Worcester morning daily spy. (Worcester, Mass.) 1888-1898, 1898-03-21
DUTY OF THE HOUR.
Rev. Mr.. Meeser Believes 1t
Looks Toward War;
AND cANNoTBEPosTPoNED
He Would Have an Alliance with
Great Britain.
ND cANNoTBEP POSTPONED
The Two Great Powers of Civilization
Should Unite to Ameliorate the Con-
dltion of the Suffering oubans.

Rev. Mr.. Meeser, pastor of the First
Baptist Church, took for the topic of his
Sunday morning discourse, ''The oppor-
tunity and duty Of the two great Anglo
Saxon nations" After speaking of the
unity of thought and interest between
Great Britain and the United States in
common ancestry, language and ltera-
ture, liberty of the individual, religion
and social and political ideals, he said.
On our own side the day has passed
when as nation we can be Indifferent
to what goes on in the rest of the world
even the far away portion as well as
in the islands that fringe our coast
No one can question or would dare if
he could, the wisdom and statesman
ship of him who advised US to keep out
of entanglements with foreign nations;
nor can we forget the wisdom of those
who, following him, also followed his
advice. But this is new day. New
conditions and new occasions are upon
us. New world problems that affect our
prosperity and our destiny are arising
They are threats to our commerce and
industry more significant than the polit-
zeal agitations within our own borders.
A new power begins to seek to control
the great ports of the world to it's own
interest, and this threatens. We have
already concerned ourselves with the
world problem asf presents itself on this
continent. We have interfered with
European powers who sought a new
foothold in other parts of America. We
have doctrine named after one of our
presidents, which we have adopted and
practiced, and which, by principle, COM
pels us to interest ourselves in other
than our own immediate problems. But
for moment setting aside the com
mercial and political reasons for a new
collnse of conduct. there arises what l
consider of Still greater Importance
the moral reasons for the new duty.
We have, on the advice of President
Washington, adopted policy which has
engendered an ignoble national selfish
ness We have ignored our obliga-
tons to the world; obligations which
rest upon the possession of our high civil
industrial and religious order We
ought no longer to be Indifferent to ma
tional right and wrong simply because
1t is not done within cur own land. The
very nature and value of all we possess
as a prosperous country imposes on us
the duty, which the strong and noble
everywhere recognize as an inevitable
duty. Our voice should no longer be
silent in the counsels of the nations
Our hand should no longer hang indif-
ferent at our side when wrong is per-
petrated by a stronger on a weaker. We
are full-grown man among the ma
tons, and should take a mans place, in
the spirit of a man, with a man
strength and to do a mans duty to his
needy fellow-men. The qualities which
make us eminent and which make us
natural ally with Great Britain, also inn
pose on us this new world duty
AS if the duty needed greater enforce
ment, two specific instances arise which
call for cooperation on the part of
these two nations The last half century
has. seen the gradual rise OF the Russian
empire in influence and diplomacy. Rus
STA stands for the unification Of the Slav
peoples. There has thus been gradual
encroachment of the Slav ideal of So
ciety, of government and religion, an
ideal whose civilization is retrogressive
and on a lower level. Back of it is the
native strength and tremendous energy
OF the Slav races who are being unified
by Russia. These countless thousands
are contemplating a world conquest.
They have the courage of fatalism; a
fatalism which believes that it is their
destiny to become the leading race They
dream and prophesy Of what shall be
when that day comes. They plot for the
contamination of it, and they sacrifice
with the intensest enthusiasm for it.
Russia's conquest of central Asia gives
her the resources of an awful army and
encourages her to assume to defy and
mock the power and influence of Great
Britain so as to control the Chinese for
the attainment of her ends
On this side of the water Spain, with
her barbarities and cruelties, with her
effete civilization and ignorance, with
tvao oh nd la obo nf 1ov,
worthless life. keeps a plague spot of
disease and unspeakable crime just at
the border of this country Cuba has suf-
fered in morals, in religion, in govern
ment, in industry, in blood, because of
the backward and barbaric trend of the
Spanish ideal 1t is out duty--a duty
that rises above the customs of nations
Ito put the strength Of a strong upward
moving people against this oppression
and in favor of the freer, holier life
God wishes for man.
g{Ne want no war but war seems inev-
jf4i,le If we are to do our duty. The
duty can no longer be honorably post
poned. But here is a proposition we
ought ia. cherish. Even blind, bleeding,
obstinate Spain would not dare war If,
IN alliance with our own, the ships of
Great Britain rode at the gates OF Ha-
yana. and together from beneath Old
Glory and the Union Jack the word of
these combined nations bid Spain cease
and withdraw. Humanity and every
hope of world redemption dictate this
duty. Together the nations would be
invincible The same would apply to
Russian aggression. which ultimately
means the triumph of the Slav ideal and
civilization, and against this the Anglo
saxon nations and forces must unite
themselves. Here then, IS the duty
the formation of an alliance to protect
and maintain the pre- sent world prog
ress on high lines of civil, industrial
and moral order-to insist with irresis-
tfhle force on humane order among
tile nations of the earth as in Cuba, Ar
n1enia and Crete; to institute centres of
the higher civilizing influences of edu-
cation, society and religion; to make a
formidable barrier to the encroach-
,soAnts of a ba rharic mr. deficient ciVili-