The Indianapolis journal., 1899-11-27
HIS VIEW OF EXPANSION
REV. j. a. MILBURN breaches An
ABLE THANKSGIVING SERMON.
He Regards This as Americas Great
est Hour. and Says There Is Abun-
dant Reason TO BE Thankful.

A large and appreciative audience lis
tened to the Thanksgiving sermon of the
Rev. Joseph a. Milburn at the Second
Presbyterian Church yesterday morning.
He saiG. in part: "On Thanksgiving OF this
week the Nation gathers together 10 offer
Up tharks to God as people 1t is beat
tiful custom and most appropriate Oh the
part of this Nation TO offer up its gratitude
to the eternal God. If God has ever blessed
any nation He has blessed America;
blessed il richly and abundantly and never
more than at the present hour This Is
Americas greatest day and our gratitude
as itS IrUrle should be most real and sin
cere for the favor that God has in these
recent days shown toward our Nation.
First, let me say that we should be
grateful because of the enlargement of our
national life. A year or so ago We all saw
America large in dimensions but quite def
initely bounded. Even If we dreamed of an
ultimate union of the people of the United
States and Canada, we had no hope of a
kingdom beyond this northern continent.
But now we find America with all that it
means, with a spirit of democracy, with
spirit of liberty and with spirit OF larger
the west and toward the east, going forth
the mission of world redemption. Many
there are who fear this larger utterance of
our national life. They dread the conse-
quences it involves. They question its mo-
tive and its spirit. They think it savors
of aggression and they try 10 impede the
forward movement toward the worlds bet
terment by shrouding this outgoing of our
national vitality in the cry Of Imperialism.
If by Imperialism they mean government
that is autocratic, despotic and tyrranical,
then of course the charge is meaningless;
but If by Imperialism they mean extension
in the worlds life of the spirit of educa-
ton, democracy and liberty, then this
charge of imperialism need have no terrors
for us.
COSTS MONEY AND LIFE.
Again they say this larger utterance Of
our national life can only be attained at d
great cost of money and life, and this is no
doubt true. But everything that we prize
to-day, the literature that enlarges and in
spires our intellects, the freedom that ex-
alts and magnifes our men, the democratic
Institutions that dome US and evoke the
vital forces of our national life, all these, I
say, have been bought at great cost Of mon
ey and great cost of life, and the burdens
that others have borne in order that We may
live more largely and nobly We ourselves
must bear in order that We in turn may
bless. Again they tell us, these critics, OF
the spirit Of expansion, that this Nation has
not the capacity to rule, to govern and to
elevate the oppressed people and the dark
places of the earth. This criticism, to my
mind, is fatuous and to the last degree. If
any nation on this earth is qualified by its
gifts and virtues to rule justly and wisely
/. is this Nation, and, moreover whatever
the obstacles may be in the way Of expan-
sion in the way of the larger utterance OF
Cur national life, there is a duty to help and
TO serve others imposed upon us by that
most imperious of ali laws. 'noblesse oblige.'
Paul says, i am debtor to Greeks and to
barbarians.' and as the individual is Obli-
gated In the measure of his strength to help
the weak so also is every nation in the
measure of its privileges, its talents and
endowmentS bound TO uplift those people
that are neld in bondage TO Ignorance, to
superstition and anarchy and just in the
measure that nation fulfills its obligations,
so will ii attain 10 high and noble life.
THE GLORY OF ENGLAND.
1.-THE glory of England lies not in its
physical prowess nor its vast wealth, nor
in it's great merchant marine. but in the
uplifting work it has done in Egypt, in
India, in Australia and in the other do
mains where her scepter rules supreme; and
as expansion has been the glory of England
so will expansion be the glory of the United
States of America, and therefore, for this
outgoing of our national life toward the
east and toward the west we should be
grateful TO God this Sabbath day.
But there is another ground of gratitude
to which want to call your attention and
that Is the growth of the spirit of Teuton-
ism, and by that / mean that life is the
substratum of the three great civilizations
of the world-the civilization of America,
England and Germany. Now say this
growth of Teutonic unity toward the fed
GRAFTON of these three nations Is a phenom-
ena unique in history. Nothing like it has
ever been seen before. Alliances there have
been throughout the range of mans history
here upon this earth and the worlds his
tory Is full of political compacts of one
nation with another In the Crimean war
there was an alliance between France and
England To-day there is an alliance be-
tween France and Russia and but n little
while ago there was existing between Ger
many Austria and Italy an alliance known
under the political term Of the 'dreibund,
but all these alliances have been formal,
diplomatic and temporary They had no
foundation in nature. But here in these re-
cent days we find three great people drawn
together by the compulsive power of logic.
The logic of affinity, of completeness and
origin: -,
| have a common origin. All OF them or glnate
| from the Germanic. The Teutonic blood
| is paramount in them. They are all nations
| endowed with the spirit OF liberty and OF
| individuals. Now. this ascendency of the
| Teutonic people is a thing of great import
| 1t is fact fraught with greater conse-
| quences than anything that has happened
| in history since the reformation.
WHAT IT WILL BRING ABOUT.
| First of all, it means the homogeneity OF
| cur own people. If the Englishmen and the
Germans cooperate toward common end
| inspired with common purpose, then the
good will and unity of purpose that actuates
! these nations with one another will react
upon our own national life and fuse Eng.
land Germany and America into a perfect
| homogeneity of character. We shall ther
| hear no more of Communications, Eng.
| lish-Americans and Scotch-Americans but
| ther shall be only one man In all this great
| country. and that man shall be pure anc
| unalloyed American.