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 Germany's World Ambitions 
 
 and the Danger of a 
 
 Prussianized Peace 
 
 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE CHURCH OF 
 
 THE REDEEMER, BLACKSTONE AND 
 
 E. FIFTY-SIXTH ST., CHICAGO 
 
 by 
 
 The Rev. John Henry Hopkins, D. D., 
 S.T.D., RecW 
 
 On the Morning of the Twenty- 
 Third Sunday after Trinity, 
 November 11th, 1917 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^f5 
 
 '^T> 
 
 
 16 
 
 Published by Request. 
 
^^ v^ '^ Germany's World Ambitions 
 
 and 
 The Danger of a Prussianized Peace 
 
 Text, St. Matthew 16:3; "Ye can discern the face of 
 the sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the times"? 
 
 & 
 
 VERY day is an insoluble mystery, if considered alone. Its simplest 
 truths are baffling. Its serious problems are staggering. Jts 
 message is as blank and meaningless as the character of an utter 
 stranger, just met for the first time. Every day is thus a sacra- 
 ment of time. It is "an outward and visible sign" not only of itself, but 
 predominantly of all the invisible and bygone yesterdays, which alone 
 give it both life and meaning. 
 
 If we are to understand this tremendous "Day of God," as the 
 Bishop of London has so vividly styled it, we must look into history. 
 Our gaze must be far and deep and long. When we thus obey our God 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ, and master even slightly "The Signs of the 
 Times," we are fully men and women of the day. If we do not sweep 
 the horizon of the Great War with the strongest lenses of history, we 
 will fail and flounder in mere bewilderment, and be quite defenseless before 
 the fearful onrush of danger hurled against us by our enemies. 
 
 Germany is the supreme Tragedy of Christendom's History. She 
 has endured a wretched past. Her people are at present obsessed by 
 all the diabolisms which have ever lied and murdered, and — thank God, 
 failed in the sequel. She is a race of slaves. Her people, once the freest 
 on the European continent, are but dumb, driven cattle, shackled and 
 scourged by what may be called "Prussianization." And Prussianization 
 is the sum of all racial and national diseases. Modern Germany might 
 have been a bearer of Christian Truth and of national honor. Instead, 
 Germany has sold itself to the devil. Her tragedy is supreme. Her 
 apostacy is a menace to the world. 
 
 Let us ask how this bottomless pit has been dug for the Germans. 
 Let us inquire how and why its master-diggers have been able finally to 
 bury Liberty alive, and to wield this terrific lash over their enslaved 
 fellow-countrymen. Let us dash the mask from the spying faces and 
 lying lips of the Prussianizers, and force them, at the behest of their 
 own history, to speak out their astounding plot against the Liberty 
 and Brotherliness of the whole modern and future world. 
 
Four swiftly pictured scenes from Germany's history will tell the 
 grisly story. 
 
 (a) Let us glance at Germany in the time of Tacitus, about A.D. 100; 
 
 (b) Then at the time of Charlemagne, about A. D. 800; 
 
 (c) Then at the close of the Thirty Years' War, A. D. 1648; and finally 
 
 (d) Today, from 1864 to 1914-and-after. 
 
 (a) In the time of Tacitus "the Germans were famous above all 
 peoples for their love of freedom." So states Edmond Holmes, the 
 English author, in his most illuminating book "The Nemesis of Docility," 
 published since 1914. Their chiefs were allowed to settle matters of 
 minor importance, but the ultimate source of authority was the will 
 of the people, instead of the will of an irresponsible overlord. In their 
 tribal assemblies, these freemen finally decided all questions of public 
 importance. They clashed their spears when they voted "Yes," and 
 shouted out their stentorian disapproval when they voted "No." 
 
 How did this freest of all free peoples lose its freedom, until today 
 their entire national life is plastered with the grim word "Verboten".^ 
 It has taken centuries of conflict, oppression, turmoil and war, but is 
 finally achieved. And in this cruel slavery of millions lies the frightful 
 menace of this Great War. Enslaved Prussia now seeks to enslave 
 the world, and unless we of free America do our very utmost, swinging 
 up to the battlefront with all our Allies, Prussia will succeed, even- 
 tually, in enslaving the whole world. 
 
