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FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 or 
 
 The Christian Pulpit 
 in War-Time 
 
 ADDRESSES 
 BY 
 
 Rev. RANDOLPH H. McKIM, D.D.,LL.D.,D.C.L. 
 
 RECTOR OF THE CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 Pro Deo, pro Civifate, pro hominum salute 
 
 NEW YORK 
 E. P. DUTTON b' COMPANY 
 
 68 1 FIFTH AVENUE 
 
...V ,A' 
 
 Copyright, 1918, 
 By E. p. DUTTON &• COMPANY 
 
 'CI.A5(J3299 
 
 SEP -6 1318 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
 yyAr^a 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Of the Addresses which this volume contains all 
 but two were delivered before the United States 
 decided to enter the War. They are now pub- 
 lished at the solicitation of friends upon whose 
 judgment I rely, because the principles they em- 
 body still need to be emphasized; and also be- 
 cause they furnish proof of a fact that ought not 
 to be forgotten, — namely, that the Christian Church 
 did not wholly fail to discern the true significance 
 of the War as an assault upon Liberty and Democ- 
 racy everywhere, and, did not hesitate to urge, 
 nearly two years before America declared war, that 
 our policy should not be governed by counsels 
 of timidity and international opportunism, but by 
 a steadfast regard to the ideals handed down to 
 us by our Revolutionary ancestors; by fidelity to 
 the principles enshrined in our Constitution; by a 
 brave determination to vindicate the honor and 
 majesty of the Republic; above all, by loyalty to 
 justice — that justice which is the basis of all true 
 civilization. 
 
 Doubtless these Addresses are typical of many 
 utterances of the Christian pulpit throughout the 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 land, and they may serve to exonerate the Church 
 from the charge that in the greatest tragedy of 
 human history she was content to sit by the fire 
 warming herself. 
 
 It is not without significance of the temper that 
 prevailed in official circles in Washington, that 
 when the second of these utterances was made 
 public a friend of the author who occupied a not 
 unimportant position in the State Department wrote 
 in vigorous remonstrance against the position 1 
 had taken (in Nov., 191 5). He defended the sinking 
 of the Lusitania, because it was *^an enemy ship;" he 
 declared that our diplomacy had scored a signal 
 success, and that Germany had abandoned sub- 
 marine warfare ; that intervention would involve the 
 abandonment of our traditional policy of non-in- 
 terference in European affairs, and that, as to the 
 Teutonic embassies being nests of conspiracy 
 against our domestic peace, there was not a shred of 
 evidence on which such a charge could be supported. 
 
 It is needless to point out that we now know that 
 the embassies of Germany and Austria were much 
 more deeply and damnably guilty than my words 
 implied; but it is passing strange if no perception 
 of their guilt had dawned upon the minds of the 
 officials of the State Department. The public mind 
 at any rate was not so blind to the facts. 
 
 I append an extract from one of the letters re- 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 ferred to above. It is from the pen of a well 
 known writer and critic, Rev. G. Monroe Royce, 
 Rector at New Windsor on the Hudson, N. Y., au- 
 thor of 'The Passing of the American," 'The Son 
 of Amram," "The Note-Book of an American Par- 
 son in England," etc. 
 
 "My Dear Dr. McKim : 
 
 I write to urge you to publish some of your War-time 
 Addresses, first on account of their intrinsic worth, and 
 second in order to place on record the fact that the 
 Episcopal Church in America, through you, so long Presi- 
 dent of its House of Deputies, has occupied a foremost 
 place in the ranks of the clear-eyed, stout-hearted, pa- 
 triots who saw in the outrage of Belgium and the sink- 
 ing of the Lusitania, the acts of a hostile government 
 whose ambition was universal conquest, and whose meth- 
 ods were immoral, ruthless and barbaric. You were 
 among the first Americans to warn your countrymen 
 that they would sooner or later have to reckon with the 
 gigantic military power of Germany, and that the sooner 
 America took her place by the side of Democratic France 
 and her Allies, the sooner would the merciless, conscience- 
 less power of Prussia be broken. Some of us — I speak 
 of myself in particular, — were for 'Peace at any price,' 
 and denounced all preparation for war as the surest means 
 of bringing about war. I went so far as to challenge 
 the National Security League to a public debate. Now I 
 see that at the bottom of my plea for peace there was 
 an unconscious sympathy with Germany; and I believe 
 that if every pacifist would analyze his thoughts, he would 
 find the same to be true in his own case." 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I The National Crisis i 
 
 II National Opportunity and Responsi- 
 bility II 
 
 III The "Lusitania" Anniversary ... 25 
 
 IV A Lesson in Preparedness from Recent 
 
 English History 42 
 
 V America's Stewardship 50 
 
 VI Isaiah's Counsel in a Great National 
 
 Crisis 67 
 
 VII America Summoned to A Holy War . . 79 
 
 VIII The Duty of the Hour 96 
 
 IX God's Call TO America no 
 
FOR GOD 
 AND COUNTRY 
 
 THE NATIONAL CRISIS* 
 
 A DISCUSSION OF THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF WAR 
 
 "Jesus answered, . . . 'If my Kingdom were of 
 this world, then would my servants fight.'' — ^John 
 XVIII, 36 
 
 When Jesus and his disciples came down from 
 the mount where he had been gloriously transfigured 
 before them, he found awaiting him in the plain a 
 sorrowful scene of human sickness and trouble — a 
 heartbroken father with his demoniac boy praying 
 in agonized tones for help. 
 
 So it is with us to-day, my brethren. We have 
 been standing on the Mount of Olives beholding 
 the glorious ascension of our Lord into heaven, 
 and the church has been teaching us to pray that 
 
 * Delivered in the Church of the Epiphany, Washing- 
 ton, D. C, May 17, 1915. 
 
 I 
 
2 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 we may in heart and mind thither ascend with Him, 
 and be at last exalted unto the same place whither 
 our Saviour Christ has gone before. 
 
 And now we come down from the mount and find 
 ourselves confronted by a national crisis, big with 
 most serious anxiety. Ten days ago an unspeak- 
 able crime against civilization and humanity was 
 committed on the high seas, involving the death of 
 more than a hundred American citizens, men, 
 women and little children, a crime which has 
 shocked the world and aroused the deep indignation 
 of the American people. But indignation is not 
 the only sentiment which has been aroused. With 
 deep sorrow we see a great Empire committed by 
 its rulers to a policy of fright fulness which re- 
 pudiates all the obligations of civilization and 
 morality and international law, and shocks the 
 conscience of mankind. 
 
 As we contemplate the spectacle our prayer goes 
 up to God that even the German people may rise 
 up and condemn this awful deed done in its name. 
 A most serious question, however, confronts us as 
 members of the Christian Church. What should be 
 our attitude as Christian men in this supreme crisis? 
 Our President has given utterance with dignity, 
 with wonderful self-restraint, with firmness, and 
 yet in a friendly spirit to the deep indignation felt 
 by the American people at a series of violations 
 of the rights of our peojple, culminating in this 
 
THE NATIONAL CRISIS 3 
 
 unspeakable deed of wholesale murder on the high 
 seas. He has asked that the German government 
 disavow responsibility for this awful outrage, and 
 give us assurance that it shall not be repeated. But 
 what if this demand be refused? We do not want 
 war, but still less do we want national dishonor. 
 Let us hope and pray that another alternative may 
 be possible. But if, in the end, in spite of all hon- 
 orable effort to avoid war, it shall be forced upon 
 us, what in that event should be the attitude of the 
 Christian church? There are many, as you know, 
 who urge that war is never justifiable under any 
 circumstances, and that the followers of the Prince 
 of Peace should never give countenance to war — 
 should never support it by voice or vote or personal 
 participation. 
 
 This is the question which I wish to consider 
 briefly this morning. 
 
 I. Now in the first place I ask you to take note 
 of the words of Christ which I have taken for my 
 text. He said to Pontius Pilate, "If my kingdom 
 were of this world then would my servants fight." 
 But his kingdom was not of this world, it was a 
 spiritual kingdom, and therefore they would not 
 fight to establish it. On the other hand, if it had 
 been a worldly kingdom, a civil government. His 
 servants in that case would not hesitate to employ 
 the agency of war. This surely is a recognition 
 that in the worldly sphere, in the sphere of the 
 
4 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 governments of this world, war may sometimes 
 be necessary. 
 
 2. Again I call your attention to the fact that 
 history presents innumerable examples of men filled 
 with the Spirit of God, evidently anointed with the 
 Holy Ghost, who have at the same time been 
 .faithful soldiers in the armies of their country. 
 Next Sunday is Whitsunday — the great feast of the 
 Holy Spirit, the birthday of the Christian church, 
 when we commemorate the descent of the Holy 
 Ghost upon the infant church in Jerusalem. Now 
 this I say is a noteworthy fact, that so many brave 
 soldiers and sailors, fighting the battles of king 
 and country with courage and devotion, have also 
 been men full of the Spirit of God, pure, noble, types 
 of Christian character. Such I take it could not have 
 been the case if the profession to which they had 
 devoted their lives was inconsistent with the Chris- 
 tian religion. 
 
 3. Observe once more, that when the soldiers 
 came to John the Baptist and asked his counsel he 
 said unto them, "Do violence to no man, neither 
 accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages." 
 He did not bid them renounce their profession as 
 soldiers, but evidently contemplated their continu- 
 ance therein. To the same purpose is the fact that 
 Cornelius, the Roman centurion, when he was 
 baptized and anointed with the Holy Ghost, re- 
 ceived no commandment from St. Peter to throw 
 
THE NATIONAL CRISIS 5 
 
 up his commission in the Roman army and refuse 
 henceforth to follow the profession of a soldier. 
 
 4. Once more I urge that if war were never 
 justifiable and a Christian man could not draw his 
 sword in defense of his country without disloyalty 
 to Christ — the inspired] writers would not have 
 selected the terms of war and the armor of the 
 soldier as symbols of the Christian life and of 
 Christian virtues. "Fight the good fight of faith," 
 cries St. Paul. "Put on the whole armor of God, 
 that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, 
 and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, 
 having your loins girded up with truth, and having 
 on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet 
 shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; 
 above all taking the shield of faith, wherewith you 
 shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the 
 wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the 
 sword of the spirit" (Eph. 6: 11 to 17). 
 
 Surely if the profession of a soldier had been 
 fundamentally opposed to the Christian religion 
 some other imagery than this would have been 
 adopted by the inspired writer. Nor would the 
 church have adopted the idea into her baptismal ser- 
 vice in the solemn words, "We sign him with the 
 sign of the cross in token that hereafter he shall 
 not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ cruci- 
 fied, and manfully to fight under His banner against 
 
6 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 sin, the world, and the devil, and to continue Christ's 
 faithful soldier and servant to his life's end." 
 
 5. Consider now some of the logical conse- 
 quences of accepting the theory of the pacifists — 
 the idea that war is never justifiable — not even when 
 it is waged in defense of our liberties. 
 
 Our holy religion does indeed condemn unjust 
 wars, wars of aggression, wars of conquest, wars of 
 revenge. But what of a war of self-defense? What 
 of a war for liberty? A war for national self-pres- 
 ervation? A war to save civil law from being 
 absolutely overborne by military law ? Our pacifists 
 say Christianity condemns even such wars as these. 
 If so, then observe some of the consequences. 
 
 (i) We must reject wholesale the teaching of 
 the Old Testament; not only, mark you, the im- 
 precatory Psalms — not only the undeveloped moral 
 teaching of the period of the Judges, but the whole 
 spirit and teaching of the Book. We must repu- 
 diate the teaching of the ancient prophets and 
 patriarchs. We must call Ezekiel down from his 
 watch tower and tell him to go home and sleep. 
 We must dismiss that grand patriot, the prophet 
 Isaiah, from his office as counselor of his people 
 when their enemies marched against them. We 
 must go into the Bible hall of fame, and pull down 
 the statue of Abraham, for he was a warrior; and 
 the statue of Moses, for he too was a military 
 leader as well as a law giver; and the statue of 
 
THE NATIONAL CRISIS 7 
 
 Joshua, captain of the host of Israel, and type of 
 Christ ; and the statues of Judas Maccabseus and his 
 father Mattathias, those glorious patriots of the 
 olden times. Yes, and we must go through our 
 cemeteries, chisel in hand, and wherever we find 
 the word "Christian soldier*' on the tomb of any 
 of our heroes, we must relentlessly cut it out, — for 
 on this theory no soldier can be a Christian. 
 
 (2) Nor will the New Testament fare much better 
 at the hands of this pacifist theory. That magnifi- 
 cent roll of heroes and martyrs given us in the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews must be cut and slashed 
 and almost obliterated. Even the Te Deum must 
 be expurgated, for many of the noble army of the 
 martyrs and the goodly fellowship of the prophets 
 were soldiers or the leaders of soldiers — from 
 Moses to St. Alban. 
 
 John the Baptist must be faulted because he did 
 not bid the soldiers who asked his counsel to for- 
 sake their colors; and St. Peter, also, because he 
 did not bid Cornelius throw up his commission as 
 centurion in the Roman army; and even Jesus, be- 
 cause he uttered that splendid encomium on the 
 Roman centurion. 
 
 (3) The church, too, must be rebuked, on the 
 pacifist theory, because she has incorporated the 
 military idea into her baptismal formula, bidding 
 her children manfully fight under the banner of the 
 Cross, and especially because she has written high 
 
8 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 on her roll of honor the names of so many brave 
 soldiers and seamen who have given their lives for 
 home and country against the armies of the aliens. 
 
 I cannot help here making a personal application 
 in regard to this : I will refer to the name of a man 
 who is esteemed by a very large proportion of ex- 
 pert opinion as the greatest soldier America has 
 ever produced; and I refer to him as a Christian 
 and not as a soldier. I refer to him as a shining 
 example of Christian character — I mean Robert E. 
 Lee. There is a man who is a supreme example of 
 the Christian life and of Christian conduct. In- 
 deed, when you read his letters to his family you 
 say, "Here is a saint and not a soldier." If the 
 pacifists' theory be correct, how could Robert E. 
 Lee have been such a saint as he was? 
 
 And now one thing more: I ask you to tell me 
 what is the supremest virtue inculcated by the Chris- 
 tian religion; and I believe all will answer, **Self- 
 sacrifice." I believe it because I am sure you are 
 not disciples of Nietzsche. If you were you would 
 say something like this: *'Self-sacrifice is only 
 worthy of women and children and Englishmen." 
 
 Self-sacrifice, I say, is the supremest Christian 
 virtue; and where do you find it in greater beauty 
 than in the lives of Christian soldiers, even on the 
 field of battle? There are old soldiers here, no 
 doubt. I was a soldier. I do not like to call my- 
 
THE NATIONAL CRISIS 9 
 
 self an old soldier; but at any rate a man who is a 
 soldier in what he believes to be a just cause can go 
 forth to battle with the love of God in his heart 
 and the love of his fellowman, and be as sure of 
 serving God as when he is down on his knees say- 
 ing his prayers. There is a God-implanted instinct 
 in every man to defend his home, his wife and his 
 children; and that instinct has upon it the image 
 and the superscription of the Divine King. If that 
 is so, then I ask: Is this instinct of self-defense 
 for one's home and family in conflict with the spirit 
 of the Christian religion? — and I do not hesitate to 
 say if it really were in conflict with the Christian 
 religion we could not accept the Christian religion 
 as a Divine revelation. 
 
 But aside from this argument from the reducHo 
 ad ahsurdum we cannot forget that the New Testa- 
 ment teaches us that "the wisdom which is from 
 above is '* first pure, then peaceable" ; that our Lord 
 is ''-first King of Righteousness, then King of 
 Peace" (which justifies the conclusion that there is 
 no just peace that is not based on righteousness) ; 
 and that he is described in the book of Revelation 
 as one whose "eyes were as a flame of fire," "mak- 
 ing war in righteousness," and "followed by the 
 armies of Heaven." 
 
 In conclusion I will only add that the idea of 
 "Peace at any price" — abject submission, for in- 
 
10 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 stance, to foreign invasion — is to be repudiated by 
 Christian men in the name of their Master, Who 
 made a whip of small cords and drove the traffick- 
 ers out of the temple. 
 
II 
 
 NATIONAL OPPORTUNITY AND 
 RESPONSIBILITY * 
 
 "Let us search and try our ways." — Lam. Ill, 40 
 
 In obedience to a long-honored custom, the peo- 
 ple of the United States are invited to assemble in 
 their places of worship to-day to render thanks 
 and praise to the Almighty Father, the giver of all 
 good, for the fruits of the earth, and all the other 
 blessings of his bountiful providence. 
 
 We respond to the invitation with grateful hearts. 
 The earth has yielded her increase with prodigality 
 unexampled, perhaps, since we became a nation. 
 The sun of prosperity has again risen upon our 
 land. Peace reigns throughout our borders, and, 
 as the President has reminded us, "our ample finan- 
 cial resources have enabled us to steady the markets 
 of the world." For these and other blessings it is 
 meet and right that this great nation with its hun- 
 dred million people should lift its heart and voice 
 in devout thanksgiving to Almighty God. 
 
 * Delivered in the Church of the Epiphany, Washing- 
 ton, D. C, on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 2Sth, 1915. 
 
 II 
 
12 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 But our chief executive bids us consider to-day 
 "our duty to ourselves and to mankind," and "to 
 ponder the many responsibilites thrust upon us by 
 the great war now being waged." In the same doc- 
 ument he speaks of our people "realizing the part 
 they have been called upon to play." 
 
 My brethren, let us give heed to this exhortation. 
 Let us ask this morning, very solemnly, as we re- 
 view the history of the last fifteen months. Have 
 we done our duty to ourselves? Have we done 
 our duty to mankind? Have we bravely met the 
 many responsibilities thrust upon us by this tre- 
 mendous conflict? Have we nobly played the part 
 we have been called upon to play in this time of 
 unparalleled distresses and disasters? 
 
 There are undoubtedly some things upon which 
 we, as American citizens, may dwell with real sat- 
 isfaction. 
 
 (i) The hearts of our people have nobly re- 
 sponded to the cry of distress from Belgium and 
 Servia — vast sums of money have been poured out 
 without stint for the relief of those suffering mil- 
 lions. 
 
 (2) We may also contemplate with satisfaction 
 the splendid work done by our American Red Cross 
 on the fields of battle, in the hospitals, and in the 
 devastated homes of the people. 
 
 (3) We are justly proud also of the services 
 bravely and impartially rendered by our Ambassa- 
 
NATIONAL OPPORTUNITY 13 
 
 dors in London, in Berlin, in Brussels, in Paris, in 
 Constantinople. The names of Whitlock and Her- 
 rick and Sharp and Gerard and Morgenthau and 
 Page are worthy of all honor. They have shed 
 luster on the American name. 
 
 (4) With even greater satisfaction we contem- 
 plate the heroic labors of our medical experts, 
 bravely rendered, often at the cost of life itself, 
 fighting the battle against disease in stricken Servia. 
 For all these things we are proud and thankful. 
 
 But "our duty to ourselves and to mankind" de- 
 manded much more than this. The responsibilities 
 thrust upon us by the time were too serious, were 
 of too great proportions, to be met by gifts of 
 money, or by brave diplomatic services, or even by 
 the heroic labors of philanthropy. The Thanksgiv- 
 ing Proclamation bids us "be thankful that we have 
 been able to assert our rights and the rights of 
 mankind," and it must be acknowledged that in 
 more than one state paper they have been asserted 
 with great dignity and force and in very trenchant 
 English. But our duty called for something more 
 than the assertion of the rights of mankind, and 
 our own. Have we performed that duty ? 
 
 Consider. We allowed the neutrality of Belgium 
 to be violated without a word of protest. We saw 
 the country of the Belgians ruined and devastated, 
 its ancient hospitable soil sown with thousands of 
 tombs ; its cities burned ; its peaceful citizens shot to 
 
14 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 death by hundreds and thousands, and still we raised 
 no voice of protest. We were powerless indeed to 
 stay the hand of violence and cruelty when it seized 
 the throat of poor little Belgium. But it was in 
 our power to lift up our voice before the civilized 
 world against this brutal and unspeakable crime. 
 This at least we could have done, but this we failed 
 to do, and so failed of our high duty before God 
 and humanity. And when the Belgian commission- 
 ers presented the wrongs of their crucified nation in 
 our capitol we turned them away with icy phrases, 
 and bid them present their case to The Hague 
 tribunal ! 
 
