The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-12

where patronage is distributed In years
| gone by awful mistakes have been made
| Only Cod who made the world out Of
| chaos, could, out of the crowded pigeon
| holes of public men, develop symmetrical
results. For this reason pray Almighty
God for all those in authority
Then there are the Vaster perpleXtties
of our relations with foreign governments.
| For directions in such affairs the God Of
Nations should be implored The demand
of the people is sometimes so heated, so
unwise. that IL must not be needed Hark
to the boom OF that gun which sends from
the American steamer San Jacinto a shot
across the bow of the British merchant
steamer Trent. Nov s, 1861 Two distin-
guished southerners, with their secretaries
and families, are on the way to England
and France TO officially enlist them for
the southern confederacy. After much
protest. the commissioners. who had en-
barked for England and France, surren-
dered, and were taken to Fort Warren
near Boston. The capture was a plain in
vasion of the laws of nations, and antago-
nistic to a principle for the establishment
of which the United States government
had fought in other days. However, so
great was the excitement that the Secre-
tary of the United States Navy wrote an
applauditory letter to Capt. Wilkes. com
mander of the San Jacinto. for his
prompt and decisive action" and the
luton of thanks for brave adroit and
patriotic conduct" and the millions of
the north went wild with enthusiasm and
all the newspapers and churches joined in
the huzza- England and France protest.
ed the former demanding that unless the
distinguished prisoners should he surren-
dered and apology made for insult to the
British nag within ten days. Lord Lyons
must return to London, taking all the
archives Of the British legation. War
with England and France seemed inevi-
table, and war with England and France
at that time would have made a restored
American nation impossible for a long
while, IT not forever. Then God came to
the rescue and helped the President and
his Secretary of State. Against the al
most unanimous sentiment of the people
OF the north, the distinguished confeder-
ates were surrendered, the law of ma
IONS was kept involate. the Lions paw
was not lifted to strike the Eagles beak
ana perhaps the worst disaster of centiI
RES was avoided
There came another crisis within the
Iast Two Years, when millions of people
demanded that American war vessels sail
INTO turkish waters and stop the atroci-
tles against the Armenians. The people
at large have no idea of the pressure
Drought upon our government to do this
rash thing. Missionaries and other promf-
hent Americans in and around CONSTANT
Il y
lcan legation and demanded that our min
lster plenpOtentiary cable to washington
Tor United States ships of war. and they
suggested the words of the cabIegram
Had our ships gone into those waters the
guns OF foreign nations, eVerla stinely
jealous of u.s. would have been turned
against our shipping, and our navy
within few years become respectable in
power would have crawled backward in
disgrace. The proposition to do what could
not be done was mercifully withdrawn.
Ihere Will not be a year between now
and the next twenty years when those
who are in authority will not need the
guidance Of the God of Nations God only
can tell the right time for nations to do
the right thing. To do the right thing at
the wrong time is as bad as to do the
wrong thing at any time Cuba will one
day be free. but it will be after she has
SHOWN herself capable of free govern
ment To acknowledge Cuban independ-
ence now would be to acknowledge what
does not exist. The time may come when
the Hawaiian Islands may be a part of
our government, but 1t will be when they
have decidedly expressed the desire for
annexation. In all national affairs there
is a clock. The hands of that clock are
not always seen by human eyes But God
sees them, not only the hour hand, but
the minute hand, and when the hands an
nounce that the right hour has come the
clock will strike and we ought TO be in
listening attitude. The Lord reigneth:
Let the earth rejoice, let the multitudes
of the isles be glad thereof"
You see there are always in places of
authority unbalanced men who want war
because they do not realize what war Is or
they are designing men, who want war for
the same reason that wreckers like hurri-
canes, and laundering ships, because of
what may float ashore from the ruins.
You see that men who start wars never
themselves get hurt. They make the
speeches and others make the self-sacri-
fees. Notice that all those who instigated
our civil war never as a consequence got
so much as splinter under the thumb
nail. and they all died peacefully in their
beds. l had two friends-as thorough
friends as old men can be to a young man
Wendell Phillips and Robert Toombs
| They were not among those who expected
anything advantageous from the strife,
but took their positions conscientiously.
| They both had as much to do with the
starting of the war between the north and
| the south as any other two men. A mil
| lion brave northern and southern dead
| were put i'm the grave trenches. but the
! two ilustrious and honest men / have
| mentioned were in good health long after
| the ending of things at AppomattoX, and
| il those who advocated measures recently
| that would have brought on war between
| our country and Spain. or England or Tur-
| key, had been successful in bringing on
| the wholesale murder. they themselves
| would now have been above ground, as
| hope they will be, to celebrate the birth
| of the twentieth century. If God had not
| interfered we would have had three wars
! within the last two years-war with Eng
| land, war with Spain. and war with Tur-
| key, this last Joined by other nations
! Transatlantic To preserve the peaceful
1 equipoise which such men are disturbing
we need a divine balancing, for which all
! good men on both sides the sea ought TO
! be every day praying.
Again, prayer to God for those in au-
thority is our only way of being OF any
practical service TO them. Our personal
advice would be TO them, for the most
! part an impertinence. They have all the
! facts as we cannot have them. and they
see the subject In all its bearings. and we
can be of no help to them except through
! the supplication that our text advises In
/ that way we may be infinite reinforce
ment. The mightiest thing you can do for
a man is to pray for him. II the old BIZ
BILE be true. and II IL Is not true it has been
flsa atr.lkF FG,.H.