Serbia in Light and Darkness (1916.) - Nicholai Velimirovic

8/14/2019 Serbia in Light and Darkness (1916.) - Nicholai Velimirovic

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SERBIAIN LIGHT AND DARKNESS


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H.M. KINrl l'E1'lm.

CROWN PI{ INCE ALEXANllEK I ' I m ~ r I E R N. l'AHHITCH.


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SERBIAIN LIGHT AND DARKNESS

BY

REV. FATHER NICHOLAI VELIMIROVIC

WITH PREFACE BYTHE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

WITH 25 ILLUSTRATIONS

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDONFOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK

BOMBAY, CALCUTTA,ANDMADRAS1916


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AUTHOR'S NOTE.THE aim of this volume is to give to the English-speaking people some glimpses into the paststruggles, sufferings and hopes of the Serbiannation. I have tried to describe the Serbian lifein light, in its peace, its peaceful work, its songsand prayers; in darkness, in its slavery, its sins,its resistance to evil and battle for freedom.

I t is only the peoples which suffer themselvesthat can understand and sympathise deeply withthe Serbian soul. I dedicate, therefore, the follow-ing pages to all those who suffer much in thesetimes, and whose understandings are enlarged andhuman sympathies deepened by sufferings.I will take this opportunity of expressing mywarm and respectful thanks to His Grace theArchbishop of Canterbury for his kind assistanceand generous commendation of my work inEngland.My gratitude is due to the Rev. G. K. A. Bell

and Dr. E. Marion Cox for their help in therevision of these pages.NICHOLAI VELIMIROVIC.

LONDON, April, 1916.


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CONTENTS.PAO);

PREFACE BY THE AROHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY xi

PART 1.LECTURES ON SERBIA

ENGLAND AND SERBIA

SERBIA FOR CROSS AND FREEDOM

SERBIA AT PEACE

SERBIA IN ARMS

PART I1.

324

4874

FRAGMENTS OF SERBIAN NATIONAL WISDOM 105

PART Ill.FRAGMENTS OF SERBIAN POPULAR POETRY 131


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ILLUSTRATIONS.PAGE

H.M . KING PETER - }CROWN PRINCE ALEXANDERPREMIER N . PASHITCH

Frontispiece

KINO MILUTINSOLDIER ON GUARD-THE GOAT-HERDDUlIINO TuRKISH RULE IN SERBIA -THE MONASTERY OF CETINJE -THE SECOND SERBIAN REVOLUTION OF 1815THE MONASTERY OF KALENICSERBIAN SOLDIERS WITH AN ENGLISH NURSE-SERBIAN OFFICERS UNDER ADRIANOPLE IN 1912THE CATTLE MARKETA TYPICAL MONTENEGRIN LADY-H .M . QUEEN MILENAPEASANT TYPESTHE SUPERIOR OF A MONASTERYKINO PETER AND THE TURKISH GENERALWOMEN DOlNO THE WORK OF MEN

F.am a photog'l"aph by Und,,",ood and UndmDOou

6} 1018263238

} 65258

} 647482


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x ILLUSTRATIONSSERBIAN VVOMEN CARRYING VVOUNDED

F,'om a photograph by kind p.,'mi88ion of Mr, Orawftll'd Pric.VVAITING FOR A PLACE IN THE HOSPITAL

From a photograph by Topical Pr . . Agency"My MOTHER"SPLIET-SPALATOA SERBIAN REFUGEESPINNING BY MOONLIGHTDUBROVNIK-RAGUSA

P.J.OE88

96

106114124132142


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PREFACEBY THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

THE presence of Father Nicbolai Velimirovic inEngland during the last few months has broughtto the many circles with which he has been intouch a new message and appeal enforced bya personality evoking an appreciation whichglows more warmly the better he is known.But this little book is more than the revelationof a personality. I t will be to many people theintroduction to a new range of interest and ofthought. He would be a bold man who wouldendeavour at present to limit or even to definewhat may be the place which the Serbia ofcoming years may hold in Eastern Europe as alink between peoples who have been widelysundered and between forces both religious andsecular which for their right understanding haveneeded an interpreter. Of recent days the sculp-ture and the literature of Serbia have been


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XlI PREFAOEbrought to our doors, and England's admirationfor both has drawn the two countries moreclosely together in a common struggle for theideals to which that art and literature havesought to give expression. I t is not, I think,untrue to say that to the average English homethis unveiling of Serbia has been an altogethernew experience. Father Nicholai's book will helpto give to the revelation a lasting place in theirminds, their hopes and their prayers.

RANDALL CANTUAR.LAMBETH, Easter, 1916.


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PART ILECTURES ON SERBIA


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ENGLAND AND SERBIA.Delivered for the first time in the Chapte,' House of Canterbury

Cathedral. Chairman: the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.

THE 810N OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.YOUR GRACE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

To come to Canterbury, to visit this Sionof the Church of England, that has been mydream since my fourteenth year, when I for thefirst time was told of what a spiritual work andof what an immortal glory this place has beenthe home. I dreamed a beautiful dream of hopeto come here silently, to let every man, everyhouse and every brick of the houses silently teachme, and, after having learned many fair anduseful things, to return silently and thankfullyhome. Unfortunately I cannot now be a silentand contemplative pupil in this place, as Idesired to be, but I must speak, forced by thetime in which we are living and suffering. Iwill speak in order not to teach you, but tothank you. And I have to thank you much inthe name of the Serbian nation and in my ownname.


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ENGLAND AND SERBIA 5are known in Serbia as well as in England, andwhich would be preserved in their integrity inSerbia even if this island should sink under thewaters.I have to thank you for many sacrifices thatthe people of this country have made for Serbiaduring the present world-struggle. Many of theEnglish nurses and doctors died in Serbia intrying courageously to save Serbian lives inthe time of typhus-devastation. They lost theirown lives saving ours, and I hope in losing theirlives for their suffering neighbours they havefound better ones. Their work will never beforgotten and their tombs will be respected asrelics among us Serbs. Besides, Great Britainalso sent military help for Serbia. I t was dictated to Great Britain by the highest strategicreasons to send troops to Serbia, to the Danube,in order to stop the Germans there, to hindertheir junction with the Bulgars, to annihilate alltheir plans and dreams regarding the East, todefend Serbia not only as Serbia, but as the gateof Egypt and India, and so to protect in theproper place and in the most efficacious mannerher oriental Dominions. But seemingly Englandsent her troops to Serbia more to protect herhonour than her Dominions, more to help Serbiathan to defend Egypt and India. The numberof these troops and the time when they arrived


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6 ENGLAND AND SERBIAin Serbia indicate that. Hundreds of miles theSerbs had been driven back by the enemy beforethe British forces reached the Serbo-Greekfrontier. But still they reached the Serbianland, they fought on Serbian soil and shed theirnoble blood defending that soil. Serbia willrather forget herself than the English, livessacrificed for her in such ,,3, catastrophic momentof her history.England is

THE GREATEST EMPIRE OF THE WORLD,not only at the present time, but since the beginning of human history. N either the artificialcombination of Alexander of Macedonia nor theancient Roman Empire, neither Spain of Charlesv. nor Napoleon's ephemeral dominion werenearly so great as the British Empire of to-day.Never has a nation possessed so much sea andso much land as the British. This wonderfulEmpire includes people of every race, countriesof every climate, human societies of every degreeof civilisation, almost all kinds of minerals, plantsand animals, lakes and rivers, mountains andforests. The most ancient civilisations of Egypt,India and the Mediterranean Islands are broughttogether in conjunction under the same rule asthe new worlds, like South Africa, Canada andAustralasia. The communication between thezones of the everlasting snow and those of the


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ENGLAND AND SERBIA 7everlasting hot sun is established in perfection.The countries and peoples which were for thousands of years in contact with each other onlythrough dreams are now in real contact throughbusiness, trade, science, art, and through commonsufferings and hopes.Still it might be asked: Has such a greatbody indeed an aim? Short-sighted people,who are ready at once with a reply on anyquestion, will say: The only aim of this greatEmpire is the exploitation of every country andevery body by the English with the pretext ofcivilisation. So may think some English too.What can we say about

THE AIM OF THE GREATEST EMPIRE?The truth is that the real aim of this Empire islarger than the selfishness of any person or ofany nation. The real aim is :First, to exchange the material products ofthe countries, and so to create a greater comfort

for the people that live in them. In the wildestislands in the Pacific you can find-I will mentiononly little things-the same fine sofas, fireplaces,draperies, modern kitchens, piano and library,electric light and cablegrams, as in London.And in foggy and smoky London you can haveall the Mrican fruits, Australian wine and wool,Oanadian metals and wood, Indian beasts andMrican ivory.


