Christianity and War: Letters of a Serbian to His English Friend

tlOW quickly have flown these last seven years, my dear Friend, since we bade each other Farev/ell at the University. Soon after our parting I was able to greet you as an English clergyman, and not long afterwards you had the opportunity to greet me as a Serbian clergyman. And our correspondence has continued uninterrupted till to-day. Can you remember how beautifully you wrote to me once: “For the true friendship of two men there exists neither distance, time nor space; neither does national frontier, or difference of Government, or difference of Confession, or of race play any part here.” In this I agreed with you. Such a friendship in truth existed between us. But it is better to have and to feel this friendship than to describe it. The chief thing is that we were friends even at that time when our respective nations were not yet allied, and that we are friends to-day, and that we shall be friends to-morrow whatever may be the constellation of the stars in heaven or of the nations upon the earth. But we must both confess that this War has brought considerable change in our soul-life: it has strengthened our friendship. For it is a rule that War inakes kinsmen more akin and friends more friendly. As birds driven by the storm gather together in companies, nestling each under the other’s wing, so we mortals before this terrible storm of War gather together more closely to one another, understand one another more intimately, and more intimately do we question each other. ‘What do you think about the War?’ I asked you, and you sent me your sermons and addresses edited during this War. From these I have perceived how every nerve of yours has quivered under these catastrophic events.