The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1898-08-09

for Thee, one for Moses, one for Elijah.
Simon Peters vision registers common
and persistent delusion. His dream in
varying degrees of clearness and dimness
has been that of men and nations in all
ages. Has it not been yours, reader :?
You have dreamed of the ideal place
where you would build your tabernacle,
and rest in unvexed quietude. Nations
have had the dream and thought they re-
allied it, at last to find it could not be-
Down in the plain below, the multitude
with its sin, sickness and sorrow, its dark
ness and wretchedness, waited the Master
and His disciples. As long as they wait
ed, there could be no tabernacles upon the
luminous mountain top for them. He and
they must go down to the work ordained
by the inscrutable purpose of God from
eternity for them to do. The disclosure
in this is clear and commanding, there is
noplace here untrammeled by the exactions
of duty. Change is the order Pitch
your camp at sunset amid the quiet and
peace of the secluded valley, tomorrow
the bugle calls to strike tents and march
to the clash of battle.
This is cognate to the thoughts about
our own country. What other has been
our history, than series of tabernacles
broken amid the shocks of battle?
Our forefathers fled to this land to es-
cape tyranny too heavy for them to bear
Here they would build altabernacle; they
had hardly got about it when they were
called to battle, in the French war 1t
looked hard, dark and terrible; afterwards
it was seen they fought for the deliver
ance of this continent from the dominion
of that influence that has blighted Italy,
France and Spain.
Men thought the glorious tabernacle
was to be utterly destroyed when the civil
war came. To many it seemed that the
negro was not worthy a single white mans
death But rooted in the tibres of the ma
tion's moral being, was an altruistic senti
ment which God heaved as he heaves the
sea. The nation passed through the purg-
the vision splendid, that no people had
ever risen to such a sublime moral war as
that waged upon the ethical principle that
the black man might stand beneath the
starry flag with all the rights God had
given him.
More than six lustra of peace and I'M
paralleled material prosperity have fol
lowed, in which the nation has grown to
gigantic proportions, and to Unreasonable
power. We have been trying to realize
our vision and make our tabernacle stable
We have been saying, mo foreign entan-
clements, let the world jog as it will to
ruin and the devil, we will tuck our feet
upon this continent and keep them dry,
let the tide rise high as it will We said,
it is good for us to be here Here let
us build our tabernacle We thought we
were solidifed in our aleofness by the
magic of the Monroe Doctrine. But it
could not be. Another Moulder was shap-
ing our destiny; against the prudence of
our most sagacious statesmen; against a
reluctance to war unmatched in history;
against our clearly defined and denoted
destiny of international isolation, in which
we rested in boastful contentment, behold
the war came The detonations of Dewey S
cannon not only awoke the drowsy inhab-
itants of Manila, they awoke the world,
and in the wreathing smoke from that far
battle the American people have seen the
vision that disturbs. In the thunder that
rose over the palmy heights of Santiago
the old tabernacle was shattered, and
heard is the voice of Jehovah calling us
to do the work of the world
Simon Peter saw the vision from the
housetop at Joppa, and passed from under
the vision of the narrow Jew to the large
ness of the human race Verify l de
clare God is no respecter of persons" Over
the heights of Manila and Santiago the
American people have seen the vision
which forbids that
lin the hallow Lotus-land to live and lie re.
clined,
On the hills like gods together.
! Careless OF mankind"
1t is the heaIe emily vision to which we
dare not be disobedient We have ceased
to be an isolated contin entail power we
have become a world power and must dc
our part in the arena Of the world.
We hear the cry of Imperialism. We
need not greatly fear it. Our starry flag
is no symbol of despotic dominion. 1t is
the emblem of human freedom, of self
government of law, of equality of jus
tice and of peace on earth These things
! God has ordained that we shall carry over
the earth. To men who in the wild de
lirium Of unparalleled victory could lift
humanity above the ecstacy of complete
success and say, do not cheer boys the
poor fellows are dying; to men who
bowed in humility, as before the unspeak
able Presence in the terrible awe of con
summate triumph and say, Il want tt
make public acknowledgment here, that
l believe in God the Father Almighty
to such men God will trust the response
bility of delivering the downtrodden anC
oppressed into the larger liberty and ligh
of the twentieth century