The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-05-16
|. BLESSINGS. or WAR.

BLESSINGS, OF WAR. ,
-
Or. TAlMAoE PoRTRAys THE BRIGHT
SIDE OF THE CONTEST.
Might and Right Going Hand In Hand.
No Room For Barbarian on tho Western
Continent.
copyright. 1898. by American Press Asso-
ciation.l
WASHINGTON, May 15.-Most pertinent
to the exciting times through which we
are now passing is this sermon Of DR.. Tai
mage. in which he proposes to cheer the
people who are saddened by the horrors of
war; text, Psalms xvii, 3, Though
war should rise against me, In this will
be confident.
The ring of battleaxes, and the clash of
shields, and the tramp Of armies, are
heard all up and down tho Old Testament,
and you find godly soldiers like Moses and
Joshua and Caleb and Gideon and scoun-
drolly soldiers like Sennacherib and Shall
priest would stand at tho head of the army
and say. Hear, o Israel, ye approach this
day unto battle against your enemies lat
not your hearts, faint, fear not and do not
tremble. neither be ye terrified because Of
theml" And then the officers would give
command to the troops, saying: "What
man is there that hath built a new house
and hath not dedicated it2 Lot him go
and return to bis house, lest he die in the
battle and another man dedicate It, And
what man is he that hath planted vine
yard and hath not eaten OF itp Let him also
go and return unto his house, lest he die
in tho battle and another man cat of 1t.
And what man Is there that hath betrothed
wife and hath not taken herr Let him go
and return unto his house, lest he die in
the battle and another man take her,"
Great armies marched and fought. In
time of Moses and Joshua all the men
wore soldiers When Israel came out Of
Egypt, they were 100000 fighting men.
Abijah commanded 100000. Jeroboam
commanded 800, 900 men, of whom 5000
were slain in one battle. Some Of these
wars God approved, for they were for the
rescue Of oppressed nations, and some of
them no denounced, but in all cases 1t was
O Judgment upon both victors and van
pushed. David knew just what war was
whom he wrote in tho text, Through war
should rise against me, In this will l be
confident"
b.. David is encouraging himself in stormy
times, and before approaching battles adj
ministers to himself the consolatory. So
today my theme is The "Alleviations Of
War" War is organized atrocity. 1t Is
the science Of assassination. 1t is the con-
vocation Of all horrors. 1t is butchery
wholesale. 1t is murder glorit1ed. 1t is
death on throne Of human skeletons 1t
10 tho coffin in ascendency. 1t is diabolism
at a game Of skulls. But war Is here,
and it is time now to preach on its alleyi-
atoms.
Reunion of North and South.
First, l find an alienation in the fact
that it has consolidated the north and the
south after long continued strained rela-
tions. 1t is 33 years since our civil war
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 hall
the old sectional difference has lifted its
head, and for the first time within my
memory or the memory Of any one who
hears or reads these words the north and
the south are one. BY a marvellous provi-
dence the fainily that led in opposition to
our government 80 years ago is represent
ed at tho front in this present war. Moth
ing else could have done the work of uni
fication so suddenly or so completely as
this conflict. At Tampa, ut Chattanooga,
at Richmond and In many other places the
regiments are forming, and 1t will be sido
by side, Massachusetts and Alabama, Now
York and Georgia, Illinois and Louisiana,
Maine and South Carolina. Northern and
southern mon will together unlinbor the
guns and rush upon the fertilization and
charge upon the enemy and shout the tri-
umph. Tho voices of military officers who
were under Sidney Johnston and Joseph
Hooker will give the command on tho
same side, the old sectional grudges for
ever dead. Tho name of Grant on the
northern side and of Leo on tho southern
sdo will be exchanged for tho names Of
Grant and Lee on the same side The vet
Grams in northern and southern homes and
asylums are stretching their rheumatic
limbs to sec whether they can again keep
tGp III u anu ttbtluS bIlGlI tyO-
sight to find whether they can again look
along the gun barrel to successfully take
aim and fire. The old war cry of ION to
Richmond" and "On to Washington"
has become tho warory Of "On to Ha-
vana" "On to Puerto Rtcol" "On to tho
Philippine islands," The two old rusty
swords that In other days clashed at Muir
freesboro and South Mountain and Atlanta
are now lifted to strike down Hispanio
denominations.
An Unselflsh War.
Another alienation Of tho war Is tho
fact that 1t is tho most unselfsh war of tho
ages. While tho commercial rights of our
wronged citizens will be indicated, that
Is not the chief idea of this war. 1t is the
rescue of hundreds of thousands of people
from starvation and multiform maltreat-
mcnt. A friend who went out under the
flag Of tho Red Cross two years ago to as
suago suffering in Armenia and who has
been on the same mission, under the same,
flag, in Cuba, snys that the sutferings in
Armenia were comedy and farce COM
pared with the greater sutfcrings of Cuba.
At least 200 900 graves are calling to us to
como on and remember by what process
their occupants died 1t is the twentieth
century crying out to the nineteenth: "Do
you mean to pass down to us tho curse
with which you havo been blastedP Or
will you let me begin under new auspices
and turn the island Of desolation into an
island Edenicp"
1t is a war inspired by mercy, which is
an attribute in man initiative Of the same
attribute of God. In no other ago of the
world could such war have been wagcd.
The gospel of kindness needed to be recog-
nized throus hout Christendom in order to
make such war possible. Tho chief rea-
son why most of the European nations arc
not now banded together against us is be.
cause they dare not tako the part of that
behemoth Of cruelty, tho Spanish govern
ment, against the crusade of mercy which
our nation has started Had 1t been on
our part war Of conquest, a war of an
nexation, n war of ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, there
would have beon by this timo enough fly
ing squadrons coming to this country
across the Atlantic to throw into panic
every city on our American seabcard.
Tho wars OF the crusaders were only to
regain an empty sepulcher; the Napoleon