Page:Report on the Memorial Meeting for Mahatma Gandhi.djvu/35

 spirit. When he was dead, many men and women far away were surprised by their own sudden grief, their sense of loss, their instinct that told them that the world without him will not be so good as it was. They had laughed a little at his dress, his diet, his spinning wheel, they could not see why he need reject the modern and fear the machine, and his religion was not theirs. But new they honored him for all he was and did and they knew in their hearts that true religion is a tie that binds fellow men, and that they too, were bound to him. And this discovery, which must have been shared by great numbers of people in all lands, gives hope that his ideals will live and help to bring the world at last to wisdom and gentleness and peace.”

DR. STEPHEN WISE, President, American Jewish Congress:

“When I learned that bullets had overcome the supreme figure of non-violence in our century, I could not help crying, ‘The sun has perished out of the Heavens.’

“What will forever live in remembrance and serve as an example and inspiration through the ages is the life of Gandhi, the man who dared to be himself; a man who, being utterly true to himself, became one of the supreme figures of a millennium.

“The bullet of a mad assassin felled him, and Gandhi’s remembrance is already become a shrine — in truth an altar — before which men of all faiths and races shall learn the ways of peace. Had Gandhi survived, he would have forgiven his assailant and sought to win him over to the good and non-violent life. Let there then be no bitter and widespread reprisals. Let India thank God that this man has lived, not worshiping an unattainable ideal, such has been the fate of Jesus, but seeking to live and strive for truth and justice and peace."