The San Francisco call., 1896-11-27
Foreigners Must Cease TO Be
Such and Must Become
Americans.
REPUBLICS WILL BE EMPIRES
Private Virtue and Pubic Morality
the S f.guards of the Nation
for All Time.

Many good Christians were grievously
disappointed yesterday because they could
not get an opportunity of hearing Bishop |
Newman speak.
The Central Methodist Church was too
small to hold them and they were Obliged
to leave by the hundreds. Those who
secured standing room considered that
they were fortunate. The aisles and lob
bes were packed with people and the un-
fortunate ones near the door were obliged
to content themselves with hearing one
word in five uttered by the reverend
speaker.
The occasion was the annual services of
the united Methodist Episcopal churches
of San Francisco under the direction of
Rev. John Coyle, ID. Flowers and palms
in profusion on the pulpit platform and
the galleries lent to the interior q holiday
appearance. After Scripture reading and
other devotional exercises, in which Rev.
John Stevens Rev. DR.. Hummer, Rev. Or.
T. F. Jewell, Rev. DR.. J. w. Phelps and
Rev. DR.. w. w. Case took part, Bishop
Newman faced the big audience and began
his sermon. His theme was "Our Coun-
try's Mission" and his text Psalm
CAlNll.ZU, 16 HALL uOt OeaiL SO WIN any
nation"
The Bishop is man of fine personal ap-
pearance and enjoys the advantage of a
clear, sweet voice. His remarks were
effective and his most striking periods
we're greeted with unrestrained hand
clapping.
He at once plunged into the subject.
They had Assem- bled for the purpose of
rendering Thanksgiving to Almighty God
for the racial blessings which He had
showered upon the American nation. BY
the voice of one man this day has been
hushed into national Sabbath, and the
prayer of praise was rising from ocean to
ocean; from the prairies of the North to
the Savannahs on the South.
Then he went on to say that gratitude
is one of the noblest sentiments of the
human soul. 1t acknowledged the depen-
dence OF man on the Almighty. The Al
mighty could endure any sin against him
Father than that of the migrate, and the
man who forgot to-day to render thanks
would be an object OF pity. We should
not only acknowledge the blessings on the
nations. but on our families as well.
America is the great granary of the
world. w lille there was widespread fa-
mine in India there was plenty OF grain
IN America, and our mission now is to
stand as the helper of the world. This
nation is SO great within itself that we
balmy skies aud under our own stars ana
stripes.
The Bishop next mentioned the politi.
cal crisis through which the Nation has
Just passed, and said that it was hard to
realize the precipice upon which we were
standing. But the people were true TO
the voice of God and loyal to the old flag,
and they gave an expression of opinion
that has made the country safe to-day.
1t was this sentence which evoked the
first round OF handclapping received by
the speaker.
Continuing Bishop Newman said:
There is as much prophecy in history as there
is in the lamentations of jeremiah. We are
situated in zone in the middle of which runs
the beaten track OF civilization There is some
thing in geography after all. Rome gave law
TO the world Palestine gave Savior to man.
kind, and then going down the stream of time
to modern history Germany gave a Luther to
religion and Italy gave Michael Angelo and
q Raphael TO art.
From within this narrow zone Spain sent
Columbus to discover this continent. France
has added much TO the intellectually of the !
world, and Engiand-dear old England, grand
old England-controls the commerce of the
world. Here in this zone lies America. There
is no power to the right or TO the left or ont |
side OF the zone TO the north or TO the south
that she need fear. 1t is too far south to be
bound in perpetual chains of the hoary frost |
and too far north to sink under the eneryat- |
ing heat. 1t is too far from the belligerent
powers of the Old World ever 10 fall an easy
victim to them.
We have river navigation that cannot be
excelled, soil that produces everything that
man can desire, our mountains TEEN with
minerals and there is q waste of wealth be-
meath our endless skies.
1t is very easy to ask ourselves what is the
mission of this nation and then glance at the
great fact of the founders of this Republic.
Our fathers began where other nations left off.
They stood on the eminence of the ages. They
centered in themselves all the culture, all the
stntesmanship, all the possibilities OF national
70 Hntv ht Ind Ia ha frsr, Nf
other nations! Go 10 the valley of the Eu-
pirates, where once stood Babylon and Nine
yeh; take Egypt, with Its sculptnred sphinxes,
its towering pyramids, its beautiful obeiisks;
survey the ruins OF Karnac and OF Thebes and
you VIII find that gran1 old Egypt contains
to-day despised portion of the human race.
Pass into Greece which has really given US
the curriculum of our universities and the
immortal Socrates. and we find a people de-
the banks of the Tiber, where extended vast
empire from the Euphrates 10 the Western
Ocean, and we find a nation descended from
band of savages. The Englishman of to-day is
descended from band of pain ted barbarians
that Julius Caesar found when he invaded
Great Britain. It was reserved for US to COM
mence the world where other nations ended.
Nowhere was gathered SO much of conscience,
SO much OF intellect, of national possibilities,
as in the constitutional convention which
framed that great instrument, the Declaration
OF independence, the greatest and highest in
history.
OF the ffty-nine men who composed that
versities OF Glasgow, of Edinburgh, Of Oxford,
OF Cambridge. of Harvard, of Yale and Old
Princeton, and OF those who were not college
men there was Washington, rising in superb
majesty above them ali, and yet they were |
men OF imperial intellect. Never before was
seen. even in Jewish Sanhedrim, such a |
scholarship, such varied accomplishments |
such splendid personal prowess TO give direc- |
ton TO all humanity. He who is sometimes |
called "The Father of Our Constitution" the |
great Madison. whose imagination borrowed |
its light from the stars, was there, and by his |
side sat Hamilton, who could write in lines of |
light and speak in sentences of fire, whose |
magnificent eloquence could raise rhetoric /
into logic and metaphor into argument.
Parallel II If you can; find correspondence |
to it in history. Dare we not, therefore, say !
that providence had part in the composition |
of our political affairs? These were men who |
had the robust courage in their souls, who |
dared TO lose their all II it should be necessary
I'm the cause of right.