The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-05-23
PRINCIPLES OF THE WAR
The Rev. DR.. Herr Says True
Religion is the Real Ex-
PLANTATION Of Our
Action.
PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT WITH US
The Anglo Saxon Race Must
Rule the World Services
in Other Churches.
PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT WITH Us

The Rev. Charles Herr. ID, in the
| First Presbyterian Church last night
| preached an eloquent patriotic sermon
which greatly impressed those who heard
it. DR.. Herr said in part:-"It is my
earnest conviction that it is the principles
of true religion which are the real ex-
PLANTATION of our wal with Spain. 1t is
not a religious war. but it is a war which
at bottom is a contention Of the free
spirit that is fostered by a true religion,
versus the despotic and immoral spirit
thai goes along with false views in re-
ligion. Our Catholic fellow citizens are
happily as patriotic as we are. and as far
from sympathy with the barbarous rule
and decadent civilization of Spain. 1t Is
because they are fortunate to have inn
bibed freely of the spirit of the modern
understanding and application of Chris
tianity. But the life which a recreant
church fosters in Spain is superstitions
and immoral, and the government which
it blesses is naughty and cruel. And this
war Is the command of God to it to make
room for justice. for purity, for honor,
for freedom and the rights of man.
moi merely nations but forces are at
war in this conflict. 1t is a battle of the
true versus the false, of freedom versus
tyranny, of the modern spirit of right
eousness and liberty which God is de-
veloping in the world versus the lingering
work of the devil. Such seems to me to be
the true understanding of the contest in
which we are involved with Spain, and |
welcome it as giving us a great and high
conception of the part we are playing
and communicating to US a true dignity.
There are those classes of people who
are not in accord with the majority of US
in this matter. First there are Jingoes,
who are animated merely by the spirit of
vengeance and whose cry is Remember
the Maine But the providence of God is
working for bigger game than the salts
faction Of petty International revenge. He
is not playing with marionettes. He is
launching gigantic forces and bringing
gigantic principles into clash. He may
indeed use ignobIe human passions to ac-
complish His ends, and those who have
no higher feeling than hatred Of Spanish
treachery to ourselves are in their way
blindly helping forward a consummatisa
far grander than retaliation for national
injuries. But it is far better to get
higher and to understand Gods purposes
I have not called you servants Christ
said, I have called you friends, for the
servant knoweth not what his lord
doeth.' 1t is far better to lay aside hui
man passions and becoming the friends OF
God be admitted to the thrilling under
standing of His large and benign pur-
poses.
Secondly, there are those who think the
war unjust, who are perhaps always for
peace at amy price. who think wars vic
tories un-Christian and never worthy of
renown, who believe that the followers
of the Prime of Peace must never fight.
They would completely turn about His
saying when He declared, I came not to
send peace but a sword They will not
see that it Is not yet time TO sheath the
sword. They will not see NAT there are
gard no argument of reason and hear no
appeal of justice, who are swathed in an
i~ntegunent Of vanity and brutality Whien
only the shell from a Pinch gun cam
penetrate. They will not recognize the
fact that justice and righteousness can
carry insistences with a Weyier or an
Abdul Hamed only at the point of the
bayonet. .
so honorable as this in which we have
taken up arms for the liberties and fIater-
nal rights of man, arid even if it should
cost us incidentally In treasure and, God
forbid it, IN blood, still II viii be Well
fOuG1 lot the interests OIL d illS4l6I ClNl-
~lization, and it will be for cur everlasting
horror. Peace is a good and glorious
thing and certainly the normal condition
of man. but peace may not always be the
right thing 1t may even be a more dis
astrous thing than war. 1t may be the
cry of the coward and the appeal of the
sordid and selfish. 1t ma mean the sur
render of the right and the death of lib
erty. This war, whatever its cost, will be
well waged If its sacrifice shall purchase
the priceless boon of freedom for an OPP
pressed people and extend the blessings OF
self-goverrFment in the world.
"There is still another aspect in which
this war may be viewed and perhaps
ought to be viewed even at this stage OF
1t. 1t seems certain that events will force
this country to abandon or modify its ira
ditiona1 policy. 1t is impossible but that
tltude on matters International. Tn
providentfal issue of the war may make
us a world power. No one just now can
tell exactly what will be our final rela-
ton to the Philippines and the West In
dies. but it is distinctly probable that the
function of eScuing the people of Cuba
from ~unspeakable oppression and despot-
ism will carry US very much further than
even the f~artiest sighted expected at
the beginning. The mission of
this conflict may well be to call
upon this giant country of ours to shake
| her limbs and arise to larger usefulness
in the world; to cast off her swaddlsng
clothes of infancy and stand forth in the
mature powers \ responsibilities OF g
| great nation: to abandon the isolation and
s~elfishness in which we have lived and
take up tho grand duties which as a
| people strong. prosperous and free We
| owe to mankind. We have pursued to
this time the narrow policy of limitation
| within our own borders; we ave been
satisfied to develop and enjoy our Pc
| culiar -unexampled blessings, But perhaps
This policy has fully served its end and
| we have reached a stage of power, wealth
| and greatness, when our further develop
,Cl.-1 800 Hn ~ ~ fnfcfartno o. 4 tho u-n1fay 70