 Passing over many minor matters, I ask did we 
 do our duty to ourselves and to mankind when the 
 Liisitania was barbarously attacked on the high seas 
 and a thousand human beings — men, women and 
 Httle children — sent to their deaths? We did, in- 
 deed, protest against this deed of horror and inhu- 
 manity in a state paper which has seldom been 
 equaled in diplomatic history. It was a brave and 
 splendid assertion, not only of the rights of Ameri- 
 can citizens, but of the rights of humanity. When 
 we read it our hearts leaped up in thankfulness. 
 
 It was not long, however, before other vessels 
 bearing American citizens were torpedoed, and 
 again American lives were lost. Once more, in 
 ringing tones, our chief magistrate asserted the 
 purpose to hold to "strict accountability" the nation 
 
NATIONAL OPPORTUNITY 15 
 
 that had thus outraged the dignity of the United 
 States, and destroyed the lives of our citizens. But 
 the outrages did not cease. 
 
 Again, under circumstances of peculiar atrocity, 
 a peaceful merchant ship was destroyed and Amer- 
 ican lives destroyed with it. Then there came a 
 brave, stern demand that these infamous acts should 
 cease, and the purpose was affirmed in words of 
 adamantine force, to hold the guilty nation to ac- 
 count for its crimes. 
 
 Again we rejoiced that our chief magistrate had 
 so nobly expressed the mind and purpose of the 
 nation. Again we believed that those brave words 
 would be followed by deeds as brave. But more 
 than seven long months have passed since the Lusi- 
 tania horror burst upon the world, and still nothing 
 has been done to avenge the deaths of those Ameri- 
 can citizens — men, women, and children — ruthlessly' 
 murdered on the high seas ! Nothing has been done 
 to vindicate the insulted majesty of our Republic! 
 Our words have been of adamant — our deeds have 
 not crystallized — they are still in the fluid state ! 
 
 But what could we have done, it may be asked. 
 Should we have declared war on Germany? No. 
 But we should have broken off diplomatic relations 
 with a nation that had thus wantonly outraged 
 every principle of humanity, and insulted the maj- 
 esty of the Republic. This action would have been 
 supported by a vast majority of our people. Our 
 
i6 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 citizenship had been outraged; our national dignity 
 defiantly trampled upon ; and our whole people were 
 aroused to such a pitch of indignation that the gov- 
 ernment would have been sustained by an over- 
 whelming majority in vigorous and uncompromis- 
 ing action. 
 
 But what, it may be asked, would have been ac- 
 complished by breaking off diplomatic relations in 
 response to the loud demand of our citizens? I an- 
 swer, several things of great moment might have 
 been expected to result. 
 
 In the first place we should have consolidated pub- 
 lic opinion. We should have taken a great step to 
 unify our nation. We are a composite people ; many 
 races mingle their tides on our shores. It should, 
 therefore, have been one of the supreme tasks of 
 statesmanship to weld these peoples into one, to 
 fuse together these diverse elements. 
 
 Again, in doing so we should have banished from 
 our midst those numerous representatives of foreign 
 powers who are hostile to our country, and we 
 should have broken up many nests of conspiracy, 
 where representatives of alien nations have been 
 plotting against the peace and prosperity of our 
 land. We should have driven into their holes thou- 
 sands of disloyal citizens who have been obeying 
 the behests of foreign powers while still clutching 
 the privileges of American citizenship. 
 
 But more important than this, we should have 
 
NATIONAL OPPORTUNITY 17 
 
 vindicated the honor and majesty of our country. 
 We should have given expression to the real senti- 
 ments of nine-tenths of our people. We should have 
 taken our stand by the side of the great Democ- 
 racies who are fighting our battles to-day against 
 the encroachments and usurpations of autocratic 
 tryanny. And we should have thrown into the scale 
 the immense weight of our influence, as the might- 
 iest neutral power, on the side of humanity and law 
 and liberty. 
 
 But, it will be said, such a course might have led 
 to war. I answer, not necessarily so. Not unless 
 Germany saw fit to declare war against us — which 
 it is not likely she would have done. 
 
 But suppose it might have led to war? Is a great 
 and powerful nation to submit to insults and out- 
 rage rather than run the risk of war? The Central 
 European Powers have, in fact, been levying war 
 against the United States for seven months past. 
 They have been attacking our industries, they have 
 been interfering with our domestic affairs, they have 
 been fomenting strikes, they have plotted to blow 
 up our public buildings, to burn our factories, to 
 blow up our ships. Read the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence and see how small were England^ s acts of 
 oppression against the Colonies in comparison with 
 what we have endured at the hands of the Central 
 Empires. What an indictment Thomas Jefferson 
 could have drawn up, were he with us to-day, 
 
i8 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 against Germany and Austria! And I ask, should 
 we fail of our duty in a great world crisis when 
 the blood of our citizens cries to Heaven for ven- 
 geance because we are afraid of the consequences? 
 Where is the spirit of 'y6, when thirteen feeble col- 
 onies did not hesitate to challenge the power of the 
 mighty English empire rather than submit to unjust 
 taxation — a tax on tea? 
 
 Men say, **What could America, in its defense- 
 less condition, without an army, and with so small 
 a navy, what could America do against the mighty 
 armaments of Germany and Austria?" I answer, 
 what could Germany and Austria do against Amer- 
 ica so long as the British fleet commands the seas? | 
 They could not land a soldier on our shores! The 
 most they could do would be to smuggle a subma- 
 rine across the Atlantic and attack our commerce. 
 
 And now another outrage has been committed. 
 Another ship (the Ancona) has been sunk, and as 
 American citizens were assassinated on the Lusi- 
 tcmia, and on the Arabic j and on the Hesperian, 
 American citizens have now again been assassinated 
 with brutal cruelty on board the Ancona. 
 
 This new outrage offers a fresh opportunity to 
 our Government — not to speak, or to write dis- 
 patches — but to act in defense of the insulted maj- 
 esty of the Republic. We trusted our President. 
 We were ready to give him whole-hearted support. 
 
NATIONAL OPPORTUNITY 19 
 
 We expected that his virile assertion of the rights 
 of American citizens and of the rights of humanity 
 (which so stirred our blood) would have been fol- 
 lowed by action, vigorous action; but after watch- 
 fully waiting in vain for seven months we frankly 
 say we are disappointed. Will we be disappointed 
 now? 
 
 In my opinion, American citizens should no 
 longer keep silence. We have patiently waited to 
 be led in the path of duty, but we have waited in 
 vain. "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." We 
 ask now, not for strong and resolute words, but 
 for strong and resolute action. 
 
 Let it not be said that the words I have uttered 
 this morning are not fitting in the Christian pulpit. 
 I hold, on the contrary, that it is the duty of the 
 Christian pulpit to denounce the sordid and selfish 
 ideals that have regard only to trade and comfort 
 and peace. The Christian pulpit should call trum- 
 pet-tongued to the people to be true to our American 
 ideals; true to the principles of liberty and justice 
 enshrined in our history ; true to the great principles 
 of Democracy embodied in our Constitution. I re- 
 member that it was Mattathias, the priest, who fired 
 the hearts of the Jews to resist the tyranny of An- 
 tiochus : **My sons, be valiant and show yourselves 
 men!" he cried. It was the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury who headed the barons at Runnymede when 
 they wrung the Magna Charta from the tyrant 
 
20 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 John ! It was the prophet Ezekiel who was charged 
 to watch and warn the people of the approach of 
 the enemy! 
 
 The leaders of the Christian Church have often, 
 in great national crises, stood forth to utter the 
 people's voice against tyranny. I feel, therefore, 
 that it is not only my right, but my duty, to give 
 utterance to the sentiments which I believe throb in 
 many hearts in our country to-day. I make my 
 own, the words recently uttered by one of our ablest 
 legal lights — "I venture to say, in all reverence, that 
 the God of nations will be better pleased on the 
 coming Thanksgiving Day — which should also be 
 one of penitence and humility — if we do a little 
 more in fact, as well as in words, to safeguard the 
 rights of htimanity." 
 
 We confront to-day, my fellow citizens and my 
 fellow Christians, the most serious crisis that has 
 arisen in the United States for half a century. It 
 is a solemn hour in which we live. The honor of 
 our country is at stake. The security of our citizens 
 on the high seas is in constant jeopardy. Our do- 
 mestic peace is invaded by the agents of foreign 
 nations. Arson and murder are plotted in the very 
 midst of our peaceful communities. Our supine 
 policy of inaction has grieved and humiliated the 
 hearts of our citizens. A disloyal press, doing the 
 bidding of foreign nations, boldly flaunts itself be- 
 fore our eyes. The fires of patriotism are burning 
 
NATIONAL OPPORTUNITY 21 
 
 low among thousands of our people. Meanwhile 
 our country has suffered serious loss of prestige. 
 The name of American citizen no longer commands 
 the respect it once did. In such a crisis our citizens 
 have a duty to perform. They should frankly ex- 
 press their sentiments, and I believe that the great 
 majority of our citizens, practically all true Amer- 
 icans, are of opinion that our policy should be gov- 
 erned in this great crisis, not by counsels of timidity 
 or international opportunism, but by a steadfast re- 
 gard to the aspirations and ideals handed down to 
 us by our Revolutionary ancestors; by fidelity to 
 the principles of liberty and Democracy enshrined 
 in our Constitution; by a brave determination to 
 vindicate the honor and majesty of the Republic; 
 by a stern resolution, at whatever cost, to repel the 
 open or secret assaults of foreign powers on our 
 domestic peace and harmony; above all, by loyalty 
 to justice, that justice which should dominate all 
 the moral forces; that justice which "as ancient as 
 humanity itself, eternal as the need of man and na- 
 tions," is the basis of all civilization. 
 
 Our President speaks of the principles of "peace 
 and freedom*' by which we have always sought to be 
 guided, but I trust we have also always sought to be 
 guided by the principles of justice and humanity, 
 and that we should always be prepared to assert 
 these principles, and to suffer for them if need be. 
 
 As it is true of the individual, that "no man liveth 
 
22 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 to himself," so it is true of a nation — no nation can 
 afford to live to itself. It must consider the rights 
 and happiness of other nations. There are crises in 
 the history of a nation when the words of Christ, 
 "he that saveth his life shall lose it," find their na- 
 tional application. Better even the losses and the 
 sufferings of war, terrible as they are, than the loss 
 of honor — the failure to respond to our national 
 ideals, the humiliation of our national name. Listen 
 to the brave words of the leader of the bar of Brus- 
 sels in an address which led to his being cast into a 
 Prussian prison: 'Why these sacrifices, why this 
 sorrow f Belgium could have avoided these dis- 
 asters, saved her existence, her treasures, and the 
 lives of her people, hut she preferred her honor T 
 
 In conclusion let me guard myself against misun- 
 derstanding. God forbid that I should utter a word 
 that could add a feather^s weight to the heavy bur- 
 den that rests on the President's shoulders. 
 
 All true Americans should wish to support their 
 chief magistrate and to labor sympathetically with 
 him in his efforts to grapple with the difficult tasks 
 that confront him at this crisis. 
 
 But it is for that very reason that we appeal to 
 him to adhere bravely to the principles he has so 
 clearly enunciated in his diplomatic correspondence 
 with Germany. We are confident that a courageous 
 course of action, just in line with his strong and 
 
NATIONAL OPPORTUNITY 23 
 
 patriotic utterances last spring and summer, would 
 lighten his burden and clear out of his pathway 
 many of the difficulties and dangers that now beset 
 it. It is our friendliness to him — our sincere loy- 
 alty — our earnest wish that he should overcome the 
 difficulties that face him, and triumph over the peo- 
 ple who are at once his enemies and the enemies of 
 our country, that moves us to urge upon him a dif- 
 ferent course from that which he is now pursuing — 
 to seize the opportunity that again presents itself to 
 take bold and decisive action in vindication of the 
 honor of our country. Is it too much to ask him to 
 banish from our shores the plotters and conspira- 
 tors who, wearing the livery of foreign nations, and 
 accepted as representatives of friendly powers, have 
 been using their diplomatic positions as bases 
 whence to wage war against the peace of our 
 country ? 
 
 The President no doubt desires to know the senti- 
 ments of the people, and as many public men hesi- 
 tate to speak out, and as the officers of the Army 
 and Navy do not enjoy the right of free speech, it 
 may well be that the voice of the pulpit — which has 
 no political or racial bias — will have unique value 
 as an expression of public sentiment. We who min- 
 ister in the things of God occupy a position of de- 
 tachment — unaffected by the currents of politics or 
 of commercial interests. 
 
 The people, we are confident, are heartily with 
 
24 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 the President in his patriotic purpose to put the 1 
 country in a state of preparation against any attack 
 that may be made upon it by a foreign power; and 
 we also beHeve that the people would be just as 
 heartily with him, if he should justify the stern pur- 
 pose expressed in his last Note to Germany by ap- 
 propriate action now. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE ^XUSITANIA'^ ANNIVERSARY* 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 Four years ago the greatest ship ever floated — the 
 Titanic — was ground to pieces in the jaws of a huge 
 iceberg, and i,6oo souls found a watery grave. 
 
 Three years later another magnificent ship — the 
 Lusitania — was suddenly destroyed, and 1,200 peo- 
 ple — men, women, and little children — ^perished 
 under the most tragic circumstances. 
 
 But there was an unspeakable difference between 
 the two cases. In the one case the appalling tragedy 
 was the result of an error of judgment, or, at worst, 
 a grave neglect of due precaution against the dan- 
 gers of the deep. In the other case the disaster was 
 the result of "man's inhumanity to man" — an act 
 of diabolical inhumanity such as finds no parallel 
 in the long records of civilized man. For the Lusi- 
 tania, crowded with civilians — of both sexes and of 
 all ages — was ruthlessly torpedoed without a mo- 
 ment's warning — a cowardly and infamous crime, 
 
 * Address delivered in Carnegie Hall, New York, at the 
 Lusitania Memorial Meeting, May 19, 1916. 
 
 25 
 
21^ FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 deliberately planned and executed without pity, by 
 official order. 
 
 So horrible was this deed of wholesale murder, 
 executed by the willing slaves of a remorseless mas- 
 ter, that the very fabric of the moral world seemed 
 to tremble under the shock. 
 
 In the case of the Titanic all man's vaunted mas- 
 tery of the elements — all his science and all his art 
 — was made a mock of in one moment's clash with 
 the adamantine forces of nature. 
 
 But in the case of the Lusitania all our boasted 
 progress in civilization and moral advancement, la- 
 boriously wrought out through millenniums of time, 
 was shattered in a moment by the relentless action of 
 an inhuman force never before operative in the civ- 
 ilized world — a carefully elaborated system of 
 frightfulness, generated by a philosophy based 
 wholly on selfishness, recognizing no moral obliga- 
 tion but only "the will to conquer" at any cost of 
 cruelty to the innocent and the helpless — and all 
 under the name of God! 
 
 Our meeting to-night, as you have been told, has 
 reference to that awful tragedy. It is a memorial 
 meeting. 
 
 On the one hand we honor the memory of some 
 of the victims on the Liisitania — men and women, 
 people of eminence in the world and people of ob- 
 scurity, who, in that terrible crisis of disaster, dis- 
 played the qualities of unselfish heroism. We hail 
 
THE '^LUSITANIA'' ANNIVERSARY 27 
 
 them as martyrs and heroes, and we write their 
 names high on the roll of those who in the face of 
 sudden danger and death have been ready to give 
 their lives to save the weak and helpless. 
 
 On the other hand, we record our eternal detesta- 
 tion of that deed of unspeakable horror, whose guilt 
 smells to heaven to this day, and we utter our stem 
 demand that it shall not pass into oblivion while the 
 monsters responsible for it remain unrebuked and 
 unrepentant, and while the rights then so remorse- 
 lessly violated are not vindicated. We are not ask- 
 ing for revenge. No; but we are demanding that 
 such action be taken by the government of our Re- 
 public as shall make it clear that these dead have not 
 died in vain. We ask that the stamp of our horror 
 and detestation be set upon that monstrous act so 
 clearly, so completely that the whole world shall 
 know that we hold it an inhuman crime, demanding 
 repentance and atonement of the men responsible 
 for it, from the lowest to the highest, from the blue 
 jacket that launched the torpedo to the admiral who 
 gave the order, and to the imperial master who sanc- 
 tioned the order. 
 
 Yes, fellow citizens, the Lusitania memory calls 
 on us to-night to vindicate outraged humanity. The 
 voice of our President summoned us at the time "to 
 assert our rights and the rights of mankind." That 
 was a clear call to do our duty, to put ourselves as 
 a nation on the side of right and justice, to condemn 
 
28 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 that act of ruthless cruelty. "Assert our rights and 
 the rights of mankind/' said our chief magistrate. 
 And we have to-night, my fellow citizens, taken up 
 the demand. We tell our President we stand with 
 him when he thus voices the solemn duty of the 
 American Republic. We must place ourselves as a 
 nation on the side of right and justice. We must 
 condemn and go on condemning that act of ruthless 
 cruelty. We must do it, or be false to the voice of 
 God in our hearts. We must insist that the Republic 
 clear itself from silent acquiescence in so flagrant 
 a wrong — so infamous a deed. We must demand 
 that this act be punished as well as repudiated, lest 
 it become a precedent and so contribute to the recog- 
 nition as a principle of international law the right of 
 a belligerent to commit such abominable crimes in 
 pursuance of its ambition. 
 
 Yes, with all our heart we applaud the resolution 
 of our President, so finely expressed in his second 
 note to Germany, "not to omit any word or act 
 necessary to the performance of the sacred duty of 
 maintaining the rights of the United States and its 
 citizens." We only ask that these strong words 
 should be followed up by deeds as strong. For 
 most truly has the immortal bard whose tercen- 
 tenary we have just been celebrating said, " 'Tis a 
 kind of good deed to say well." And yet words are 
 no deeds. This is a case where those other words 
 of Shakespeare are most apt, 
 
THE "LUSITANIA" ANNIVERSARY 29 
 
 "Words to the heat of deeds 
 Too cold breath give/' 
 
 Now, my fellow citizens, how stands the matter 
 to-night ? I put it to you plainly. Have we done our 
 duty ? We saw it when the Lusitania went down — 
 but have we done it? Twelve months have passed 
 by, and what have we done to vindicate and uphold 
 the rights of America and mankind then so fla- 
 grantly violated? Will any true man here say that 
 we have fulfilled our duty so long as we still offi- 
 cially grasp the hand of the nation that is stained 
 with the blood of our citizens ? 
 
 I do not believe it. On the contrary, I believe you 
 will agree with me when I say that a nation (or, 
 rather, a government) which could deliberately plan 
 and ruthlessly execute such a fiendish crime is un- 
 worthy of the fellowship of civilized nations. For 
 my part I hold that the least we can do for the mem- 
 ory of the innocent victims of the Lusitania is to 
 purge our Republic of all association with the Em- 
 pire which stands condemned before the Supreme 
 Court of Civilization as guilty of that crime. 
 
 I shall be told perhaps that such counsel as this is 
 inconsistent with neutrality, that neutrality to which 
 we have been officially pledged. 
 
 I do not deny that it is — but I have this to say : 
 The American people are not neutral in this conflict. 
 If they ever were neutral, they are so no longer. 
 They see clearly that the issues at stake are moral 
 
30 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 issues, and issues of vital, of overshadowing impor- 
 tance. And they strongly feel that when these tre- 
 mendous moral issues are trembling in the balance it 
 is impossible for true men to be neutral. If, as you 
 walk the street, you see a big brute trampling a 
 little child under his heel, you cannot be neutral, 
 you cannot pass by on the other side ; every instinct 
 of manhood compels you to rush to the rescue of the 
 child. And so, when we saw little Belgium as- 
 saulted, trampled upon, ravaged, ravished, we felt 
 that it was the duty of this great nation of ours at 
 least to enter a vehement protest against the cruel 
 wrong. And when the Lusitania was torpedoed we 
 felt the same way. And when other similar out- 
 rages were perpetrated, too numerous to mention, 
 the same feeling rose in our breast. 
 
 No, we are not neutral, and we are here to-night 
 to give voice to the intense conviction of our souls, 
 as men and as American citizens, that this hollow 
 pretense of neutrality should be thrown to the winds, 
 and the whole weight of our moral influence be 
 promptly and unhesitatingly cast into the scale in 
 favor of the nations who are so bravely battling 
 against colossal tyranny and wrong. 
 
 Is it not clear as the light that every consideration 
 of duty and honor demands this course of our gov- 
 ernment? In the face of the ruthless and brutal 
 assaults of the German government on the peace 
 and civihzation and liberty of mankind will this 
 
THE "LUSITANIA'^ ANNIVERSARY 31 
 
 great Republic, founded on liberty, consecrated to 
 the service of democracy, play the role of the 
 craven? Dare she keep silence? Dare she fail to 
 make deep and vehement protest against this tremen- 
 dous assault on all the principles that we hold most 
 dear? 
 