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8 ENGLAND AND SERBIASecond, to exchange the spiritual good ofraces and nations. The wisdom of the world is

not concentrated in the brains of any singlenation. Every nation has some original experiences of its own about this life. The Eskimoshave certainly something new to say to thepeople from the plains of the Ganges and theNile. And these people, these descendants ofBuddha and Rameses, as well as the descendantsof Moses and Hamurrabai, have things to saythat never were thought possible in the countriesof perpetual snow and ice in Northern Canada.Such is of the greatest profit for science, religion,ethics, sociology, art. Darwin and Spencer,with their immense scientific experiences, werepossible only in such a world-Empire as theEnglish. The words of Tagore, the Indianthinker, can be heard to-day without great delayon the Atlantic and Pacific, as well as in India.When a genius is born in New Zealand his messagereaches the world, and his glory cannot be concealed in the southern hemisphere.

Third: this Empire is an experiment in therealisation of human brotherhood. I repeat,through the medium of this Empire man isbrought near to man, and nation to nation, andrace to race. It was very difficult in the ancientRoman Empire to become civis Romanus, because this Empire was founded upon the Pagan


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ENGLAND AND SERBIA 9philosophy of lords and servants. I t is , on thecontrary, very easy in the British Empire ofto-day to become a British citizen, because theBritish Empire is founded upon the Christianphilosophy of democratic equality and brotherhood. All is not accomplished, but I say it isan experiment, and a good one; a prophecy, anda hopeful one.

Fourth: Great Britain is destined by Providence to be a great educator of nations. Thatis her part in history. She has democracy andtradition-two things that are considered everywhere as incongruous-and therefore she is capable of understanding everybody and of teachingand leading everybody. She is the nurse forthe sick people of the East; she is the schoolmaster for the rough people of the wild isolatedislands; she is the tamer of the cannibals andthe guide of the civilised; she inspires, vivifies,unites and guides; she equalises; she christianises.I read the other day a German menacing song:

We are going, we are going to seeWho will henceforth govern the world

England or God 7I can say certainly-God. He will govern theworld. But we can say to-day, though in due

humility: Gesta Dei per Britannos. W ouId youknow assuredly through which of the powerful


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10 ENG LAND AND SERBIAnations God is working to-day? Ask only whichof these nations is most the champion of therights of the small and poor nations, and youwill find out the truth. For from the beginningof the world-history all the leading religions andphilosophies called the great and powerful toprotect the poor and powerless. The record ofthis recommendation belongs doubtless to theChristian religion. The suggestion of all thereligions was like this: it is impossible to beproud and selfish under the eyes of God. Thesuggestion of the Christian religion is: Under theeyes of God the more you have the more youmust give, and the more you give the more youhave; and if you even give your life for men,you will find a better life in God.

WHAT IS SERBIA THEN?I f we Serbs look upon the English power on

this planet, and then look and see our own lessthan modest place on the globe, we must unwillingly exclaim in the words of the Psalmist :o Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful ofhim ?-or with a little change: 0 England, whatis Serbia, that thou art mindful of her? Andthe poor sons of Serbia, that thou visitest them?A small strip of land with five million inhabitants and without seaboard. A peasant peopledevoted to agriculture and to nature, to the


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ENGLAND AND SERBIA 11forest and cattle, to songs and tales. A pastfull of glory, of blood and sins. A present fullof tears, pains and hopes. A king carried on astretcher through the rocky desert of Albania,a loyal parliament which refused to make aseparate peace with the enemy even in thedarkest hour of national tragedy,-an honestgovernment which did everything possible tosave the country, and which, when the countrywas nearly conquered, exclaimed through itsPresident: " I t is better to die in beauty thanto live in shame! " - a fearless army, which forthree years only knew victory, now watching insnow on the mountains of Montenegro andAlbania, and lodging in the dens of wolves andeagles.! Another army of old men, of womenand children, fleeing away from death and rush-ing to death. Shall I say that is Serbia

No; that is only a part of Serbia.You have heard talk of Greater Serbia. Ipersonally think that Serbia can never be greaterthan in this solemn hour of her supreme suffer-ing, in which all the civilised world in bothhemispheres trembles because of her catastropheand sympathises with her. I personally love my

little country just because it is so little; and justbecause its deeds are greater than its size. I amnot sure that I should love it so much should1This lecture was delivered in December, 1915.


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12 ENGLAND AND SERBIAit happen to become territorially so big as Spainor Italy. But I cannot help it; I must saythat our Irridentists in Austro-Hungary are morenumerous than our population in Serbia. Eightmillions of our Serbo-Croat and Slovene brothershave been looking towards Serbia as towardstheir Piedmont, waiting their salvation fromSerbia, as Alsace-Lorraine is waiting its salvationfrom France, and being proud of Serbia as allslaves are proud of their free kinsmen. Allthe slaves from Isonzo to Scutari are groaningunder the yoke of an inhuman Austro-Magyarregime, and are singing of Serbia as their redeemer from chains and shame. Little Serbiahas been conscious of her great historic task, toliberate and unite all the Southern-Slavs in oneindependent being; therefore she, with supremeeffort, collected all her forces to fulfil her taskand her duty, and so to respond to the vitalhopes of her brethren.Shall I say that is Serbia?

No; that is only physical Serbia.But there is a soul of Serbia.For five hundred years the Serbian soulsuffered and believed. Suffering sometimes

breaks the belief. But the Serbian sufferingstrengthened the belief of the Serbian people.With belief came hope, with hope strength; andso the Serbs endured the hardest and darkest


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14 ENGLAND AND SERBIAthe rich; the tears of the righteous will be trans-formed into diamonds under the throne of God.

A king asks another king: How many peopledo you govern? But if God speaks to aking, He asks: How many people are youhelping?

Even the dry leaves cry out when trodden on;why should not the trodden man cry out?I t is better to give life than to take life. I fyou give life, you do what God does; if you takelife, you do what Satan does.Some men are better than others, but there is

no man so good as God and no one so bad as thedevil.Some people are dressed in silk and satin, andothers are dressed in rags. Very often that isthe only difference between man and man.

There is a great difference between a learnedman and a good man. The learned man can dogood, but the good man will do good. Thelearned man can build the world up, but candestroy it too; the good man can only buildit up.

A man's judgment lasts as long as a man'slife, but God's judgment lasts as long as God.I t is better to dress the soul in silk and thebody in rags than the reverse.


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16 ENGLAND AND SERBIAbecause she succeeded without anybody's helpin freeing herself. She is envied by all otherSlavs, from near and from far, as well as fromother neighbouring nations, because of her nearlyperfect democracy. Serbia is the only democraticstate among the four independent Slav states(Russia, Montenegro, Bulgaria). And just inthis terrible war it became clear to all the worldthat Serbia was the only democratic state inthe Near East. Turkey is governed by anoligarchy, Bulgaria by a German despot, Greeceby a wilful king whose patriotism is overshadowedby his nepotism, Roumania is ruled more by thewish of the landlords (boyars) and court than bythe wish of the people. I will say nothing aboutthe very profanation of democracy in the darkrealm of the Hapsburgs.Serbia not only means a democratic state, buta democratic nation; that is to say, that not onlyare the Serbian institutions (including the churchalso) democratic, but the spirit of the whole ofthe nation is democratic. Mter all, this democratic spirit of Serbia must be victorious in theBalkans as well as in the Slav world.

You know that England's glory has alwaysbeen to stand as the champion of democracy.England's best interests in the Near East nowmore than ever imperatively require her to support democratic Serbia against her anti-demo-


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18 ENGLAND AND SERBIAgated, Montenegro, but lately the Piedmontalrole has been transferred to Serbia.The English political interest in the futureGreater Serbia, or Yougoslavija, is of the firstimportance. The Southern-Slav state will number about fourteen millions of inhabitants. Thisstate will be the very gate of the East. YetSerbia is not only the nucleus of the unitedSouthern Slavdom, but the very nucleus of aBalkan Federation also, in which the GrecoRoumanian element should be a good balanceto the Slav element in it. I repeat I like mylittle country just because it is so comparativelylittle. But by necessity it is to become muchlarger. By necessity the whole of the Serbianrace is to be freed and united. By necessitythe Southern-Slav state and the Balkan Federation are to be realised. Some of our neighboursmay be against that, but all their opposing effortwill be in vain. Every intrigue against theSerbian ideals of freedom and unity cannot effecta suppression, but only a short prolongation ofthe period of its realisation. Behold, the timehas come, the fruit has grown ripe. All theSerbian race has now been plunged into slavery.United to-day in slavery, they have now onlyone wish-to be united to-morrow in Freedom.England is bound to Russia more by apolitical or military treaty, but she is bound


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DURING TllltKISH RULE IN SERBIA.Serbs flying away before th e enemy with their Patriarch.


