The New York Times Current History: the European War, February, 1915 Part 12

(_Photo by Paul Thompson._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Belgian Outpost in Action on the Battle Line Near the Franco-Belgian Frontier.

(_Photo_ _International News Service._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Gen. Belin, Who Is Gen. Joffre's Right-Hand Man and an Important Factor in the Control of the French Forces.

(_Photo_ _International News Service._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Belgian Sharpshooters Attacking from an Armored Train in the Vicinity of Ypres.

(_Photo_ _International News Service._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: German Crown Prince and the King of Saxony Witnessing a Parade of the Ninety-eighth Regiment of Infantry Before the Crown Prince's Headquarters.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Kaiser (at the extreme left) Witnessing the Parade of a Saxon Landsturm Regiment.

(_Photo_ _International News Service._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: King George and King Albert Reviewing the Belgian Troops in Flanders. Immediately Behind the Sovereigns Are the Prince of Wales and His Highness Pertab Singh.

(_Photo_ _International News Service._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Algerian Troops Bringing in German Prisoners From the Flanders Battle in the Ca.n.a.l Region of Belgium.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: King George V., Queen Mary, and Lord Kitchener Cheered by Canadian Highlanders at Salisbury, England.

(_Photo_ _American Press a.s.sn._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: German Motor Convoy Destroyed in the Forest Near Villers-Cotteret, France.

(_Photo_ _International News Service._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Red Cross Nurse at a Hospital in Northern France Hanging Christmas Evergreens Above a Wounded Soldier's Cot.

(_Photo_ _American Press a.s.sn._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Gen. von Heeringen, "the Victor of Saarburg," on the Right, Talking with Gen. von Emmich, Who Commanded Before Liege.

(_Photo by R. Sennecke._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bringing a Suspected Spy Through the French Lines to Headquarters After Enveloping His Head to Prevent His Seeing Anything of Military Value.

(_Photo_ _American Press a.s.sn._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Constantinople Crowds Gathered at the Mosque of Faith While Sheikh Ul-Islam Proclaims the Declaration of War Against the Allies.

(_Photo_ _International News Service._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: j.a.panese Bluejackets Coming Ash.o.r.e Near Tsing-Tau.

(_Photo from Paul Thompson._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Defenders of Tsing-Tau Moving to the Outer Defenses During the Siege.

(_Photo_ _International News Service._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: German Gun in the Bismarck Fortress, Tsing-Tau, Crumpled by j.a.panese and British Sh.e.l.ls

(_Photos by Paul Thompson._)]

Patriotism and Endurance

By Cardinal D.J. Mercier, Archbishop of Malines.

[_Copyright by Burns & Oates, Ltd., 28 Orchard Street, London. All rights reserved._]

Here is the celebrated Christmas pastoral letter of Cardinal Mercier, Archbishop of Malines. It is the first authentic translated copy of the now famous doc.u.ment to be received in America. The letter has caused a worldwide sensation because of its bold appeal to the Belgian people. Its publication resulted in the detention of the Cardinal by the Germans in his palace and a consequent protest by the Pope and throughout the whole Roman Catholic world.

The first reports of the arrest of the Cardinal were denied by the German authorities. Subsequently an official report made to the Pope stated that 15,000 copies of the pastoral letter were seized in Malines and destroyed, the printer being fined; that the Cardinal was detained in his palace during all Jan.

4; that he was prevented by German officers on Jan. 3 from presiding at a religious ceremony; that they subjected him to interrogations and demanded of him a retraction, which he refused to make. The English reprint of the Cardinal's letter is copyrighted by Burns & Oates, Ltd., 28 Orchard Street, London. THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY reproduces it by permission.

My Very Dear Brethren: I cannot tell you how instant and how present thought of you has been to me throughout the months of suffering and of mourning through which we have pa.s.sed. I had to leave you abruptly on the 20th of August in order to fulfill my last duty toward the beloved and venerated Pope whom we have lost, and in order to discharge an obligation of the conscience from which I could not dispense myself, in the election of the successor of Pius X., the Pontiff who now directs the Church under the t.i.tle, full of promise and of hope, of Benedict XV.

It was in Rome itself that I received the tidings--stroke after stroke--of the partial destruction of the Cathedral Church of Louvain, next of the burning of the library and of the scientific installations of our great university and of the devastation of the city, and next of the wholesale shooting of citizens, and tortures inflicted upon women and children and upon unarmed and undefended men.

And, while I was still under the shock of these calamities, the telegraph brought us news of the bombardment of our beautiful metropolitan church, of the Church of Notre Dame au dela la Dyle, of the episcopal palace, and of a great part of our dear City of Malines.

Afar from my diocese, without means of communication with you, I was compelled to lock my grief within my own afflicted heart and to carry it, with the thought of you, which never left me, to the foot of the Crucifix.

I craved courage and light, and sought them in such thoughts as these: A disaster has visited the world, and our beloved little Belgium, a nation so faithful in the great ma.s.s of her population to G.o.d, so upright in her patriotism, so n.o.ble in her King and Government, is the first sufferer. She bleeds; her sons are stricken down within her fortresses and upon her fields, in defense of her rights and of her territory.

Soon there will not be one Belgian family not in mourning. Why all this sorrow, my G.o.d? Lord, Lord, hast Thou forsaken us? Then I looked upon the Crucifix. I looked upon Jesus, most gentle and humble Lamb of G.o.d, crushed, clothed in His blood as in a garment, and I thought I heard from His own mouth the words which the psalmist uttered in His name: "O G.o.d, my G.o.d, look upon me; why hast Thou forsaken me? O my G.o.d, I shall cry, and Thou wilt not hear."

And forthwith the murmur died upon my lips, and I remembered what our Divine Saviour said in His gospel: "The disciple is not above the master, nor the servant above his lord." The Christian is the servant of a G.o.d who became man in order to suffer and to die.

To rebel against pain, to revolt against Providence because it permits grief and bereavement, is to forget whence we came, the school in which we have been taught, the example that each of us carries graven in the name of a Christian, which each of us honors at his hearth, contemplates at the altar of his prayers, and of which he desires that his tomb, the place of his last sleep, shall bear the sign.

My dearest brethren, I shall return by and by to the providential law of suffering, but you will agree that since it has pleased a G.o.d-made man who was holy, innocent, without stain, to suffer and to die for us who are sinners, who are guilty, who are perhaps criminals, it ill becomes us to complain whatever we may be called upon to endure. The truth is that no disaster on earth, striking creatures only, is comparable with that which our sins provoked and whereof G.o.d Himself chose to be the blameless victim.

Having recalled to mind this fundamental truth, I find it easier to summon you to face what has befallen us and to speak to you simply and directly of what is your duty and of what may be your hope. That duty I shall express in two words--patriotism and endurance.

My dearest brethren, I desire to utter in your name and my own the grat.i.tude of those whose age, vocation, and social conditions cause them to benefit by the heroism of others without bearing in it any active part.