 That awful spectacle in the Irish Sea on the 7th 
 of May a year ago reveals the German war lords in 
 all their naked brutality and shows them up to the 
 world as the violators of every principle of civili- 
 zation and humanity. 
 
 Mark you, my friends, I do not bring this terrible 
 accusation against the German people, but against 
 the military caste that has deceived the people and 
 led them astray. Multitudes of the German people 
 are kindly and humane; and myriads of German 
 soldiers would instinctively turn away from these 
 deeds of cruelty and savagery. 
 
 But they are dominated by the evil genius and the 
 false philosophy of Prussianism. Blinded by the 
 idea that obedience to authority is the first principle 
 of conduct ; taught that the State can do no wrong, 
 and that when the State issues a command through 
 its representatives, it is the duty of the citizen to 
 obey without question and without scruple; the 
 German soldier commits acts of cruelty as an au- 
 tomaton, giving no heed to the dictates of humanity, 
 or the scruples of conscience, because his first and 
 supreme principle of conduct, overshadowing all 
 
32 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 other considerations, is obedience to the behest of 
 the State, and of the Kaiser, who is its incarnation. 
 The German soldier is taught that the ethics of the 
 Christian religion have nothing to do with his con- 
 duct. The State is above Christian morality. It 
 has an ethics of its own which justifies wholesale 
 massacre on land or sea, which upholds the prin- 
 ciple that no act can be wrong which the military 
 authorities consider contributory to success. Ac- 
 cordingly, the German War Book sanctions the in- 
 timidation of the enemy by the systematic murder 
 of non-combatants, and hence the little children in 
 German towns were summoned to celebrate with 
 great rejoicings the destruction of the Lusitania, 
 when hundreds of women and children and little 
 babies went down to death in midocean. 
 
 And it is now reported that the captain of the 
 submarine which sank the Sussex, who, we were 
 officially informed, was appropriately punished, has 
 been decorated by the Emperor for his heroic deed ! 
 
 But some may say. What if all this be true ? How 
 does it concern us? Why should we allow our- 
 selves to be drawn into this European maelstrom of 
 war ? Our duty is to remember Washington's coun- 
 sel : not to be entangled with European conflicts. 
 
 My fellow citizens, that time has gone by. We 
 cannot avoid responsibility for the interests and des- 
 tinies of mankind. This European struggle does 
 
THE "LUSITANIA" ANNIVERSARY 33 
 
 concern us — concerns us vitally. Ask yourselves 
 what is the issue at stake between the Allies and the 
 Central Empires. 
 
 Is it commercial supremacy in the markets of the 
 world ? Is it who shall hold Alsace and Lorraine ? 
 or Belgium? or Poland? Is it who shall have the 
 lion's share of Colonial Africa? or the biggest sHce 
 of the Chinese Empire? 
 
 No; it is none of these things, but something un- 
 speakably greater. It is whether arbitrary power or 
 ordered liberty shall be supreme on earth. No ; not 
 even that, for the republican principle does not chal- 
 lenge the control of the world. It only asks free 
 scope to live and perpetuate itself. 
 
 But this combination of absolute autocracy and 
 Mohammedan tyranny demands the subjection and 
 extinction of Democracy. Germany seeks to con- 
 trol the whole world. Her ambition is to dominate 
 mankind. Her aim is to bring all peoples and na- 
 tions under the scepter of the Hohenzollerns. 
 
 That is the issue, and that is why it concerns us. 
 The American people have made up their minds on 
 careful consideration, weighing the evidence dis- 
 passionately, that the cause of the Allies is the cause 
 of liberty and justice, and so it is true to-night that 
 if they were ever neutral, they are neutral no longer. 
 Their deliberate judgment, as well as their natural 
 sympathies, has placed them on the side of the na- 
 tions which have challenged the tremendous and 
 
34 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 long-prepared effort of the German war lords to 
 conquer Europe and to dominate the world. Every- 
 day strengthens and consolidates the sympathies of 
 Americans — real Americans — with England and 
 France and Russia and Italy in the titanic struggle 
 in which they are engaged. 
 
 But some will say, Surely you do not advocate 
 war? You, a minister of the Prince of Peace, do 
 not counsel the American Government to take up 
 arms? No, my friends, I do not counsel war. I 
 hate war, because I know from experience how ter- 
 rible it is. And I hate militarism. I detest the idea 
 of settling international differences by the sword. I 
 believe in arbitration, in conciliation, in justice, in 
 comity, in brotherhood, in mutual concession to 
 reach international understanding. 
 
 But we are facing a situation in which these civ- 
 ilized and reasonable methods of settling differences 
 count for nothing. We are confronted by a mighty 
 conglomerate Empire — the mightiest in history — 
 which is committed to the purpose of world domina- 
 tion. This power already dominates half of Europe 
 and is striving to dominate the whole of it, and then 
 to control the destinies of the world. It is the ir- 
 reconcilable enemy of democracy, and, if victorious 
 in the present struggle for mastery, would inevitably 
 strike for dominion over this western hemisphere. 
 
 And, my friends and fellow citizens, while I am 
 a man of peace and a minister of the gospel of peace, 
 
THE "LUSITANIA" ANNIVERSARY 35 
 
 I remember that "The wisdom which is from 
 above is first pure, then peaceable," and our wisdom 
 cannot be "pure" while it consents to the injustice 
 which has been meted out to Belgium and to the 
 victims of the Lusitania. And I remember that the 
 King whom I serve is first King of Righteousness 
 and then King of Peace; from which I infer that 
 we who speak for Him must put Righteousness 
 above Peace — Righteousness first, then Peace. 
 
 The man of God is never more sure of the divine 
 approbation than when he is calling his people away 
 from cowardly submission to dishonor and oppres- 
 sion to courage and faith and self-sacrifice that our 
 heritage of liberty, so dearly purchased by our fore- 
 fathers, should be handed down unimpaired to those 
 who come after us. 
 
 Yes, while I stand for Peace, I stand for Justice 
 before Peace, and hence when justice demands it I 
 stand for the principle that even war is a less evil 
 than injustice, less than national dishonor, less than 
 the suppression of the rights of our citizens. 
 
 There are some who in the name of the Christian 
 religion advocate the doctrine of passive submission, 
 even should a hostile army invade our country. 
 
 For my part I repudiate such a doctrine in the 
 ;name of the Christ who made a whip of small cords 
 and drove the profane traffickers out of the temple. 
 Passive non-resistance to oppression or invasion is 
 
36 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 treason against justice — and justice, I beg to remind 
 you, is an attribute of the Christian's God. Chris- 
 tianity in its international relations must have re- 
 gard to international justice, whose symbol is the 
 sword. 
 
 But, after all, I repeat I am not advocating war. 
 No, I deprecate it. I pray that we may remain at 
 peace with all the world. But I do advocate an 
 honest and outspoken declaration on the part of the 
 American Republic that we detest and abhor the 
 principles of the Central Empires of Europe and 
 their savage methods of warfare; that our sym- 
 pathies are distinctly with the Allies, and that we 
 wish to throw the whole weight of our moral influ- 
 ence into the scale on their behalf. 
 
 This I hold to be our sacred duty before God and 
 man — a duty we cannot shirk without dishonor. A 
 nation, like an individual, cannot live unto itself 
 without losing its own soul. It must meet its re- 
 sponsibilities to the world. The time has gone by 
 when this Republic can say, "Am I my brother's 
 keeper?" We belong to the family of nations, and 
 we have duties to fulfill as a member of the family. 
 
 Let me buttress my opinion by a clear and im- 
 pressive utterance of President Wilson, spoken 
 about two weeks ago. He said that our Republic 
 was founded on Liberty and Justice, and in vindi- 
 cating these great principles we must have regard 
 not to ourselves alone but to the interests of other 
 
THE "LUSITANIA" ANNIVERSARY 37 
 
 nations as well; "So far as America is concerned, 
 and her influence is involved, justice and liberty 
 should be extended to mankind everywhere." 
 
 It is when we let the light of this clear utterance 
 into our souls that we see how impossible it is for 
 America to remain neutral in this great conflict. In 
 the name of Liberty and Justice, for ourselves and 
 mankind, we must make our choice and take our 
 stand in this tremendous issue. Where do we stand ? 
 Are we for Liberty or for arbitrary power? For 
 Democracy or Autocracy? For Christian civiliza- 
 tion or for anti-Christian barbarism? 
 
 The cause of the Allies is the cause of personal 
 liberty against irresponsible power ; it stands for the 
 freedom and independence of the nations; for the 
 sacredness of treaties; for the observance of ac- 
 cepted principles of international law; for pacific 
 civilization against a civilization based on militar- 
 ism. They are fighting to free Belgium and France 
 (America's brave and chivalrous friend) and Po- 
 land and Servia and Armenia from an intolerable 
 yoke of bondage; yes, they are fighting to free the 
 German people from the yoke of Prussian oppres- 
 sion. 
 
 I say it is the cause of humanity against sav- 
 agery; of civic ideals against military ambition. It 
 is a war of great principles. The Allies are battling 
 against such ideas as these : 
 
38 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 The end of the State is Power ; 
 Might makes Right ; 
 The State is above moral obligations; 
 Military necessity justifies any cruelty, any in- 
 justice, any wrong! 
 
 Fellow citizens, can America hesitate when such 
 an issue is presented? 
 
 She did not hesitate in 1822 to declare to the 
 world she would not tolerate autocratic government 
 on this continent. No, she would guarantee the 
 right of self-government from Hudson^s Bay to 
 Cape Horn! Again in 1850 she did not fear to 
 espouse the cause of freedom in Hungary, and sent 
 a warship to bring Kossuth to America. Yet again 
 she uttered through the eloquent voice of Daniel 
 Webster her sympathy with Greece in her struggle 
 for liberty. Finally, in 1866, she bade the Em- 
 peror of the French withdraw his legions from 
 Mexico, and her behest was obeyed. 
 
 I ask you, then, why should we not lift up our 
 voice now for Belgium and Servia and Poland and 
 France and poor crucified Armenia? If when we 
 were small and weak and poor we stood forth as 
 advocates of liberty and self-government, challeng- 
 ing the assaults of tyranny upon the rights of the 
 weak, shall we now play the craven in the face of 
 such gigantic crimes against freedom? 
 
 Has America no longer a soul of her own? Is 
 
THE "LUSITANIA" ANNIVERSARY 39 
 
 she bound hand and foot to the chariot of the 
 Kaiser? Has hyphenated Americanism chilled her 
 heart and paralyzed her arm and blinded her eyes? 
 Is she cowed into a shameful neutrality when the 
 freedom of so many nations is being led forth to be 
 crucified by the pitiless hands of the soldiers of the 
 Kaiser ? 
 
 God forbid! 
 
 And now, before I conclude, lend me your ears, 
 fellow citizens, while I say one word on the live 
 topic of the hour. National Preparedness. New 
 York uttered her mighty voice on this subject on 
 Saturday last in thrilling tones. We echo to-night 
 her patriotic sentiments. We demand of our legis- 
 lators in Washington that they cease playing with 
 the question of national defense and grapple with it 
 with a stem and solemn purpose to give the country 
 both military and naval defense. 
 
 Fellow citizens, too many of our people are sleep- 
 ing the sleep of ignorant security on this momentous 
 subject. Let us wake them, if we may, to the real 
 situation. Let us stir the slumbering fires of pa- 
 triotism by the memories of the Republic. 
 
 There is a powerful reserve force available for 
 this emergency which ought to be, and can be, 
 mobilized and set in motion against the evil influ- 
 ences which are paralyzing the arm of Congress 
 and defeating every effort to put the country in a 
 state of real preparation to vindicate its honor and 
 
40 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 assert and enforce the rights of our citizens. I re- 
 fer to the glorious traditions and memories of our 
 national history, especially of the Revolutionary 
 epoch. Here is a latent force of enormous value in 
 the present emergency. I say, let us mobilize it. 
 Summon it to take the field against the lukewarm- 
 ness, the supineness, the timidity, the selfishness, 
 the love of ease, which are the worst enemies of our 
 country to-day. Bring forward in serried ranks 
 the unselfish patriotism of our ancestors in the Revo- 
 lution — the courage, the daring, the self-sacrifice 
 of the Continental Army and the Continental Con- 
 gress. 
 
 Mobilize the traditions of Lexington and Con- 
 cord and Bunker Hill and Valley Forge and the 
 Cowpens and King's Mountain and Saratoga and 
 Yorktown; marshal that great army of patriotic 
 memories for the rescue of our country from the 
 ignoble and unpatriotic sentiments now clamoring 
 for control, and surely the result cannot be doubt- 
 ful ! These evil influences will be put to rout, and 
 the real America will rise in its might and its cour- 
 age and prepare itself to uphold and defend the 
 principles of liberty and justice on which it was 
 founded. 
 
 Then, perhaps, the voice of Charles Cotesworth 
 Pinckney of South Carolina, which spoke in that 
 famous and glorious sentiment, "Millions for de- 
 fense, but not one cent for tribute," will once more 
 be heard in our legislative halls; and then this 
 
THE ^'LUSITANIA" ANNIVERSARY 41 
 
 "amazing Congress" which, with some shining ex- 
 ceptions, seems to have neither a backbone nor a 
 brain nor a strong right arm will be electrified into 
 patriotic action when it sees the memories of the 
 first American Congress mobilized and marching 
 on Washington, all ablaze with the glory and the 
 fire of the Declaration of Independence. 
 
IV 
 
 A LESSON IN PREPAREDNESS FROM 
 RECENT ENGLISH HISTORY* 
 
 "A democracy which asserts the right of manhood suffrage 
 while denying the duty of manhood service, is living in a 
 fool's paradise!" 
 
 It is now matter of history that in the year 1905, 
 Lord Roberts, the hero of the South African War, 
 then in his seventy-fourth year, came to the conclu- 
 sion that National Service was necessary to secure 
 for Great Britain adequate preparation in the event 
 of war, and began that remarkable campaign which 
 he kept up for nine years in the effort to rouse his 
 countrymen to the need of military preparation. 
 His words, however, fell for the most part, on dull 
 and incredulous ears, until the time of his famous 
 speech at Manchester, October 22, 1912, when the 
 Agadir incident of the previous year had at length 
 stirred the British public to some realization of 
 Germany's extraordinary preparations for war. 
 
 It is instructive to observe that this patriotic ef- 
 fort of England's greatest living soldier to pre- 
 
 *Reprinted from The Living Church of July, i, 1916. 
 
 42 
 
A LESSON IN PREPAREDNESS 43 
 
 pare for the danger which he clearly foresaw 
 approaching, was treated with derision and scorn 
 by the politicians of the day. England was full 
 of pacifists and anti-war men, who did not hesitate 
 to launch violent attacks upon the one man in the 
 nation who discerned the national peril and pointed 
 out the only adequate protection against it. The 
 politicians of both parties were deaf to his appeal. 
 Worse than this, army reform and reorganization 
 were made party questions. 
 
 Lord Roberts, on the other hand, had thoroughly 
 studied the question; he had informed himself of 
 Germany's plans ; he discerned her purpose to attack 
 England when the right opportunity arrived. And 
 so he did not hesitate to say, in his Manchester 
 speech, "War will take place the instant the German 
 forces by land and sea are, by their superiority at 
 every point, as certain of victory as anything in 
 human calculation can be made. Germany strikes 
 when Germany's hour has struck/' 
 
 This speech was met by a torrent of condemna- 
 tion; it was called a "diabolical" speech; he himself 
 was called a "mere jingo"; his fears were branded 
 as foolish; his description of Germany's policy was 
 called "an ignorant libel." The whole liberal party 
 assailed him and the unionist party joined in the hue 
 and cry; his demand for military preparations was 
 said to be inspired by the armament makers! (How 
 familiar to our ears is that charge!) 
 
44 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 But the damning fact of all this story was that 
 the government knew all the while that Lord 
 Roberts spoke nothing but the truth, yet members 
 of the government were allowed to attack his Man- 
 chester speech as "vicious and dangerous." It was 
 even proposed to revoke the pension of the aged 
 warrior as a rebuke for the speech he had made! 
 Lord Haldane had returned from Berlin eight 
 months before, having learned the mind of Ger- 
 many; and he had imparted the dreadful secret to 
 his colleagues, that Germany had asked of England 
 a free hand to overbear and dominate the European 
 world whenever they deemed the opportunity fa- 
 vorable. 
 
 People have wondered that the British govern- 
 ment could have been ignorant of Germany^s hatred 
 for England, and of her deep purpose to attack her 
 when the right moment came, when it was a matter 
 of common knowledge among all classes of the 
 German population that such was her spirit and such 
 was her purpose. But in fact the government was 
 not ignorant. 
 
 Yet with this terrible knowledge in their posses- 
 sion they seem to have conspired to keep the truth 
 from the people, and made no effort to prepare 
 the country for the worst, during all those fateful 
 years from the Morocco incident in 1906 to the 
 Agadir incident in 191 1, and indeed up to August, 
 1914. Thus, in the opinion of well-informed men, 
 
A LESSON IN PREPAREDNESS 45 
 
 the British government sacrificed the interests of 
 the empire to the exigencies of party, or to personal 
 ambition. They wouldn't tell the country the truth 
 about the size and state of the army, nor did they 
 have the courage to adopt measures to increase the 
 army so that the danger of war might have been 
 averted. 
 
 Our pacifists in America at the present time are 
 never weary of declaring that preparation for war 
 is an invitation and incitement to war; and yet the 
 recent history of England shows beyond the possi- 
 bility of doubt, that had England's rulers heeded 
 the voice of Lord Roberts and increased the British 
 army to even the moderate size of 500,000 men, and 
 had they let it be known that Britain thus strength- 
 ened would stand by her Allies, there would have 
 been no war in 19 14 — ^the world have been spared 
 all the horrors of the last two years. In 1906 war 
 was averted when the British Foreign Minister 
 made it clear to Germany that in case of such an 
 event Britain would array herself upon the side of 
 France. But the British government ignored the 
 danger, refused to heed the warnings of Lord 
 Roberts, neglected to put the country in a state of 
 adequate preparation, and all the while shrank 
 from speaking plainly to the people. In the opinion 
 of many, the government allowed its fear of break- 
 ing the liberal party to stand in the way of the duty 
 it owed to the nation. 
 
46 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 Is there not in all this a lesson of deep impor- 
 tance to America in the critical period which we 
 are facing? May not the American people learn 
 from this example over the water that the words 
 and actions of our politicians should be very keenly 
 scrutinized? that their motives should be carefully 
 weighed? that the people should investigate for 
 themselves the real condition of the country; and 
 should study the state of the world and judge for 
 themselves what are the dangers to which the 
 country is exposed? And should they not, if neces- 
 sary, in defiance of the counsel of the politicians, 
 demand that thorough and adequate preparation 
 should be made by land and sea against any pos- 
 sible foreign invasion? 
 
 May we not see, from this story of England's 
 peril, how false and dangerous are the appeals of 
 the pacifists and the "peace-at-any-price" advocates 
 who are so clamorous against military preparation? 
 As we take note of how nearly Mr. Asquith's "wait- 
 and-see policy" (the prototype of "watchful wait- 
 ing") came to wrecking the British Empire; how 
 that deplorable lack of leadership and courage 
 which did not dare to tell the people of England 
 their danger, and call upon them to take radical and 
 adequate measures for defense, almost delivered the 
 British Empire over to its powerful and ruthless 
 enemy; surely we may well resolve to demand of 
 those who hold the reins of our government that 
 
A LESSON IN PREPAREDNESS 47 
 
 they inaugurate a vigorous policy of adequate de- 
 fense worthy of the traditions of the republic, and 
 commensurate with the dangers that loom up on the 
 horizon ! 
 
 Now there can be no intelligent scheme of prepa- 
 ration which does not take into consideration the 
 motives and purposes of the power which inaugu- 
 rated this tremendous war, and is prosecuting it 
 with such unexampled fury. It is true that our 
 President has told us that we are not concerned 
 with *'the causes or the objects" of the war now 
 being waged. We differ with him here. The 
 American people are an intelligent people ; they have 
 brains and hearts and consciences, and they have 
 used them all in making up their minds as to what 
 nation is responsible for this war, and what is the 
 gigantic purpose which lies behind it. We hold 
 it the duty of our citizens to ask and answer these 
 questions ; and it has not been difficult to do so. The 
 story of the outbreak of this war is an open book 
 to the American people; the story of how it has 
 been waged is writ large in the records of the time. 
 The American people are in no doubt as to the issue 
 which is at stake between Germany and the Allies. 
 It is not commercial supremacy in the markets of 
 the world ; it is not who shall hold Alsace and Lor- 
 raine; or Belgium, or Poland; it is not who shall 
 have the lion's share of colonial Africa, or the big- 
 gest slice of the Chinese Empire. It is none of these 
 
48 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 things — but something unspeakably greater; it is 
 whether arbitrary power or ordered Hberty shall 
 be supreme on the earth. Our people see that this 
 combination of absolute autocracy and Moham- 
 medan tyranny demands the subjection and extinc- 
 tion of democracy. Germany seeks to control the 
 whole world. Her ambition is to dominate man- 
 kind. Her aim is to bring all peoples and nations 
 under the Hohenzollerns. That is the issue and 
 that is why it concerns us. 
 