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ENGLAND AND SERBIA 19to Serbia, and through Serbia with all otherdemocratic Slav worlds more by spirit-just bythis democratic spirit. This spirit which dividesthe Slav world into two different camps, unitesEngland with one of them,-with the democraticcamp, the champion of which has been Serbia.A very curious spirit dwells in the little Serbianbody, a very curious and great spirit, which will,I am sure, give form to the future Balkans aswell as to the future democratic Slavdom. Andbe sure this spirit is rather panhumanistic thanpanslavistic.

But after all, when I think of 400 millioninhabitants of the British Empire and remembersuch a poor topic, as my country, about whichI am just speaking, I must cry again: 0 England,what is Serbia, that thou art mindful of her?And the poor sons of Serbia, that thou visitestthem?Still, Serbia is an admirer and friend of Eng-land, and that is a good reason why Englandshould look sympathetically towards little Serbia.There is a Serbian proverb: "A wise lionseeks friends not only among the lions, butamong the bees too." Of course Serbia needsEngland much more than England needs Serbia.I will not now dwell upon Serbia's materialneeds; I will tell you about what are Serbia'sspiritual needs.


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20 ENGLAND AND SERBIATo begin with the children, the Serbian chil-dren need good education. Our schools givemore knowledge than strength of character and

a humane cultivated will. Our national poetryand history have educated our people muchbetter than modern science did. Still we per-ceive that science is necessary for a good educa-tion in our times. Therefore we very much needto consult England in this respect. We wellknow how English education is estimated all overthe world. England can help us much to edu-cate the new Serbian generations in the best way,because such a country as Serbia deserves indeeda noble and worthy future in which to live.Don't you agree with me? Only I am afraidthat I am speaking of the best education of theSerbian children just at this moment when itwere perhaps more suitable to speak about thebest way to save them from hunger, pain anddeath. .

The Serbian women need to develop theircapacities more for social work, so as to take amore important part in the organisation andcultivation of their lives. The past of ourwomen consisted in singing, weaving and weep-ing. I am sure that the English women, whosesympathy for Serbia in these tragic days willremain memorable for ever,-I am sure thatafter this war they will come to Serbia and help


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ENGLAND AND SERBIA 21their poor sisters over there, teaching them andenlightening them. Yet I am again afraid todwell longer upon the topic of the enlightenmentof the Serbian mothers at the very momentwhen those mothers with their sons and daugh-ters, trodden down by the Prussian boot, looktowards Heaven and silently confess their sins,preparing themselves for a cruel death.What do the Serbian men need? They needcivilisation, or in other words: the Bible, science,art. But they do not need the Bible of killingfrom Germany, nor the science of killing andthe art of killing from Germany. They do notwant the civilisation which means the large andskilful manufacture of instruments of killing.They want the Bible which makes good, andscience which makes bright, and art which makesgodlike. Therefore the men of Serbia are nowlooking so eagerly towards England and hercivi)isation. More English civilisation in ourcountry, more England in Serbia-that is ourgreat spiritual need!My illustrious chairman, the Most ReverendArchbishop of Canterbury, wrote recently in oneof his books: " We are everywhere trying inthese later years to understand and to alleviatehuman sorrow." 1 Yes, you are. We Serbians

1 The Archbishop of Canterbury, The Character and Call of theChurch of England, p. llS.


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22 ENGLAND AND SERBIAfeel your sorrows too. "To understand and toalleviate human sorrow." That is the divinepurpose of a humane civilisation. That is thefinal aim of our terrestrial education-to understand each other, and to support each other.

Do you think that it is difficult for a richnation as well as for a rich man to come into thekingdom of Heaven I am a little embarrassedseeing rich England now coming into thiskingdom. Yet she is coming into the kingdomof God, not because she is rich, but because shebeing powerful humiliated herself, took the crossand went to suffer for the poor and sorely strickenin this world. She humiliated herself going tosupport Belgium; she humiliates herself hurryingto support Serbia; she humiliates herself mourning so much for Armenia. But her humiliationis the best proof of her true Ohristianity, as herfighting and suffering of to-day is the veryfighting and suffering for Ohristianity. Do notbe afraid of humiliation, citizens of the greatestEmpire of the world; behold, the humiliationis the very condition of real glory and real greatness! For more than a thousand years, fromthis place has been preached the Only Son ofGod, whose way to Glory, Greatness and Divinitywas through painful humiliation.

Do persist and do not weary in this way,-itwill bring your dear country nearer to God. Do


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ENGLAND AND SERBIA 23persist in humiliation,-it will be the most durable foundation of a glorious young England.Do persist in supporting oppressed and poorSerbia,-it will be rewarded hundredfold to yourchildren and to the children of your children.Do persist in doing good, that is my final wordto you, my enlightened brethren and sisters.And when I say do persist in good, I repeat onlywhat for nine hundred years has been preachedwithin these walls by thousands and thousandsof servants of Christ, either well-known orunknown, but all more worthy than I am.


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SERBIA FOR CROSS AND FREEDOM.Delivered for thefirst time in the Church of the Holy Trinity,

Stroud Green, London.

I WAS a citizen of a small country called Serbia,and I am still a citizen of a great country calledThe Universe. In my first fatherland there isnow no other light except the brightness oftears. But in my second fatherland there isalways the splendid and silent light of the sun.My little country is now a great tear-drop, ashining and silent tear-drop. A gentleman fromSouth Mrica wrote to me the other day andasked about my country-" why it is so shining" ?I replied: Just because it is now transformedinto a big tear-drop, therefore it is so shiningthat even you from South Africa can see itssplendour. I come as an echo of the weepingsplendour of my country which is now plungedinto the worst slavery. I come as a voice beyondthe grave to your famous island, brethren andsisters, not to accuse, not to complain, but tosay by what invisible bonds my country istied to yours. I will say at once, plainly


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26 SERBIAnational existence, as we to-day speak of it, butto fight for the most unselfish and idealistic aim,for Cross and Christian Freedom, Serbia wasalready opening a great epoch of physical aswell as spiritual strength. Our king Nemania,the founder of a dynasty which ruled in Serbiafor nearly 300 years, had heard tales and songsabout the English king with the lion's heart,and had helped the same cause, the cause of theCrusades, very much. His son, Saint Sava,organised the Christian Church wonderfully, andwonderfully he inspired the educational andscholarly work in the state created by his father.This Saint Sava, the Archbishop of Serbia, afterhe had travelled all over Serbia, Greece andBulgaria, preaching the Gospel of the Son ofGod, died in Bulgaria. His body was transferred to and buried in a monastery in Herzegovina. Mterwards, in times of national hardships and slavery, great pilgrimages took placeto the grave of the Saint, which became thecomforting and inspiring centre for the oppressednation; the Turks destroyed the tomb, carriedthe body over to Belgrade and burnt it, in orderto lessen the Serbian national and religiousenthusiasm. The result was just the contrary.On the very same place where Saint Sava's bodywas burnt there is now a Saint Sava's chapel;close to this chapel a new Saint S a seminary


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FOR CROSS AND FREEDOM 27is to be erected, and also Saint Sava's cathedralof Belgrade. And over all there i; an acknow-ledged protection of Saint Sava by an the Serbianchurches and schools, and a unifying spirit ofSaint Sava for all the Serbian nation.Saint Sava's belief was the same as the beliefof Saint Patrick and Saint Augustine. His hopeswere the same as theirs too. He believed inthe one saving Gospel of Christ, as they did.He hoped men could be educated by this divineGospel, to be heroic in suffering and pure andholy in the enjoyments of life, just as the greatsaints of this island doubtless hoped and worked.