 Soon after the time of Tacitus, who tells us the noble story of their 
 pristine freedom, the German people began to slip, step by step, towards 
 the fathomless abyss of their modern degeneration. Early in the Christian 
 era they invaded the Roman Empire, and their chiefs found that they 
 must begin to rule. When chiefs begin to rule, they begin to be tempted. 
 Power is fascinating. It worked so well when the Germans began to 
 victimize the fallen Roman Empire, that some of them began to try it at 
 home. Like all such sins, the more it is committed, the larger its area 
 of harm. So the history of the Germans, from about A. D. 500 to A. D. 
 800, is the story of increasing power for the tribal chiefs, and corresponding 
 loss of freedom for their people. 
 
 (b) Then came the next great change in Germany's government 
 which accentuated everything. On Christmas Day, A. D. 800, Charles 
 the Great, "Charlemagne," the German Ruler and military chieftain 
 of all Europe, allowed himself to be crowned Emperor of the West, at 
 Rome. Thenceforth, for fully four centuries, the German Emperor was 
 loaded up with the task of ruling Northern Italy, as well as the groups 
 of Teutonic tribes north of the Italian Alps. It was an impossible task. 
 It were easier today for President Wilson to try to be also President of 
 China, at the same time. 
 
When absent in Italy, the Emperor found the hierarchy of vassal 
 nobles in Germany usurping his authority at home. He was often absent. 
 Kvery such journey threw his people at home more and more into the 
 control of these nobles. First came the Dukes; then came the Counts- 
 Beneath them were the Knights. And there were lesser rulers also, who 
 added to the confusion and oppression of those darkening days. Free 
 cities were then created by the Emperors, intended to offset the growing 
 insubordination of these many nobles. On the contrary, they but added 
 to the quarrels and the resultant weakness of the times. By the year 
 1500 Germany was split up into numerous petty principalities, all loosely 
 related to the Emperor, and continually at war with each other. 
 
 Imagine the weakness of our own nation, after the Revolutionary 
 War, if New York had been so independent of Virginia, or even of Massa- 
 chusetts, that civil wars could easily have raged for years together between 
 these States, had unscrupulous men found it profitable so to order. The 
 one certain outcome of all such evils is the further enslavement of the 
 people, and the further aggrandizement of their petty tyrants. This 
 is our second "moving picture" of degenerating Germany. 
 
 (c) Then came the fearful catastrophe of "The Thirty Years' War." 
 It was ostensibly a Religious War, and these are always ferocious. It 
 was also political, which if possible, added to its bitterness. Beginning 
 in 1618 and not closing until 1648, the Protestant princes of the northern 
 German States and the Roman Catholic princes of Southern Germany, 
 fought each other with savage rage, involving several other parts of 
 Europe in the struggle. At the final gasp, in 1648, Northern Germany 
 still remained Lutheran, while Romanism still held sway in the South. 
 The country was sunk in indescribable misery. Its population at the 
 opening of the war was 16,000,000. After these horrible Thirty Years 
 of carnage, there were but 4,000,000 left, and they were drenched in 
 vice, ragged with need, and barbarized in soul. Germany has never 
 recovered the morality and the religion which prevailed at the time of 
 Luther. Even before the present war, Berlin was a veritable Sodom, 
 
 In 1648 Germany lay in fragments. Three hundred petty states 
 ranging in size from half the area of Illinois to twice the size of Chicago's 
 "Loop," jostled and feared and envied each other, each being ruled by 
 a little despot who yielded scant respect to the "Emperor" — for the 
 Imperial authority had shrunk to a mere shadow of its former power. 
 Prussia was the largest of these 300 exhausted states. And then Prussia 
 began to gaze into the crystal globe which claimed to diagram its malignant 
 future. 
 
 The German people lay helpless in the grasp of their 300 tyrants 
 little and larger. Northern Germany was worse than Southern. In 
 the South, the dozens of princelings often tried to help their people — 
 
not too much, but yet a little. Weimar was better than Berlin. In 
 the North, however, the dark visage of Prussia frowned on all such puerile 
 schemes. Autocracy and Militarism were Prussia's watchwords, and as 
 soon as she could catch her breath, after the deadly strife of the Thirty 
 Years, she began the plans and the plots and the crimes which have dis. 
 turbed all Europe at studied intervals ever since, and now have had 
 the audacity to threaten the whole world. 
 