 And that is the issue which the American people 
 must bear in mind in the scheme of national pre- 
 paredness which they decide upon. And because 
 they know that this gigantic empire of Germany 
 looks with ambitious eyes upon the western hemi- 
 sphere, they must count him the wisest counselor 
 who urges them to adopt a thorough-going policy of 
 preparation, based upon the principle that every citi- 
 zen owes service to his country in time of danger. 
 
 Democracy is on trial in this western world. It 
 has been well said : "Democracy, if the best, is also 
 the most delicate form of human government, and 
 none suffers so swiftly or so sorely from any short- 
 age in the crop of character. None is so dependent 
 upon men, and so little capable of being supported 
 by a machine alone." Will the character of our 
 people stand the test of universal service? Is the 
 principle of self-sacrifice sufficiently developed to 
 respond to the appeal of patriotism? 
 
A LESSON IN PREPAREDNESS 49 
 
 Is has been said by able critics that the House 
 of Commons has deteriorated in character. We 
 would hope that this criticism is not true of our 
 American Congress, but certainly both its Houses 
 have greatly disappointed the hopes of patriotic men 
 in the crisis which has been upon us for the last 
 two years. They seem to have been playing with 
 the question of national defense, instead of grap- 
 pling it with a stem and solemn purpose. 
 
 Too many of our people are sleeping the sleep of 
 ignorant security on this momentous subject. Let 
 us wake them if we may to the real situation. Let 
 us stir the slumbering fires of patriotism by the 
 memories of the glorious days of the republic. 
 
V 
 
 AMERICA'S STEWARDSHIP* 
 
 AS TO WEALTH, AS TO CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES 
 AND AS TO INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS 
 
 '^Give account of thy Stewardship/' — Luke XVI, 2 
 
 We meet this morning in accordance with a time- 
 honored custom to make public acknowledgment 
 of the blessings of Divine Providence which our 
 country has enjoyed during the past year. Abun- 
 dant harvests have crowned the labors of the hus- 
 bandmen. The laborer has had steady employment 
 at unusually high wages. Factories, old and new, 
 have been running at top speed. The railroads have 
 been prosperous. The hum of industry has been 
 heard on every hand. In fact, a great wave of 
 prosperity has swept over our broad land. As a 
 result of all this, and especially of the immense war 
 contracts, some people have made great fortunes. 
 Never, perhaps, has the wealth of the country been 
 
 * Delivered in the Church of the Epiphany, Washing- 
 ton, D. C, Thanksgiving Day, Nov, 30, 1916. 
 
 50 
 
AMERICA'S STEWARDSHIP 51 
 
 as great as it now is. Besides all this, we have been 
 free from any widespread epidemic, and we have 
 been at peace — or, at least, no great war has deso- 
 lated our borders and swept to the grave hecatombs 
 of our citizen soldiers. 
 
 It would seem, then, that our great Republic has 
 unusual cause for offering its tribute of praise and 
 thanksgiving to the bountiful Giver of all good. 
 
 Yes, God has been good to us. We have abundant 
 reason to raise our hymns of adoration to His holy 
 name for all the benefits He has bestowed upon us. 
 
 But, Thanksgiving Day has another function. 
 It calls us to self -judgment. And for this reason: 
 every blessing we enjoy has graven on the obverse 
 side "responsibility." Every gift of God is also a 
 talent to be accounted for. And so the greater the 
 gift the more serious is the responsibility. It fol- 
 lows that if to-day we must recognize that the 
 American people have been blessed wnth unusual 
 prosperity, then so much the greater, so much the 
 more compelling, is the responsibility for which they 
 must give account. 
 
 Having this in view, I have taken as my text these 
 words, 
 
 ''Give account of thy Stewardship f' 
 
 The clear message we should lay to heart to-day 
 is this : Let the American people consider well the 
 responsibilities laid upon them by the abundant gifts 
 
52 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 of Divine Providence, and ask themselves how far 
 they have been faithful to the stewardship entrusted 
 to them? These abundant gifts have opened many 
 doors of opportunity, — let our people ask themselves 
 how far they have bravely and faithfully seized and 
 improved these opportunities? 
 
 I. Consider first the stewardship of wealth, 
 Great stores of wealth have been poured into the lap 
 of America. How is she using them? A friend 
 of mine, recently returned from one of the great 
 centers of American life, said to me : "The extrava- 
 gance one sees on every hand is simply appalling!" 
 Never since the world began has the world been so 
 full of suffering and sorrow and want and pain, as 
 to-day. From Belgium and Servia and Armenia 
 and Poland the cries of the homeless and the 
 hungry and the desolate go up to heaven. From 
 countless hospitals, from smoking ruins of once 
 happy homes, from deserts where helpless women 
 and children are starving, from fields and factories 
 where men and women and young girls are work- 
 ing in involuntary servitude under hard taskmasters, 
 the piteous supplication ascends for food and cloth- 
 ing — for every necessity of life, — above all, for 
 liberty ! 
 
 What has America done in answer to that cry? 
 To these bleeding, suffering, starving peoples, what 
 has been our response? 
 
 Millions of money have been given, and much 
 
AMERICA'S STEWARDSHIP 53 
 
 personal service has been given. Yes, many have 
 given most generously even out of their poverty — 
 many have even laid down their lives in domg ser- 
 vice for the sick and the wounded, and the needy. 
 
 But the vast majority of our people have given 
 little or nothing, so that when we set on one side 
 our swollen wealth, and on the other the sum total 
 of our contributions to the sufferers in Europe and 
 Asia, we see that as a nation we have done pitifully 
 little. Australia has done more for the Belgian suf- 
 ferers than this great, rich nation of ours. Many 
 parts of our country seem quite untouched by this 
 unprecedented misery and want of the world. The 
 awful war that is desolating the human race seems 
 to leave them indifferent and apathetic. It is as if 
 millions of our people were playing the part of the 
 rich fool in the parable, and saying: 
 
 "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many 
 years. Take thine ease; eat, drink and be merry!" 
 
 Meanwhile, what of the manhood of the nation? 
 Is its fiber waxing stronger or weaker? Are its 
 ideals purer, nobler, more inspiring? Or are they 
 waxing ignoble and unworthy? 
 
 Our Bishops have warned us that "unconsecrated 
 prosperity is bound to cause manhood to decay"; 
 and they add : 
 
 *Tf America comes out of this day of world 
 disorder richer in purse and poorer in manhood, 
 she will invite the penalty of a debased national 
 
54 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 life, or even of losing her own soul. The peace 
 that smothers the soul is as ruthless and inexorable 
 as the war that mangles the bodies of its victims." 
 Yes, my brethren, for well has the poet warned 
 us — 
 
 "111 fares the land, to hastening- ills a prey, 
 Where wealth accumulates and men decay." 
 
 2. Consider next the Stewardship of Republican 
 Government bequeathed to us by our forefathers. 
 Remember what our fathers did in the American 
 Revolution. They abolished autocratic, personal 
 government, and substituted a government founded 
 on liberty and justice, — a government of the people, 
 — a representative government speaking and acting 
 through men chosen by the people to represent them, 
 to make laws for them according to the mind of 
 the people, without any class distinction. This 
 solemn function of legislation was to be exercised 
 under oath, in the fear of God, with careful in- 
 vestigation and deliberate consideration for the good 
 of the whole people. 
 
 Now I ask how this sacred trust has been kept? 
 How has this stewardship of Republican govern- 
 ment been exercised by the American people during 
 the past year? 
 
 The answer that must be made is that in one 
 conspicuous instance this stewardship has been be- 
 trayed by our legislators. We have seen the high 
 function of legislation, exercised in unseemly haste, 
 
AMERICA'S STEWARDSHIP 55 
 
 — without full investigation, without due considera- 
 tion, — and not with dignity and freedom, but under 
 duress, under threat. Yes, we have seen our Con- 
 gress coerced to put a law on the statute book, not 
 for the benefit of the whole people, but in the in- 
 terest of a class — a small fraction of the people — 
 and not for their relief from injustice, not to lift 
 a burden from their shoulders, not to break the 
 yoke of poverty, or of unfair wages; no, for the 
 men in whose interest this law was passed were the 
 most highly paid workmen in the community — re- 
 ceiving twice as much as the average clergyman 
 in our church. 
 
 Nor was it to shorten their hours of labor, but to 
 give them power to compel their employers to in- 
 crease their wages twenty-five per cent. 
 
 My brethren, let no man think that I am lowering 
 the plane of the pulpit in referring to this question 
 — that I am bringing politics into the pulpit. No, 
 for this is not properly speaking a party question, 
 but a national one. It rises above party into the re- 
 gion of the welfare of the nation. It is, in fact, a 
 Constitutional question, — it concerns the sacredness 
 of the fundamental principles on which our govern- 
 ment rests. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact 
 that the method of legislation prescribed by the 
 Constitution has been set aside; and the practical 
 question growing out of that fact, is whether the 
 people shall be roused to a realization of this be- 
 
56 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 trayal of trust, so that by their indignation the 
 wrong shall be rebuked and the Constitutional 
 method re-established. 
 
 Is it necessary to establish my assertion that this 
 is not a party question ? Then, consider that the law 
 in question was passed by the votes of both political 
 parties, and hence both must share (though not 
 equally) in the responsibility. And let me remind 
 you that the ablest and most influential organ of 
 the party in power described the Labor Law as 
 "legislation extorted by threats,*' and declared the 
 whole proceeding "a national humiliation'' adding 
 that "to put up with it would be a disaster to the 
 nation incomparably greater than any strike could 
 inflict," and further that "if such an outrage can be 
 put upon us unresisted we have lost our republican 
 form of government." If these statements at all 
 approximate the truth, then we are face to face with 
 an event big with sinister significance to our Re- 
 public. The day that law was passed our free 
 institutions were betrayed, — not because the law was 
 wrong in principle (of that I say nothing), but 
 because it was passed under duress, under threat, 
 in the fear of a class instead of in the fear of God; 
 and that was unquestionably a betrayal of our 
 republican form of government. For that day and 
 that hour the government ceased to be a free gov- 
 ernment and became a government under dictation, 
 — it was legislation in fear of the lash! 
 
AMERICA'S STEWARDSHIP 57 
 
 It follows that it becomes the duty of the pulpit 
 to focus attention on this sinister fact and to lift up 
 its voice in rebuke of it, if, by God's blessing it may 
 help to awake the people to the very serious danger 
 that threatens our free institutions in such legisla- 
 tion as this. 
 
 3. Turn we now in the third place to our Stew- 
 ardship of influence and example as a member of 
 the family of nations. A nation, like an individual, 
 has a responsibility for the talents it has received 
 from the God of nations, — for its influence, for its 
 power; for its moral judgments, for its fidelity to 
 its obligations to mankind. 
 
 The gigantic statue which stands at the entrance 
 to the harbor of New York, holding aloft the torch 
 of Liberty, may fitly represent our great Republic, 
 letting her light shine before the world, — the light 
 of liberty and truth and justice and humanity — all 
 those great principles with which in the providence 
 of God she has been entrusted. 
 
 Now the question that America ought to ask her- 
 self on this Thanksgiving Day is this: Has she 
 been faithful to this stewardship of influence and 
 opportunity? Has she let her light shine before the 
 nations of the earth as she ought to have done? 
 Has she held aloft the light of liberty and justice 
 and humanity? Have her moral judgments been 
 true and clear, and have they been so clearly and 
 bravely uttered that they have shone out as a beacon 
 
58 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 for the guidance of mankind, — a beacon of light 
 in the darkness, — a beacon of encouragement for 
 the weak, a beacon of hope for the oppressed? 
 
 Two years ago a tremendous moral crisis broke 
 upon the world. It confronted us. We could not 
 escape it. It challenged our moral judgment. All 
 Europe was plunged into war. It was a war of 
 aggression — a war of conquest. Treaties were ruth- 
 lessly violated. Peaceful countries were invaded. 
 The invaders carried fire and sword wherever they 
 went. Cities were given to the flames. Cathedrals 
 were laid in ashes. Inoffensive and unarmed citi- 
 zens, by hundreds and thousands, were shot to 
 death. Every conceivable outrage was committed. 
 Barbarous methods of warfare were adopted. The 
 deeds of the Goths and Vandals were successfully 
 emulated. And now for more than two years the 
 most awful and destructive war that has ever devas- 
 tated the world has been raging with ever-increasing 
 fury, with ever-increasing slaughter. Millions of 
 men have fallen, killed or wounded, in battle, and 
 millions of women and children have suffered want 
 and misery beyond reckoning. What was our duty, 
 my brethren, in the presence of such a desolating 
 scourge ? 
 
 First, it was our duty to ask who kindled this 
 conflagration? Who planned and prepared this 
 war? Who had been getting ready for it for a 
 generation? The answer was easy. By book and 
 
AMERICA'S STEWARDSHIP 59 
 
 pamphlet, the leaders of one of the nations had 
 avowed the purpose of the war and proclaimed it 
 to the world. There was no concealment of the 
 immense preparation for it, or of the boundless 
 ambition that inspired it. Europe was to be bound 
 to the chariot wheels of that one nation, which in 
 the ultimate end was to dominate the world. 
 
 America's first duty, then, was to recognize and 
 declare the responsibility for the war. It was a 
 moral judgment imperatively demanded of her. 
 That judgment could not be evaded — could not be 
 dodged — without moral culpability. 
 
 Next, it was our duty to ask, What are these na- 
 tions fighting for? Which of them is fighting for 
 conquest? Which in self-defense? Which of them 
 represent irresponsible autocracy, and which the 
 principles of democracy ? Whose banners stand for 
 personal tyranny? And whose for justice and 
 liberty ? 
 
 The answer to these questions was also easy. It 
 was plain to see that Belgium and France were bat- 
 tling to defend their soil from invasion. It was 
 plain, also, that France and England stood for 
 liberty and independence and self-government. It 
 was, and is to-day, a tremendous death grapple be- 
 tween liberty and tyranny, between self-government 
 and autocracy. Again, in view of these condi- 
 tions, America had a duty to perform. She was 
 
6o FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 called upon to make, and to declare, a moral judg- 
 ment. It was her duty to declare on which side of 
 this conflict her sympathies were ranged. Was she 
 for the sacredness of treaties, or for their ruthless 
 violation as meaningless scraps of paper ? Was she 
 for the little nation struggling against the mighty 
 invader? And did she line up in feeling with 
 autocracy or democracy — with liberty or with 
 tyranny? In other words, were we true to the 
 principles of our forefathers, bequeathed us since 
 1776, and would we boldly acknowledge our 
 sympathy with the brave people who, with unstinted 
 sacrifice and unexampled valor, were fighting our 
 battles on the plains of France, — the battles of lib- 
 erty and justice? 
 
 But ought we not to be neutral in this great world 
 war? Is not that the policy to which we are com- 
 mitted ? 
 
 My friends, this is before all things a tremendous 
 moral issue — and I hold that just as it is impossible 
 for a true man to be neutral on a moral question, 
 so it ought also to be impossible for a nation to be 
 neutral. And if our policy as a nation has been the 
 policy of neutrality, the sooner that policy is aban- 
 doned the better for the honor of the nation and 
 the conscience of the people. 
 
 I mean not that we should plunge into this war, 
 but I do mean that we should cease to be dumb spec- 
 tators of this tremendous assault on liberty and 
 
AMERICANS STEWARDSHIP 6i 
 
 civilization and humanity, and that we should speak 
 trumpet-tongued our indignation against it. The 
 attitude of moral neutrality is unworthy of us. It 
 is humiliating. It is the betrayal of our trust. As 
 the mightiest and the wealthiest of the nations who 
 are not engaged in this war, we have a vast moral 
 influence, — and I hold that the whole weight of our 
 moral influence should be thrown into the scale on 
 the side of liberty and justice and civilization and 
 humanity. 
 
 Had this been done at the beginning of this 
 struggle when Belgium was invaded in defiance of 
 international treaty obligations, "it would have 
 given us the moral leadership of the world, and 
 made the United States the friend and the rallying 
 center of all the neutral countries." And it would 
 not have led tis into the war. On the other hand 
 it would, in my judgment, have shortened the war. 
 
 But we lost our opportunity. We stifled our 
 feelings. We silenced our moral judgment. We 
 tried to hide under a cloak of neutrality — and we 
 lost our leadership among the nations. We became 
 ciphers in the great struggle. 
 
 But, my friends, it is not too late — I hope it is 
 not too late — for America to change her policy — to 
 throw to the winds this flimsy cloak of neutrality, 
 and to adopt a policy worthy of her great traditions 
 — worthy of the land of Washington; I mean, that 
 while we are not called upon to participate in this 
 
62 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 war, we are called upon to let all the world know 
 that we condemn the guilty nation that prepared it 
 and precipitated it; that we detest and abhor the 
 brutal manner in which that nation carried it on; 
 and that as the heirs of democratic liberty our hearts 
 are with the nations that are battling with such 
 marvelous heroism against cruelty and tyranny. 
 
 A new opportunity presents itself at the present 
 juncture for the exercise of our moral influence for 
 justice and humanity. To all her other outrages 
 against civilization, the Teutonic powers have now 
 added the infamous crime of enslaving a whole 
 population. They are engaged at the present mo- 
 ment in carrying into captivity 300,000 men (civ- 
 ilians) from Belgium — to be put to involuntary 
 labor in Germany. A while ago their armed legions 
 in the dead of night seized thousands of young 
 women in some of the French towns and carried 
 them into involuntary servitude. "Now the tramp 
 of soldiers is heard through Belgian towns and 
 villages, and women, children and men are kid- 
 napped right and left. It is terrible! Trains roll 
 through Germany packed with human cattle. . . . 
 At this rate we shall witness the wholesale deporta- 
 tion of an entire people reduced to slavery. 
 This is indeed a disaster worse than invasion, worse 
 than the wholesale massacres of Louvain, Tamines, 
 Dinant — worse even than the ceaseless persecution 
 
AMERICA'S STEWARDSHIP 63 
 
 of the last two years" — worse than the confiscation 
 of Belgium's food — worse than the levy of mil- 
 lions of money upon the pillaged and impoverished 
 towns. 
 
 Here, I say, is a new opportunity for America to 
 change her policy of passive indifference. Let her 
 lift up her voice like a trumpet to rebuke with stem 
 indignation this latest outrage upon an inoffensive 
 people ! Let the government of our country protest 
 against it so vigorously that the whole world shall 
 hear the echo of our rebuke! Let the people de- 
 nounce it from one end of the land to the other, as 
 an act of barbarous cruelty worthy of the kings of 
 Assyria 2,600 years ago! 
 
 Dare we, as Americans, as descendants of the men 
 who proclaimed the Declaration of Independence, 
 and made it good at Bunker Hill and Saratoga and 
 King's Mountain and Cowpens and Yorktown, — 
 dare we be silent in the face of such a colossal crime 
 against human liberty as this? 
 
 Our President has well said, '*So far as America 
 is concerned and her influence is involved, justice 
 and liberty should be extended to mankind every- 
 where." 
 
 It is when we let the light of that clear utterance 
 into our souls that we see how impossible it ought 
 to be for America to restrain her indignation in 
 the face of this barbarism of the Central Empires. 
 
 Does America indeed stand like that Statue of 
 
64 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 Liberty holding up the torch of truth and justice for 
 the enHghtenment of mankind? 
 
 Then let her mighty voice be lifted up for those 
 myriads of helpless people being dragged into 
 slavery! *'The only thing" (again I quote President 
 Wilson), "the only thing that will hold the world 
 steady is the all-powerful opinion of mankind." 
 Yes; but this "all-powerful opinion of mankind" 
 must not be stifled — must not be gagged — must not 
 be hushed into silence by the opiate of neutrality! 
 No, it must find expression; it must make itself 
 heard; it must speak as the oracle of God; as the 
 witness of Eternal truth; as the echo of the Divine 
 Justice, to rebuke such tyranny as this^ — to scorch 
 it with the prophecy of the judgment of the God of 
 righteousness. 
 
 In conclusion, my friends and fellow citizens, let 
 me say that this great and powerful Americati 
 people has come to the parting of the ways. We 
 face a tremendous and fateful issue. We can no 
 longer halt and hesitate between two opinions. We 
 can no longer take refuge in that refuge of lies — a 
 neutral position. We must make our choice. 
 
