Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1898-05-27
MURDER GL0RIFIED."
so OR. TELNAcE CALLS WAR IN
SUNDAY SERMON.

HE subject, Alterations Of War; Most
Pertinent 20 the EHrItinc Times
Through which We Are Now Passing
Cheer For Those Whose Hearts Are sa.:
TUNr. "Tho"gh war should rise against
me, H. this wi.l | be- confident. Psalms
q. 3d..
The ring II battle-axes and the clash Of
shields aud the tramp Of armies ar. heard
all up aud down the Old Testament. ana
+ vog mud cody soldiers like Moses, and
[ Joshua, ana caleb, and Gideon, and
sruuuireliy soldiers like Sennacherib. aud
I ShalmUueser, and Nebuchadnszzar. The
| High Priest would stand at the head Of TN,
| army and say: Hear, o Israel. We ap-
proach this day unto battle against your
/ enemies, let not your hearts faint: fear not
| and DO not tremble neither be We terrified
| because Il them'' aud then the officers
/ would give command to the troops. say
/ ing: What man is there that hath built a
! rev house and hath not dedicated IT. Let
/ him 90 and return to his house, lest he die
/ in the battle and another man dedicate II
| Aud what man is he that hath planted a
I vineyard and hath not eaten Of il? Let him
/ also 90 and return unto his house. lest he
| die In the battle and another man eat of il.
| And what man is there that hath betrothed
| wife and hath not taken herg Let him
/ 90 aud return unto his house, lest he die in
!
armies marched and fought. In the time
| OF Moses aud Joshua all the men were sol
diers. When Israel came out OF Egypt
| there We're 100000 lighting men. Abiiah
commanded 400 600. Jeroboam commanded
| 500, 900 men, Of whom 500, 900 were slain in
/ one battle. Some of these wars God ap-
| proved, for they were for the rescue of op-
pressed nations, and some of them He
/ denounced, but in all cases il was a iudg-
ment upon both victors and vanquished
/ David knew Just what war was when he
| wrote in the text, Though war should rise
against me- in this will l be confident"
David is here encouraging himself 10
stormy times, and before approaching bat
ties administers to himself the consolatory
SO to-day my theme is the Alterations OF
| War War is organized atrocity Ii is
the science of assassination. 1t is the con-
vocation of all horrors. 1t is butchery
| wholesale. 1t is murder glorined. 1t is
death on throne OF human skeletons. 1t
is the coffin in ascendancy. 1t is diabolism
at q game Of skulls. And the time is coming
when war will be an impossibility. How
far in the future cannot say, but there
will be a museum of curiosities in which a
father and sou will one day be walking,
and the son will say, What is that sharp.
curved Instrument" and the father will
reply, That is sword" And the son
will say. What are those round pieces of
from" and the father will reply, Those are
bullets and cannon balls and bombshells
Those are the things with which in the
Dark Ages people killed each other" Yet
the father will have hard work to make the
son believe that such things were ever
used for the destruction of human life
But that time has not yet arrived, and
having on other occasions spoken to Won
of the "AggravatiOns of War" now that
war is actually here it is time to speak of
it, alevatiOns.
First, | find an alienation in the iact that
it has consolidated the North and South
after long-cOntinued strained relations. 1t
is thirty-three years since our Civil Wal
closed, and the viOlences are all gone and
the seventies have been hushed. But ever
and anon, in Grafton, in sermon, in news.
paper editorial in magazine article. on
political stump, and in Congressional hail
the old sectional difference has lifted its
head and for the first time within my mem
Dry, or the memory of any one who hears
or reads these words, the North and the
South are one. 1t was not four years
war, but fifty years war: war of tongue
war Of pen, war Of printing press. But by
Il marvellous providence, the family that
led in opposition to our Government thirty
years ago, is represented at the front in
this present war Nothing else could have
done the work of unihcation so suddenly
or so completely rs this conflict. At Tampa
at Chattanooga, at Richmond, and in many
other places the regiments are forming, anC
it will be side by side. Massachusetts anC
Alabama New York and Georgia, Ilinoi:
and Louisiana, Maine and South Carolina
Northern and Southern men will together
unitmber the guns and rush upon the forti
fcation and charge upon the enemy anC
shout the triumph. The voices of military
officers who were under Sidney johnson
and Joseph Hooker will give the command
on the same side. The old sectona
grudges forever dead. The name of Gran
on the Northern side and of Lee on tn,
Southern side will be exchanged for tn,
names of Grant and Lee on the same side
The veterans in Northern and Southern
homes and asylums are stretching thei
rheumatic limbs to see whether they cal
again keep step in march, and are testin!
their eyesight to find whether they cal
again look along the gun-barrel to success
fully take aim and fire. The old war or,
of ION to Richmond and ION to Wash
ingtOn!' has become the war cry of "Ol
to Havanal" "On to Porto Rico" ION t,
the Philippine Islands," The two old rust,
swords that in other days clashed at Muir
freesboro and South Mountain and Atlanta
are now lifted to strike down Hispani
denominations.
Another alienation of the war is the fac
ages. While the commercial rights of on
wronged citizens will be indicated, tina
! Is not the chief idea Of this war. 1t is tn
rescue of hundreds Of thousands of peopl
from starvation and multiform maltreat
ment. A friend who went out under tn
Nag of the Red Cross two years ago to as
suage suffering in Armenia, and who ha
been on the same mission, under the sam
flag, in Cuba, says that the sufferings il
| Armenia n pDnpdV and n farce com
J pared with the greater sufferings of Cuba
AT least two hundred thousand graves ar
, calling to us to come on and remember %
what process their occupants died. 1t is tn
twentieth century crying out to the nine
teenth; "DoyOu mean to pass down to u
the curse with which you have been blasted
Or will you let me begin under new au,
pieces and turn the island of desolation int
an island Edenic?"
1t is a war inspired by mercy, which Is a
attribute in man initiative OF the same al
tribute of God. In no other age OF til
world could such a war have been wageC
f. The gospel of kindness needed to be recog
nized throughout Christendom in order I
make such war possible. The chief rea
J son why most of the European nations ar
| not now banded together against us is bc
cause they dare not take the part Of tht
behemoth of cruelty, the Spanish Govern
: ment, against the crusade Of mercy whic
e our nation has started Had it been on OF
> part war of conquest, war of anneXi
ton, war Of ACKNOWLEDGMENT, there woul
a have been by this time enough hyin
squadrons coming to this country acrOs
X the Atlantic to throw into panic every cit
B on our American seaboard.
O The wars of the Crusaders were only
2 regain an empty sepulchre; the Napoleo
wars, with their six million slaughtere
x men, were projected and carried out to a,
x pease the ambition of one man; Of tibet wel
B ty-five million slain in Jewish wars, and
. the sixty million slain in the wars undo
2 Julius Caesar; of the one hundred and eight
Z million slain in wars with Turks and Sar,
4 Gems; of the fifty million slain in wars wit