 (d) This then brings us to our fourth picture of Germany, rapidly 
 moving on the downward path of slavery and tyranny. Two powerful 
 men, towering in giant strength above a multitude of lesser criminals 
 beneath and around them, are supremely responsible for this high-handed 
 conspiracy against the liberties, first of Germany and then of the world. 
 The first was Frederick the Great. 
 
 Born only about 60 years after the Thirty Years' War, he was one 
 of the most evil geniuses of this unhappy world. His military genius 
 was unquestioned. It was so brilliant that it actually dazzled the moral 
 sense of Thomas Carlyle. Carlyle's memory will always have to bear 
 the crimson stain of compounded felony, since he allowed himself to extol 
 Frederick the Great. 
 
 Frederick inherited the Kingdom of Prussia. He reigned some fifty 
 years, finally dying in 1786, just ten years after God's Providence had 
 moved our American forefather's to write the Declaration of Independence. 
 (That, by the way, is something to exhilarate, when one thinks of history 
 in the large.) Frederick saw Germany weltering and squabbling in the 
 chaos of petty and internal strife. It was inferior to France, which was 
 an unified nation, and inferior to England, also unified. He believed in 
 force, in "blood and iron." He followed 
 "The good old rule. 
 
 The simple plan, 
 That he may take who has the power, 
 
 And he may keep who can." 
 He had barely taken his seat on Prussia's throne, when he cast his eyes 
 around Europe to find the most feasible expedition of robbery and bri- 
 gandage within his reach. He decided that it was wisest to begin by steal- 
 ing Silesia from Maria Theresa, the Queen of Austria. He made up 
 some subterfuge of a pretext as he began this invasion, and in this he was 
 perhaps a bit less dishonorable than that other great and supreme evil 
 genius, Bismarck, who in 1870 forged the "Ems telegram" in order to 
 bring on the Franco-Prussian War, or, again, than their modern posterity 
 who have so recently invented the withering phrase, "a scrap of paper." 
 
 At any rate, Frederick took Silesia, and, what is more to the point, 
 he kept it. All Europe tried, sixteen years later to wrest it from him, 
 and tried in vain. For seven years they tried. This "Seven Years" 
 
War" was a tremendous test of Frederick's military prowess, and personal 
 grit. He would never give up. He had drilled his Prussian soldiers 
 so fiercely that they had become an invincible army. The world-map 
 was changed in that epoch-making war, which closed only as recently as 
 1763, for France lost Canada to England, and England gained control 
 of India, as incidentals. The chief item for us to keep in view, however; 
 is that Frederick's grip on Silesia was unshaken, and that fair province 
 has been part of Prussia ever since. 
 
 The scheme had worked, successfully. It was a gruesome omen. 
 Prussianization had loomed up over the horizon of the modern world 
 as its chief menace. Prussia was speedily militarized from crown to 
 peasantry. "The chief business of these people is war," so said a traveler 
 who visited Prussia not long after Frederick's death. This mighty high- 
 wayman left to this poor world the deadly germs of Autocracy and Mili- 
 tarism as his chief legacy. 
 
 For some years Prussianism slumbered, all unnoticed by the great 
 majority. Napoleon's meteoric magnificence threw Frederick's prowess 
 temporarily in the shade. 
 
 Scarce six weeks, however, before "that World's earthquake, Water- 
 loo," the other towering giant of Prussianism opened his eyes on this poor 
 world, as Bismarck was born. Unscrupulous, able, backed to the full 
 by Von Moltke, his mighty general, Bismarck soon decided upon his 
 life work. Prussianism had succeeded so well under Frederick that 
 it beckoned Bismarck on to cloudcapped heights. Three acts constitute 
 his story. 
 
