The Advocate

Love of Country.

Love of country is as spontaneous and
God-given an affection and principle as
love of home, of father and of mother.
Yet much is due the young people of
our homesteads with respect to these
holidays. They should be made the most
of. Parents and employers should make
them holidays in very truth, relaxing
all possible claims on the time our rulers
have wisely decreed shall be devoted to
freedom of action, to mirth or the ob-
servance of such exercises as a holiday
may bring. The man who exacts un-
necessary toll from a boy on Memorial
day or the Fourth of July represses his
patriotism, defrauds him of his legiti-
mate right as a subject of legislative law
and takes from him a joy that after years
will fail to indemnify.

A holiday always points back to an
important history. It is not necessary
or judicious to prate too long even of
very important events of the past. But
Memorial day as long as it lasts must
always be an anniversary to bring many
a weary sigh and start many a bitter
memory. It was the youth, the beauti-
ful, hopeful, courageous youth, that in
all the glory of their fresh young lives
went forth in large numbers in those
mournful days to do battle for their own
dear land. And it is to many of them
who yielded up their precious lives in
the cause of unity, freedom and justice
that the youth of to-day are already in-
debted for the freedom, the peace and
the strong bands of union that char-
acterize us as a people. Do not let the
young people overlook or forget it.—
Christian Work.