Omaha daily bee., 1898-10-05
BRAVE AND TIMELY WORDS.
Striking Rebuke9o Of Jingoism and
Earth Hunger.

Boston transcript.
1t is not only gratifying in itself alone, but
quite refreshing after the many jinaoistiL
utterances that hive come from tie servamts
of the Prince Of Peace, to read the sensible,
humane and Christianlike words Of Bishop
Potter in the diocesan convention at New
York Wednesday, upon the fruits of national
victory and the imperialistic intoxication Of
the people Of the United States He said:
"The nation has had much during the last
few months to blind and to intoxicate it. 1t
has won an easy victory over an effete and
decrepit adversary, in which no splendors
of individual heroism or triumphs of naval
skill-and in these We may indulge a just
pride-ought to blind our eyes to the fact
that we have had very easy task against
a very feeble foe. And now, with uneX-
rected fruits Of victory in our hands, what,
men are asking, are We going to do with
them?
may, rather the solemn question Is,
What are they going to do with US? Upon
what wild course of so-called Imperialism
are they going to launch people, many OF
whom are dizzy already with the dream Of
colonial gains, and who expect to repeat in
distant islands some such history as our
conquered enemy wrote long ago in blood
and plunder in her colonies here and In
South America. At such time, as never
before, tho Church of God Is called upon,
in the pulpit and by every agency at her
command, to speak the words of truth and
soberness, and to reason of righteousness,
temperance and a Judgment to come-a
Judgment for nations as well as individuals,
till impetuosity Is sobered and chastened;
and until people In peril OF being wrecked
upon an untried sea can lie made to pause
and think.
"Has such a folly bewitched and blinded
Us? For one, dlsown so barbarous con-
ception of our calling in the world as is at
once libel upon our civilization and dis
honor to our common Lord and Master.
"The things that this community and this
nation alike supremely need are not more
territory, more avenues of trade, more
places for place hunters. more pensions for
idlers, more subject races to prey upon
but dawning consciousness of what. in in
dividual and in national life, are a peoples
indispensable moral foundations, those great
spiritual forces on which alone men or ma
tons are built"
The people OF the United States, and
especially those of them who are high in
authority, will do well to take to heart the
message that Bishop Potter sends them. His
are indeed words of truth and soberness. and
they are all the more worthy OF considera-
ton because OF the contrasting dlscourses
that have come from the pulpit showing the
need of some speedy application to cool the
heated brain of the public. 1t Is in fact,
deplorable to note the readiness OF the pull
pit to follow rather than lead public senti-
ment and to measure public sentiment by
the amount OF noise that is made by the
advocates of this or that line of policy.
II Is not too much to say that there are
yellow pulpits as we'll as yellow journals,
and that they are more influential, mas
much as the reputation of the yellow jour
nails largely discounts the i'll effect of any
thing they print, whereas there Is an in
born reverence among the American people
for the pulpit. which gives the force OF au-
thority to nearly everything that comes from
It. 1t requires courage, even in a minister,
to thrust aside the vainglorious glamour
that has been thrown about this one-sided
war with Spain and to exhibit 1t in all its
lttleness when viewed as a victory; to
counsel the people against following the
strange paths they have already fallen
into in their blind intoxication, and to re-
mind them that the present moment is
time for alarm rather than for exultation.
Bishop Potter has risen to the occasion like
the leader OF men a bishop should be, and
in the brief extract we have given he has
condensed a world OF wisdom and has set
forth the present situation comprehenslvely
as we'll as succinctly.