 (a) The Baltic must be thoroughly Prussianized. That was the 
 first and vital deed in the dastardly plan. So Prussia, in collusion with 
 Austria, picked a quarrel with little Denmark, and in 1864 stole from 
 her the southern half of her possessions, called the province of Schleswig- 
 Holstein. This piece of brigandage gave Prussia full control of the Kiel 
 Canal, and made Germany's present navy possible. 
 
 (b) The next vital step was to show Austria her true place. So 
 Prussia turned around and picked a fight with Austria, and beat her 
 badly, only two years later, in 1866. Very careful was she, however, not 
 to leave any wounds which would be incurable, for Prussia took no terri- 
 tory from Austria in this little, but very important, war. What Prussia 
 did steal in 1866 included the four large German States, which she promptly 
 attached to herself as the "North German Confederation." And it was 
 all immediately Prussianized, militarized and enslaved, after the success- 
 ful example of Frederick the Great of blessed memory. 
 
 Vicious appetites grow as they are fed, and Bismarck soon fixed 
 his resolve on all the rest of Germany, and also on Alsace and Lorraine 
 in France. Thus opened the third act in the drama of Bismarck. 
 
(c) Shrewdly he sent his spies across the French border, and easily 
 they brought him word that France's army was weak and disorganized- 
 When the time was ripe, and Von Moltke told him that Prussia's first" 
 class fighting machine was ready for action, this typical Prussian plied the 
 trade of unscrupulous diplomacy with such success that he actually 
 goaded France into the fatal declaration of war. Morley's "Life of 
 Gladstone" tells the story in some detail. Gladstone, the honorable^ 
 Christian leader, was England's Prime Minister at the time, and he 
 shuddered as he realized Bismarck's duplicity and conscienceless cunning. 
 
 Poor France! She was all unready, as the sequel proved. Whereas 
 Prussia, whose business it is to make war, was thoroughly prepared for 
 this next step in her rapacious ambition. The story is told that Von 
 Moltke was fast asleep when the telegram reached his residence stating 
 that France had declared war against Prussia. He sat up in bed, directed 
 his secretary to open a certain drawer in his desk, and to despatch at 
 once the package of letters he would find. Von Moltke then rolled over 
 and went to sleep again. Those letters were the orders for mobilizing 
 Prussia'sarmy ! 
 
 When Bismarck found himself, a few months later, in Louis the 
 Fourteenth's celebrated "Galerie des Glaces," Versailles' most brilliant 
 salon, surrounded by Prussia's victorious royalty and staff, while France 
 lay bleeding and prostrate at his feet, it was a pinnacled moment in the 
 career of Prussianism. He chose it as the fittest time to consolidate all 
 Germany beneath the rule of Prussia. William of Prussia became also 
 the Emperor, William of Germany, with Bismarck as his chancellor. 
 
 Then Bismarck gave to Germany the most colossal imposition in the 
 way of a government that modern times have seen. It has well been 
 called "The Ghost of a Constitution." There were twenty-five states » 
 Prussia was the largest, with two-thirds of the total area and three-fifths 
 of its population. Two houses of government were created; the upper 
 house was called the "Bundesrath." It numbered 58 members, of whom 
 17 were Prussians. The chairman of each committee (but one) must 
 be a Prussian. And the 17 Prussians could veto any important law or 
 taxing measure passed even by all of the 41 other members of this Upper 
 House! 
 
 There is also the "Reichstag," or Lower House, of originally 397 
 members, elected by so-called popular vote, for five-year terms. The 
 Prussian "teeth," fixed permanently in its cuticle, consisted in the 
 fact that this Reichstag could be dissolved and sent packing home 
 by the Bundesrath! Imagine our Senate, dominated by New York, 
 ordering our House of Representatives to go home! Bismarck called 
 one of his dogs "Reichstag"! 
 
The Chancellor of the Empire must be a Prussian. He is appointed 
 by the Emperor, and is accountable only to him. And in Prussia, which 
 State controls the German Bundesrath, the Emperor controls the Ju- 
 diciary and the Lutheran preachers and the University Professors. The 
 King of Prussia, who is also Emperor of Germany, is the "summus 
 episcopus" of the Lutheran Church. 
 
