Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-10-21
AN EPISCOPAL CELEBRATION.
Bishop Thompson, However. Says We Ow,
Nothing to Columbus, but Much to God.

Bishop Thompson. However. Says We Owe
Nothing to Columbus, but Much to God.
The Columbus service at Epiphany Church
at IL o'clock today consisted of the morning
prayer of the Episcopal Church. conducted by
Dr. Mchim and assistants, appropriate singing
by the choir and an address by Bishop Hugh
Miller Thompson of Mississippi. Bishop
Thompson took for his text the sixth chapter
of Deuteronomy, third verse.
He did not praise Columbus. but praised
God for the discovery of this land Columbus
was very minor figure in the bishops re-
marks.
God, who guides all the ages and minds. had
the discovery Of this land in His mind 1t was
not brought about by any human mind or the
efforts of any set of men. said the bishop. Ii
was the Viking who first discovered the main
land OF North America. Columbus first dis
covered au island of the West Indies-he knew
not what 1t is very seldom that a discoverer
knows what he has found that knowledge is
the heritage of others.
ID, IL was 400 years before the children of the
iking-the real dlscoyerer of the mainland
iaimed their own, the heritage Of that discov-
cry. In the meantime they had scattered the
world over and were found in every cline
Nowhere does one see more clearly the con-
tlnuous motive and design of the God of the
the universe than in the discovery, settlement
and history of these United States.
In Gods design there the United States
OF America; let il be said humbly let i: be said
devoutly, but confidently.
NOT FROM SPAIN, But FROM ENGLAND.
The settlers of the new land must bring with
them the heroism Of their race. law, order and
liberty, and that mast come not from Spain
but from England from the descendants of the
| Viking
The vital principle of these people was IN.
axiom that George Washington later laid down,
! that the safety and liberty of a people OF a ma
ton depended upon trust placed in the Lore
| God.
To Columbus, whom we honor today. we ow,
absolutely nothing. He knew not what he dis
covered. What We have is by virtue of the full
filment of Gods steady design.
Bishop Thompson referred TO the extermina
ton of the Indians, the original owners and in
habitants OF this land. The sign of the cross
borne by Columbus ard others who came after
him, was to the Indian the sign of death
The money sent from England TO convert
the Indian was used TO buy shot to kill him.
Even to this day in the west it is said that the
1 only good Indian is a dead Indian. MAY God
deliver the land from The cry of vengeance that
| goes up from every hillside and valley in North
and South America.
! Yet God sometimes used rough wearons TO
! do His work. The Puritans were not saints the
cavaliers of Virginia were not saints. There
WAS much of the riff-raff of Europe among these
early workers of the nations later glory.
The United States has become the social
soluble, the political soluble. of the whole
world
EVERYTHING BECOMES AMERICAN.
But there is no need for fear We can take large
draughts of life into our veins and yet pre- -erye
our national life. Everything that comes here
becomes American. The race" said Bishop
Thompson. that for twenty centuries has
held itself as exclusive now writes Jew in
very small letters and American in large
ones. That church, the Bishop continued,
which for ls00 years has been the most exclu-
siye thing in Christendcm and which condemns
| the rest of us TO damnation as heretics. now
writes American instead of Roman before its
name or under il in this country, and it's chief
In this land actually commends the American
public school, which for years was thought by
Its ministers to be especial institution of the
devil.