Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1899-06-01
..THE BATTLE is NOT YOURS, BUT
GODS"
An Appropriate and Eloquent Sermon
Preached at the Union Memorial
Services at the Methodist
Episcopal Church
on Sunday.

on Sunday.
About three hundred people
gathered at the M. f. Church on
Sunday evening last to witness the
memorial services, in honor of the
battle-scarred veterans of our
Nations wars.
The program was opened with
a beautiful anthem, ''Hark, Harll,
My Soul" by the Emporium Glee
Club, newly organized musical
combination of about thirty-five
we'll trained voices under the able
leadership of Hon. |. X. Hockey,
after which the Rev. j. NJ. Robert
son, of the Emmanuel Church,
read the Goth Psalm. The congre-
CATION arose and sang the hymn
"America" and repeated the
Apostles Creed, which was fol-
lowed by a prayer and the reading
of the thirteenth chapter of Romans
by the Rev. Robt. McCaslin of the
Presbyterian Church, and Gloria
Patri and an anthem, 80, Jesus
Thou Art Standing were rendered
by the Glee Club.
At this point the Rev. Wilford
2. Shriner, of the NJ. +. Church.
who was to deliver the memorial
sermon, arose and announced his
text, "For the Battle is not Yours,
but God s." and gave a historical
introduction thereto. The sermon,
greatly epitomized, which we pub
lish herewith, is pronounced by all
who heard it to be one of the most
appropriate and eloquently de-
lived it has been their good fortune
to listen to.
Rev. Shriner, although young
man, is possessed of an exceptional
ability, and has faculty of throw
ing his whole energy into his work,
which makes his arguments and
/ sermons teen. with forceful logic
and brilliant eloquence, and this
one was no exception to the rule.
Indeed it was Il masterpiece of
oratory, radiant with effulgcnce
upon the prevailing sentiment,
paying a gallant tribute to the
veteran defenders Of this noble
country, and reminding them
of the presence of the invisible
hand of the Omnipotent Being in
the outcome of that irrepressible
conflict of which they are the
heroes. 1t was highly commend
able from an ecclesiastical point OF
view, and if there was any doubt
in the minds Of his hearers as to
his ability, divinity or patriotism
it was dispelled on Sunday night.
! THE SERMON.
| TEXT:-''For the battle is not yours, but Gods
/ II ChrOn., 20, 10.
1t is not any clearer that God fough the battles
of Judah than that He fought our battles. Our
/ greatness is the result of a Divine superinten.
dency rather than human skill Our history
reads like a romance. We enjoy conditions as
nation for which no human philosophy can ac-
count No one can read our history correctly
unless he discerns that the battles of arms pen
and brains have been fought by Almighty God
AS an evidence of this, consider; first the time OF
the discovery. Long before Columbus sighted
this continent its existence was known to the
! nations of the Old Word. The Norsemen had
| knowledge of it. Lief Erickson made the dis
covery 500 years before Columbus. But some
how the gates of the New World refused TO oper
to the oppressed of the Old World until the enc
of the Middle Ages. We plainly see Gods hanC
in this. a different class of people would have
come at an earlier PERIOD people who could mo-
have formed the neuClus of the great nation We
are to-day Second, national supremacy. Spair
and Portugal had the start; Holland and Swedet
made earnest efforts; France made desperate
struggle, but the AnglO-SaXon became dominant
1t is pain that God did not intend the LatiT
races to give temper to the nation. The
compatible with an advanced civilization Third
the character of the coonsts. They were mer
of piety and religious enthusiasm. In the cabiI
of the Mayfower they declared a covenant o
Government "for the glory of God and the ad
vauCement of abe Christian faith" Who werI
they? The French HuguenOts in the Carolnas
the German refugees and devout peasants o
Switzerland. the noble OglethoTpe i'll Georgia
/ the Moravians with their devout spirit, Lore
Baltimore in Maryland, Roger Williams IN Rhod
Island and last but not least, the Friends il
Pennsylvania. What choice seed for a grea
liberty-lovng nation! Fouth the Revolutionar
"strugge of poverty against riches" Englant
, mad humbled the House of Bourbon and over
powered the armies and navies of the creates
| powers of Europe, only to be defeated by
handful of unframed men whose only power wa
their patriotism God fought that battle Wash
ington knew it, for he said: no people can b
bouGd to acknowledge and adore the invisibl
nand which conducts the affairs of men. NOR