Serbia in Light and Darkness | Page 5

you take life, 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 the devil.
Some people are dressed in silk and satin, and others are dressed in rags.
Very often that is the only difference between man and man.
There is a great difference between a learned man and a good man. The
learned man can do good, but the good man will do good. The learned
man can build the world up, but can destroy it too; the good man can
only build it up.
A man's judgment lasts as long as a man's life, but God's judgment lasts
as long as God.
It is better to dress the soul in silk and the body in rags than the reverse.
If life does not mean work, then life is worth nothing.
Work and virtue are sisters, as well as idleness and vice.
Work and prayer are two eyes on the same face. The man who works
only, without praying, has one eye only; and the man who prays
without working only has one eye too. The man who neither works nor
prays has no eyes, and walks in darkness.
Neither be boastful of life nor fearful of death. Death is conditioned by
life, and life by death.

You can kill me, but my son will live; you can kill my son, but my soul
will live.
The Kingdom of God is coming as quietly as the moonlight, and it will
come fully when men learn not to live in convulsions and not to die in
convulsions.
There are only two nations upon the earth: that which weeps and that
which laughs.
Now I would like to indicate slightly what The English Political
Interests in Serbia are. Little as she may seem, democratic Serbia is still
the greatest moral factor in the big Slav world. She is admired by other
subjugated Slavs because she succeeded without anybody's help in
freeing herself. She is envied by all other Slavs, from near and from far,
as well as from other neighbouring nations, because of her nearly
perfect democracy. Serbia is the only democratic state among the four
independent Slav states (Russia, Montenegro, Bulgaria). And just in
this terrible war it became clear to all the world that Serbia was the
only democratic state in the Near East. Turkey is governed by an
oligarchy, Bulgaria by a German despot, Greece by a wilful king whose
patriotism is overshadowed by his nepotism, Roumania is ruled more
by the wish of the landlords (boyars) and court than by the wish of the
people. I will say nothing about the very profanation of democracy in
the dark realm of the Hapsburgs.
Serbia not only means a democratic state, but a democratic nation; that
is to say, that not only are the Serbian institutions (including the church
also) democratic, but the spirit of the whole of the nation is democratic.
After all, this democratic spirit of Serbia must be victorious in the
Balkans as well as in the Slav world.
You know that England's glory has always been to stand as the
champion of democracy. England's best interests in the Near East now
more than ever imperatively require her to support democratic Serbia
against her anti-democratic enemies. How different Serbia is from all
her neighbours was clearly proved just by this war. She is alone in the
Near East fighting on the side of the democratic England and France

against Prussian militarism and autocracy. That does not happen
accidentally, but because of the Serbian democratic spirit. This spirit is
very attractive for all the Slavs who are under the Austro-Hungarian
rule. Many of them are looking towards powerful Russia to liberate
them (Poles, Bohemians, Ruthenes, Slovaks). Yet they do not wish
only Freedom, but Freedom and Democracy together. Therefore they
are looking with one eye towards Russian power and with another
towards Serbian democracy. It is clear that the English victory over the
Germans must have as the first consequence the liberation of all the
slaves in Europe. In this case all the Southern Slav people in
Austro-Hungary--Serbs, Croats and Slovenes--wish to be one unit with
democratic Serbia, as it was formulated lately by the Southern-Slav
Committee in London, and all the others--Poles, Bohemians, Ruthenes
and Slovaks--wish to be like democratic Serbia. Consequently Serbia is
a kernel, a nucleus of a greater Southern-Slav state, and at the same
time the inspiring and revolutionising power for all the down-trodden
Slavs. This kernel for five hundred years was the little, but never
subjugated, Montenegro, but lately the Piedmontal role has been
transferred to Serbia.
The English political interest in the future Greater Serbia, or
Yougoslavija, is of the first importance. The Southern-Slav state will