 Are we for liberty or for arbitrary power? For 
 democracy or for irresponsible autocracy? For 
 Christian civilization or for anti-Christian barbar- 
 ism? Answer in the light of the Lusitania horror, 
 in the light of the Zeppelin murders of women and 
 
AMERICANS STEWARDSHIP 65 
 
 children, in the light of the alliance between a Eu- 
 ropean power and the Mohammedan Empire, in 
 the light of the unspeakable Armenian massacres, 
 in the light of this latest outrage of which I have 
 spoken to-day. 
 
 I say, without hesitation, the cause of the Allies is 
 the cause of personal liberty against irresponsible 
 power; it stands for the freedom and independence 
 of the nations; for the sacredness of treaties; for 
 the accepted principles of international law; for 
 pacific civilization against a civilization based on 
 militarism. 
 
 It is the cause of civic ideals against military 
 ambition. It is a war of great principles. It is 
 a fight against such ideas as these : 
 
 The end of the State is power; 
 Might makes right; 
 The state has no moral obligations; 
 Military necessity justifies any wrong, any injus- 
 tice, any cruelty! 
 
 Fellow citizens, and fellow Christians, I ask you. 
 Can America hesitate when such an issue is pre- 
 sented ? 
 
 Rather let us follow the example of our sister 
 republic, Brazil, which, in July, 191 6, boldly took 
 the side of the Allies, declaring, "The tribunals of 
 public opinion and conscience can not rest neutral 
 between law and crime." 
 
eS FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 I tell you, my friends, it is a solemn and a fateful 
 hour. We face a peril more serious than war — it 
 is the peril of an atrophied moral nature. If we 
 go on witnessing acts of cruelty without condemn- 
 ing them — crimes against liberty, without protesting 
 against them — outrages against humanity without 
 denouncing them — the crucifixion of innocence 
 without crying out in horror against it, — our moral 
 nature will lose its fiber, our moral judgment will 
 cease its ofBce, our conscience will become seared 
 as with a hot iron, — our soul will become cold and 
 sordid and selfish. If America, in this crucial hour, . 
 
 commits herself to the guidance of that base and 1 
 
 cowardly principle, "safety first," she may save her 
 body, but she will lose her soul! And the loving 
 Christ stands by, asking us to consider "What shall 
 it profit a nation if she gain the whole world, and 
 lose her own soul?" 
 
VI 
 
 ISAIAH'S COUNSEL IN A GREAT NA- 
 TIONAL CRISIS 
 
 ^'Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of hosts, O 
 My people that dwelleth in Zion, he not afraid of 
 the Assyrians/' — Isaiah X, 24 "^ 
 
 The words of the ancient prophet take us back 
 2,600 years, i.e., to 721 B. C. Isaiah sees his people 
 in the midst of a great national crisis. His country- 
 stands face to face with Assyria, — a mighty nation, 
 arrogant, brutal, successful, scornful, heartless, un- 
 scrupulous, cruel. Sargon is its King, its Kaiser. 
 He dominates the world of Isaiah's day. Damascus 
 has fallen before him. Arpad and Hamath have 
 been annihilated; Samaria, Judah's northern neigh- 
 bor, has fallen before his resistless onslaught. Yes, 
 this great Assyrian monarch handles the nations 
 and their gods as playthings. His selfish, cruel 
 force carries all before it. 
 
 And now Judah and Jerusalem must face him! 
 What can possibly save Jerusalem from his tal- 
 ons? He has already swooped down upon Sa- 
 
 * Sermon delivered in the Church of the Epiphany, Wash- 
 ington, March 4th, 191 7. 
 
 67 
 
68 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 maria and carried away her people into captivity 
 with every circumstance of heartless brutality, men 
 and women and children ! His armies are only two 
 days' march away from the Jewish capital. Is there 
 any salvation for it? 
 
 "Ah yes," cried some of the people, our King, 
 Ahaz, has made a treaty with Assyria. That is 
 our reliance !" But do they forget that the Assyrian 
 is unscrupulous? Will he respect the treaty if it 
 stands in the way of his ambition? No, no, he will 
 unhesitatingly overrun a tiny province like Judah. 
 To Sargon, the Assyrian monarch, a treaty is no 
 more than a bit of parchment, or papyrus, — a mere 
 scrap of paper, as we would say. 
 
 Isaiah is too clear-eyed to put any trust in As- 
 syria's plighted faith. He knows she has no honor 
 — no regard for the sacredness of a treaty. He 
 knows that she will allow nothing to stand in the 
 way of her ambition or her lust for conquest. She 
 has set out to make herself mistress of the world — 
 what does she care for the rights of small nations ? 
 Might is the only right in her eyes. 
 
 In vivid words the prophet describes the arrogant 
 self-confidence of the Assyrian. "It is in his heart to 
 destroy and cut off nations not a few." "Shall I 
 not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so 
 do to Jerusalem and her idols? By the strength of 
 my hand I have done it ; I have removed the bounds 
 of the people, and robbed their treasures, and I 
 
ISAIAH'S COUNSEL 69 
 
 have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man. 
 And my hand hath found like a nest the riches of 
 the people ; and as one gathereth eggs that are left, 
 have I gathered all the earth." 
 
 He believes in nothing but himself and his mili- 
 tary might. But the prophet brings his people a 
 gospel of deliverance; he bids them not fear the 
 resistless might of the king of Assyria; he tells 
 them the Assyrian is only the rod of God's anger; 
 that he is but the axe in the hand of the Almighty ; 
 that he is permitted to wield vast power in the earth, 
 — but only up to a certain point. Then the omnipo- 
 tent Lord of all the earth will interpose to rebuke 
 his arrogance and to destroy his power. 
 
 "When God shall have used him for the needed 
 punishment of Judah, then shall God visit upon him 
 his arrogance and brutality." The brute force of 
 this great Assyrian, who handled the nations as his 
 playthings, is nothing but an instrument, an axe, a 
 saw, in the hand of the judge of all the earth. 
 Isaiah in his sublime faith beholds him at the very 
 moment of his triumph, when he is reaching out his 
 hand over Jerusalem, struck down by the hand of 
 Jehovah. He sees his world-power come crashing 
 to the earth, like a great cedar of Lebanon! This 
 is the prophet's gospel to his people: Put your 
 trust in the God of your fathers, make Him your 
 refuge, rely upon His omnipotent and loving power; 
 He will make bare His mighty arm and deliver you 
 
70 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 from the pitiless hand of this arrogant conqueror. 
 
 But before proclaiming this gospel of hope and 
 deliverance the prophet utters a word of rebuke 
 and warning to his people. He sees the peril of 
 atheism in the situation. The people are overawed 
 by the success of this great Assyrian power, — 
 hurtling through the nations; laughing at their 
 Gods as idols ; boasting that by his strength he will 
 overcome them ; and to simple eyes making good his 
 boast. 
 
 All real faith in the God of Israel seems to be 
 dying out; men were saying to themselves, **Our 
 faith is vain, nothing can stand against this terrible 
 world force that is destroying the nations 1" 
 
 'Ts there, indeed, a supreme and righteous ruler 
 of the world? After all, is not material force the 
 only thing that rules on this earth ? We see a flood 
 of heartless, unscrupulous, and scornful force burst- 
 ing over the nations, with its challenge to make 
 terms and pay tribute, or to go down straightway in 
 the struggle for existence. This selfish, cruel force 
 which is carrying all before it must really be the 
 highest power in life." Against this skepticism, 
 this faithless fear of material power, the prophet 
 Isaiah warns his people; he rebukes them for their 
 unbelief and calls them back to faith in the God of 
 their fathers. He reminds them that through all 
 their history Jehovah has been their refuge and 
 their deliverer. 
 
ISAIAH'S COUNSEL 71 
 
 He summons them to rally around the conviction 
 that lay at the heart of their national history, that 
 the God of righteousness and justice was their 
 refuge and their strength and their hope. "God is 
 our refuge and strength, a very present hope in 
 trouble, therefore will we not fear. God is in 
 the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will 
 help her and that right early. The heathen raged, 
 the kingdoms are moved, he uttered his voice, the 
 earth melted. The Lord of Hosts is with us, the 
 God of Jacob is our refuge." 
 
 I need not say, my brethren, that the situation 
 depicted by the ancient Jewish prophet 2,600 years 
 ago, finds a clear and striking parallel in our own 
 day. We, too, are confronted by an arrogant, un- 
 scrupulous power which has set out to make herself 
 mistress of the world; a power which rivals Assyria 
 for heartless brutality and boundless ambition. 
 Many also have been its successes; city after city, 
 province after province, has fallen under its sway. 
 It has carried devastation and destruction into many 
 rich and fruitful regions; it has inflicted miseries 
 and cruelties beyond the power of description upon 
 multitudes of both men and women; and, now, this 
 proud and mighty power threatens our own beloved 
 country with the horrors of war. Against our will, 
 against our natural instincts, we are being driven 
 into conflict with it. 
 
 In the face of such a situation as this what is the 
 
^2 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 message of the Christian prophet to the people of 
 God ? My brethren, it is, first of all, a rebuke to the 
 skepticism and doubt which has arisen in many 
 hearts, and which has found frequent expression in 
 the press, — either that there is no God, or that He 
 has nothing to do with the affairs of men ; — that the 
 idea of a God in history who guides and overrules 
 the development of human affairs is an exploded 
 idea, which intelligent men can no longer main- 
 tain. I am here to-day to challenge this doubt and 
 to reassert with full and unshaken conviction my 
 faith in the Providence of God; I am here to say 
 to you that this brutally arrogant and unscrupulous 
 power which boasts itself invincible, is but the rod 
 in the hand of the Almighty for the chastisement 
 of the nations of the world until the time comes, 
 fixed in His inscrutable wisdom, when, like some 
 great cedar of Lebanon it shall come crashing in 
 ruin to the earth. I am here to say to you that 
 moral and spiritual forces must in the end prevail 
 over material forces; that shot and shell and Zep- 
 pelins and torpedoes must succumb at last before 
 righteousness and justice and truth! I am here to 
 bring to you the gospel of trust in the omnipotence 
 of the God of righteousness, and to tell you that as 
 He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, so He 
 will make all this unscrupulous cruelty, all this 
 misery and wretchedness and brutal oppression, 
 work together for the good of man, for the promo- 
 
ISAIAH'S COUNSEL 73 
 
 tion of true religion, — yes, for the ultimate spread 
 of brotherly kindness between the nations of the 
 earth. 
 
 But we are told that this war demonstrates the 
 failure of the Christian religion; that it shows that 
 the principles which Christ announced not only have 
 not succeeded in governing mankind, but they can- 
 not succeed; that the whole system is unworkable 
 and impracticable. Allow me to show you, if I 
 may, the error of such a view. 
 
 Consider it in the first place from the practical 
 point of view. And here let me say that all the 
 evidence available goes to show that Christianity 
 has become more real and vital both in France and 
 in England since this war began, than it was before. 
 That both these nations have been wonderfully re- 
 generated in vigor and in national devotion is 
 universally recognized. But it is just as true that 
 there has been going on among them a process 
 of religious regeneration. It can be confidently 
 afifirmed that there are more earnest Christians in 
 both these countries to-day than there were three 
 years ago. 
 
 Consider, in the next place, that the inspired 
 writers of the New Testament continually warn the 
 churches of the danger of apostasy, — of the neces- 
 sity of holding fast the truth of God which they 
 have received; and then observe that this tremen- 
 dous and awful war can be distinctly traced to the 
 
74 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 abandonment over wide areas of the Christian faith 
 as it is presented to us in the New Testament. That 
 the leading thinkers in the regions to which I allude 
 have allowed a false and un-Christian philosophy to 
 elbow out the Christian conception of life and con- 
 duct and duty. How far this abandonment of 
 Christianity has proceeded may be seen in the 
 shameful fact that this arrogant and masterful 
 power has allied itself with Mohammedanism, — the 
 age-long enemy of the Christian religion, — and 
 has, in the pursuit of its boundless ambition, brought 
 about the proclamation of a Holy War by the 
 Moslem power all over the world against the nations 
 which it has unscrupulously attacked; so that it is 
 not Christianity which has failed but it is a certain 
 part of the people called Christians who have been 
 untrue to the faith which they have professed. 
 
 Consider also that through all the darkness and 
 horror of this tremendous war with its carnage 
 and its misery and its bloodshed there have shone 
 out countless brilliant deeds of Christian love by 
 Christian men even to their bitterest enemies; and 
 then consider that when God created man a free 
 agent it became inevitable that upon his free choice 
 must depend the moral development of mankind; 
 and that such is the wisdom and the power of the 
 great God of heaven and earth that He will use 
 oftentimes the evil choice and the wickedness of 
 
ISAIAH'S COUNSEL 75 
 
 men as instruments to accomplish His holy purpose 
 on this earth. 
 
 As an example of this, remember the words of 
 Christ to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor: 
 "Thou couldst have no power at all against me ex- 
 cept it were given thee from above.'' These words 
 of the Saviour of the world show us that even the 
 treachery of Judas, and the hatred of the Jewish 
 rulers, and the cruelty of the Roman soldiers, be- 
 came instruments in the hands of Divine Providence 
 in the working out of His purpose of infinite love 
 for the redemption and salvation of the world. In 
 the light of this divine utterance we may dare to 
 say that the wicked power which is now seeking to 
 dominate the world will ultimately be seen to be the 
 rod of the Almighty to accomplish His will and that 
 this awful war will in the ultimate development of 
 the providence of God be an illustration of the 
 inspired assurance that "All things work together 
 for good to them that love God." 
 
 "We already thank God for this awful war," said 
 the Bishop of Worcester to me. 
 
 Here then is a great lesson for us to lay to 
 heart: do not let us cower in abject fear before 
 this vast world force ; do not let us yield to the faith- 
 less thought that the selfish, cruel power which we 
 see carrying all before it in some parts of the world 
 is the highest power in life; do not let us yield to 
 the timid thought that truth and honesty and hu- 
 
76 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 manity, are after all but the playthings and vic- 
 tims of force. On the other hand, — while as a 
 nation we must put forth all the strength that 
 God gives us to preserve the liberty and independ- 
 ence which we have received as a heritage from our 
 fathers, do not let us put our trust in material 
 force, however splendidly organized, but rather let 
 us believe with all our hearts that it is righteous- 
 ness that exalteth a nation; that it is righteousness 
 that saveth a nation; that, to use the language of 
 Major General Bell, — "it is character that wins 
 under fire, not ability or knowledge, but character" ; 
 and that truth and justice must in the end triumph 
 over brute force because there is a supreme and 
 righteous Ruler of the world. Above all let not 
 any Christian man be cowed by the great brazen 
 laugh of the world, — or lose his faith in the beauty 
 of purity and honor, and in the glory and splendor 
 of the religion of Jesus Christ. 
 
 In one of the ruined villages on the battle front 
 in France, a strange sight was presented. The 
 church which had withstood the storms of more 
 than three centuries, had been terribly battered by 
 shot and shell. Half the steeple was gone ; the other 
 seemed ready to fall. The roof had fallen in. The 
 windows had been crushed. The figures of the 
 saints had been blown to bits. All was desolation 
 and destruction. Even the grave stones had been 
 shattered by the shells. But one object stood un- 
 
ISAIAH'S COUNSEL j'j 
 
 harmed, untouched: — the great Cross with the 
 figure of the crucified Christ! There it stood un- 
 scathed. Not a shell had touched it. Not a bullet 
 had pierced the sacred body. His arms remained 
 outstretched in intercession for a sinful world amid 
 the fiery blasts of the battle ! 
 
 All was marred and blasted and destroyed save 
 Jesus only. He was untouched ! 
 
 The clock in the steeple was silent and in ruins — 
 it was the symbol of Time ! 
 
 The Crucifix continued to speak, it was the symbol 
 of Eternity and Eternal love. And not all the din 
 and clamor of the terrible battle could hush the 
 voice of mercy that spoke to the beholder from those 
 silent lips of Love: "Father, forgive them.*' 
 
 My brethren, it is a symbol of the fact that the 
 memory and the message of the Cross of Christ 
 cannot be silenced even by this awful War. It will 
 survive all changes, all shocks. Christ and His 
 Cross will never lose its power over the human 
 heart. 
 
 Meanwhile, my dear friends and fellow citizens, 
 let us not fail to lay to heart the message which 
 this titanic struggle brings to the people of America, 
 especially if it shall turn out that in spite of all 
 our efforts for peace, it becomes necessary for us 
 to face the sufferings and sacrifices of war. 
 
 Oh, if we will be still and listen for the voice 
 of God, we will hear the trumpet calling us to re- 
 
78 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 pentance, — repentance for our national sins; for 
 our ungodliness, for our unbelief, for our neglect 
 of the Bible, for our scorn of the church of God, 
 for our profanation of the Lord's day, for our 
 selfish luxury, for our carnal profligacy. These 
 national sins invite the judgment of God! And 
 the church, too, must search and try her ways. 
 Christians must repent of their lukewarmness, of 
 the unreality and formalism of their religion. And 
 the church in all its branches, in all its forms, must 
 arouse herself to Christianize this nominally Chris- 
 tian land. 
 
 She must broaden and intensify her efforts to 
 make America a really Christian country. 
 
 Finally, men and brethren, in this great national 
 crisis God calls us to personal repentance. He calls 
 the individual man to whom I speak to-day to 
 "repent and believe the gospel" — "Seek ye the Lord 
 while He may be found, call ye upon Him while 
 He is near ; let the wicked forsake his way, and the 
 unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return 
 unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him; 
 and to our God for He will abundantly pardon." 
 
 Yes, my friends, if we will consider the situation 
 in which we stand at this hour, I think the words 
 of the ancient prophet will re-echo in our hearts: 
 "Prepare to meet thy God." 
 
VII 
 
 AMERICA SUMMONED TO A HOLY WAR* 
 
 "And I rose up and said unto the nobles, and to 
 the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not 
 ye afraid of them; remember the Lord, which is 
 great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your 
 sons and your daughters, your wives and your 
 houses!' — Nehemiah IV, 14. 
 
 The function of the ancient Jewish prophet was 
 by no means Hmited to moral and rehgion instruc- 
 tion. Both the national and international interests 
 of his people claimed his attention and were made 
 the subject of his counsel. He did not hesitate to 
 criticize the public policy of the government. He 
 would sometimes denounce a proposed alliance with 
 some other nation. On the other hand, he would 
 advocate an alliance which he deemed wise and safe. 
 Scanning the horizon from his prophetic watch- 
 tower, he would warn the king and people of ap- 
 proaching danger to the nation, and when a foreign 
 
 * Delivered in the Church of the Epiphany, Washing- 
 ton, D. C, Palm Sunday evening, April i, 1917, on the eve 
 of the assembling of Congress. 
 
 79 
 
8o FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 enemy threatened invasion of the land, he would 
 lift up his voice in the name of the Lord God as 
 a divine messenger to rouse the people to prepare 
 for war and to resist oppression. The two great 
 principles which informed and inspired his prophetic 
 utterances were liberty and justice^ — political liberty 
 and social justice. Moses on the mountain top, 
 lifting up his hands in prayer to the Lord of Hosts, 
 while Joshua and the Hebrew warriors fought with 
 Amalek in the plain below, presents a picture typical 
 of the function of the Iraelitish prophet. 
 
 Our text gives us a striking example of the place 
 which the Prophet held among the people of God. 
 Nehemiah, engaged with his people in rebuilding of 
 the walls of Jerusalem, having received intelligence 
 of the approach of hostile bands designing to attack 
 them, addresses himself to the nobles and rulers and 
 the rest of the people, as follows : "Be not ye afraid 
 of them; remember the Lord, which is great and 
 terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons and 
 your daughters, your wives and your houses." 
 
 The circumstances under which we meet to-day, 
 my brethren, are not dissimilar to those which con- 
 fronted the Jewish leader and his people on this 
 occasion. A powerful and unscrupulous foe beyond 
 the seas is levying war upon the United States, 
 sinking our ships, murdering our citizens without 
 mercy, forbidding our merchantmen the freedom of 
 
AMERICA SUMMONED TO HOLY WAR 8i 
 
 the seas, secretly plotting an alliance with Mexico 
 and Japan against our national integrity. 
 
