The western sentinel., 1898-07-14

L
ttful. How could it be otherwise
Ween there was no real business con
ii ience and how could there be husi
ness confidence when one set of citi-
zens believed that the other set was
trying to destroy the fruit of their
labors. Now under the mighty hand
of God, new issues have arisen
Money still has it's place among
national questions and an important
place, but it is not any more the
sole question. Higher interests OF
patriotism, of national danger, oi
heroism by land and sea, and daring
and sacrifice tor tine country Of our
birth have arisen. In the desperate e
conflict at Sibonev, the other dav,
when Roosevelt's Rough Riders were
under their terrible fire out of the
deadly bush, the rich and the poor ot
America fell side by side and are
buried together ON their field o'
glorious conflict. A higher issue
than money has come in to give new
life to our politics and to afford a
new basis OF business confidence in
our land.
THE RECENT WAR WILL MAKE Us A
| BLESSING TO THE WHOLE WORLD.
! We We're getting to be very mar
row people. We were actually begin
| ming to boast of the fact that on this
| continent we were living for our
selves. We were making what we
We're pleased to call the Monroe doc
trine, Chinese wall around US, and,
| by a strange contradiction, were shut
| ting in our most uncongenial neigh
bors, such as the Spanish-hearted
| Venezuelans, and the half-civilized,
| bigoted, unreliable Nicarauguans, with
| us, inside this Chinese wall. On
strip of land like the Mosquito Coast,
we were allowing these Roman Catho-
| lie Nicarauguans, who have never
done anything for their own land, to
destroy the patient toll of the Morav-
ian missionaries and to make their
heroic mission more and more of an
| impossibility. We warned England
| and other nations off so that under
| the name of the Monroe doctrine and
| for the sake of wretched repub-
lie like Nicaragua, the poor converts
from heathenism might be given over
to new and deeper barbarism and
superstition.
God gave us last opportunity to
mend our narrow national ways. He
gave it to us in the unexampled sor-
rows of Armenia. There our Ameri-
can missionaries had labored with
such signal success that the whole Ar
menian race was being uplifted and
was becoming on that account the OBJ
ject of Turkish envy. If there was any
blame in this uplifting, America was
to blame, because she had educated
the Armenians and was, morally speak
ing, making Armenia to be American
soil. Then came the frightful massa-
cres, one after the other; American
property was burned by Turkish
troops and never has been paid for.
Converts of American missionaries
were slain by Turkish troops, amid
nameless insults and no reparation
has ever been made. An American
fleet would at any time, have settled
sent it; for they did that very thing,
over and over again in earlier and
more generous days. But modern
America, for the sake of its under
standing of the Monroe Doctrine,
could do nothing and the American
missionaries must see their people per-
ish under their very eyes. Now God
is compelling us to think otherwise.
We can never be a narrow America
again, shut in with Chinese walls of
selfish separation. God is obliging us
to look outside of our own land as
well as on our own. The childhood and
youth of our nation is now over. The
time of it's manhood has come, when,
according to Gods law, these United
States must be worth something for
the world at large, or perish. We
shall henceforth take our rightful
place, in the family of the nations: and
our voice will be heard in the great
questions affecting the highest welfare
of mankind. We shall be gamers
from a business point of view, for
where the flag flies there commerce
and trade go likewise; but we shall
have gained much more. We shall
have learned that no doctrine, call it
by the honored name of Monroe, or
any other, dare stop our ears to the
cries of the suffering, whether it be in
America, or anywhere else. After this
fiery trial, we shall be a wiser nation.
We shall realize that the sympathy of
our English kinsmen across the seas
is worth far more than the unprOgres-
sive envy of our Spanish-American
neighbors on this continent. Doubt
less we shall seek to avoid the entang-
ling alliances of ambition, which is
what our fathers really meant by their
Monroe Doctrine, but we shall not
hesitate hereafter to join ourselves to
the most enlightened peoples, in any
issue which involves the interests CT
humanity. Our aspiration will no
longer be ''America for ITSELF" but
''America for the world,"
CONCLUSION.
''By terrible things in righteousness
thou wilt answer us, o God of
our salvation; who art the conf
dence of all the ends of the earth and
of them that are afar off upon the
sea-
We are in the midst of our trial.
Our anxieties literally go to the ends
of the earth, because our fleets and our
armies are there. We deeply feel the
need of Gods care over them ''that
are afar off upon the sea-" Every day
vent hope that they may bring us good
news from Cuba and Porto Rico, and
from far off Manila and from the
crowd of transports bearing our
troops over the wide Pacific. We are
not doubtful of the final issue. God
will give salvation to our country
again, as he has given it in times gone
by. 1t will be better for Spain itself
| to be overcome than to be triumphant
| in this struggle. The colonies will
then no longer be the graveyard of
their peasant youth; nor the fattening
| ground for their military grandees.
Every true interest of mankind will be
] the gamer by American victory.
But while the result is certain, the
way to it is obscured with clouds of
pain and sorrow and loss and shadow
| of death itself. How much we shall
| need to suffer Under the divine chas-
tening hand only the wise and good
/ God can know.
| The 4th of July of 1898, will be a
day when every true Christian patriot
| should humble himself before God;
/ should bewail his own sins and those
L hi fhn aaf nd