THE BELIEF AND HOPES OF THE SERBIANKINGSrepresented almost throughout our history themodel of the true religious spirit and of thehopeful optimism of the nation. That can besaid especially for the kings since Saint Sava'stime until the definite conquest of Serbia bythe Sultans, i.e. since Richard and John's timeuntil the time of the Black Prince and Wycliffe,and from the Black Prince and Wycliffe till theend of the Wars of the Roses in England. Ourkings did what all the kings in the world do ;

they fought and ruled, they ate and drank, anddanced and played, and still the majority ofthem took monastic vows and died in solitudeand asceticism, and a great part of them were


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FOR OROSS AND FREEDOM 29perilous things from them, but we did not learntheir art of poisoning kings, of torturing them,suffocating them, making them blind, cutting outtheir tongues, etc. I t is only in modern timesthat we committed the great sins of the MiddleAges, namely, killing our kings and making civilwars. During the last hundred years we kiJIedonly three of our kings: Karageorge, Michaeland Alexander. In modern times three havebeen killed in a hundred years, and in the MiddleAges not one in three hundred years ! -a fact asunusual as curious. But you should rememberthat our modern times in Serbia began after fivehundred years of a bloody slavery and darkeducation under Turkish tyranny.I mention our great sins not in order to excusebut to accuse my people. I will not even accusethe Turks, our rulers and educators during fivehundred years. Our ancestors were accustomedto see human blood spilt every day. They wereaccustomed to hear about strangled sultans andviziers and pashas. And, besides, they livedthrough the record of all the crimes ever writtenin history; the Turks arranged a horrible bloodybath in executing their plan of killing all theleaders and priests among the Serbs! I t hap-pened only a hundred years ago, in the lifetime ofOhateaubriand and Words worth, in the time ofPitt and Burke, in the time of your strenuous


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30 SERBIAmission work among the cannibals. Our ancestors lived in blood and walked in blood. Ourfive hundred years' long slavery had only twocolours--red and black.And yet I will not accuse the Turks but ourselves. Neither our kings of old, nor our ancestors before the enslavement set us the exampleof killing kings. Rather the strangers that conquered and ruled our country set us such anexample. But it is our fault for having followedan abominable example like that. I confess oursins before you, and pray: Forgive us, goodbrothers! Forgive us, if you can. God willnot forgive us. That is the belief of our people.God is merciful, but still He does not forgivewithout punishment. God is righteous and sinless, and therefore He has right to punish everysin of man. But it were a monstrous pretensionfor men to punish every sin, being themselvessinful, very sinful. We will forgive all yourmediaeval, if you will forgive us our modernsins. Remember! God will begin to "forgiveus our trespasses" only at the moment whenwe all forgive the trespasses of all those thathave sinned against us. He will forgive us then,because He will not have anything more topunish. God's mercilessness begins when ourmercifulness ends. God will rule the world byjustice as long as we rule it by our mercilessness.


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FOR OROSS AND FREEDOM 31He will rule the world by mercifulness when weforgive each other, but not before.

To forgive the sins of men means for us nothingmore than to confess our own sins. To forgivethe sins of men means for God nothing less thanto let the events be without consequences. Andit contradicts human experiences or science.

I t contradicts also the experiences of our kingsof old. They saw and heard of the sins punished,and they feared sin. They regarded humilityand mercifuhless as the greatest virtues. On theday of the "Slava," which means a specialSerbian festival of the saint patron of the family(every Serbian family has its patron among thesaints or angels which it celebrates solemnlyevery year, instead of celebrating their ownbirthdays), on this day our kings themselvesserved their guests at the table. I t was avIsible sign of their humility before the divinepowers that rule human life. Besides, on everyfestive occasion in the royal court was placed abountiful table with meat and drink for beggarsand the most abject poor. The king was obligedby his Christian conscience and even by nationaltradition to be merciful. How the people re-garded the kings is clear from popular sayingslike these:

Every king is from God. I f a king is generoushe is from God, as a king should be from God.


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32 SERBIAI f a king is narrow and selfish he is from God,as a monkey is from God.

A wise king speaks three times to God andonly once to the people. A foolish king speaksthree times to the people and only once to God.

Speaking to God a wise king thinks always ofhis people, and speaking to the people he alwaysthinks of God. A foolish king thinks of himselfalways, whether he speaks to God or to thepeople.

Every king has a crown, but every kinglycrown stands not on a kingly head.A gipsy asked a king: Of how much value are

your riches 1 The king replied: Not more thanyour freedom.The smile of the king is medicine for a poorman, the laugh of the king is an offence for themourmng one.A king who fears God has pity for the people,but a king who fears the people has pity forhimself.The face of a good king lends splendour to hiscrown, and the crown of a bad king lends splen-dour to his face.The sins of the people can only sooner bringthe king before God, but the sins of the king canpush the people to Satan's house.


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FOR OROSS AND FREEDOM 33The belief of our kings was the same beliefwhich Saint Sava preached, their hopes were hishopes. God is the eternal and powerful king of

the world; Ohrist is the way of salvation fromsin; good must be in the end victorious overevil. That was the belief and hope of our kings.Was it not likewise the belief and hope of KingEthelbert, of Saint Oswald and Edward the Con-fessor ? Did not Richard the Lion-heartedstruggle for the same belief and hope in Palestine, which was at his time as far as a voyagearound this planet to-day? Is not this samebelief and hope the corner stone of WestminsterAbbey and Saint Paul's, of this church and ofevery church on this island, and of every greatand beautiful deed that you inherited from yourancestors?Yet the belief and hopes of our kings werenever different from theBELIEF AND HOPES OF THE SERBIAN

PEOPLE.The Serbian people have showll their individuality only in the dark time of their slavery.The saint and the heroic kings died, but theirsouls lived still in the hearts of their people, inthe white churches they built among the greenmountains, in their deeds of mercifulness andrepentance. The enslaved people were consciousthat there were no more kings of their own who

c


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FOR CROSS AND FREEDOM 39battle 0] Kossovo to negotiate with the TurkishSultan, whom he regarded as a bearer of in-justice and an enemy of Christianity.

I was very sorry to see that Greece broke herpledged word and thoughtlessly refused to keepher treaty with Serbia, whereas France withEngland, who had no signed treaty with Serbia,came and did what in the first place it wasGreece's duty to do. I was still more glad andhopeful in regard to the future of mankind,seeing a great difference of' moral views betweenthe leading nations of human civilisation like theEnglish and French, and a small nation likethe Greek, which is commencing to learn againwhat many hundred years ago Greece taught allother nations. And I was very glad remember-ing that in our own Serbian history there is nocase of such an example of infidelity or even ofhesitation to fulfil the pledged word of thenation.

In this respect the Serbian women excelled aswell as men. Therefore, and because I am speak-ing before you, brothers and sisters, whosecountry may be proud not only of a large numberof great men of every kind, but of' great andfamous women as well, I must mention thememorable qualities of the Serbian women inthe long fight for Cross and Freedom. Whatsacrifices for Oross and Freedom the Serbian


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FOR CROSS AND FREEDOM 39battle oj [{ossovo to negotiate with the TurkishSultan, whom he regarded as a bearer of in-justice and an enemy of Christianity.

I was very sorry to see that Greece broke herpledged word and thoughtlessly refused to keepher treaty with Serbia, whereas France withEngland, who had no signed treaty with Serbia,came and did what in the first place it wasGreece's duty to do. I was still more glad andhopeful in regard to the future of mankind,seeing a great difference of moral views betweenthe leading nations of human civilisation like theEnglish and French, and a small nation likethe Greek, which is commencing to learn againwhat many hundred years ago Greece taught allother nations. And I was very glad remember-ing that in our own Serbian history there is nocase of such an example of infidelity or even ofhesitation to fulfil the pledged word of thenation.

In this respect the Serbian women excelled aswell as men. Therefore, and because I am speak-ing before you, brothers and sisters, whosecountry may be proud not only of a large numberof great men of every kind, but of great andfamous women as well, I must mention thememorable qualities of the Serbian women inthe long fight for Cross and Freedom. Whatsacrifices for Gross and Freedom the Serbian


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40 SERBIAwomen have made cannot be enumerated fromthis pulpit, but only slightly touched upon in afew examples. I take just three splendid names :Miliza, Yerina and Ljubiza.Queen Miliza was a lady of a peaceful domesticcharacter. But she was also the wife of themost tragic king in our Serbian history, of KingLazare, who perished with all his army on thefield of Kossovo fighting for Cross and Freedomagainst Islam rushing over Europe.She had nine brothers-nine brothers and afather. All were killed on Kossovo togetherwith King Lazare, and Miliza survived thatcatastrophe.

