The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1898-06-11
ARP TALKS OF WAR.
Says When Preachers Advise Fight
There Is Trouble Ahead.
Some Sermons Preached During the
War That Seemed Prophetic, But
Were Not So - The Me-
groes Scared.

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War That Seemed Prophetic, But
Were Not So = The Me-
sroes Scared.
When Napoleon was in Egypt and a
great battle was impending, he made
speech to his army and said Sol
diers, 40 centuries are looking down
upon you from the heights of those pyra-
mids." Just so Jupiter used to sit en-
throned upon the top of Mount Olym-
pus and overlook the doings of the chill
dren of men. These are rather lofty
thoughts for common man to con-
template, but sometimes | wish that
could take a fight to the clouds and
poise myself and let the earth roll under
me, so that | could look down upon the
nations and see what they all were do
ing. The world has been getting small
er ever since | was a boy. 1t has been
drinking, shrinking from year to
year, for it used to take three years to
80 around it, but now less than three
months makes the great circuit. Still
we are not content, for though the land
S wired pretty WELL the sea is not and
vessel may be lost or fleet destroyed
away cut in midocean and we could
not hear of it for week. This little
war of ours is growing bigger and
spreading wider in its probabilities.
We thought that Cuba was to be the
battle ground for our army and Cuban
waters for our navy, but the Philippine
islands are thousands of miles away
and the Canaries not far from Africa
It is now war of invasion and the end
is not in sight. But it is too late now
TO entreat for peace or arbitration, and
so we must all fall into line and do our
share. When the preachers put on their
war paint | reckon it is no harm for the
laymen and the sinners to fight. We re-
member that in the last war the preach
ers, both north and south, were more
helligerent than any other class. They
didn't do much fighting, but they went
along and encouraged the boys and
prayed for them and nursed the sick
and the wounded and showed their
faith by their works, but some of them
were awfully mistaken about which
side the Lord was on, or what were His
great designs.
: God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform.
Blind unbelief Is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own Interpreter
And He will make it plain"
The preachers are just human like
other people and subject to like pas
sions and prejudices. | remember that
just before Georgia seeded our Rome
preachers could hardly maintain their
Christian serenity in the pulpit or out
of 1t, and one of them, an eloquent and
gifted man whom the whole commun-
ity respected and reverenced, took for
his text the twentieth verse of the sec
ond chapter of Joel: 81 will remove far
from you the northern army and will
drive him into a land barren and desc
late, with his face toward the east sea
and his hinder part toward the utmost
sea, and his stink shall come up and his
i'll SAVIOR shall come up, for he hath mag
nifed to do great things.
Gear not, oh landl be glad and re-
joice, for the Lord will do great things"
tell you he made it fit our case like
prophetic prediction, and we could see
the Yankees flying from our valiant
troops and driven to their utmost
borders and scattered from the Pacific
ocean to Plymouth Rock and perishing
TO death all along the line for lack of
provisions, and nobody left to bury
them. AT the same time Henry Ward
Beecher was breathing out threaten
ings and slaughter from his Brooklyn
pulpit and declaring that the AL
mighty's hand was on their side and
within few months would wreak His
vengeance upon the slave holder and
set the bondmen free. And the editors
knew nothing at last. l tell you, my
brethren, that preachers and editors are
Just human like the rest of us, and the
world VIII never have a fair chance to
get even with them until every man has
a pulpit and a newspaper of his own.
But the war is on us and we must
fight it. Our congressman have said it
is right and just and they ought TO
know, but | was Eliminating about
blood and tears and agony - about
widows and orphans and Rachel mourn
ing for her children because they were
not. That good old Georgia mother
in Israel whose Son is an officer on the
Olympia in far-off waters has ceased to
smile. For years his letters have been
her comfort. For years he has support
ed her from his pay and is now educat-
ing and maintaining an orphan niece,
and they love him dearly. But it may
be that the conflict has come and gone
and he is even now sleeping in the deep
waters, and they know it not. Who can
measure the glory of war with a grief
like theirs, and this is only one case.
There are or will be thousands like it
if this war goes on.
But we must fight. In the language
of Patrick Henry, 81 repeat it, sir, we
must fight"
Patriotism is a God-given emotion in
the human breast. True, sincere,
thoughtful love of home and country
not that kind which is a pretense and
which DIR. johnson said was tie last
refuge of a scoundrel. Politics and
greed and religious fanaticism are
often COMPOUNDED with it and woman is
always the chief mourner both in vic
tory and defeat when war attlicts q
country. Nations make war in haste
and repent at leisure. The saddest pic
ture ever painted was that Of mother
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