 What now is the duty of the Christian minister 
 to his people and to the public in this crisis? The 
 answer in my opinion cannot be doubtful. He 
 should say to them as Nehemiah said, **Be not ye 
 afraid of them; remember the Lord, which is great 
 and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons 
 and your daughters, your wives and your houses." 
 Yes, I hold that he who speaks for God should not 
 be dumb at such a moment, that he should not avoid 
 discussing the national crisis as if it lay outside 
 his vocation as a minister of Christ. Equally do 
 I repudiate the counsel of the pacifists who falsely 
 invoke the Christian religion on behalf of the policy 
 of non-resistance, who maintain indeed that war is 
 never justifiable and that no Christian man can 
 consistently take any part in war, even in repelling 
 the invasion of his country. No, there is no basis 
 in the Bible for cowardly submission to tyranny or 
 invasion. On the contrary, the Bible everywhere 
 exhorts us to stand for righteousness and justice 
 and liberty, and to resist tyranny and wrong. Listen 
 to the words of another of the ancient prophets: 
 "He that dasheth in pieces has come up before thy 
 face; keep the munition, watch the way, make thy 
 loins strong, fortify thy power mightily" (Nahum 
 
 II, I). 
 
 The ancient worthies whose examples are set 
 
82 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 before us in Holy Writ, the heroes and martyrs of 
 the Christian Church, have ever displayed a firm 
 resolve to resist the invader and the oppressor, and 
 to stand bravely for human rights and for national 
 safety. 
 
 These pacifists have as little of the spirit of manly 
 religion as they have of true patriotism. They 
 would have taken the sword from the hands of 
 Judas Maccabeus when he drew it in defense of 
 his country against the unspeakable tyranny of 
 Antiochus Epiphanes! They would have snatched 
 the pen from Thomas Jefferson and John Hancock 
 and George Washington when. they came forward 
 to sign the Declaration of Independence! They 
 would have sent the embattled farmers home from 
 Concord and Bunker Hill! They would have 
 preached submission at Valley Forge ! 
 
 Let me say then, as plainly and as strongly as I 
 can, speaking as a minister of Christ, speaking as 
 a messenger of God, speaking with a solemn sense 
 of the obligations of my sacred office, speaking in 
 the sanctuary of Christ, and with a full sense of my 
 accountability for every word I utter in this holy 
 place, — that it is the high and sacred duty of the 
 American people to take up the gage of battle which 
 Germany has thrown down to us and to prosecute 
 the war against her with all our energy and with 
 every resource at our command — not hesitatingly, 
 not half-heartedly, but with all our hearts and with 
 
AMERICA SUMMONED TO HOLY WAR 83 
 
 every pound of energy at our command, realizing 
 the vast interests at stake, the tremendous conse- 
 quences for weal or woe dependent upon its issue. 
 
 The Christ who smote with the sword of His 
 mouth the hypocrites who oppressed the widows and 
 orphans in His day would not rebuke the United 
 States for drawing the sword in defense of inno- 
 cent, helpless women and girls from the outrages 
 of a brutal soldiery. The Christ who before Pontius 
 Pilate declared that if His kingdom were of this 
 world His soldiers would fight, would not condemn 
 the United States, which is a government of this 
 world, for sending forth her armies to defend the 
 cause of justice and humanity. The Christ who 
 used physical violence to cleanse the temple will 
 not rebuke the United States for using the violence 
 of war to cleanse the earth of the foul domination of 
 this ruthless nation which stops at no outrage in its 
 vast attempt to establish dominion over the whole 
 earth. The Christ who is the King of Righteousness 
 will not condemn this republic for taking her place 
 in the ranks of the peoples who are so nobly battling 
 for right and justice in the earth. The Christ who 
 is "first King of Righteousness and then King of 
 Peace" will surely approve of our resolve to recog- 
 nize no peace which is not founded on justice and 
 equity. 
 
 There are several considerations of great moment 
 to which I desire to invite your attention. I beg 
 
84 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 of you in the first place to realize the colossal pro- 
 portions and the ultimate aim of this tremendous 
 war. It is not merely an European War — it is not 
 merely a strife against England and France and Rus- 
 sia and Italy. It is the culmination of a long pre- 
 pared effort to establish a Pan-German Empire, with 
 no less an object than the Prussianization of the 
 world. With all the formidable tenacity and 
 methodical thoroughness which characterize the 
 Prussian people, this gigantic plot has been 
 steadily pushed for more than twenty years past. 
 The plan is clearly mapped out in a book 
 by Otto Tannenberg, called "The Greater Germany, 
 the Work of the Twentieth Century," which 
 appeared at Leipsic in the year 191 1. In this 
 book we have an exact program of the seizures to 
 be effected in Europe and Turkey with the purpose 
 of establishing an empire extending from Hamburg 
 through Constantinople and Bagdad to the Persian 
 Gulf. 
 
 This stupendous project to which the German 
 leaders long ago committed themselves, plans to 
 make Germany master of Austria, of the Balkans, 
 of Turkey in Europe, of Turkey in Asia, and to 
 extend its power to the very Persian Gulf itself. 
 But even this is not the full extent of the boundless 
 ambition of the Emperor and his satellites. Asia 
 Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Western 
 Asia and the greater part of Arabia would pass 
 
AMERICA SUMMONED TO HOLY WAR 85 
 
 under the absolute protectorate of the German 
 Empire. 
 
 Tannenberg further advocates territorial acquisi- 
 tions in Africa, in Oceanica and in America, as the 
 perfectly logical consequence of the accomplishment 
 of the Hamburg to the Persian Gulf project. In 
 America his plan embraced the seizure of Brazil, 
 Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Chili. These 
 are his words : ''German South America will provide 
 for us in the temperate zone a colonial region where 
 our immigrants will be able to settle as farmers. 
 Chili and Argentina will preserve their language 
 and their autonomy, but we shall require that in the 
 schools German shall be taught as a second 
 language. Southern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay 
 are countries of German culture ; German will there 
 be the National tongue." * 
 
 This book of Tannenberg's is only one of a group, 
 which reveals the boundless ambition of the Em- 
 peror and his counselors. It makes it very plain 
 that this immense war, the most tremendous that 
 the world has ever known, concerns us in the United 
 States in a very real and direct fashion. 
 
 But it is not only the vast schemes of Pan-Ger- 
 manism that bring the United States into relation 
 with this immense war. It is not only that the 
 conquest of Europe and of Asia Minor would be 
 
 * See "The Pan-German Plot Unmasked," p. 105 by Andre 
 Cheradame. 
 
86 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 preliminary to conquests in the Western Hemi- 
 sphere which Germany has in view, but it is the 
 great principles which are really involved in this 
 conflict that chiefly concern us. It might be said, 
 Why should not the German Empire become so 
 vast as to realize this dream of Pan-Germanism? 
 might it not be better for the world to be under the 
 government of such a power as Germany? might not 
 her immense efliciency in every sphere of life and 
 activity be a great advantage to the nations brought 
 under her sway? But, my friends, as you well 
 know, there is another aspect to this question. The 
 nations engaged in this great conflict represent cer- 
 tain principles of immense importance, — funda- 
 mental principles mutually antagonistic, great ideals 
 of a totally opposite character. It is not merely a 
 struggle for territory, for power, for economic and 
 commercial advantage, for the markets of the world, 
 for the nerves of commerce and business. No, be- 
 yond all this, it is a conflict between irresponsible 
 autocracy on the one hand and ordered liberty on 
 the other. Germany stands for the autocrat, for 
 the suppression of individuality, for the repres- 
 sion of liberty, for the refusal of really representa- 
 tive government. England and France, and now 
 Russia herself, stand for the great principles of 
 democracy, of liberty and justice and representative 
 government, for freedom of speech and of the press, 
 for freedom of conscience, for the real freedom of 
 
AMERICA SUMMONED TO HOLY WAR 87 
 
 the seas. These are the chief principles at stake. 
 This is the real significance of this vast and tremen- 
 dous conflict. This is, above all, the reason why the 
 great Republic of America and every patriotic 
 citizen within her borders, is vitally interested in the 
 issue of this war. This is why, even if we were 
 not challenged to war by Germany as we are to-day, 
 it would be at once our highest interest and our most 
 sacred duty to take our part, with all the force that 
 we can exert, with all the resources at our com- 
 mand, on the side of these liberty-loving peoples 
 who have drawn the sword in the defense of human 
 rights, yes, of humanity itself. 
 
 I tell you, my friends, our liberties are involved 
 in the issue of this struggle; our freedom as a na- 
 tion, our existence as a democratic representative 
 government. If Germany triumphs, woe to Amer- 
 ican independence, woe to American ideals, woe to 
 American peace and happiness! 
 
 But I take higher ground. I call upon America 
 to recognize the S. O. S. call of our brothers in 
 France and England and Russia and Italy, to save 
 them from the peril of Prussianism, to take our 
 stand at their side in the defense of liberty and 
 civilization and humanity, not for anything that we 
 can gain, not even to protect anything that we might 
 lose, but for the love of those great principles which 
 we have received as a heritage from our fathers, 
 and which it is our solemn and sacred duty to de- 
 
88 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 fend, if need be, with the last drop of our bloody 
 For I beg of you to realize that the responsibility 
 of this awful war rests upon the military leaders 
 of Prussia. The attempts to make England or 
 France or Russia responsible for it have absolutely 
 failed. The pretexts upon which these attempts 
 were built up have been torn to tatters, not a shred 
 of fact remains at this day. It has passed into his- 
 tory beyond the possibility of revision, that the 
 Prussian power has been preparing for this war for 
 many years, that it has been precipitated in the ful- 
 fillment of a vast and ambitious scheme which has 
 no parallel in history. It is now seen that for more 
 than twenty years Germany has been spinning her 
 webs in all neutral countries. She had set on foot 
 a world-wide propaganda which is without pre- 
 cedent in its immensity. The whole ambitious 
 scheme presents a phenomenon without parallel in 
 the records of time. She chose the means and the 
 moment for precipitating a war upon Europe, and 
 so well were her schemes laid that they almost suc- 
 ceeded. It is also now an indisputable fact that 
 England, France, and Russia and Italy have been 
 dragged into this war against their will, and they 
 are fighting not for territorial aggrandizement but 
 for liberty and international justice. 
 
 Furthermore, I beg you to remember that those 
 heroic soldiers of France and England and Russia 
 are really fighting our battles. They are shedding 
 
AMERICA SUMMONED TO HOLY WAR 89 
 
 their blood for the great principles upon which our 
 Republic rests. They are fighting with such mag- 
 nificent self-sacrifice for democracy and liberty and 
 international justice. Those blood-soaked trenches 
 across the whole breadth of Europe are the break- 
 water that is keeping back the flood of tyranny that 
 would otherwise sweep away the foundations upon 
 which the fabric of our independence and of our 
 rights and liberties rests. Yes, the armies of the 
 Allies are really safeguarding the future of this 
 great Republic. This is not a rash statement or 
 an ill-considered opinion. It is the firm conviction 
 of many of our best thinkers, who clearly under- 
 stand that the victory of Germany would unques- 
 tionably mean serious peril to the independence of 
 the United States. Listen to these words of ex- 
 President Eliot of Harvard University: "The 
 quickest, the best, the surest means for Americans 
 to defend themselves against a German invasion 
 is to conclude with France and England a permanent 
 alliance, offensive and defensive, having for its aim 
 the maintenance of the freedom of the seas for the 
 AlHes and resistance to any maritime attack. It is 
 time for all Americans to take sides openly with 
 the European peoples that for so many long months 
 have been standing up against the military despotism 
 of Prussia." 
 
 It would be easy to quote the utterances of prom- 
 inent Germans, to the same effect; for instance, 
 
90 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 this : "Some months after we have done our business 
 in Europe, we shall take New York and probably 
 Washington*'; and this: "We shall extract one or 
 two billions of dollars from New York and other 
 points." (Admiral von Goetzen.) 
 
 I offer a third consideration which should have 
 a powerful influence in deciding our duty at this 
 critical moment. Let me say to you, my friends, 
 that if the Congress of the United States, which 
 assembles to-morrow, shall recognize the fact that 
 Germany has long been committing acts of war 
 against this country, and is in fact at war with us 
 at this hour, sinking our ships and murdering our 
 citizens and plotting against the integrity of our 
 national domain, and shall therefore declare war 
 against Germany in self-defense, it will not only 
 be a justifiable war, a war which we have not pro- 
 voked, a war which we have not desired and do 
 not desire, a war having in it no ulterior purpose of 
 aggression or aggrandizement, — solely and purely a 
 war to vindicate our national honor and to protect 
 the rights and liberties of our people — but beyond 
 and above all this, it will be in the highest sense of 
 the word a Holy war, a war to save all that is best 
 and holiest in civilization, a war to save mankind 
 from the dominance of an evil and malign power 
 which has shown itself during more than two years 
 of conflict, to be destitute not only of all sense of 
 honor and truth and loyalty to its plighted faith, but 
 
AMERICA SUMMONED TO HOLY WAR 91 
 
 destitute also of humanity and mercy and of all 
 regard for the principles of morality recognized 
 among civilized nations. 
 
 I am glad to make my own the editorial utterance 
 of one of our great dailies : ''We favor therefore a 
 flat-footed declaration of war upon Germany, rather 
 than a semi-evasive recognition that a state of war 
 exists. Germany should be arraigned before the 
 world for high crimes and misdemeanors and war 
 denounced against her for the purpose of punishing 
 her past offenses and restraining her in the future." 
 
 I cannot undertake a recapitulation of the in- 
 famous crimes that the Government of Germany has 
 committed against mankind — the violation of trea- 
 ties, the burning and looting of cities, the poisoning 
 of wells, the wholesale murder of inoffensive civ- 
 ilians, both men and women, the atrocious Zeppelin 
 raids upon undefended cities, the atrocious and 
 heartless cruelties connected with her submarine 
 warfare, the sinking of hospital ships, the robbery 
 and spoliation of inoffensive citizens, the deporta- 
 tion of thousands of women and girls into atrocious 
 slavery, her connivance at the immense Armenian 
 massacres. 
 
 To all this she has now added the immeas- 
 urable atrocities which have accompanied the 
 evacuation of territory in Northern France. She 
 has been guilty of a vandalism that has scarcely a 
 parallel in all history, and the devastation that her 
 
92 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 soldiers have committed under orders of her officers, 
 have to a large extent had no relation to military 
 necessity or military advantage. They have fulfilled 
 the description which the Prophet gave of old of 
 ^he invasion of a ruthless army : ''The land was as 
 the Garden of Eden before them and behind them 
 a desolate wilderness." (Joel.) The human sav- 
 agery exhibited by the German Armies in this 
 retreat reveals the blackness of the German soul. 
 All their frightfulness in Belgium and Servia was a 
 minor thing compared to the unspeakable frightful- 
 ness of their devastation, literally their destruction, 
 of the fair fields of France, in their recent retreat. 
 No wonder an editor in our secular press has 
 exclaimed, "Our duty to God and man is to aid in 
 the chastisement of the war monster. Let us join 
 in punishing the guilty and securing such compensa- 
 tion as can be wrested from Germany for her 
 victims." 
 
 I have no hesitation then in saying that the voice 
 of a just God summons us to this War and that it 
 is in the highest sense of the word a Holy War. 
 The people of the Middle Ages flocked to the stand- 
 ard of the Cross for what seemed to them a holy 
 purpose^ — the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre from 
 the defiling touch of the unbeliever. But, my 
 friends, those Crusades shrink into insignificance 
 compared with the crusade to which we are sum- 
 moned at the present moment. It is not to rescue 
 
AMERICA SUMMONED TO HOLY WAR 93 
 
 a sepulchre from the hands of the Mohammedans 
 to which we are called, but to rescue brave and 
 noble peoples from the unspeakable cruelty and bru- 
 tality of a powerful confederation of nations mar- 
 shalled under the Prussian Eagle — nay, to rescue 
 the civilized world itself from the talons of a mon- 
 ster more merciless than the eagle towards his prey. 
 The cruelty, the rapacity, the savagery of Prussian- 
 ism is not a matter of opinion, or the indictment of 
 prejudice, but a hideous fact which we have seen 
 with our own eyes during the last two years or 
 more. No words can tell its abomination. Indeed, 
 the principle is avowed in so many words by emi- 
 nent representatives of the German Empire. Thus 
 Maximilian Harden has declared: "Every means 
 will be enthusiastically employed against her en- 
 emies by the German people. We will go back to 
 the times of savagery when man was a wolf for his 
 fellowman." * 
 
 Will America halt and hesitate in the presence of 
 such an issue as this? Will she listen to the siren 
 song of the pacifists who have flocked to Washing- 
 ton in such numbers at this present moment, with the 
 purpose of weakening the resolve of our legislators 
 to vindicate the honor of the United States, — nay, 
 to defend our rights and liberties against insolent 
 aggression and outrageous invasion? Will she not 
 have discernment to perceive that this pacifist move- 
 * Quoted by Le Temps, Feb. 9, 1916. 
 
94 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 ment is inspired partly by disloyalty to the Republic, 
 and organized by the spies and plotters who are paid 
 to do the bidding of Germany in our midst? I do 
 not deny that some of these preachers of "peace at 
 any price," some of these advocates of national dis- 
 honor, are well meaning enthusiasts, misguided 
 theorists, whose judgment has gone astray and 
 whose brains are so bewildered that they can no 
 longer recognize the path of national duty and na- 
 tional honor, though it stretches out plainly before 
 them — but I tell you, my friends, the great body of 
 these pacifists are the secret agents of Prussianism, 
 and that procession of pacifists which was to march 
 the streets of Washington to-morrow, should have 
 been marshaled under the flag of Prussia. 
 
 They are flooding the press with advertisements 
 appealing to the women of the country to save their 
 sons, their husbands and their sweethearts from the 
 carnage of the battlefield, — seeking to blind them to 
 the real issue, which is brave resistance to tyranny, 
 or cowardly submission to foreign dictation— cour- 
 ageous battle side by side with the conquering le- 
 gions of the Allies against the forces of tyranny and 
 barbarism, or craven submission now at the cost of 
 a far more terrible conflict with little hope of suc- 
 cess in the years to come! 
 
 I, for my part, do not believe that the spirit of 
 patriotism and liberty is dead in this land of our 
 love. No, the American people will demand of their 
 
AMERICA SUMMONED TO HOLY WAR 95 
 
 legislators that they take up the gage of battle which 
 has been insolently thrown down to us by this arro- 
 gant power that seeks to dominate the earth, and that 
 we hasten to place ourselves by the side of those 
 gallant peoples who have now for more than two 
 years been fighting our battles in Europe and Asia, 
 — resolved that all the immense resources of our 
 great Republic shall be employed to turn the scale 
 of this world war, so that complete victory shall 
 crown the efforts of the Allies, and Prussian mili- 
 tarism shall be crushed, and the German people, as 
 well as the other peoples of Europe, delivered from 
 the yoke of the Hohenzollern dynasty. 
 
VIII 
 
 THE DUTY OF THE HOUR * 
 
 '^Suffer no man to remain in the camp, hut let all 
 come to the battle." — I Maccabees V. 42. 
 
 These were the words of that vaHant hero, Judas 
 Maccabeus, at a crisis in his country's history, when 
 confronted by a great host of the enemies of the 
 Lord's people. 
 
 They seem fitting words to-day, as I contemplate 
 the conditions that confront the American people at 
 this juncture of our national affairs, because they 
 express the conviction that the crisis demands the 
 active aid of every one of the people. *' Suffer no 
 m^n to remain in the camp, hut let all come to the 
 battle" 
 
 It must be urged from time to time, by the lead- 
 ers of public opinion, that the tremendous struggle 
 upon which the country has entered in this world 
 war is one that concerns every one of our citizens; 
 and this must be done so earnestly and so frequently 
 that it cannot be forgotten, or suffered to fall into 
 the background of our thoughts. 
 
 It is the people's war — the whole people. It is a 
 
 * An Appeal for the Liberty Loan given in the Church 
 of the Epiphany, Washington, D. C, Sunday, Oct. 21, 1917. 
 
 96 
 
THE DUTY OF THE HOUR 97 
 
 war commanded by the people, waged by the sons of 
 the people, waged for the people. It is for their lib- 
 erty, for their free institutions, for their deliverance 
 from a fate too cruel to contemplate. And the battle 
 must be fought not only by the soldiers and sailors 
 at the front, but by all the people — men, women and 
 children. Therefore, "Suffer no man to remain in 
 the camp, hut let all come to the battle f 
 
 I. First of all, my brethren, I would summon you 
 to do your part in the battle by investing in the sec- 
 ond issue of the Liberty Bonds. 
 
 The Episcopal Church has named a war commis- 
 sion, under the presidency of Bishop William Law- 
 rence of Massachusetts, and this commission has 
 within the past week sent out a letter to the clergy 
 of the Church, giving some account of the work it 
 has inaugurated for the Church and the nation, and 
 asking the patriotic support of every parish. 
 