After the death of King Lazare, Queen Milizaruled the country together with her son, Stephenthe Tall. But Sultan Bayazet asked three thingsfrom the new rulers in Serbia. Firstly, he askedfor Miliza's daughter Mara for his harem. Milizagave her daughter. Then Bayazet asked asecond, more dreadful thing, namely, that hisunfortunate mother-in-law should build a mosquein Krushevaz, the Serbian capital at that time,so as to have a place where he could pray whenhe came to visit her. There existed and stillexists a beautiful church built by King Lazare.Now Miliza was constrained to build, close tothis dear monument of her husband, in whichshe prayed every day for his soul and for the


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FOR CROSS AND FREEDOM 41salvation of Serbia, a Turkish mosque. Sheagreed silently and she protested silently. ThenBayazet asked a third still more dreadful thing,namely, that Stephen the Tall should help himwith his troops in a time of danger for theTurkish Empire. Queen Miliza with a brokenheart advised her son to sign such a treaty inorder to save the rest of the State and people.But very soon it happened that Bayazet neededand asked for Stepben's help against the formid-able Mongol conqueror Tamerlan. Stephen hatedboth the Asiatic monsters-Bayazet and Tamer-lan-equally, and it was more profitable for himto break the treaty with Bayazet and to helpTamerlan, who had more chance. But he re-mained faithful to his pledged word. Bayazetwas beaten, taken prisoner and encaged as abeast by Tamerlan. And Stephen, after havingfought splendidly for his ally with the Serbiancavalry, came home. When thinking over thepresent conduct of our Greek ally, I am remindedvery often of this noble and loyal king of mycountry. Queen Miliza could not endure anylonger all the terrible changes from bad to worse;she transferred all the power to her son, built awonderful monastery, Ljubostinja, near Krush-evaz, where she as a nun found a retreat inwhich to pray and to live, until the end of herweary and melancholy life.


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42 SERBIAQueen Yerina was the last Serbian ruler in thecountry, which slowly sank into slavery. Shewas very intelligent and very energetic. The

Turkish Sultan took two sons of hers as hostages.She gave them up, and she continued to rule thecountry. But both of her sons were blinded byred-hot irons and sent back to their mother.Even this did not break Yerina's energy. Sheconstructed great fortresses all over the countryto protect the people from the enemy's invasion.She never had any rest, thinking and working tosave Serbia. She offered the most obstinateresistance to the Turks as well as to the discontented faction among the Serbs. Many ofher contemporaries were ungrateful to her andcalled her the "cursed Yerina," but still posterity bestows upon her great admiration andsympathy.Princess Ljubiza came on the scene of ourhistory only a hundred years ago, in the daysof the Serbian revolution and resurrection. AsQueen Miliza and Yerina sacrificed all to savethe honour of Serbia, so Ljubiza did her best tohelp her husband, Prince Milosh, to liberate thecountry from the Turks. Once after the SecondRevolution broke out, the Serbian troops wereengaged in a bloody battle on Morava River.But the Turks were in an overwhelming majority,besides that they had better arms and more


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FOR CROSS AND FREEDOM 43munitions. The frightened Serbian troops fled.Ljubiza saw that the situation was quite decisivefor the whole future, ran to meet the soldiers,and to admonish them to go back and fight." What wretched soldiers you are! " she cried." Are not the Turks made of flesh and blood asyou Cannot their blood be shed as yoursWhither are you running? Home But wewomen only are at home. Well, come home,take our distaff and spin, and give us your rifles;we will go and fight."The soldiers were so ashamed and encouragedby this remarkable woman that they turned backand began to fight anew so fiercely that the enemywas confusedly beaten and dispersed, and adecisive victory won by the Serbs.For Cross and Freedom fought the Serbianwomen directly or indirectly, not only the queensand princesses, but all the peasant women aswell, if not otherwise, then at least in givinglife and education to the fighters, whom power-ful England repeatedly called her worthy allies.

ENGLAND IS ALSO FIGHTING FOR CROSS ANDFREEDOM,

not for existence, not for sea, not for wealth, butfor Cross and Freedom, for the Christian Crossand for the Freedom of the smaller nations. I tmeans in other words: for God's cause. For


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44 SERBIAwho created the small nations if not He thatcreated all great and small things in this wonder-ful world? Or who has the divine right andsad duty to exterminate, to suffocate, to enchain,the small creations of the Highest if the Highestwants them to exist? Great Britain justifiedher greatness by entering this war so as toprotest against the violation of right, even bythose who agreed to this right, and to protectthe small and poor. It is easy to be physicallygreat, but it is difficult to be morally great.Great is the power which violates the right,still greater is the power which protects theright. To destroy is much easier than to build.To be great and to be proud means not to begreat at all. To be great and to be modestmeans real greatness and belief in God. Forwho can be proud believing in God? Or whocan feel God in this Universe and still say, Iam great? Our modesty is only our confessionthat there is a God. Since we see both ends ofour life-birth and death-so near us, we mustbe humiliated.Yet who can see any end of God, either in thepast or in the future? Where are all the greatestempires of the past? All is dust under the feetof the Eternal. Whither are we all going, greator small 1 To be dust under His feet. Fromthis dust will survive only the small portion of


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FOR CROSS AND FREEDOM 45God's spirit that dwells in this dust. All ourthoughts and feelings, and deeds and strivings,and struggles and passions, which are directedtowards dust will die together with our bodilydust. Only that portion of our being which isdirected towards God will survive, will continueto live in the presence of God, will see God. ForGod only can see God.

Fighting for Belgium, for Serbia and Monte-negro, for Armenia, Poland and Bohemia, for allthe poor and oppressed-Great Britain is fightingfor God's cause. For whose cause indeed isBelgium's and Serbia's, if not God's cause? Iwonder who would protect all the oppressed inthe world if not this country, in which God'sword is more taught and learned than in anyother, and which is endowed with all good giftsthat God can give to mortals? Yet fighting forGod's cause, one fights best for one's own. Yes,we fight always best for our own cause when wehave it least in sight. England entered this warnot after a long calculation; she entered the warspontaneously and only afterwards she put thequestion to herself: Why did I enter this war 1Now England is conscious why she entered thewar. She knows now that somebody else pushedher into this war, and that she is fighting forsomebody else's cause. This somebody else i s -God. The sons of Great Britain going to the


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46 SERBIAEast to fight are going the same pathway astheir ancestors went in the time of the Crusaders.The same way, the same aim: to save thehonour of the Cross and to fight for Freedom!I t is the pathway of supreme suffering, but alsothe only pathway of real glory and merit. Anyother way for England's greatness was impossible.England had to choose either the way of pettinessor of greatness. She chose the second. Godbless England!

We pray to Thee, our Father, in order not tochange Thy will but ours. Thy will be done!I f Serbia is an impediment to human civilisationand an evil, as our German brothers think,Father, make of Serbia a salt lake before theymake of her a cemetery. Yet Thy will be doneand not ours. We are thine in our righteousnessand in our sins. What is, indeed, the whole ofour planet? A small grain of dust. What arewe, then, on this small grain of dust? We, men,either great or little? We, nations, rich or poor 1We, the churches, either right or wrong? Oneword only I dare to say: the silence in Thypresence shall be our name, and our prayer.Even on the brightest and most peaceful day ofour life, there is no true light except Thee.How much more we need Thy light in the dark-ness of the present moment! We are a smallgrain of dust under Thy throne, but remember,


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SERDL\X s


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SERBIA AT PEACE.Deliveredfor the first time at Cambridge, in the New Lecture Rooms,

the Vice-Chancellor of the University in the chair.

THE most suitable language for tragedy is silence.Serbia's tragedy needs no rhetoric, no languageto describe it, to exalt it. For silence, and notrhetoric, makes tragedy greater. Serbia's silenceto-day is as deep as her tragedy is dark. Themost silent suffering is the most vocal sufferingat the same time. The most silent suffering islike a screw boring into the conscience of themakers of the suffering. Such silent suffering isthe severe judge of the world who makes all richpeople poor, all proud humble, all pleasure bitter,all human progress abased. There is somethingwrong about this life. What may it be 1 I donot know, but suffering reminds us every daythat there is something wrong with this world.Suffering from surrounding nature is not theworst,-nature can be governed by us; nor thesuffering from God,-God can be touched by ourprayer; but the worst of all is our suffering fromourselves. Thousands and thousands of serpents


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SERBIA AT PEACE 49live in Serbia. Yet all the serpents throughoutthe Serbian history, from the time of the Druidson this island till the time of Tennyson andKipling, effected not such a poisonous devastation of men and cattle in Serbia as lately a hostof invaders did, who boastfully regarded themselves to be at the summit of human civilisation.I t is despairing to see what use of her power, her"kultur," her science and her riches, Germanyof to-day is making in Serbia, among a peoplewho for half a thousand years struggled againstthe Turkish tyranny with the motto For Grossand Freedom, and who looked sometimes fromtheir dark corner towards the German Kaiser,the knight of many Holy Orders, as towards thechampion and redeemer of enslaved Christianityin the Balkans. Never suffered a nation fromserpents as much as the poor nation of Serbssuffers to-day from" civilised" men. Don't youthink indeed that there is something wrong aboutthis life of ours The Bible showed in its firstsheets that there is something very wrong withus. By the killing of his brother, Cain foreshadowed all the history of mankind. Even thefirst man on earth was not a balanced and happycreature. All our earthly time is filled up witha passionate convulsion in a struggle for life andlight. Yet our confusion and unhappiness chieflycome from ourselves, and neither from nature

