Trinity College School - Record Yearbook (Port Hope, Ontario Canada)

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6 TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD Never before had there been such an amazingly sud-- den and unexpected delivery from what appeared to be the certainty of utter desolation. How was this miracle performed? Of course we do not know all the practical details, and there was a certain letter sent from this side of the ocean to the leader of the Italian nation, about which we should like to know more. But we do know this,-there was a thought and there was a man. The thought was more widespread and more intense than many governments believed possible. It was a thought based on the anguish of twenty years ago, a thought rooted in and growing from our Memorial Cross and thousands of others like it, from the Tombs of the Un- known Soldiers. It was a thought, held by millions, that war was the very work of the devil, bringing nothing but death and misery to countless millions and solving nothing. Did the eight million men who died in the last great struggle, most of them in the spring of their life, some of them boys of thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen at the out- break of war, sitting in this very room, did these millions give their lives in vain? Was it possible that another generation was to be called upon to suffer even more tortures and more anguish than their fathers and mothers? No, No, No, if there was a God in heaven surely this thing could not be. That was the thought, held by more people than ever before, and offered in prayer all over the world. People of all classes, of all nations, prayed for peace with all their hearts and souls, and the prayer was answered. And there was an instrument to carry out this thought, a man. As he described himself, a man of peace to the bottom of his soulg also a man of true humility, of inex- haustible patience, a man of unswerving faith, of stead- fastness of purpose, a man devoted to the good of his fellow men, a man devoted to his God.

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TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD 5 Sunday, October 2nd., 1938. Peace Slmday During the past two weeks we have lived through a series of the most momentous days in the history of the world, days fraught with developments which at one time seemed destined to mean the end of European civilization as we have known it. Five great nations were on the brink of war, feverish- ly preparing to resort to the lawlessness of the jungle with all the diabolical weapons of butchery at their command. The last lingering hope seemed to have gone with the broadcast words of the Prime Minister of Great Britain, an old man worn out with his responsibility and efforts for peace, rebelling to the core of his soul at the thought of such madness, such senseless slaughter, yet seemingly at the end of his path, with no way to turn but to war. Our lives and the lives of millions of other young men were hanging in the balance, and the scales seemed weight- ed against them. Were we to live and love life revelling in the glories of the autumn countryside, or were we to be thrown into a horrible welter of mutilation and destruc- tion, knowing that the wastage of life and property would solve nothing, that the end would be as bad as the beginning? Our fate seemed to be decided, and the ordinary affairs of life became petty and trivialg the world we had known seemed to be rapidly approaching its end. And then the miracle,-for it was a miracle, they are not confined to the New Testament-a scene of utter desolation and misery became suddenly a scene of thanks- giving and unrestrained joy, Rachel weeping for her children, became Simeon blessing God and saying Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy wordg for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten us, and the glory of thy people.

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TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD 7 On Monday last, the world jury heard an appeal to physical brute force, an appeal to the passion of man. On Tuesday the world jury heard a simple, moving appeal to the spirit and soul of man, an appeal to man's reason. In history the appeal to brute force has often won out temporarily, but never permanently, last week it fail- ed because the will for peace was greater than the will for war, because people prayed that their sons and daugh- ters would not be mutilated and massacred in a senseless struggle for power. The Munich agreement to keep the peace was begun twenty years ago in the hearts of the ordinary men and women of the worldg steadily increasing, it was finally strong enough to overcome what at one time seemed to be impossible odds against it. To-day, more perhaps than ever before, we remember with undying love and gratitude those who were called upon to sacrifice their lives to prove the waste of war. It would seem then that the world has been saved from utter self destruction because of a thought, and be- cause of a man, because of prayer, of true humility, of patience and understanding, of faith, of steadfastness of purpose, of tireless devotion to the well-being of man, of devotion to all that we mean by God. It is probably true that at no other period of history have these qualities been found in such earnestness, such sincerity. They spring, of course, from the Author of our faith in the good life, they are rooted and grounded in love. At all times, but especially at the beginning of a new task, at the beginning of a new school year, we can be immeasurably helped if we will bring these qualities into our lives. They are simple, homely virtues, found in all families where there is love and joy, found in all good neighbours.