 Can Slavery of a more subtle and more efficient character be imag- 
 ined, masquerading under the title of "Constitutional Government"? 
 Thus did Germany, which began the Christian era as the freest of ancient 
 peoples, find itself, in the year of our Lord 1871, bound hand and foot 
 to the most war-like, unscrupulous band of titled thugs and brutal, but 
 artful, foes of liberty, that history has beheld. And the German people 
 were diligently taught to call this scheming oligarchy by the fetching 
 name of "Fatherland." 
 
 The Prussianizing process at once was widened. Germany became 
 Prussia in soul, if not in name. The Army at once became supreme, 
 and the most evil moment in the history of thousands of years was close 
 at hand. 
 
 That moment came when the enemy of God and man whispered to 
 the leading Prussians the same terrible temptation so quietly placed before 
 our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, which He overcame in the Wilderness 
 by the river Jordan. 
 
 "Then the Devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, 
 and showed Him all the Kingdoms of the World, and the glory of them, 
 and said unto Him, 'All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall 
 down and worship me! ' Then said Jesus unto him, 'Get thee hence, 
 Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship The Lord thy God, and Him 
 only shalt thou serve.' " Seductively that same fearful thought took 
 ominous shape in the hearts of "the Potsdam gang," as Dr. Van Dyke 
 has so aptly styled them. 
 
 Prussianism had proved its efficiency. First, Silesia, and all Europe 
 utterly unable to wrest it from Frederick's plundering hands. Then 
 Schleswig-Holstein, and now, two fair provinces of despoiled France, with 
 all Germany under Prussia's iron heel as well. Why stop here? Why 
 not go on, till Alsace-Lorraine should find all the rest of France by their 
 side under Prussia's rule, and then, Austria subservient, and the Balkans 
 added, and then Turkey drawn into the unrelenting grasp of ever-increas- 
 ing Prussian greed? And with all "Mittel-Europe," 176,000,000 of 
 people, under Prussia's sceptre, what chance could the rest of the entire 
 world have in a clash of arms with such a mighty Prussia, thoroughly 
 militarized, armed to the teeth, and determined to enslave the world? 
 
 THIS PLOT IS THE REAL REASON THAT GERMANY 
 STARTED THE PRESENT MOST TERRIBLE WAR! 
 
Let us never lose sight of this enormous fact. 
 
 In order to carry out this gigantic conspiracy, the preparations were 
 laid deep and wide. 
 
 At home, in Germany, every child was to be taught that the Germans 
 are the "Chosen People," and that the rest of the Christian World is 
 made up of Germany's degenerate and despicable foes. The enormous 
 egotism of the Teutonic character, conspicuous and ridiculous even as 
 long ago as Martin Luther and his coarse bragging, was to be inflated by 
 a wholesale education along these absurd and slanderous lines. " Deutsch- 
 land Uber Alles" was to be the morning, noon, and evening hymn of every 
 German child, and the modest ideal of every grown-up, whether man 
 or woman. 
 
 Then there was to be the campaign outside of "The Fatherland." 
 This was planned more warily, but just as efficiently. Stealthily Prussia 
 pushed her nefarious work. It was planned in the dark for well-nigh 
 forty years. We in free America had not the slightest conception of her 
 schemes. Not even England's most astute observers really believed that 
 such colossal criminality could be seriously contemplated by the Prussian 
 Leaders. France alone seems to have pierced the Teutonic gas-clouds, 
 with her keen and sensitive gaze. 
 
 There must be first a campaign of slander. Prussia must debase 
 by falsehood those whom she would eventually conquer. Whence did 
 we all get the impression, before 1914, that France was decadent, and 
 dying of licentiousness and dry rot? Why, of course, from Prussia! 
 France has always been the superb, amazing, steel-tempered wonder 
 we now know her to be. She has had her problems, but the dissipations 
 of Paris, at their worst, never weakened all of France. Yet most of us 
 believed the contrary, in July 1914. Prussia had fooled us nicely! 
 
 Then Russia was lampooned diligently by the same bureau of slander. 
 Russia was called barbarous, savage, impossible. True, where Prussia 
 controlled her destiny, she was all this and worse. But we are just begin- 
 ning to learn Russia. 
 
