Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1898-05-19
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
First One Ever Fought in the Cause of
Mercy and Humanity.
The sam. God Who Has Guided This Ma
tion Hr.. 'oforr VIII Not Desert IL
when Engaged in Noble Mis-
sion -Taimagc's sermon.

Most pertinent To the exciting times
through which we are now passing is
this sermon of DIR. Talmagc, in which
he proposes To cheer the people who
are saddcncd 10y the horrors of war.
| Text: Psalm xvii, >: Though war
should rise against me, in this will |
be confident"
The ring of battle axes, and the
clash Of shields, and the tramp of
armies. are heard all up and down the
| Old Testament; and you find godly sol
/ lierS like Moses, and Joshua, and
Caleb. and Gideon. and Scoundrclly sol
diers like Scnuacherih, and Shalma-
ncscr, and Ncbuchadnczzar, The
high priest would stand at the
head of the army and say: Hear
| u Israel, We approach this
day unto battle against your enemies;
let not your hearts faint. fear not, and
do not tremblc, neither Toe We terrified
| because of them. and then the officers
would give the command To the troops,
| saying: What man is there that hath
built a new house and hath not dedi-
Gated it? Let him go and return to
his house. lest he die in battle and an
other man dedicate it, And what man
il he that hath planted q vineyard and
hath not eaten of it? Let him also go
and return unto his house, lest he die
in the battle and another man eat of
it, And what man is there that hath
hctrothed n wife and hath not taken
her? Let him go and return unto his
house, lest he die in the battle and
another man take her Great armies
marched and fought. In time of
| Moses and Joshua all the men were
soldiers When Israel came out of
| Egypt they were COO, 900 fighting men.
Abijah commanded 400, 900. Jeroboam
commanded 500 900 men, of whom 800
900 were slain in one battle. Some of
these wars God approved, for they
were for the rescue of oppressed ma
tions. and some of them lie denounc-
ed, but in all cases it was Judgment
upon both victor and vanquished
David knew just what war was when
he wrote in the text: Though war
should rise against me, in this will
bc confident"
David is encouraging himself in
stormy times. and before approaching
battles administers To himself the con-
solatory. SO to-day my theme is the
"Allcviations of War" War is organ
| lied atrocity. 1T is the science of as
sassination. 1t is the convocation of
all horrors 1t is butchery whole sai.
1t is murder gloritied. 1t is death on
a throne of human skeletons. 1t is the
coffin in ascendancy 1t is diabolism
nj of Int
and il is time now to preach on its al
lcviationS
First, / find an alienation in the
fact that it has consolidated the north
and south after long-continued strain
ed relations. 1t is IS years since our
civil war closed and the violences are
all gone and the seventies have been
hushed. But ever and anon. in Grafton,
in sermon, in newspaper editorial, in
magazine article, on political stump,
and in congressional hall, the old Sec
tional difference has lifted its head;
and for the first time within my
memory, or the memory of any one who
hears or reads these words, the north
and the south are one. BY a marvel
Gus providence the family that led in
| opposition to our government so years
ago is represented at the front in this
present war. Nothing else could have
done the work of unification SO sud-
denly or SO completely as this conflict.
At Tampa, at Chattanooga, at Rich
mond and in many other places the
regiments are forming, and it will be
side by side, Massachusetts and Ala
bama, New lerk an4i - IA, Illinois
and Louisiana, Maine ana South Gar.
| DINA, northern and southern men
will together unlimber the guns and
rush upon the Notifications and charge
upon the enemy and shout the tri-
umph. The voices of military officers
who were under Sidney Johnston and
Joseph Hooker will give the command
on the same side. The old sectional
grudges forever dead. The name of
Grant on the northern side and of Lee
on the southern side will be exchanged
for the names of Grant and Lee
on the same side. The veterans in
northern and southern homes and
| asylums are stretching their rheu-
| matte limbs to see whether they
can again keep step in n march,
and are testing their eyesight to
| find whether they can again look along
the gun barrel tosuccessfully take aim
and fire. The old war cry of ION to
Richmondr and ION to Washington"
has become the war cry of ''On to Ha-
vana!" ''On to Porto Rico.' ION to the
Philippine islands, The two old rusty
| swords that in other days clashed at
Murfreesboro and South Mountain and
Atlanta, are now lifted to strike down
Hispanic ambominations.
Another alienation of the war is the
fact that it is the most unselfish war
of the ages While the commercial
rights of our wronged citizens will be
vindicated, that is not the chief idea of
the war. 1t is the rescue of hundreds
of thousands of people from starvation
| and multiform maltreatment. A
| friend who went out under the flag of
the Red Cross two years ago to assuage
the suffering in Armenia, and who
has been on the same mission, I'M
der the same flag, in Cuba, says
that the suffering in Armenia were
comedy and farce compared
with the greater sufferings of Cuba.
At least 200, 900 graves are calling to us
to come on and remember by what
| process their occupants died. 1t is
the twentieth century crying out to
the nineteenth: DO you mean to pass
down to us the curse with which you
have been blasted? Or will you let me
begin under new auspices and turn
the island of desolation into an island
Edenic?' 1t is a war inspired by mercy,
which is an attribute in man i'm
itative of the same attribute of God
In no other age of the world could
such war have been waged. The
gospel of kindness needed to BE- recog-
nized throughout Christendom in
order to make such a war posi-
BILE. The chief reason why most of
the European nations are not now
banded together against us is because
they dare not take the part of that be-
hemoth of cruelty, the Spanish gov
eminent, against the crusade of mercy
which our nation has started. Had it
been on our part a war of conquest, a
war of annexation, a war of aggran-
dizement there would have been by
| this time enouOh fivinp suuadrons COM