Why Is He a General?

By Nicholai Velimirovic
The circumstances under which this brief parable was written deserve to be told. When Bishop Nicholai, of Serbia,was in this country, pleading for funds for Serbian children, a friend presented him with a copy of Elbert Hubbard’s ‘Message to Garcia,'the point of which,as readers will commonly remember, was the absolute importance of giving genuine service for wages or for contract. A few days later the Bishop wrote his friend: ‘After I read your “Message to Garcia" I remembered a happening (which occurred during the tragic retreat of the Serbians), which I have tried to describe in this brief paper. The moral of it is similar to that of the “Message."' — THE EDITOR.

NIGHT and rain. Three of us were riding in a coach, ten miles away from our destination. One of the horses collapsed and fell down. Stop. No star in the sky, no counselor to comfort. What to do?

A man appeared, as a nightmare — as if he came out of the rocks on which we were leaning.

‘My name is Marko,’ he said. ‘ Don’t worry. In a few minutes everything will be all right.’

And he disappeared. But soon after, we found that our second horse had disappeared, too.

He had stolen it; all of us thought so, smiling ironically at the unfair game of fate.

Yet, in a few minutes, Marko returned, riding on the horse, and leading another horse by the string.

We asked questions: Who was he? where did he find a horse? and so forth. He murmured something, and kept busy about the horses and the coach.

‘Ready!’ he said. ‘Good-night to you.’ And the darkness of night swallowed him up.

‘Thank God, there are still Christian men in this world, we thought,’ and started.

I visited Mrs. Haverfield’s orphanage at Uzice. She said, —

‘The peasants of the surrounding villages are most helpful to me, especially Marko. He is beyond description.'

‘ But who is Marko? ’ I asked, remembering a dreadful emergency in my life.

‘ Don’t you know Marko? He is a man of perfect service to everybody. You will see him to-morrow.’

We were sitting at the open fire and listening to Marko. He is nothing more than an ordinary Serbian peasant.

‘Everybody must have learned a lesson in the war. Mine is a strange one, and yet the most valuable for the rest of my days.'

Then he became reluctant. But we insisted and he continued: —

‘My sin against our General M—— was the cause of the lesson. We were ten privates under the same tent. Our duty was to attend the general and his staff. We did our duty half-heartedly, and the officers often complained. One day the general called all of us and said, —

‘ “ Brothers, you are called to do service to me and to my officers. Do it perfectly and joyfully!”

‘We corrected ourselves a little. But war continued endlessly. Day and night we were filled with the dreams of our homes, and we walked ceaselessly in the camp like shadows, and did our service very badly. Water for the officers was not brought always in time; boots were not dried at fire and cleaned, as they ought to be. And again and again officers remonstrated. They must have complained to the general. One night the general opened our tent, looked in, and asked, —

‘“Brothers, are you all right?”

‘ He went off. And I — ’

There Marko stopped, and his eyes were shining with tears.

‘And I said loudly: “Why is he a general? He does nothing. We are doing everything. It is easy for him.”

‘The night was a very long one, but our sleep fast and our dreams of home very vivid.

‘“What is that?” we all asked, as with one voice, looking at a marvel. And the marvel was this: all the boots, both of the officers and our own, were perfectly cleaned and arranged at our feet. We went to the officers’ rooms. There, again, all the uniforms nicely hung up and cleaned, water-jars filled, and a big fire made in the hall, and the hall swept and put in order properly.

“‘Who did it?”

‘No one of us knew. Of course, all day we were talking of that.

‘The next morning the same thing happened. We were quite startled and confused. “Is God perhaps sending an angel to do this service for us?” This we asked each other, and retold all the fairy tales we remembered from our childhood.

‘But now, behold.

‘We decided to watch. And our sentinel saw, soon after midnight, our general creeping into our tent. Oh, shame! the mystery was now revealed and the lesson learned.

‘That day the general asked for me. I was trembling with all my body and soul. It was clear for me that he must have heard my remark about him two nights before.

‘But, O Lord, he was all smiles.

' “Brother Marko, did you ever read the Gospel?”

‘My lips were trembling, and I answered nothing.

‘“Well,” he continued, “take it once more to-day and read the story how the Captain of men, who is called by us the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, was the perfect servant of men.”

‘I cried like a child found in a theft.’

And Marko began to cry once again in telling his story, and we all were very much moved.

Then he took courage again, and continued : —

‘Then the general said: “My brother, two nights ago you asked a question which I have to answer now. Listen: I am your general because I am supposed to be able to do my own ‘invisible’ and ‘lordly’ duty, but also because I am supposed to be fit to do in a most excellent way the service you, the privates, are called to do.”

‘The general stopped and closed his eyes. I never shall forget that moment. I wished I were killed instantly by a bullet, so overwhelming was the presence of the general. I stood there all misery and fear.

‘Finally the general lifted up his head and said,—

‘“You must try your hardest to do your service to men perfectly and joyfully, now and always, not because of the severe order and discipline, but because of joy hidden in every perfect service.”

‘The general walked two or three steps toward the window and turned to me and said, —

‘“Now, brother Marko, I tell you honestly, I enjoyed greatly cleaning your boots, for I am greatly repaid by doing so. Don’t forget, every perfect service hides a perfect payment in itself, because — because, brother, it hides God in itself.”

‘Of course, after that, the service in the general’s camp was all right, and the officers never since had to complain.’

Thus finished Marko his story. The soft words of his good general were softened still more, and all the time, with Marko’s warm tears.

Later on, I was told by many people that Marko, who before the war was not at all considered a very kind man, and much less a man of stern principles, has become, through his perfect service to everybody within a time of existence of eighteen months, the most beloved human being in his mountains. At the last election the people unanimously asked him to go to represent them in the Parliament; but he declined. He said,—

‘That post is for the generals, and I am merely a private still.’

This is Private Marko’s lesson from the war, through which he has become involuntarily a captain of men.

For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. — ST. JOHN 13, 15-17.