 And England, England! — there are no depths of wickedness which 
 the Prussian slanderers would have us think too bad for England 
 to plumb the bottom. And this, too, all the time that England was 
 allowing Germany to trade freely all over the world, as freely as her own 
 London merchants! 
 
 Then Germany must be exalted, intellectually, artistically, as well as 
 economically. With consummate skill the Prussian propaganda went on, 
 till even our American Universities capitulated to German bombast and 
 conceit. A recent writer. Dr. Pell, speaks of "The Great Invasion," 
 
in which "Germany took possession of nearly all our great American 
 educational strongholds in a single night, and did it so quietly that 
 most people never knew what happened." 
 
 No American Collegian for a couple of decades previous to August 
 1, 1914 was considered worthy, till he had finished off in some German 
 University. 
 
 Music was especially impressed into the Prussian's course. We were 
 tirelessly told that there was no music comparable with Germany's. 
 We were taught that concatenation of raucous shouting called German 
 Opera was the only operatic music worth hearing. And we opened our 
 ears and believed it all! 
 
 Then Prussia must get rid of JESUS CHRIST as far as possible, if 
 she would follow out her Satanic plot to rule the world. Laboriously did 
 she set about this portion of her deadly task. Baur had begun to deny 
 the Deity of Christ, away back in 1830. And Strauss, in 1839, made the 
 wonderful discovery that the Gospels are myths, and blared it forth. 
 In the next generation, many Prussian theologians carried on the work 
 of demolishing the Christian Religion, and when Bismarck's so-called 
 Constitution, after 1871, gave the appointment of all Lutheran preachers 
 and University Professors in Prussia to the Emperor, the attacks upon 
 JESUS CHRIST went merrily on. Nearly all the insolent denials of 
 the GOD-HEAD of our Holy Saviour; and of the Divine origin of His 
 Moral Law, which have been produced by modern infidelity, were orig- 
 inally "made in Germany," and especially in Prussia. Finally this 
 degeneracy produced Friedrich Nietzsche, who was born in 1844, who went 
 crazy in 1889, and died in a madhouse in 1900. He boldly repudiated all 
 the teachings of his long line of Lutheran forefathers, and openly pro- 
 claimed himself "Anti-Christ." He did not mince matters. "The 
 Christian concept of God" he writes, "is one of the most corrupt concepts 
 of God ever arrived at on earth." And "Do unto others as ye would 
 that they should do unto you," is, so Nietzsche declared, "the maxim 
 of the slave, the outcast and the chandala." The Superman is the only 
 fit ideal; Christian morality must be driven out of Germany. And so 
 forth and so on, preached Nietzsche. He was one of the most popular 
 philosophers in Germany in the years immediately preceding 1914. 
 Over 100 books and pamphlets about him have been collected by The 
 British Museum. 
 
 The Kaiser speaks much of " Me and ' Gott.' " When he says ' ' Gott,' ' 
 he addresses an idol, made in Germany, compounded of Mars, Votan 
 and Venus, Bacchus, and the like. He is very careful never to say "Me 
 and CHRIST." 
 
 Thus the plot went on, until the time was once more ripe for Prussia, 
 this time plus her Austrian vassals, to strike. Wilhelm had prated of 
 
"Peace" for nearly forty years, while he and his were making these tre- 
 mendous preparations for this terrible war. The plan was simple. First,, 
 to conquer Paris, and all of France. That would take three days. Bel- 
 gium's incalculable heroism changed that plan. Joffre's gigantic courage 
 and genius, under Almighty GOD, did the rest, at the Marne, that mightiest 
 of battles. 
 
 The next plans were more successful. The bulk of the Balkans and 
 Turkey were to be added to Prussia's scalp-belt, and in that THE PRUS- 
 SIANIZERS HAVE SUCCEEDED. 
 
 Let us never forget this crucial fact. 
 
 AT THIS WRITING, DECEMBER FIRST, 1917, PRUSSIA HAS 
 SUCCEEDED IN ALMOST EVERYTHING FOR WHICH SHE 
 DELIBERATELY PLANNED THIS FEARFUL WAR! 
 
 THIS IS WHY SHE IS CRYING OUT SO LUSTILY FOR PEACE. 
 
