The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-05-26

Following is a resume of the address
delivered by Rev. II. w. Peck before
the Grand Army veterans on Sunday
night:
Before announcing my text, it is
hitting that as pastor l should on be-
half of this church, welcome you on
thls hrst occasion of your worshipping
with us as an organization. We well
come you as comrades and fellow
soldiers of that great army of patriots
which, under God, saved the United
states from ruin, and a mighty bull
Wark of liberty TO the world Our well
come is the more cordial because we
are part of that great body of Amer
lean MethOdists, whose pulpits were.
and are, the rostrums of freedom.
whose money was given by the mil
lions, her sons by the tens of thou
sands and her best blood in rivers that
Americas soil might no longer feel
the football of a slave.
Above all we welcome Won as the
harbingers of the coming day, when
all men shall be free and the barriers
OF national selfishness, bigotry and
hatred shall have disappeared
Personally, let me say 1 am glad to-
nave this opportunity OF preaching to
you men by whose side $4,000 of my fell
loW-cOuntrymen fought for freedom,
and with whom / have three times
stood for what i believed to be right
and true. May God ever keep us all
loyal to him and the best. truest inter-
ests of mankind. You will find my
text in II Timothy, 2:3, Thou therefore
endure hardness as good soldier of
Jesus Christ" also, II Samuel, 1912.
BE OF good courage and let us play the
men for our people and the cities your
God and the Lord do that which seam-
eth Him good"
These two texts are allied in thought
and action In the first the Apostle
Paul tells us that the qualities of a
good soldier must be found in him who
would be an effective follower of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
In the second passage we find the rec
oanition of this great fact that mans
courage, success and real manhood
must have as its enduring basis the
love and will of God
Let us learn some lessons from a
study Of these passages Of scripture
and the thoughts which they suggest.
We have before us a graphic account
of a critical period in the national life
of Israel The honor, the very exist
Cnce of the nation was threatened. In
the forefront Of this pen picture we see
the figures Of two Of Israels ablest
Generals and bravest leaders. Their
faces, battle-scarred, bore evidence OF
many a hard-fought field wAile the
and confidence with which
they planned the battle gave evidence
of the qualities which make men lead
ers.
In great crises God raises uD great
men to meet them. 1t has been so all
down the course Of sacred and secular
history. A Moses, a David, a Paul in
sacred narrative. A Luther, a Knox,
a Wesley, d Gustavus AdoIphus. a
Cromwell, a Washington, a Grant, a
Lincoln, all testify TO the fact that
Gods eye is upon and his hand guides
the af3iTs Of men and nations.
These men all learned that all-im-
portant lesson that nothing great, no
bla and enduring can be won and kept
except by patient continuance in we'll
doing These men became leaders be-
cause they had first themselves learned
70 obey. If this be true Of temporal
things, how much more so is it true of
good soldiers Of Jesus Christ There
must be a surrender Of the viii TO God
"a willingness to go and to do and to
be what he wills before he can place
US as leaders in the couquering army
of truth l notice also in the character
of thess Hebrew Generals and the great
men whose names ] have mentioned