 I mention it here because one of its suggestions to 
 the clergy is they should not fail to do all in their 
 power to recommend the Liberty Loan to their peo- 
 ple, urging upon them '^ the patriotic and moral duty 
 of every citizen to make his substance count in the 
 great struggle that the Umted States is waging on 
 his behalf for Liberty and Righteousness/' 
 
 Let me then press upon you the duty of respond- 
 ing to the appeal of the President by subscribing to 
 this great Loan, not in my own name only but in the 
 name of the Church of which you are members. 
 
98 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 The reasons for doing so are clear and strong. 
 
 ( 1 ) Your government has bravely assumed enor- 
 mous financial obligations for the conduct of this 
 war, which is waged for your safety and for your 
 liberty. Ought you not to help bear those obliga- 
 tions? Can you honorably refuse to do so? Will 
 you claim and enjoy the splendid benefits of the vic- 
 tory that will be won, and yet refuse to do your 
 part to secure it? 
 
 (2) Your President is bearing with splendid 
 courage the heaviest burden ever laid on a ruler^s 
 shoulders. Should you not, as a patriotic citizen, 
 help him bear it? And can you doubt that the suc- 
 cess of this vast Loan will greatly cheer his heart? 
 
 (3) These billions the people are asked to lend 
 the government will supply arms, food and clothing 
 to our soldiers and sailors, guns and munitions, 
 ships and airplanes — in a word, they will contribute 
 to put the might of America into this conflict, and 
 enable her to strike a mortal blow at autocracy in 
 defense of the liberties of mankind and of justice, 
 civilization and humanity. Will any true hearted 
 American citizen withhold his help in such a cause? 
 
 (4) This Loan will also assist the nations with 
 whom we are making common cause against a com- 
 mon foe — ^glorious France, who gave us the help 
 that enabled us to win our independence — and old 
 England, our mother, the maker of our civilization 
 and the mother of the great principles of liberty and 
 
THE DUTY OF THE HOUR 99 
 
 self-government which are our most precious heri- 
 tages. 
 
 Will any generous heart begrudge these, our he- 
 roic Allies, the aid we can give them — especially 
 when we remember that they have been fighting our 
 battles for nearly three years before we took up the 
 gage ourselves? 
 
 ( 5 ) Again, this Liberty Loan is to be our instru- 
 ment to restore peace to the world, real, lasting 
 peace — not a sham peace which conceals the dagger 
 of a future war under her pacific garb. I say to re- 
 store peace to a suffering world in the only way it 
 can be done, by crushing the remorseless machine 
 that is destroying the happiness and the liberty of 
 mankind. 
 
 Where is the man who loves righteousness, and 
 pities the oppressed, who will not be eager to have 
 a share in such a blessed consummation ? 
 
 There is one very impressive fact just reported in 
 connection with the subscriptions to the Loan : 
 
 Twenty-six millions have been subscribed by sol- 
 diers in our army. Think of it! These men who 
 have already given to the cause everything that a 
 man holds dear — now devote their money also to 
 the cause ! It has not been enough for these patriots 
 to offer on the national altar their civil careers, their 
 independence, their freedom of action, their very 
 lives — they give also their means. Having surren- 
 dered, many of them, lucrative positions and left 
 
loo FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 happy homes, and severed the tenderest domestic 
 ties, to serve their country — as soon as this appeal 
 of the President reaches their ears, they spring for- 
 ward to make a further sacrifice to make sure that 
 the Hun shall be beaten to the dust! 
 
 Can we look upon such a supreme example of 
 patriotism and not be moved? Shall not we too 
 eagerly demand the privilege of writing our names 
 upon the Honor Roll of those who in this crisis will 
 respond to their country^s call? 
 
 Let me echo the words of the President, ''To sub- 
 scribe to the Liberty Loan is to perform a service of 
 patriotism." And may we all join in his aspiration, 
 "Let the result be so impressive and emphatic that it 
 will echo throughout the empire of our enemy as an 
 index of what America intends to do to bring this 
 war to a victorious conclusion." 
 
 Yes, my friends, so sure am I of this that I do 
 not hesitate to say that you may count your sub- 
 scription a real blow for liberty. Aye, believe me, 
 every $50 invested in a Liberty Bond is another nail 
 driven into the coffin of Prussianism ! 
 
 2. But the summons to battle has a wider applica- 
 tion than to the duty of supporting this Second Lib- 
 erty Loan. It is not too much to say that there is a 
 new national crisis upon us demanding a fresh con- 
 secration to the great and holy cause to which the 
 nation was summoned on the sixth day of April 
 last. 
 
THE DUTY OF THE HOUR loi 
 
 The response of our people to the clarion call of 
 our President has been splendid. 
 
 The Congress — both Senate and House — has met 
 the issue with wise foresight and with unfaltering 
 courage. There was indeed exasperating delay — 
 there was long and often unprofitable debate. We 
 paid in full the penalty for that freedom of speech 
 which we prize so highly. Worse than the delay was 
 the timidity of some of our legislators, the stupidity 
 of others, and the unpatriotic and even disloyal at- 
 tempts of a small group, to block the programme of 
 the President, and defeat the will of the people. 
 
 But on the whole the progress was as rapid as 
 could have been expected, and laws of great and far- 
 reaching importance have been placed on the statute 
 book. No American Congress has ever enacted such 
 a mass of vitally valuable legislation. I need not 
 attempt to epitomize the measures adopted. Suffice 
 it to say they have demonstrated the unshakable de- 
 termination of the Congress to employ the immense 
 resources of our country without reserve to win this 
 war for Liberty and Democracy. 
 
 And the people of this Republic have loyally ac- 
 cepted what has been enacted. The new principle 
 that every man of military age owes military service 
 to his country has been loyally recognized. Our 
 young men have eagerly responded to the call to 
 serve in our armies, and their kindred have given 
 them to the cause without a murmur. 
 
102 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 The First Liberty Loan was largely over-sub- 
 scribed. The immense sums advanced to our Allies 
 have been approved. One hundred millions for the 
 Red Cross work was given. Men not liable to ser- 
 vice have eagerly given their services, often at great 
 financial sacrifice. Our women have gone to work 
 with patriotic zeal all over the land to supply the 
 needs of our soldiers and sailors. Indeed the spirit 
 of self-sacrifice has been nobly and widely shown. 
 
 In a word, the great body of the people have 
 shown a splendid spirit of devotion and loyalty to 
 the great cause at stake. But a new situation has 
 developed which challenges afresh the patriotism of 
 Americans and emphasizes the call of my text, "Suf- 
 fer no man to remain in the camp, hut let all come 
 to the battle" 
 
 There has been a sudden recrudescence of the 
 spirit of opposition to the war manifesting itself in 
 various forms. Some of this opposition is open and 
 above board ; some of it is secret and underground. 
 Some of it comes from honest but misguided men, 
 some of it from traitors and friends of our enemy. 
 It is in fact a motley crew. There are the pacifists 
 of various hues — the timid pacifist; the blind and 
 stupid pacifist; the wrong-headed pacifist; the hon- 
 est conscientious objectors (a very small tribe) ; the 
 sham conscientious objectors (much more numer- 
 ous), who are really cowards, or disloyal. Some of 
 those who openly or secretly oppose the war are 
 
THE DUTY OF THE HOUR 103 
 
 weak-kneed, chicken-hearted, white-livered indi- 
 viduals; some are disloyal men; some are out and 
 out pro-Germans, men who apologize for the Huns 
 and all their works; some are actually Germans, 
 the subjects of the Kaiser, secretly plotting against 
 America. 
 
 You know to what lengths some of these men 
 have gone — how they have opposed the military ser- 
 vice law — how they have secretly plotted to shake 
 the confidence of the people in the success of the 
 war — how they have dragged down values in the 
 stock market — how they have done their best to de- 
 feat the Liberty Loan — ^how they have actually 
 threatened the banks with the withdrawal of deposits 
 if they should dare to invest in the Loan — ^how in 
 one flagrant and notorious instance a public man, a 
 legislator, has circulated hundreds of thousands of 
 his disloyal speeches in which he assails the military 
 service law — and these printed at the expense of the 
 government he seeks to discredit. The air has been 
 filled with whispers of peace talk — peace conferences 
 — ^proposals to Germany to see what terms she would 
 grant. 
 
 This is why I say a new crisis has arisen in our 
 national affairs, which demands of us a fresh asser- 
 tion of our loyalty to the aims which we asserted 
 when we entered the war and of our inflexible reso- 
 lution to prosecute the war to a victorious end. 
 
 Let us hear again the trumpet blast, "Suffer no 
 
I04 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 man to remain in camp, but let all come to the bat- 
 tle'' and let us as Christian men and patriots re- 
 spond to the call, every man and woman of us all, 
 with the resolve to give ourselves to our country's 
 service — withholding nothing, refusing no sacrifice ; 
 and giving our best energies and our whole influence, 
 to carry on this war to the utmost of our power, 
 till America and her Allies shall completely prevail. 
 
 I take it also that it is part of our duty to help 
 form, a public opinion which will overwhelm with 
 scorn and indignation the half-hearted men who 
 would hinder America from putting forth her ut- 
 most energy in the prosecution of the war; and the 
 disloyal men who would obstruct the laws which 
 have been enacted in order to harness our strength 
 to this tremendous undertaking. 
 
 I take it that we are all of us summoned to rebuke 
 any proposal of a premature peace — assured that 
 such a peace is a sham and a delusion, which would 
 only call a truce for a brief term of years till war 
 could again be let loose upon mankind in even 
 greater violence than now. Yes, a premature peace 
 means more war and worse war, more misery and 
 sorrow by and by. 
 
 We are disciples of the Prince of Peace, but we 
 remember that He is first King of Righteousness 
 and then King of Peace — and therefore we want a 
 peace based on righteousness — a peace that secures 
 justice and equity, and not a sham peace, that keeps 
 
THE DUTY OF THE HOUR 105 
 
 the word of promise to the ear but breaks it to the 
 hope. 
 
 I take it that as Christian men we must not stay 
 our hand in this war till justice is done, till Bel- 
 gium and France and Servia, basely attacked and 
 devastated with a barbarism unexampled in history, 
 shall be not only delivered from their cruel invad- 
 ers, but remunerated for their losses and rehabili- 
 tated. 
 
 I take it that it is our Christian duty to uphold 
 our clear-eyed President in the determination to 
 make no treaty with a government that is destitute 
 of truth and honor and that has shown it has no re- 
 gard for the sacredness of treaties — in other words, 
 that we must not trust our liberties and the liber- 
 ties of mankind to the pledges of the false and 
 treacherous government that now rules Germany. 
 No, the President is right, we can make no terms 
 with Prussianism. It must be beaten to its knees; 
 it must be crushed, if civilization is to be saved — if 
 the world is to be made safe for Democracy. 
 
 And, mark you, it is not the spirit of revenge, or 
 the spirit of hate that dictates this resolve — it is the 
 spirit of truth and justice and common sense. This 
 evil thing that dominates the German Empire — that 
 deceives and debases the German people, that has 
 made their armies a scourge and an abomination, 
 without mercy, without decency, without any of 
 the principles of civilization or morality, I say this 
 
io6 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 evil thing must be killed as a mad dog is killed to 
 protect the community. 
 
 That is why we must resist any plea for any itv- 
 decisive concliision of this war. For the sake of our 
 own beloved country — for the sake of those brave 
 nations who have been nobly fighting our battles — 
 the battle of liberty for all mankind; yes, for the 
 sake of the German people themselves who have 
 been debased and degraded by the Prussian drill- 
 master, we must smite down the monster which has 
 trampled under foot every principle of right, every 
 rule of civilization, every law of God. 
 
 And we must do this as servants of the Living 
 God, as Soldiers of the Cross, battling to estab- 
 lish righteousness and justice in the world. 
 
 One thing more. Do not he beguiled by the 
 thought that the situation is so changed for the bet- 
 ter that America will not be required to put forth 
 all her strength to win the victory so imperatively 
 needed. The strength of Germany is waning — yes, 
 but she is still strong and determined and united. 
 She is suffering for food and is growing economi- 
 cally weaker; yes, but she is not starving yet, and 
 Roumania and Turkey and Russia are supplying a 
 large amount of food. There is discontent — much 
 of it — and some are expecting a revolution against 
 the tyranny of the Kaiser. True, but that in my 
 opinion is a vain expectation. The Germans have 
 had discipline drilled into them, and freedom and 
 
THE DUTY OF THE HOUR 107 
 
 independence drilled out of them. There is not 
 enough real virility in them to form the basis for a 
 revolution. 
 
 No, let us not deceive ourselves. The situation 
 demands that America should put forth all her 
 power and all her energy and throw all her im- 
 mense resources into the scale, in order that a vic- 
 tory, complete and overwhelming, may be achieved. 
 Only by such a victory can liberty and Democracy 
 be made safe in the world. Only by the absolute 
 overthrow of Prussianism can a real and lasting 
 peace be obtained. We do not want to embrace a 
 false peace, which is really a future war masquerad- 
 ing in the garb of peace, while she conceals a dag- 
 ger in her bosom. 
 
 Therefore, because we want a true peace, and a 
 swift peace, we must gather up all our strength and 
 grapple with this enemy of the human race with the 
 grim determination to overthrow him and destroy 
 him. And observe that this enemy is not the Ger- 
 man people, but the German government — the mili- 
 tarism of Potsdam — in a word, Prussianism. 
 
 Again, I say the situation demands that every 
 patriotic American, man or woman, should rally all 
 his power to his country's flag. ''Suffer no man to 
 remain in the camp, hut let all come to the battle." 
 
 Finally, my brethren, and above all, I beg you to 
 utilize the power of prayer in this great emergency. 
 Our President has proclaimed Sunday next as a 
 
io8 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 day of prayer for the success of our arms and the 
 restoration of peace. This is wise, this is well; and 
 what makes it the more impressive is it is done in 
 accordance with a request of Congress embodied in 
 a joint resolution, adopted on the 4th of October. 
 
 But fitting as is this united offering of the pray- 
 ers of our people on this appointed day for the bless- 
 ing of Almighty God on our armies and navies, it 
 is not enough. What is needed is that every man 
 and woman of us all should daily and nightly in 
 his private devotions, make fervent supplication to 
 our merciful God for his omnipotent help in this 
 our time of need — with a lowly confession of our 
 national sins — our unbelief, our ungodliness, our 
 worldliness, our selfishness, our self-indulgence, our 
 profanation of his holy day, our neglect of his holy 
 church. 
 
 And more than this, that we should pray ear- 
 nestly, with heart and voice, with faith, with fervor, 
 with something of Jacob's urgency, when he wres- 
 tled with the angel and cried, '7 will not let thee go, 
 except thou bless mef 
 
 Our Divine Master has taught us to pray, ^'De- 
 liver us from the evil one" — surely then we may 
 pray to be delivered from this world-power, which 
 is the embodiment of all evil, of all cruelty, of all 
 wickedness. He has taught us to pray, "Give tis 
 day by day our daily bread'' — surely then we may 
 pray for sustenance and strength in this holy enter- 
 
THE DUTY OF THE HOUR 109 
 
 prise of restoring peace and freedom to mankind. 
 
 This continual, fervent prayer is one of the 
 mightiest instruments for victory in this tremendous 
 war. Let it be wielded by every citizen of our 
 country. 
 
 ''Suifer no man to remain in the camp, but let all 
 come to the battle/' 
 
IX 
 
 GOD'S CALL TO AMERICA* 
 
 "In the name of our God we will set up our banners" 
 — Ps. 20. 5. 
 
 One of the grounds for our national Thanks- 
 giving has generally been that our country has en- 
 joyed the blessings of peace. This year peace has 
 fled from our land, and War is upon us — the most 
 tragic, the most tremendous the world has ever 
 known. And yet our chief magistrate calls us to 
 observe our annual day of Thanksgiving as usual, 
 with a chastened spirit indeed, but with a real and 
 profound sense of gratitude for the blessings that 
 are still ours, in spite of the anxiety and the suf- 
 fering and the sacrifice that war has precipitated 
 upon us. What then are some of these blessings 
 which we thankfully recognize to-day? 
 
 I might point to the immense harvests that have 
 rewarded the labors of the husbandmen — I might 
 
 ♦Delivered in the Church of the Epiphany, Washington, 
 D. C, Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 29, 1917. 
 
 no 
 
GOD'S CALL TO AMERICA in 
 
 dwell upon the health of our people — upon our free- 
 dom from pestilence and sickness — or I might re- 
 mind you of the general prosperity and the great 
 wealth of the nation. 
 
 But I ask you to raise your thoughts above the 
 material sphere to the spiritual — I ask you to think 
 of the spiritual blessings that are ours. Let us be 
 thankful for the unity of spirit and purpose that 
 are ours in so much greater degree than for many 
 years past. Let us be thankful that the American 
 people has at last recognized the high and holy duty 
 of bearing its part in the great conflict for Liberty 
 and Justice. Let us be thankful that our country 
 has bravely resolved to devote its resources and its 
 energies without reserve — its man-power and its 
 money power, its material strength and its spiritual 
 strength to the cause of Civilization and Humanity. 
 And let us be thankful that in the Providence of 
 God this Republic has so much power and so much 
 strength to throw into the scale in such a tremen- 
 dous crisis. 
 
 Yes, we may indeed be thankful that America has 
 such a glorious opportunity of serving mankind, 
 and spreading abroad among the nations of the 
 earth the principles of liberty and democracy upon 
 which our government is founded. And again we 
 are thankful because the American people have made 
 such splendid response to the clarion call of our 
 President on the 2d of April last to take their 
 
112 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 place in the ranks of the liberty-loving nations in 
 the great crusade for the redemption of mankind 
 from tyranny and wrong. Cheerfully and loyally 
 the people accepted the law of Congress drafting 
 our young men into the military service of the army 
 and navy, because they recognized that it was based 
 upon the democratic principle of the reciprocity be- 
 tween privilege and service. 
 
 Again cheerfully and loyally they have subscribed 
 to two vast loans within six months, in all over 
 eight billion dollars, in each case oversubscribing 
 them, because they recognized that they were truly 
 Liberty Loans, — loans to give the government 
 power to strike mighty blows for the liberty of 
 mankind. 
 
 Once more how thankful are we that our young 
 men, by hundreds of thousands, have cheerfully ac- 
 cepted the obligation of the draft, and given them- 
 selves with alacrity to the hardships and dangers of 
 war for their country and for mankind, so that to- 
 day we see an army of millions of citizen soldiers 
 preparing for service on the battlefields of France. 
 
 Nor is this all. Our hearts are stirred with thank- 
 fulness by the response of millions more, who are 
 not soldiers, — ^men whom the draft does not touch, 
 but who have shown a splendid eagerness to serve 
 their country, giving their time and their energies 
 without remuneration, — in very many cases sur- 
 rendering lucrative positions in order to do so — and 
 
GOD'S CALL TO AMERICA 113 
 
 women — multitudes of them, all over the land ( God 
 bless them!) working for the government, in the 
 Red Cross, at the fiery front itself — eager to serve 
 the country and the army and the navy, — and by 
 their patriotism kindling a spirit of devotion which 
 is as needful to victory as is the heroism of the men 
 on the battlefield. 
 
 These, my friends, are some of the things we have 
 to be thankful for to-day — and when we think of 
 them and realize what they mean, — realize that so 
 many of our people have risen at one bound into 
 the plane of unselfish devotion to a great ideal, leav- 
 ing behind them the selfish and sordid aims and 
 ambitions of the days of peace and safety, when 
 "wealth accumulates and men decay'* — I think we 
 may feel that we can celebrate our Thanksgiving 
 Day in 191 7 with a truer and more profound sense 
 of gratitude than for many, many years past. 
 
 An eminent Bishop of the Church of England 
 said to me last winter: "We are already thanking 
 God for this war, with all its terrible losses and 
 sacrifices, because we see that England was growing 
 sordid and selfish — dominated by materialistic 
 ideals." Well, I dare to say that we of America 
 may thank God for this awful war for the same rea- 
 son, because it has already kindled a flame of un- 
 selfish patriotism that is sweeping with purifying 
 power through our country — because it is raising 
 our people out of commercialism and self-indulgence 
 
114 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 up to the high tableland of idealism and altruism. 
 We will have to pay a great price in suffering and 
 sacrifice for the spiritual results, — but it will be 
 worth the price, if our people can be unified by the 
 great struggle, — made one people with one civic 
 faith, and one heart, beating high with love of truth 
 and love of God, and love of mankind ; with love of 
 justice and love of liberty, inspired by a spiritual 
 rather than a material ambition. 
 