 AND THAT IS WHY SHE SIMPLY MUST NOT HAVE PEACE 
 NOW. 
 
 Most of Belgium, the chief coal and iron mines of despoiled France, 
 all of Serbia, most of Roumania in the Balkans, all of Turkey, and all 
 of Austria, are held in Prussia's diabolic grip. She will never loosen 
 her hold upon this vast " Mittel-Europa " territory, except at the point 
 of the bayonet. She may give up Belgium and even France's invaded 
 territory, and yet ACCOMPLISH MOST OF HER ORIGINAL DESIGN 
 in flinging her cruel armies upon unprepared Europe. 
 
 Let her alone with a "German Peace," as the fearful phrase is now 
 expressing it, and she will soon recover her breath sufficiently to begin 
 the inevitable Prussianization of Austria, the Balkans and Turkey. This 
 means that 176,000,000 people will soon be thoroughly enslaved by the 
 same savage military caste which now rules from Berlin and Potsdam. 
 Prussia will then have split up Europe into two mutually inaccessible 
 portions, viz.: Russia, way off on one side, and France and Italy and 
 England, way off on the other side. Her military railroads will soon 
 parallel the borders of both these divided peoples, now allied against 
 her. She had only about 70,000,000 of people thoroughly Prussianized 
 in 1914, when she thought herself fully ready to strike. It has been 
 necessary to bring against her nearly 75 percent of the rest of the globe» 
 in order to grapple with her now. What chance will the rest of the globe 
 have against her, twenty years from now, if she be left alone with her 
 present loot of Austria, the Balkans, and Turkey, opening southward 
 towards Mesopatamia — that vast region which once teemed with millions, 
 and can be made a garden-spot of immense resources? She will at once 
 enslave and militarize these 176,000,000 of people, and "The Next War," 
 
— of which the thorough-going Prussian still speaks with brazen assur- 
 ance — will be so much worse than this one as this is worse than the Franco- 
 Prussian war of 1870. 
 
 And how about ourselves, say in 1938, twenty years after Prussia has 
 had all " Mittel-Europa" under despotic sway, unmolested by the most 
 of the world? Well, we would last about as long as Belgium lasted in 
 August, 1914, and our women and girls would be subjected to infamies 
 as much worse than those of Belgium's recent history as theirs are worse 
 than the sufferings of French womanhood in 1870 and 1871. We will 
 prove ourselves to be the worst of Bourbons, learning nothing even while 
 we forget nothing, if we do not thrust against this stupendous Pan-German 
 ambition up to the very hilt. 
 
 This is the reason that Germany now cries out for Peace. "Peace, 
 Peace," when there is no peace, was the foolish plaint of enemies of God, 
 in the time of Jeremiah. Not since decades before that distant day 
 has there been so terrible a plot against the liberties of the world as now, 
 AT THIS VERY MOMENT. 
 
 Alexander, Ceasar, Charlemagne, Louis the Fourteenth, and even 
 Napoleon, all warred for vast dominion, spurred by illimitable ambition, 
 but each of these great men was largely ALONE. Bury Alexander, and his 
 empire falls into chaos. Stab Caesar, and his personal danger lies "in- 
 terred with his bones." Lay Louis to rest, and Europe can breathe freely, 
 for with Louis, "L' etat, c'est moi," Exile Napoleon, and his personal 
 influence fades into the dreamland of lost causes. 
 
 But today, there is no one individual plotting to rob the world of 
 freedom. The Kaiser is only a figure-head. IT IS THE WHOLE PRUS- 
 SIAN MILITARY MACHINE— thousands of determined, diabolized 
 men; unscrupulous bankers, obsessed, cringing professors, blasphemous 
 Erastrian preachers, backed up by the Junkers and other "aristocrats" 
 of Prussia. These hosts of foes are banded together in this death-grapple 
 with the liberty-loving peoples of the world. Give them their prey — this 
 *'Mittel Europa" territory — turn it over to them as the price of a pre- 
 mature and "German" peace, such as they are now eagerly seeking, 
 and the rest of the world will sign its death-warrant. 
 
