The western sentinel., 1898-07-14
PRESENT SITUATION.
PATRIOTIC SERMON BISHOP
RONDTHALER.
Full Text of the Able Discourse
Delivered at the Moravfan Home
Church, Salem, on Sunday
Morning, July Sd, 1898.

l
Text: by terrible things ir
righteo dsness v lit thou answer US, q
God of our Salvation; who art the
confidence of all the ends at the
| earth. and of them that are afir of
upon the sea Psalm 55:5.
WAR TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.
War is a terrible experience A
battlefield, when the day is over and
the dying and the dead lie thick npon
it, seems To be the very summit OF
misery. A hattleship like the Maine,
with all its costly material and
freight of precious lives, destroyed in
a moment, remains sorrowful
memory through all the yta-s. We
might well despair of the human race
when we hear of men rushing on in
furious array to destroy one another
whether on land or sea
| RULES IN THE MIDST OF WARFARE.
But there is one great consoling
| thought. Even in the midst of the
terrors of war, God rpigns, the good
and the righteous God. So we have
| found IL to be since the beginning of
our national history. We may apply
| the opening sentence of the text 10
our own American case "By terri
| ble things, in righteousness, thou
hast answered US, q God OF our sal
vatIOn." fit had not been for GOO n
oS erruling Providence in war, the
American people would still be n
series of comparati. ely feeble coll
Onies, clinging tn the Atlantic coast,
while aliens, the Frenchman and the
Spauiard, would possess the heart of
| our ointment. 1t has been by means
OF wars that God has given us our
great national Inheritance from
ocean to ocean. The sufferings of
these wars have been bitter but
trausitory; the blessings which have
ensued upon their sorrows have be-
American people. If we had live d
in the old days OF the Greeks we
would have said that our present
war with Spain had heen brought on
by an irresistible fate But rs
Christian believers we perceive the
hand of God. He saw that we, as a
nation, needed this chastisement and
therefore, not in wrath but in mercy,
he has allowed it to be SO, that, as
the 6 ID of our salvation, H., might
answer US by terrible things in
righteousness.
THE PRESENT WAR WILL GIVE Us A
DEEPER UNION BETWEEN NORTH AND
SOUTH
We have long been divided peo-
pie. There was a subtitle influence at
work which neither military force nor
laws could control and which was
likely to make the division more
bitter i'll the days OF the children
than OF their fathers It was the
fascinating influence of the war
sides North and South parents have
been telling their children OF their
thrilling experiences in the civil war;
how the Southerner fought the
Yankee TO the death or how the
Northerner aimed his rife at tie
heart of the rebel Johnnie. On Lum
berless testal occasions veterans have
been boasting of their bloody
triumpbs over their own country.
men. Thus the old sentiment of
division was continued and there
was no bel p tor it.
But now with the opening OF this
new war the old war stories will have
become a back number. They will
still be interesting, but they will
cease to have any embitt"ring power.
They will be like the heat of yester-
day, which can no longer burn. In
the new war the States do not again
face each other in deadly struggle
They stand side by side. l. com
mands under the United States hlg
A grandson of Gen. Grant ridas by
his side as an aide de camp. in
Chicka mauga Park. amid the memo
rials of tiercest civil struggles, the
regiments of the North are peacefully
encam amped beside those of the South
In days OF coming battle they will be
found helping one another in the
deadly strife. A new series of stir
ring memories are being evolved.
The South already honors the name
of that illustrious sNortherner, Dewey,
the victor at Manila. The North
has rung with the bravery of Worth
Bagley and Hobson and Victor Blue
When we are beaten we shall be
beaten together and where by Gods
blessing we are victOrs. we shall be
victors together The ira of division
Is over; under the Christening hand
of God the country has become one,
not only by lorce of arms and mower
of laws, but by that deeper il fl renee
which lies in the heart and is the only
true tie to bind together the different
section. of n great nation
THE PRESENT WAR WILL PUnlFY OUR
P-LlTlCS.
We were becoming a sordid nation
The questions which have engaged
our Statesmen and politicians for the
last twenty-five years have been
questions of money. 1t has been
tariff and currency and the like.
Doubtless these are very important
questions and their settlement has
deserved the best thought of intelli-
gent and patriotic men. Still it Is
with q nation as it is with an III
dividual. Ii money is the only inter
est it becomes sordid and mean. We
| could all plainly perceive the effects
which purely monetary agitation
was having upon the nation 1t was
giving our citizens mean and debas-
ing views of each other "rhat man
is a gold bug; | have no use for
him. "That man is silver dema-
| gogue', he is of no account" "These
are town capitalists, they deserve no
/ consider ation.'' "These are country
| Popnlists, they are outside of all
reasonable debate" Such were the
ways in which citizens we're judging
each other. This 10 what an ex-