D


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52 SERBIA AT PEACEworld with astonishment from the beginning ofthis war by their extraordinary patriotism andwillingness to sacrifice everything, including lifeitself, in the struggle for the honour and theunshakable ideals of their country.That is why I am protesting before you,valiant sons and daughters of Great Britain, theheirs of the most valuable heritage that ever anation could call its own. Serbian life in peacetime is the most eloquent accusation and themightiest protest against the crime of two greatOhristian Kaisers. These two Ohristian Kaisersconquered Serbia by their iron and mercilessness,and bound Serbia's throat so horribly that inSerbia there is now air and light only for theconquerors and not for the conquered. Breathless and breadless, Serbia cannot protest, but Ican. Well, I propose to describe to you to-nightSerbia and the Serbians in peace time, in orderto show you what life your smallest allies livedbefore the great storm came over their country.I will begin with

THE SERBIAN VILLAGE.Why 1 Because the village is the very foundation of all that we possess in material, spiritualand moral good. After the Turks conqueredSerbia, five hundred years ago, the Serbianpopulation was forced by the conquerors bydegrees to abandon the towns and to retreat


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SERBIA AT PEACE 53into the villages, and then to abandon even thevillages in the plains, on the banks of the rivers,where the soil was the most fruitful, and toescape into the forests, mountains and lessaccessible country. The village thus became thevery soil upon which has grown our democracy.That is the difference between our democracyand the west European, where the democraticmovement started and developed in the towns.Driven into the forests and mountains by thecommon enemy, despoiled of freedom and riches,the upper and lower classes, the learned and theilliterate, suffered the same abasement and injustice, did the same work, ploughed and sowed,struggled against the same evil, the Turkish yoke,and sang of the same hopes. Under such conditions was born our democratic spirit, whichserved wonderfully afterwards, in the time ofliberation and freedom, as a base for our democratic institutions, social, political and ecclesiastical.I said that our village is the very foundationof our material wealth. We have, so to say, noindustry, but everyone of our peasants has hisown land. The land being fertile, our countrynever knew what hunger was. I t was a pleasureto see the peasants in the spring ploughing theirown soil; in the summer looking over the goldenharvest of their own; in the autumn contem-


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54 SERBIA AT PEACEplating the stores plenteously filled; in thewinter feasting and resting in their own houses.I f you should ask any of the Serbian peasants :" To whom does this house belong? or this field?or this harvest?" he would unmistakably reply:"To God and to me!"-so in the mind of ourpeasants God is the first landlord, and the secondthey themselves.

Even during the last three years of war inSerbia there was plenty of all the necessaries oflife, especially of wheat and cattle, of fruits andhay, of vegetables and wood.But now-in Serbia all the wealth is in thepast; it exists only in the memories of the de-spoiled, plundered, devastated, starved and silentslaves. In the German papers there was pub-lished a private letter from a German soldier inSerbia. "We are very well here. We haveplenty of food and everything. Much moreabundantly than we had on the Western front!"I am sure you understand well what this soldiermeant and whence such an abundance in foodsupply" and everything" for the German in-vaders in Serbia came. Almost simultaneouslya German army commander wrote to a man ina neutral country these words: "Not only Ipermit you to come into Serbia and help theSerbs, but I pray you come at once. Among thepopulation in Serbia there is the greatest misery


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SERBIA AT PEACE 55and almost starvation en masse." What hap-pened 1 The "civilised" subjects of KaiserWilliam would not kill the civil people in Serbiadirectly as the stupid Turks did, but indirectlyin order to save the faithless honour of " civilisa-tion." They drove away the population-thatmeans the old and sick men, women and children-a l l other Serbs serving as soldiers and being inretreat; they drove the population away, tookfood, cattle, copper, warm clothes, carpets, covers,everything, and after this was done, allowed thepeople graciously to come back " to their homesand their customs," as the Kaiser declared. Butto come how and where 1 Thousands died onthe way back, thousands succeeded in comingback to their cold and breadless homes to diethere; they are considered as the happier; andthousands fled with the Serbian troops intoAlbania and to the Mediterranean islands, wherethey died or are still dying from hunger, butbecause they died in freedom and not as slavesthey are considered as the happiest.We are beggars now. This is the first year inour history that we must pray to men for bread;until now we prayed only to God for daily bread,

and God gave it to us abundantly. But webecame beggars for bread only after the Germancivilisation showed itself to be a beggar, poor inmoral, poor in truth and heart.


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56 SERBIA AT PEACENow I will try to show you how the SerbianvillageBECAME THE FOUNDATION OF THE SERBIAN

SPIRIT.No universities, no schools, no libraries, nowritten literature and no lectures for five hundredyears! Imagine such a people. That is theSerbian people.The only men who could write-the priests;the only library-the memory; the only education-the mother; the only university-nature;the only historians-the blind bards; the onlyfriend and comforter-God! Imagine such apeople and call them-Serbs.

Imagine the English people for half a thousandyears without schools, without education, withoutuniversities, without historians, authors, friendsand comforters! I am sure it is difficult foryou to imagine your country even withoutShakespeare, and without Oxford and Cambridge scholarships and the British Museum,not to mention other things. I t may be ofgreat interest to a psychologist as well as toa historian to know what kind of mental activity a people shows who are deprived of allthat we to-day consider as an indispensableneed of daily life. What may such a people bedoing 1 Well, when by such a people are meantthe Eskimos, it is clear: they hunt, eat, talk and


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SERBIA AT PEACE 57sleep. But when by such a people is meant apeople of the European, Aryan race-what thenThe Serbs are a European, Aryan race. Whatdid they do Three things-they thought, sangand hoped.They thought. They thought about heaven andearth, about life and death, and man and animal,and about everything that affects human nature.They made comparisons and asked for the reasonand purpose of everything. They drew theirconclusions and expressed the results of theirlong observations. They thought a very, verylong time before they uttered a short sentence.These sentences lived in the oral traditions, andhave been transferred from one generation toanother. These sentences are very like the Pro-verbs in the Bible, very like La Rochefoucauldor extracts and quotations from famous works.The Serbian sentences are striking. I have reada good deal by the great writers of Europe, butvery often a popular Serbian saying strikes memore forcibly than a famous book.Here is just one saying:God is on the height, Satan is in the depth,man is in the middle. I f God will, He can beabove, below and in the middle. I f Satan will,he can be below and in the middle. I f man will,he can be like God everywhere, in the middle,or above or below.


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58 SERBIA AT PEAOEAnother :A bird envied the serpent; thou knowest earthvery well. The serpent envied the bird: thou

knowest heaven very well. And both enviedman: thou knowest heaven and earth. Manreplied: "My knowledge and my ignorance makeme equally unhappy."Another:Either snow or ice, or steam or fluid, water isalways water. Either poor or rich, or ignorantor learned, man is always man.Another:Only a half-good man can be disappointed inthis world. But a wholly good man never isdisappointed because he never expects a rewardfor his good actions.

The Serbian people sang also. Sitting aroundthe fire in the long winter nights, the Serbianpeasants sang their glorious past, their darkpresent and their hopes for the future. There isa Serbian instrument called the gusle, moreinteresting than the Greek lyre, because moreappropriate for the epic songs. I t looks also likethe Indian instrument tamboura. Well, as theancient Greek bards sang their Achilles, usingthe lyre, and as the ancient Indian singers sangtheir Krishna with the help of the tamboura, sothe Serbian epic singers accompanied with the


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A TYPICAL ~ I O " T E N E G R I X LADY' H . ~ I . QUEEN MILENA.


