The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-12-24

One Goes So Far as to Say that War Is th1
| Great Hot House of the Future, OF
| Words to that Enect-Parkhursti il Ais<
| Against War and Proposes that thu
! Modern Newspaper Man be Sent to thu
| Penitentiary-NearIy All the Preacher,
Talk Against the Confiict-Smau Cal
Headlines for War News.
New York, Dec. c3.-Ministers in
nearly all Of the churches in this city
made references, in their sermons yes
| terday, TO the Venezuelan boundary
| dispute and the possibility of war De
tween the United States and England
| DR.. Parkhurst, in the course of his ser
mon, said: ct almost seems as though
| which these Christmas days synchro-
| nize the year with events that are just
| now filing our hearts with disturb
ance, and throwing an uncomfortable
| shadow across the track of the near
future. Now, we de not care to beat
about the bush in this matter, but pre-
fer TO go straight to the mark by say
ing that If Christendom wants to make
the religion Of Jesus, with its Bethle-
hem, its angelic choir and its anthem
Of peace on EARTH laughing story to
the ungodly and a contempt to the
heather, the best thing it can do will
be to set the foremost Christian ma
tons of the earth to work blowing up
one another's cities and blowing out
one another'S brains.
Unless we utterly misconceive the
Of he -;cti
both here and on the other side of the
water, such an issue will be morally
impossible. There will be no conflict
that will go beyond the point of mes
sageS and pronunciamentos on either
side, If the church of the Bethlehim
Christ comes out and records its veto
Christianity both here and in England
is too thoroughly an integral pant of
national life for armies and navies to
clash in warfare at the same moment
that the churches of the two countries
are laundering peace.
AS TO MONROE DOCTRINE.
This is not the place to enter ito a
philosophical or historical exposition
Of the Monroe doctrine; only II is safe
to say this nation is not going to be
drawn into an international conflict of
arms-to the dishonor of Christianity,
the discourag cement Of civilization, the
destruction of life and treasure, and
the Generalization of our entire or
ganic life-in behalf of a doctrine such
that probably 80 per cent of a congre-
CATION as well informed as this would
not be able ito state the doctrine intel
lightly, and the other 10 per cent, who
can state II, disagreeing among them
selves as to whether the doctrine is ap-
plicable to the present situa ton.
1--WE are not speaking dispara gingly
Of loyalty to country of patriotic re
gard for our country's rights, but pat
riotic passions are licensed and can
easily be fired to the point where right
eousness is ignored and reason and bal
anced consideration tabooed; and that
is the mischief of inflamatory sheets
that make paying newspaper business
Of tanning the flames of international
animosity. 1 wish that for two weeks
1t could be states prison offense to
print newspaper headings with any
thing larger than small caps.
IF the nations would first take up
the business that belongs to them, and
if England and the United States
would join hands in the rather more
gospel enterprise of rescuing pillaged
and outraged Armenians from the
dirty, bloody grip of the Turk, these
two brothered nations would soon find
themselves in good Christian condition
Of spirit, probably, to settle that little
question of civil engineering down in
Venezuela in a way that would save
both parties not only their pride and
their heads, but their Christian re-
pute."
WICKEDNESS OF WAR.
L.
Church of the Divine Paternity,
preached a sermon on the wickedness
of war. 1t was deplorable, he said,
that the day on which Christians were
TO celebrate the birth of Christ and pro-
claim from every pulpit the doctrines
OF peace, the nation should be eargly
waiting the ultima tum of statesmen,
and mutterings of war should fill the
land. 1t was more deplora BILE still that
the two most advanced of Christian ma
tons, the two which had done most to
do away with the possibilities Of war
We're now apparently ready to throw
away arbitration and substitute con-
fiict. Without going into the merits of
the dispute, he would say the principle
involved in the Monroe doctrine was
such that even statesmen had but an
obscure knowledge of IL. and without
proposing to usurp any of the functions
of the statesmen now considering the
dispute. he would say that there was
no higher power TO determine the neces-
sites of war than religion. If religion
was useful in times of peace only, he
as a minister of the gospel, raised his
voice in emphatic protest against war
as a means of settling a dispute until
all other means had been exhausted
for bringing about an amicabIe settle
ment. He believed the people would
visit upon the head of any statesman
or leader who dared 10 bring about |
war. without first trying TO arbitrate. |
a swift and terrible vengeance. God |
forbid, he said, that a nation should |
shrink from war for fear of deprecia1- |
ing the value of stoks and securities, |
but God forbid, on the other hand, that |
the nation should plunge into war I'M !
necessarily, without first having tried |
every other means TO bring about a
settlement 1
SHOT AT CLEVELAND.
In the course of his sermon on CIV |
ilization's Debt TO Christianity" Rev. |
DR.. Madison c. Peters of the Blooming |
dale Reformed church, said: War IS 4
cruel. hateful. wrong. War is he'll. The |
political dema gogues who at this
- are shouting for war will /
be branded by the sober second thought I
Of the American people as the criminals 1
OF the nineteenth century. When these /