "Pardon, Lord, but on the way I met a brutal-looking man dragging along a girl, and the girl screamed to me for help, and I forgot my white robe and that I was a brother of peace, for I could not atund the cries of the girl and the brutal looks of the man—end I fought like a heathen. I barely escaped with my life, but the girl ran away while I held the man in fight."
His Lord said to the Shining Ones: "Bring water and a clean robe of heaven." And then to the man he said "Star by Me, brother; we are comrades. We have both been in the muddy trenches of earth, I fighting with the spiritual weapons of the Leader, and you with the hands of a man. Your passion is the passion of life, and I am the Lord of Life. Stay by Us
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