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SERBIA AT PEAOE 59gusle their songs on their hero of old, Marko.Marko was a historic person, a king's son. He wasthe never-weary champion of right and justice,the protector of the poor and oppressed, a believer in the victorious good, a man who left animpression on the coming generations like alightning flash in the dark clouds. In everyvillage house in Serbia there is a gusle, andalmost in every family a good singer with thegusle. The blind bards sang on the occasion ofthe festival or a meeting.The great Pitt, when once asked from whomhe learned the English history so well, replied :"From Shakespeare." To the same question weSerbs can reply: "From our national poetry." I tis very rare for a people in the mass to know theirpast as well as the Serbs know their own. TheSerbs regard their history not so much as a dryscience, but rather as an art, a drama, which mustbe told in a solemn language. They knew theirhistory, and therefore they sang it; they sang it,and therefore they knew it better and better.The Serbian men sang, but not only the men,the women sang as well. When the harvest wasbeing gathered during July and August, thewomen and girls sang in the fields or under thefruit trees. In our country we have the sunabundantly, and the outdoor singing respondsfully to the luxuriance of light. What shall I


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60 SERBIA AT PEAOEsay then about our women's singing in theautumn in the dry and soft moonlight? I t isthe time of spinning on the distaff. The tiredmen go to bed, but the women sit down in acircle in the houseyard in the open place. Theychat and they sing without stopping theirspinning. They sing two and two, in duet, butso that a new duet is begun when the otherfinishes. This duet singing is not only in onefamily, but in many at the same time, in differentparts of the village. Moonlight-we have won-derful clear and white moonlight in Serbiasilence, singing from every side, from everyhouse, from girls, nightingales and other birds.The whole of the village is the stage, hundredsof singers, moonlight and open starry space-Iam sure you would be much more fascinatedby such a Serbian rustic opera than by manymodern operas on a stage in London. And nowthere rushed into Serbia

THE KAISER, WHO DOES NOT SING,and our singing stopped. Under the Turks theSerbian people sang. You can find in the BritishMuseum ten big volumes of the Serbian nationalpoetry which was composed during the time ofthe Turkish rule in Serbia. This rule was veryhard and very dark indeed, but still we con-sidered ourselves as the champions of the Crossagainst the Crescent, and we imagined that we


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SERBIA AT PEACE 61should be the bulwark of Christian Europe, i.e.of Central Europe in the first place. Thereforewe endured the struggle with the Turks, singingand hoping. And now-the two OhristianKaisers, with a fox from Sofia, have crushedSerbia more completely than she ever wascrushed by the Turks. "Come back to yourhomes and your customs," so the Kaiser Williaminvited the Serbian refugees."To your customs!" But, oh illustrissimeOaesar, we could reply, our first and best customis to sing. Tell us, how we could sing now 1You know, oh Kaiser, because you preached theBible also, you must know the Biblical com-plaints of the Israel of old: "By the rivers ofBabylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, whenwe remembered Zion. We hung our harps uponthe willows in the midst thereof. For there theythat carried us away captive required of us asong, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion ?How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strangeland ?" You are now playing a real BabyaIonian role towards us Serbs, i.e. towards a peoplewho fought for the Cross, who sang freedom andwho were crucified for justice. You are not abetter man than any peasant from the Serbianvillages. Do you want a proof? The Serbianpeasant can sing, and you cannot. You cannotsing, not because of your diseased throat, but


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62 SERBIA AT PEAOEbecause of your evil conscience. You stoppedthe singing in a country of songs, oh ill majesty!How could we now sing our songs while ourhomes are transformed into empty caves 1 Howcould we sing, seeing Ollr bread in strangers'hands and cold stones in ours 1 How could wesing now, when all our past protests against youand all our dead are disturbed in their graves 1You covered our country with sins and crimes,and it is not our custom to sing of sins andcrimes, but of virtues. When will you show usyour virtues 1 You have shown us until nowonly your iron and fire, your brutality andbrutality, and again brutality and brutality,and, did I say ?-iron and fire. That is theessence of your religion and science, of your souland glory. We will despise all that you broughtinto our country. Let us be silent, Sire, andyou may continue to show your Mephistopheleancivilisation, and after you have crushed all thosewho are weaker and smaller than you, Sire, openyour lips and preach upon their ruin to youradmirers: cantate Domino! But we will notsing after our custom of old in your presence.We prefer to be silent and to wait for God'sjudgment.

THE HIDDEN MORAL TREASURESof-the Serbian people are now shining, as al,Ways,throughout all the times of darkness and suffering.


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SERBIA AT PEAOE 63You will remember from the beginning of thewar all the declarations of the Serbian govern-ment about the Serbian loyalty to the end.

Some among you might have thought: suchdeclarations are dictated by political reasons.No, such declarations have been only a poorexpression of what we all in Serbia thought andfelt. Loyalty to friends, devotion to our pledgedword, fidelity to the signed and unsigned treatieswere always considered in Serbia as sacred dutiesin the conscience of the people. Our morale isnot something that was learned in the schoolsdo not forget we had no schools for centuriesbut rather an inherited treasure which every manwas obliged to keep in great brilliancy. I t isnot a morale supported by learning, sophismsand quotations, it is an elementary power whichis not a possession, but which has possession ofeverybody. Our Prime Minister uttered theother day these words: "Better to die in beautythan to live in shame !" Fifteen hundred yearsago similar words were uttered on this island ofyours by a knight of Beowulf's escort: "Deathis better than a life of shame." Every child inSerbia thinks the same as our Prime Ministerabout the value of life and death."Better to die than" to live so and so, orthan to do this or that-hundreds of the Serbianproverbs begin with those words. In proverbs


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64 SERBIA AT PEAOEis expressed our moral wisdom, in proverbs andpoetry. Yet our proverbs are poetry as well.The morale is regarded not so much as ateaching, rather as poetry, like history. Historyand morality are things which shall be sung,history and morality are such dignified topicsthat they must be expressed in a dignified,solemn language. Poetry is the very essence ofthings. I t is the most earnest thing in theworld. That is our opinion.The Serbs read the Bible very little, althoughthey had the Bible in their own language andused it in divine service before you used it inthe church of your own. The Bible was listenedto in the church, but poetry at home. As Shake-speare can be called your second Bible, so, andstill more, our national poetry for us has beenindeed a second Bible. Our poetry has beenour history, our moral, our beauty, our hopes,our education, our encouragement-our Bible.By our poetry, as by the Bible, the morale is notonly taught but inspired. What is this morale,taught by Serbian poetry and proverbs, whenuttered in a dry form ?" Dear God, we thank thee for all," that is theusual beginning of every poem.Love? Love is better than justice.

Justice? Justice is better than injustice.


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SERBIA AT PEACEInjustice 1 I t must be punished.Suffering 1 I t must be relieved.

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Patience 1 That is the great virtue of thesufferers.Honour 1 Better to die than to give uphonour.Dishonour 1 I t means as much as death.Mercifulness 1 I t shines like the sun over theworld.A beggar 1 He puts your heart to the test.Death 1 God is behind death and therefore

death is no evil.Prayer 1 I t shall be used always, but it neverhelps unless we do our best.Humility 1 I t is always rewarded by love.Fearlessness 1 I t is commended very strongly.Cowardice 1 I t is repudiated and despised to

the utmost.Obedience 1 Youth must be obedient andrespectful towards old people.Chastity 1 Better to burn down a church thanto take or to give away chastity.Protection of the weak 1 Marko protectedweak people and animals. That is a great merit.

E


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SERBIA AT PEACE 67nation's doings. Although the people said beauti-fully: "A grain of truth is better than a ton oflies," still the lie, like a parasite, had its nest inSerbia as elsewhere. Although the people said:" I t is better to be blind with justice than tohave eyes with injustice," still injustice had itsseed, its growth and fruits among the samepeople. Although Cain's sin has been abhorredby the conscience of the Serbs, still this sin oftaking the life of a brother has defiled the verysoil of Serbia, which has been so much sanctifiedby the sufferings and unselfish sacrifices of herpeople. You will not find certainly in Serbiathe refined vices which are practised in theshadow of great civilisations, but you will findquite enough great and small sins, which theSerbian conscience does not justify any morethan yours.

THE SERBIAN AND THE BULGARIAN SPIRIT.Besides, I will confess to you one great sin ofthe Serbian people. I t is an exaggerated lovefor independence. I t is a virtue as every honestlove is a virtue, but it becomes a sin if exag-gerated. I t is a brilliant quality like the sun-shine in the time of fighting against the commonenemy, but it is a sin in peace time when organisedefforts for the social welfare are required. Thisspirit of independence, the independence from


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68 SERBIA AT PEACEenemies as well as from friends, has considerablydisturbed our social life and progress during thelast century. Now, by this greatest of our sinsand greatest of our virtues as well, we Serbsdiffered chiefly from our neighbours. The peoplein Great Britain have been accustomed to looktowards the Balkans as towards a country withone and the same spirit. This is a great mistake.There are chiefly two spirits: the Serbian andthe Bulgarian, i.e. the spirit of independence andthe spirit of slavery. The Serbian spirit resisteduntil the end stubbornly and tenaciously againstthe Turks conquering the Balkans five centuries ago. The Bulgarian spirit surrenderedwithout any resistance. " The Kral of Bulgariadid not wait to be conquered, but humblybegged for mercy"; so writes an English historian.1 The rebellious spirit of the Serbs arosefirst in the Balkan darkness a hundred yearsago against the tyranny and the despoticwickedness of the Turkish rulers, and liberatedthe Serbian fatherland. The Bulgarian spiritwaited until strangers came and liberated theBulgarian country. Those strangers have been:Russians, Serbians, Roumanians and Mr. Gladstone. The Bulgarian spirit has been since 1878under the rule of the German kings, as slavishlysubordinate as it was for five hundred years

1 Stanley Lane-Poole, Turkey, p. 40.


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SERBIA AT PEACE 69under the rule of the Turkish viziers and pashas.I t was pure ignorance which made some peopleexclaim some months ago: " I t is King Ferdinand's war against Serbia and the Allies, andnot the Bulgarian people's. The Bulgars willnever fight against the Russians, their liberators."Yet the fact is and will remain: the Bulgarianpeople have only one thought, i.e. the thoughtof their ruler, be it Ferdinand or somebody else,and they have only one will, i.e. the will of theirruler. They will fight against the Russians asfiercely as they fought against the Turks yesterday, and against the French and British to-day,if it is only the plan and will of their ruler.

