St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1898-10-12


Rev. DR.. Lamson on the Problems Of the War.
Our readers will be interested in the
following copious extracts of Rev. DR.. c.
M. Lamson's address to the American
Board, the Congregational missionary
society. The address was delivered at
the opening of the annual meeting in
Grand Rapids, Mich, Oct. 7, and after
reviewing the work Of the Board Presi-
dent Lamson said:
"In the three months wal patriotism
declared itself a missionary by saying to
its unnationalized, denationalized, neigh
bors, we will aid you in becoming ma
tional. We pity a people among whom
patriotism is impossible. They do not
live half a lite who are without patriotic
imagination. The beginning of our war
with Spain was the height OF u~nreason,
Judged By the standard Of serious, con
servative wisdom, it appeared as the in
sanity Of jingoism, a pugillstic enthusi-
asm, a revenge for the loss Of a battle
ship, a sympathy for suffering. But in
all this confusion of motives there was a
power and spirit that American political
science had not made part of its system.
"a divine thought had been put into
the life blood OF the people without their
knowledge. They did not know the Sc.
cret of that new passion, that warmed
that power and commanded 1t with IRE
sistible authority to insist that a nation
incapable OF governing should cease from
these abuses of human lie which make
government impossible. We thought
only of the neighbor, Cuba. Then came
what seemed the accident OF Manila, an
accident luminous with heroism and
made ~coronal by success. The question,
Who is our neighbor? became, Who is
not our neighbor and Luzon, the island
of an Oriental sea, comes into the field of
view and is set beside Cuba, both neigh
bors, both in our world. What ought
We to do with them? How shall we
love our neighbors as ourselves? No
President. MOI party, nor commission,
nor political economist cananswer. The
answer is with Him who, by the Impair
tation of a new patriotism, COMMANDED
us to a and led us to victory. He
that hath an ear let him hear what the
| Spirit saith into the nation.
But the tact that we cannot evade
nor obscure is that we shall love these
neighbors as ourselves. Neither can we
evade or obscure the knowledge that we
must achieve some great good Tor the
Philippines and the West Indies. This
has become an integral factor in the new
national idea. The American nation
has come to a new seli-consciousness OF
its national life and of what it is to be
both in conserving an old and in Great
ing a new history. In one hundred dal S
we have advanced a hundred years. We
are more than ever to be United States,
made one by the splendor OF this sudden
thought that a real union must be a
union with a purpose. The youth
grows; it is enough tor its ambition, un-
der the restraints and coustraints oilaw,
to become bigger, but when it becomes a
man, and the physical expansion has
reached its limits, its law is no longer
growth, but duty. We may be hesitant
or conservatives, yet we cannot deny the
TACT nor the responsibilities of our major.
ity. We are no longer provincial. We
have become cosmopolitan. We have as
a nation gone to the extremes of the
world, and there is no retreat. The Sc
rious question otpatriotism is, how shall
it advance? What shall become OF oul
foreign mission?
"Our craftsmanship and citizenship
will, through a philosophic study Of tn,
new self-consciousDess, make some ans
wer to these questions. The Peace Com.
m%issioners will answer, but the new ma.
tional philosophy and the permanent
reply is given by the American Board O
Commissioners for Foreign Missions,
and those whose purpose is to Christian.
ize all races. How shall we, in a secure
yet progressive spirit, nationalize Cuba,
Porto Rico, the Philippines, China, Africa
-Christianize them. Piety to Christ is
the mother of patriotism. We shall
most effectively and permanently insti.
tute the national spirit in races among
whom it is not yet developed, by giving
them the gospel, the source and conclu.
sion Of all high national life-Christ in
his kingdom and sacrifice.
1--WE have not yet historically estab-
lished the truth that our Government is
the best. We have not yet discovered or
put in practice the art Of governing. We
have made and are making substantial
contributions to the science of the perfect
politics; but we have not settled the
question of the best nor final form OF
government. We are not prepared to
say to Japan or China. or Luzon, or
Cuba, become republics! We are not
yet sure enough Of our politics to teach