 On the contrary — keep up this most righteous and Christian of all 
 wars, until this cruel set of desperate maniacs are beaten to their knees, 
 and the world, including the German people now so manacled and be- 
 sotted, will have the only chance now possible of being fit to live in, in 
 the future. 
 
 Therefore, to conclude, every pacifist, at this date, is a Pro-German, 
 and an enemy of liberty and freedom. Every one who delays for one 
 
needless day the utmost speed and fullest scope of our own war-prepara» 
 tion is a Pro-German, and should be locked up as a traitor. The Pope, 
 whose sophisticated Peace-plan, last summer, startled the world, is a 
 Pro-German. It is squarely stated by those who ought to know, and it 
 is quoted by Geo. D. Herron, that Austria has promised the restoration 
 of the Pope's temporal power, if the Pontiff will help to secure a "German 
 Peace." It is also stated that the Jesuits in America, and all fanatic Roman 
 Catholics the world over, are working for a "German Peace," on this 
 account. Let us hope that these rumors are baseless. If they are true, 
 then Romanism must be fought as never before, by all true Catholics, 
 as well as by all Protestants, if the world is to be saved. 
 
 Every selfish politician who will try to make political capital out of 
 a spurious pacifism by truckling to the Pro-Germans is a dastard, and 
 he and his party deserve annilhilation at the polls. Every selfish laborer 
 who thinks only of his increased income and strikes to secure it, thus 
 clogging our war-work, is a traitor and a Pro-German. Every capitalist 
 who grabs this confused time as one wherein he can squeeze from employee 
 or consumer increased profits, no matter at what cost to our welfare, is 
 a Teutonized Benedict Arnold, and should be treated accordingly. 
 
 Every weakling who winces at the war-cost already beginning to 
 pile up, in life, the treasure and comfort, and who thus chills ardor in- 
 stead of cheering patriotism, should be deported to those parts of France 
 or Belgium still pillaged and outraged by the invading Hun. 
 
 Prussia has WON, if we let her alone today. 
 
 She is already speaking of a "Shameful peace," in contrast with a 
 "German Peace." She has well said. The shame will be ours, if we let 
 her have her ' 'German Peace." 
 
 We refuse to believe that our keen, alert American people will play 
 into her crime- stained hands. 
 
 There is only one way to crush the possibility of such disaster. 
 
 That way is to FIGHT IT OUT, till Prussianism is dethroned, and 
 even Germany has the chance to be FREE! 
 
 GOD speed the Day! 
 
 SOURCES 
 
 It is proverbially difficult to give all the sources of almost any article 
 or sermon — so much from so many different authorities surrounds and 
 suggests the treatment of any leading theme. Besides the articles on 
 Germany, Prussia, Denmark, Bismarck, Frederick the Great, etc., in 
 
the Encyclopedia Americana, The Century Dictionary of Names, and 
 Lord's "Beacon Lights of History," and in addition to Morley's "Life 
 of Gladstone," and Luther's "Table Talk," the principal sources con- 
 sulted in preparing this sermon have included, among the new books, 
 Edmond Holmes' "The Nemesis of Docility;" Fr. Figgis' "Civilization 
 at the Crossroads"; and "The Will to Freedom;" Von Hugel's "The 
 German Soul;" Dr. Edward Leigh Pell's "What Did Jesus Really Teach 
 about War? "; Geo. D. Herron's "The Menace of Peace"; Dr. Bang's 
 ''Hurrah and Hallelujah"; President Wilson's "Flag Day Address"; 
 and numbers of pamphlets sent to met by the courtesy of Professor W. 
 MacNeil Dixon, of Glasgow. Various addresses which I have had the 
 privilege of hearing in Chicago, especially one by Professor Theo. G- 
 Soares, and numbers of magazine articles which I have read during the 
 war, have also contributed. If there is any one book which had perhaps 
 given me more data than any of the others, it is probably Holmes' "The 
 Nemesis of Docility." I am sure that I may be permitted also to express 
 my deep obligation to Marie M. Hopkins, my beloved wife, for her help 
 and criticism, as I have striven to expand and to put into writing this 
 message, which was originally delivered as a sermon, and preached from 
 a few scattered notes. 
 
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