The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-19
PETTY WAR CRITICISMS
REV. MIR. MILBURN DISCUSSED THEM
FROM HIS PULPIT.
His Fine Tribute to President McKin-
Iey's Statesmanship-Nort Indian
apOIis Church Dedicated.

yesterday in favor of honest criticism of the
war in a sermon on the Function and the
Importance of the Positive Spirit" There
are" said he. two tendencies running
through all of human history and every
human life. The one negative, the other
positive, negative and positive polarity.
All the great events of history are either
negative or positive; every historic incident
speaks to us of an undoing or a doing an
unbuilding or building, of analysis on the
one side or Of synthesis on the other. Each
man is both negationist and a positivist
critic and builder. Now he is engaged
in taking apart and Analysing, finding fault
With this man, this institution, this policy
this or that national tendency this or that
ecclesiastical form. ceremony, symbol or
dogma. Now, the other hand, the posi-
tive spirit in him declares itself and we see
in him a worker, a builder, an affirmer of
institutions, of tendencies, of churches, and
lending his strength to the positive up
building of the society in which he lives.
Both Of these spirits that declare them
selves in men, in institutions and in all ages
are necessary in world building. 1t is our
habit to disapprove of the negative and the
critical spirit, and yet it has a most vital
and important function to perform in the
betterment of the world and the uplifting of
society, in the amelioration of institutions
ana IN the elevation and publication of the
churcn. criticism directs our thought to
lmperfect1ons, 1t shows us where the weak
ness is, where the infrmity, where the fault
points out that which is an impeachment to
progress and arrests the thought of human
NY upon those barriers that stand in the
way of the worlds movement. Criticism
mas had large part to play in the forward
movement of the world, not only in letters
but also in the state and the church. Many
of1fc in ho Of I,
imitation or light and liberty and larger life
for humanity have had their first impulse in
goes an Arnold of Brescia. before a Crom-
Wei a Hampden, Ppm, an Eliot, before
Washington an Adams and an Otis.
1t IS foolish thing to deride, as some do,
the critical spirit, because through it's exer-
else the world in almost every age and in
every department Of thought and activity
nobler living. And yet unquestionaby the
positive spirit and not the negative spirit
is the grand achieving spirit. This is the
spirit that is constructive, that adds to and
enriches thought, that adds to and enriches
morality, that adds to and enriches the do
main and empire of human life. AS it is a
greater thing to construct than to Destroy
as 1T is q greater thing to plan and build a
house than TO pull down a house, as it is
greater thing to write a book than to point
out the faults of that book after it is writ
ten, as 1t is a greater thing to do than to
critcise the deed after it is done; SO always
and everywhere the positive spirit is larger
OF living power than the negative.
THE POSITIVE AGES.
"And hence we find that all the resplend-
ent ages, the ages that burn and shine on
the pages of history, the ages full and
abounding with conquest and with life, are
positive ages. One of the great ages of an
tiquity was the Augustan age, and this age
was Supremely an age of construction; it
was an age when men thought deeply in
the sphere of literature, when they thought
deeply in the sphere of practical politics.
when the mind expanded in imperial enter
prise, when the soul felt keenly and eX-
quisitely the joys and the beauties of ex-
istence, and when the thinker and the au-
thor wrote. great and deathless works.
Again, the Elizabethan age, the age Of
Shakespeare and Raleigh and Seldom and
Jonson ard Marlowe and Green and Bacon,
was a positive age, an age of positive
thought, of positive deeds, of exploration
of creation, an age when men did not ne
gate, but affirmed, truth and beauty and
conduct And hence it is one Of the most
jllustrious Of the ages of the world Of
thought
Let me say to you that this positive
spirit should be the dominant element in
our patriotic estimates and appreciation of
our Nation, and the various situations in
which our Nation may find herself. OF
course you will not understand me as say
ing here that a true and sincere patriotism
cannot be critical. There are times when
hard and trenchant words of criticism must
be spoken; but / still affirm the habitual
mood of the truly patriotic citizen is pos
tive and not negative The men who have
been the great and permanent contributors
to the power, the prosperity, the ex-
British empire have all been men
of the constructive temper; men
like Chatham and Pitt and Burke. So also
our own. great statesmen and orators have
been fashioned after the constructive mood,
such men as Hamilton and Jefferson and
Webster. And the most fervent and ar
most tremendously dVnamic9l
all patriots. the man who in the trueSt
sense was the creator of the national spirit
by the commanding force of his oratory
and the dominativeness of his personality
the larger liberty that Ireland now enjoys,
was a man wholly positive in his patriotic
mood and temper-the great O'Connell
THE WAR CRITICISMS.
"And this I think should be peculiarly and
emphatically our mood at the present time
in our relationship to our country. We
have since the cessation of hostilities be-
tween the United States and Spain heard
vast deal of criticism in regard to the suf
fering and neglect in camp and in field of
our soldiers who went bravely forth to fight
our Nations battles, and the accounts of
these sufferings that come to us through
the press, If true to any great extent are
certainly very sad, and investigation should
not cease until the true facts are known,
and those in authority responsible for the
care and well-being of our Soldiery either
publicly vindicated or rebuked.
Doubtless some part of this suffering is
due to incompetency, some part the result
of red tape, but the greater part, am per-
suaded, is the inevitable suffering due to
the putting of a vast army of over 100000
men suddenly in the field without sufficient
time TO make adequate and proper prepara-
ton. The suffering has been, doubt not,
very largely born of the exigency OF the sit
uatiOn and neceSSitated by the eXtraord1-
nary haste and confusion in which great
deal of the work had to be done if it were
done at all.
'But the point want to make is, that
while sorry for this suffering, in so far as 1T
has been inevitable, and indignant in so far
as it has been the consequence of incOmpe-
tency and culpable neglect, still, let us not
exhaust our patriotic zeal at such tri-
umphant hour as thiS-an hour so fraught
with magnificent and glorious resultS-With
negative fault finding and with petty criti-
and let us exult in the grand positive
achievements of our navy and our army, OF
our generals and our adnirals, of our Pres
ident and his loyal and faithful helpers and
assistants. Just think what this short war
"a war, as war goes, singularly free, so
far at least as we are concerned, from dis
aStrous consequenceS-See what this snort
war with Spain has wrought out Tor us. l
aggeration that no war ever achieved for
any nation in all the history OF human
strife what this Spanish war has wrought
out for America; that no war ever gave
birth to more glorious and more exalted
consequences than has this war in which
we were for a little while so hercely en-
gagged, and that like a tornado storm so
swiftly swept the land and seas, leaving
great calm behind.
First, there has come to US through this
war a revelation of national qualities that
must have touched with the consciousness
of pride the heart of every thoughtful and