 One more cause of thankfulness we have to-day 
 to which I have not yet alluded — and it is a great 
 one^ — we are thankful that America does not stand 
 alone in this great enterprise to which she has de- 
 voted herself. Those flags which are blended with 
 our own Stars and Stripes in this church to-day 
 proclaim that we have great and noble Allies in this 
 holy crusade against tyranny and barbarism. Bel- 
 gium is with us — Belgium who preferred crucifixion 
 to dishonor — and Great Britain — glorious Britain — 
 the mother of our civilization, the mother also and 
 the defender of liberty — and France, magnificent 
 France, whose heroic sons have added a new chap- 
 ter to the epic story of human valor, — and Japan 
 and Italy, and Servia and Roumania and Monte- 
 negro and Greece and Portugal and Siam and San 
 Marino. And in this Western Hemisphere we have 
 as allies Cuba and Panama and Brazil, — Brazil, 
 who in July, 191 6, nobly and boldly declared, "The 
 tribunal of public opinion and conscience cannot 
 
GOD'S CALL TO AMERICA 115 
 
 rest neutral between law and crime/* And ulti- 
 mately we hope that all the Pan-American Repub- 
 lics will be found arrayed with us in this great con- 
 flict. 
 
 You will agree with me that it is indeed a great 
 cause of thankfulness that we have about us such 
 an array of the nations of the earth in the tremen- 
 dous conflict in which we are engaged — not only be- 
 cause it assures us of ultimate victory — but because 
 we see in this informal alliance — the alliance of 
 hearts and aims and purposes — the prophecy and 
 the hope of a united civilization — a union and co- 
 operation of the nations of the civilized world for 
 the promotion of justice and liberty among all man- 
 kind, and the establishment and preservation of 
 perpetual peace on earth. 
 
 But if this day calls for thanksgiving it calls for 
 something more. 
 
 We are engaged in a great war — such a war as 
 this Republic never waged before — so tremendous, 
 of such vast proportions, and of such fearful im- 
 port, that the mind is staggered in the attempt to 
 grasp its significance. What then is the motive that 
 impels us to such an enterprise? What are the 
 principles which should govern us in its prosecu- 
 tion? What is the spirit in which we should fight 
 the battles before us? The words of the Plebrew 
 Psalmist which I have chosen as my text give 
 
ii6 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 a clear and sufficient answer to these questions: 
 '7w the name of our God we will set up our ban- 
 ners!" 
 
 America has entered this war ''in the name of 
 God'^—m the name of God, I say, not in the name 
 of ambition, or aggression, or revenge; not for 
 power or for glory, or for commercial advantage, 
 or for increase of territory; no, but for righteous- 
 ness, for justice, for liberty, for the rights given us 
 and given mankind by God. Who fights for jus- 
 tice fights for God! Who fights against tyranny 
 and cruelty fights for God! Who fights to rescue 
 the weak and defenseless from the hands of the 
 ruthless oppressor fights for God — and has the right 
 to set up his banner in the name of God. 
 
 I. Let us keep this fact clear in our minds, it is 
 God who has summoned us to this war. It is His 
 war we are fighting. Therefore, "in the name of 
 our God we will set up our banners." This conflict 
 is indeed a Crusade. The greatest in history — the 
 holiest. It is in the profoundest and truest sense a 
 Holy War, — a war to save all that is best and holi- 
 est in civilization, a war to save mankind from the 
 tiger claws of a cruel and remorseless power, which 
 for now more than three years has shown itself 
 destitute not only of honor and truth and loyalty to 
 its plighted faith, but destitute also of humanity 
 and mercy and regardless of the principles of mo- 
 rality recognized among civilized nations. I gladly 
 
GOD'S CALL TO AMERICA 117 
 
 echo the words of a young Englishman, an adopted 
 citizen of America, writing from the trenches: 
 
 "With the brutal roar of the first Prussian gun 
 the cry came to the civilized world, 'Follow thou 
 Me' just as truly as it did in Palestine." Yes, it is 
 Christ the King of Righteousness who calls us to 
 grapple in deadly strife with this unholy and blas- 
 phemous power, which invokes the name of God 
 while it is murdering women and children, and in- 
 offensive citizens — while it is sinking hospital ships, 
 — while it is dropping bombs on undefended cities, 
 — while it is poisoning wells, — while it is carrying 
 into cruel captivity hundreds of thousands of men, 
 women and children, — while it is conniving at the 
 massacre of a million of the Armenian people. Yes, 
 above all this hideous atrocity, we hear the voice of 
 this Antichrist, crying to his brutal soldiers, ''For- 
 ward with Godr 
 
 From this spectacle of horror and blasphemy we 
 turn to the spectacle of those brave men who go 
 marching to their Calvary — over the top — into No 
 Man's Land, singing it may be a hymn, or it may 
 be some doggerel like Tipperary, with a spirit equal 
 to that of the Christian martyrs in the Colosseum — 
 and when Death meets them they smile in his face 
 because he has no terror for them when they are 
 making the supreme sacrifice for country and for 
 mankind. 
 
 IL If any man demands how we can make war 
 
ii8 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 in the name of Christ, the Prince of Peace, let him 
 remember those words of His, '7 came not to 
 send peace but a sword." Yes, if He bids us love 
 truth and righteousness. He also bids us hate false- 
 hood and wrong and injustice and cruelty. And He 
 calls us to fight against these things, not only by ar- 
 gument but by the sword, when occasion arises. 
 Remember the picture of the Christ given by reve- 
 lation to St. John. "His eyes were as a flame of 
 fire; and his feet like unto brass, as if they burned 
 in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many 
 waters. And he held in his right hand seven stars ; 
 and out of his mouth went a sharp, two-edged 
 sword; and his countenance was as the sun shineth 
 in his strength." Rev. I: 14, 15, 16. 
 
 This, I affirm with confidence, is not the picture 
 of a pacifist Christ, but of a King of Righteous- 
 ness who bums with indignation against wrong and 
 oppression and cruelty, and who will give strength 
 to the arms and courage to the hearts of our sol- 
 diers and sailors in this fearful conflict against the 
 confederated powers of Antichrist. Believe me 
 there is no basis in the teaching of Christ for cow- 
 ardly submission to invasion and tyranny. No, the 
 Christian must stand at any cost for righteousness 
 and justice and liberty, and when he hears the cry 
 of the oppressed groaning under the bitter yoke of 
 oppression; when he sees the armies of Antichrist 
 invading peaceful and unoffending communities, 
 
GOD'S CALL TO AMERICA 119 
 
 carrying fire and sword into once prosperous towns, 
 — ^trampling humanity and civilization under his 
 bloody feet, — then it becomes the Christian's duty 
 as a follower of Christ to put forth all his strength 
 to repel the invader and let the oppressed go free. 
 
 This is the profound conviction of the heroic men 
 who are standing in France and Flanders to-day as 
 a bulwark against the destroying flood of Prussian- 
 ism. Here are the words of one of these heroes: 
 "The good Father has laid it on men to offer their 
 life for an ideal. If we fought from blood-lust or 
 hate, war would be sordid. But if we fight, as only 
 a Christian may, that friendship and peace with our 
 foes may become possible, — then fighting is our 
 duty ; and our fasting and dirt, our wounds and our 
 death, are our beauty and God's glory." 
 
 And another writes to his family, "We've been 
 carried up to the Calvary of the world where it is 
 expedient that a few men should suffer that all the 
 generations to come may be better." 
 
 Oh the splendid, heroic, exalted spirit of thou- 
 sands and thousands of those brave men ! Soldiers 
 of Christ! filled with the spirit of self-denial, of 
 self-sacrifice, — not driven to fight by fear of their 
 officers, but offering themselves a willing sacrifice 
 for country and for mankind, and in that self sur- 
 render finding a peace of mind they never knew be- 
 fore. It has been said of them that "they do not 
 hate their foe, although they hate the things for 
 
I20 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 which he fights. They are fighting a clean fight 
 with men whose courage they respect. A German 
 prisoner who comes into the British camp is sure of 
 good treatment. He is neither starved nor in- 
 sulted." And more than this, there is sometimes 
 seen as sublime an example of the fulfillment of the 
 precept of Jesus, "Love your enemies," as history 
 has ever recorded. Let me give one example. 
 "During a fierce engagement a British officer saw a 
 German officer impaled on the barbed wire, writhing 
 in anguish. The fire was dreadful, yet he still hung 
 there unscathed. At length the British officer 
 could stand it no longer. He said quietly, T can't 
 bear to look at that poor chap any longer!* So he 
 went out under the hail of shell, released him, took 
 him on his shoulders, and carried him to the German 
 trench. The firing ceased. Both sides watched the 
 act with wonder. Then the commander in the Ger- 
 man trench came forward, took from his own 
 bosom the Iron Cross, and pinned it on the breast 
 of the British soldier." 
 
 This beautiful instance of Christian chivalry re- 
 veals the spirit that animates many of the brave men 
 in the allied armies at the front. It is not hate that 
 nerves their arms to such heroic deeds ; it is not re- 
 venge ; it is not ambition ; it is not any material ad- 
 vantage; no, but the conviction which the Spirit of 
 God had written in their hearts that they are called 
 to suffering and sacrifice in order that liberty and 
 
GOD'S CALL TO AMERICA 121 
 
 justice may not perish from the earth. Again, 
 then, let me say it, the spirit in which the American 
 people should fight this war is the Spirit of the 
 Psalmist in my text, — "In the name of our God we 
 will set up our banners f 
 
 We have entered on this war in the name of God, 
 — because we feel that God summons us to take up 
 the burden and the sacrifice. 
 
 One of the delegates to the convention of the 
 Federation of Labor said the other day, "This war 
 * * * means more to us than any issue ever raised 
 in the history of the human race." 
 
 That statement is literally true. Never in the his- 
 tory of the human race has there arisen so tre- 
 mendous an issue. Justice, Liberty, Democracy, 
 self-government are all at stake. Nor is that the 
 full measure of the issue. Civilization is at stake — 
 and humanity — and Christianity itself. For this 
 brutal power of Prussianism is in league with the 
 Turk; and has not only abandoned the obligations 
 and duties of Christian morality, but has stifled the 
 voice of conscience in the breasts of her soldiers, 
 yes and of her women and children too, and has 
 substituted the State for Almighty God as the final 
 authority for the obedience of her people. 
 
 in. One thing more let me here emphasize. As 
 we gather round the Stars and Stripes to-day and 
 make the words of the Psalmist our own, "In the 
 name of our God will we set up our banners" let 
 
122 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 us remember how great is the honor and the privi- 
 lege of being the instniments of Almighty God in 
 this holy crusade; and let us resolve that we will 
 strive to be worthy of so high a calling. 
 
 America must set before herself a pure and lofty 
 ideal. She must not stoop to anything low or sor- 
 did or selfish. She must count no loss and no sacri- 
 fice too great to achieve victory in this glorious en- 
 terprise. She must consecrate all her energies and 
 all her resources, to the last ship and the last man, 
 to make democracy safe and to make liberty se- 
 cure. And she must resolve, with an unshakable 
 purpose, that she will never sheathe her sword till 
 victory, full and complete, is won. Let her spurn 
 every proposal for peace, however specious, how- 
 ever plausible, that does not rest upon the final over- 
 throw of Prussianism — ^the downfall of the Hohen- 
 zollems. 
 
 Let her keep before her the real and irreducible 
 aim of the war as it has been so clearly and power- 
 fully stated by our President, when he wrote: 
 
 "The object of this war is to deliver the free 
 peoples of the world from the menace and the actual 
 power of a vast military establishment, controlled 
 by an irresponsible government." 
 
 Let her count as an enemy of the Republic any 
 man who would persuade her to listen to any pro- 
 posal of peace till the assassins of liberty have been 
 humbled to the dust. She is waging war in order 
 
GOD'S CALL TO AMERICA 123 
 
 that the world may have peace — a real peace, a 
 peace that shall bless the world with its holy light 
 for generations to come. Only for such a peace 
 has she girded on her armor; but for such a peace 
 she will give everything and sacrifice everything. 
 She will limit her own freedom — she will bind her 
 own limbs — she will temporarily suspend some of 
 her own liberties. Her sons, by millions, shall be 
 subject to military service. Yes, and if the Repub- 
 lic thus lays her hand on our young men and sends 
 them forth to hardship and wounds and death for 
 the sake of liberty, will any man dare to say that 
 she may not lay her hand on the laboring men of 
 the country and bid them give their strength and 
 their toil to mine the coal, and fell the timber and 
 build the ships and make the cannon and the rifles 
 and the munitions that are indispensable for vic- 
 tory? Shall our soldiers in the trenches be beaten 
 by the enemy because laboring men here at home go 
 on strike and limit the output of munitions? Shall 
 our transports be torpedoed and our brave regi- 
 ments perish in the sea, because carpenters and ship- 
 builders strike for higher wages, and stop the build- 
 ing of the destroyers that protect our ships from the 
 submarines ? 
 
 Will a great, free democratic country tolerate 
 such shameful, and disastrous, selfishness? Will 
 not the people rise up and say to the government, 
 "You have conscripted our sons and our grandsons 
 
124 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 to fight your battles, — now then conscript the labor 
 of the land to build your ships and to make the 
 munitions which are necessary to win the war, — do 
 this rather than allow the winning of the war to be 
 delayed by these selfish and unpatriotic strikes !" 
 
 My Brethren, as I have been speaking to-day my 
 mind has been recalling the events and the feelings 
 of the last two years. 
 
 Very different was the situation when I had the 
 privilege of addressing you on the Thanksgiving 
 Day of 191 5. At that time the outlook was indeed 
 disheartening to every true-hearted American. The 
 Lnsiiania had been ruthlessly torpedoed six months 
 before; in the period after that infamous crime 
 Germany had continued to outrage every prin- 
 ciple of humanity, and had not hesitated to insult 
 the majesty of the Republic. I ventured to declare 
 — what has since been proved absolutely true — that 
 the Embassies of Germany and Austria were nests 
 of conspiracy against the peace and dignity of the 
 United States — where plots were hatched to foment 
 strikes, to blow up our public buildings, to assassi- 
 nate our citizens, to bum our factories, to destroy 
 our ships. 
 
 In view of all this I urged that the honor and 
 dignity of the Republic required that we should de- 
 mand the recall of these plotters and conspirators 
 who, wearing the livery of foreign nations, and 
 
GOD^S CALL TO AMERICA 125 
 
 accepted as representatives of friendly powers, had 
 been using their diplomatic positions as bases for 
 waging war secretly against the peace of our coun- 
 try. I further urged that the sentiment of the coun- 
 try demanded that we should take our stand, by 
 official expression of sympathy, if no more, on the 
 side of the great Democracies who were really fight- 
 ing our battles against autocratic tyranny ; and thus 
 throw the immense weight of our moral influence 
 into the scale on the side of humanity and law and 
 liberty. And then I pointed out that at whatever 
 cost something should be done to vindicate the honor 
 of our country and to restore to the name of Ameri- 
 can citizen the respect it had already lost among the 
 nations of the earth. 
 
 But it seems that the hour for action had not yet 
 struck. Another year passed, and we met again 
 in this house of God on Thanksgiving Day, 19 16, 
 only to face a state of public affairs as bad, or worse, 
 than in 191 5. Germany was carrying on the war 
 with the same barbarity and cruelty. We saw sol- 
 emn treaties still ruthlessly violated ; peaceful coun- 
 tries invaded ; the invaders carrying fire and sword 
 wherever they went; cities given to the flames; ca- 
 thedrals laid in ashes ; inoffensive and unarmed citi- 
 zens shot to death; women and children murdered 
 by the Zeppelins, those assassins of the air; every 
 conceivable outrage committed; and then to all her 
 other outrages against civilization was added the 
 
126 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 infamous crime of enslaving the Belgian population 
 by hundreds of thousands, — women as well as men. 
 
 All this — and still our own America stood with 
 folded arms — not even protesting before High 
 Heaven against the barbarity — the savagery — the in- 
 justice she witnessed — standing in an attitude of 
 neutrality! My friends, when I thought of all this 
 my heart burned within me, and I declared in this 
 pulpit that that attitude of moral neutrality was 
 unworthy of us, — that it was a betrayal of our trust 
 — ^that to continue it would be to stifle our moral 
 judgment. 
 
 I could not repress the warning that sprang to 
 my lips; I told you that we were facing a peril 
 more serious than war — the peril of an atrophied 
 moral nature. You may recall that I declared my 
 belief that if we should go on witnessing acts of 
 cruelty without condemning them, — crimes against 
 liberty without protesting against them — outrages 
 against humanity without denouncing them — ^the 
 crucifixion of innocence without crying out in hor- 
 ror against it, — our moral nature would lose its 
 fiber, our moral judgment would cease its office, our 
 conscience would become seared as with a hot iron, 
 — our soul would become cold and sordid and selfish. 
 
 But still the hour for action had not come. An- 
 other four months passed — and meantime the un- 
 speakable submarine horror had been rousing the 
 indignation of mankind to a white heat. Congress 
 
GOD^S CALL TO AMERICA 127 
 
 was summoned to meet on the 2nd of April to con- 
 sider and act upon the tragic situation. The night 
 before that day of fate, it was again my privilege to 
 address you, at the very time when a great proces- 
 sion of pacifists was to take place in the streets of 
 Washington, — and I did not hesitate to say, as a 
 messenger of God, speaking in His holy name, that 
 it was the high and sacred duty of the American 
 people to take up the gage of battle which Germany 
 had thrown down to us, and to prosecute the war 
 against her with all our energy and with all our 
 power till victory should be won. I showed you 
 that the German leaders had committed themselves 
 to the vast scheme of making their Empire domi- 
 nant over the whole earth — and that the real mean- 
 ing of the war was a fight to the death between a 
 tyrannous autocracy on the one hand, and Liberty 
 and Democracy and self-government on the other. 
 And then I sought to impress upon you the fact that 
 our liberties are involved in this struggle, and that 
 the issue of it would determine whether America 
 should become a vassal of Germany, or should con- 
 tinue a free, self-governing Republic. And finally 
 I urged that the voice of God was calling us to this 
 war, to be His instrument in saving Liberty and 
 Civilization and Christianity itself. 
 
 All this I said in the confidence that the American 
 people had at last awakened to the true issue, and 
 that their President and their Congress would 
 
128 FOR GOD AND COUNTRY 
 
 speedily summon them to take up their share of the 
 burden of the conflict with Germany. 
 
 In this I was not mistaken. The very next day 
 the President, in a powerful and ever memorable ad- 
 dress, called upon the Congress to declare that a 
 state of war existed between the United States and 
 Germany; and a few days later, on Good Friday, 
 April 6th, war was declared and the great Republic 
 of the West took her stand with the other free 
 democracies of the world to resist the assaults of 
 the Prussian monster upon liberty and justice, up- 
 on civilization and humanity. 
 
 With what profound gratitude, my fellow citi- 
 zens, may we this day contemplate the change in 
 the attitude of our beloved country! "Gratitude," 
 will any one exclaim, "because we are at war!" 
 Yes, I reply, sincere gratitude, because at last Amer- 
 ica has thrown away the flimsy cloak of cowardly 
 neutrality, and stepped forth into the arena as a 
 champion of Liberty and Justice, answering the cry 
 of Belgium and France and Serbia for deliverance 
 from the tyranny and the cruelty of the Hun. 
 
 Yes, yes, in spite of the burden of suffering and 
 sacrifice that war entails, we do thank God, that the 
 conscience of the nation has responded to the Divine 
 call to save Civilization and Himianity from cruci- 
 fixion by barbarous and ruthless hands. 
 
 No man can now say that our policy is governed 
 by counsels of timidity or international opportun- 
 
GOD'S CALL TO AMERICA 129 
 
 ism ; — no, but by the aspirations and ideals that in- 
 spired our Revolutionary fathers, — by a high re- 
 solve to uphold the honor and the majesty of the 
 Republic, by a brave and generous determination 
 to take our stand by the side of those liberty loving 
 peoples who are being trampled in the dust by the 
 ruthless legions of German tyranny. No American 
 need now fear that his flag will trail in the dust! 
 No American citizen need now hesitate to lift up his 
 head with pride before the whole world! 
 
 No, we behold a new Anierica, brave, resolute, 
 consecrated with all her energies to save mankind 
 from the merciless claws of Prussianism, — ready 
 for any suffering and for any sacrifice that may be 
 needed to crush this military autocracy, and to re- 
 store peace to the world. She has drawn the sword, 
 without one sordid or selfish motive — she is fighting 
 for love of liberty, for love of justice, for love of 
 peace. Her sword is stainless. Her shield is with- 
 out a blemish. Never has she battled for so great 
 or so holy a cause, and never has she been so highly 
 resolved to be worthy of the exalted task to which 
 the voice of God has called her. This is her solemn 
 resolve : "In the name of our God, we will set up our 
 banners!" 
 
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