This slavish spirit, which is a disgrace to anation in the most tragic and decisive eventsof the world's history, makes the Bulgarianpeople in peace very happy and fit for peacefulorganised work, when obedience and subordination are required. This slavish spirit is thegreatest virtue and the greatest sin of the Bulgarian nation.Yet, I am speaking of our own sins, and Iconfess that our greatest sin has been the toogreatly developed love of personal independence.

I t is the truest spirit of the Serbs. From thisspirit originated all our fortunes and all our misfortunes. From the point of view of this spiritconsider, please, all our sins in modern times:


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70 SERBIA AT PEAOEthe killing of our kings, the internal disturbances,and all the irregularity in the political and sociallife of our country, and you will understand usbetter; and if you understand us better, I amsure you will forgive us more easily.

SERBIA IN PRAYER.Serbia has sinned, Serbia has prayed. I f you

put on one side of the scales Serbia's sins and onthe other Serbia's sufferings and prayers, I amsure the latter will send the balance down.Again I must come back to the Serbian village.Prayer is there consIdered not only as an epilogueto a sin but as a daily necessity. The first duty

after one's ablution in the morning is prayer.That is a sanctified custom. Many songs on ournational hero, Marko, begin as follows:" Marko got up early in the morning,Washed his face and prayed to God."

And all the songs begin, I repeat it, with theverse:"Dear God, we are thankful to Thee for all."

But not only the songs begin with prayer,every work and every pleasure begins with prayeras well, every day and every night, every feast,every rest and every journey. This custom hasbeen partly broken and abandoned only in thetowns under the influence of the central European


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SERBIA AT PEACE 71materialistic civilisation. In the villages unbelief is unknown. In our green fields, underour dark-blue heaven, in our little white housesand wooden cottages, on the banks of our murmuring brooks and magnificent rivers, atheismis unknown. Every family in a house is regardedas a little religious community. The head ofthefamily presides over this community and prayswith it. When I tell you that, I tell you mypersonal experience. I was born in a village, ina family of forty-five members. We prayedtogether every Saturday, after the weekly workwas over. In the evening my grandfather, thehead of the family, called us to prayer. We hadno chapel in the house. In bad weather weprayed in the house, in fine weather out of doors,in the yard. The starry heaven served as ourtemple, the moon as our guardian, the silentbreath of the surrounding nature as our inspiration. My grandfather took a chalice with fireand incense, and sprinkled everyone of us. Thenhe came forward, stood before us and boweddeeply, and his example was followed by us all.Then began a silent prayer, interrupted only hereand there by a sighing or by some whisperingvoice. We crossed ourselves and prayed, lookingto the earth and looking to the stars. The prayerended again with deep bowing and with a loudAmen.


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72 SERBIA AT PEAOEWhen I recall this prayer in my memory, I

feel more piety, more humility and more comfortthan I ever felt in any of the big cathedrals ineither hemisphere where I have had the oppor-tunity of praying. This prayer of the Serbianpeasants, beautiful in its simplicity and touchingin its sincerity, survived generation after genera-tion, and has been victorious over all crimes thatthe strangers of the Asiatic or of the Europeanfaith have committed on us. Our tenacious andincessant prayer is an evident sign of our tenaciousand unbroken hope. We pray because we hope;we hope still more after we have prayed.Everything can be disturbed in Serbia exceptprayer. The invasion of the Kaiser's troops inSerbia disturbed and perturbed everything inSerbia, but the prayer of the Serbian people stillcontinues. Enslaved in Serbia, dispersed as therefugees are all over the world, we pray to theGod of Justice, now as always. Our prayermeans our hope. The Kaiser's subjects and theBulgarian slaves can kill everything in Serbiaand the purpose of their coming into Serbia iskilling-but they never can kill our hope. Mar-tyred Serbia, your loyal ally, oh noble sons anddaughters of Great Britain, is now silent andpowerless. Enemies and friends can now laughher to scorn. She will remain silent. I am sureyou will respect this silence of the Orucified. I


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SERBIA A1' PEACE 73am sure everyone of you will do his best toredeem Serbia. Well, Serbia can now give, afterall, her cause to God and can wait the end hope-fully. She can now say to the Kaiser, herconqueror and lord, the words of one of yourgreat poets:

" I have lost, you have won this hazard: yet perchanceMy loss may shine yet goodlier than your gainWhen time and God give judgement."A. C. SWINBURNE (Faliero).


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SERBIA IN ARMS.Delivered bifOl'e the English Soldiers.

I PROPOSE to-night, gentlemen, to describe to youSerbia, my native country, my dream of thepast, my dream of the future, and one of yourAllies, loyal and faithful in life and death. I willtry, of course, to give you only some glancesat and slight insight into what Serbia has represented with her soul, her efforts, ideals andhopes. The time is short, yea, our time to-dayis more empty than the events which surpriseus every day, every night, and overwhelm uslike an avalanche of snow and ice from theAlps. How poor and insufficient is our humanlanguage to-day, even the language of the mosteloquent mortals from this island like Burke,Macaulay and Carlyle, to describe the eventswhich our eyes are seeing and our ears listeningto at the present moment! Do not expect fromme an equivalent description of Serbia, whichhas been one of the greatest factors in thisworld-war during many months, and which has


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76 SERBIA IN ARMStheir slaves. Yet we respected their virtues, andthey recognised some of ours. With the swordthey conquered our country, and we knew thatonly with the sword we could reconguer it fromthem. Our Christian drama with the Turks inthe Balkans began with blood, and we all believed it must finish with blood. In our bloodyconflict with the Turks we, the Christians, lostthree kings-one of them was King Constantineof Byzantium, and two were the Serbian kings,Vukashin and Lazare-during a period of seventeen years. As well as Serbia and Greece,Roumania also offered great resistance to theTurks. I t is a historic fact, that after thedecisive Balkan battle on the field of Kossovo,the Roumanians also fought against the Turks.In the battle of Rovina between the Turks andRoumanians, our epic Serbian hero, MarkoKralevich, the last king of Macedonia, calledMarko of Prilep, also participated, and was killedthere. He was the third Serbian king killed inthe defence of Christian,freedom in the Balkans.That was the time when the Albanians, too,showed their virtues more than ever before.Under Skender-beg, the prince from Croya, theyresisted the Mussulmans very bravely. But theyfell into slavery in the same way as Serbia,Greece, Roumania and Croatia. The only country in the Balkans which surrendered without


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SERBIA IN ARMS 77any resistance was Bulgaria. The only countryin the Balkans that never was conquered by theTurks was Montenegro. Poor Montenegro, askeleton of rocky mountains, has shown duringfive hundred years more heroic beauty andidealistic enthusiasm than many great empires inAsiatic and European history, which foughttheir selfish battles for power and comfort, andhave been respected and adored merely becauseof their numbers and dimensions.Now, in the year of our Lord, 1912, twoSerbian kingdoms, Serbia and Montenegro, withtwo other Christian kingdoms, Greece and Bulgaria, declared war on the Turks. The Roumanians were with their sympathies on the sideof the Christian allies. The Albanians, degenerateand disorganised, very different from Skenderbeg's contemporaries, standing now under theinfluence of Austria, were pro-Turks and againstthe Christian warriors.Shall I remind you of the results I supposethe surprising fact is fresh in your memories evennow that only two months after the Balkan warhad been declared the delegates of the belligerentsfor peace stayed in Hyde Park Hotel inLondon. Turkey lost and the Christians won.The Serbian troops crossed the frontier andfighting proceeded in three different directions,towards Skoplje and Prilep, towards Adrianople


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78 SERBIA IN ARMSand towards Scutari. A foreigner never

Serbia in Light and Darkness (1916.) - Nicholai Velimirovic

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Transcript of Serbia in Light and Darkness (1916.) - Nicholai Velimirovic