550 The Book of Woodcraft 



told, stifling the voice within that tells him he is espousing 

 the cause of Jezebel, Herod and Moloch, and pledging his 

 manhood to the service of hell. 



When General Crook set off in deep winter to hound the 

 Dakota patriots to their death, and to slaughter their 

 women and babies, he admitted, as we have seen, that 

 it was a hard campaign to go on. "But," he added, 

 "the hardest thing is to go and fight those whom we 

 know are right." 



Then why did he go? 



If Crook had been ordered by the War Department to 

 nail the Saviour to the Cross, I suppose he would have done 

 it, and wept as he obeyed; or, under orders of Herod, he 

 would have slaughtered the babes of Bethlehem as expedi- 

 tiously as his broken heart would have allowed. The 

 British general who led his troops against China, probably 

 all against his better judgment, and there, by force and 

 bloodshed, established the diabolical opium traffic, obeyed 

 his government, indeed, and gained some money for his 

 country's merchants. But he made an awful day of 

 reckoning for himself and for his race. 



When the French army decided that it was wise to 

 sacrifice innocent Dreyfus for the cause of patriotism, they 

 set the army above justice and their country in a higher 

 place than God. And thus struck France a blow from 

 which she never yet has recovered — we cannot tell — 

 maybe a death-blow. 



Most men agree with the Indian that courage is one of 

 the greatest, if not the greatest, of virtues. How many of 

 them dare live up to this belief? To most men, in some 

 measure, there comes a time when they must decide between 

 their duty to country and their duty to God. How many 

 dare take the one course that they know to be right? Are 

 there no times when man's allegiance to high principle must 



