The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-02-13

Christian nation. This nation-borr
 amid the travail and the tears of tender women who died upon its bleak coasts
 to give it birth baptized in the blood of
 brave men who died that it might live
 educated throughout it's length and
 breadth in the truth of the gospel and
 pervaded by the spirit of Christ-is
 surely Christian nation. And, like
 ancient Israel, this nation has, unques-
 tionably, had a distinct mission among
 the nations, namely, that of proclaiming liberty to the people and to the nations
 of the world.
 There are three forms of slavery In the
 world. 1. The ownership of one man by
 another, who calls him property, con-
 trols his labor and claims the absolute
 right to the products of his toll. 2. The
 conquest and control of a weaker na-
 ton by stronger one, which uses 1t for
 it's own aggrandizement and for it's own
 enrichment. 3. The formation of opin-
 ion, the control of conscience and the
 regulation of religious conduct by force. These are the forms of slavery which in
 all history have robbed the world of jus
 tice, peace, prosperity and righteousness.
 Against all these principles and prac-
 tices our nation is protest; and for all
 the opposite principles and practices it
 is a proclamation.
 This nation was born as a protest
 against religious oppression and for pur- poses of religious freedom. The Pill grin1s and Purltans of New England, the
 Quakers of Pennsylvania, the Roman
 Catholics of Maryland and the Hugue
 nots of the Carolinas, came hither origi-
 nally for religious freedom. It is true they were not all at first tolerant of one
 another. But they held the principles of liberty which soon separated church and state, which recognized the right of i differences of opinion so far as to allow men, if they could not agree with a cer-
 tain community, to hold their opinions
 and practice their worship elsewhere, and which issued logically in time in the freedom of opinion and of conscience which are now enjoyed
 This nation reached it's manhood and attained its majority when it separated from the mother country. The taxes imposed by King George the III. were not so onerous as many taxes borne since; but the colonists saw in the meas ures taken disposition to use them for the benefit of another country and not for their benefit This they resisted. In that resistence they affirmed their be- lief in and their purpose to follow the principles upon which this nation is founded, namely, that men-not some men-American rnen--but all men-Cu- ban men, Philippine men-are endowed with certain inalienable rights-life, lib- erty, pursuit of happiness; that to se- cure these rights governments are inst- tuted among men, and that govern ments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.
 This nation reached mature manhood and attained wisdom when President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Pro- clamation," and slavery, which was denial of our first principle of national life, ceased to exist. It required two hundred and fifty years to reach this altitude of stature, this wealth of wis dom, this perfection of love and of righteousness.
 During this development this nation became world-power, not in the sphere of arms, but in the higher sphere of ideas. With missionaries in every quar- ter of the globe, with teachers among all nations who are not called Christian, with students from many lands coming hither to our schools, with statesmen studying our polity, with statesmen of our own invited to advise in the adjust ment of interna tional difficulties-as be- tween Japan and China-who can doubt that the influence of our nation in dis those principles which shape the life of nations as we'll as the life of has been worldwide?
 But now temptation appears before our nation-the old temptation which assailed Israel, the temptation to be like ! the other nations of the world-the old | which assailed Jesus, name 1 ly, the temptation to depart from the | way of love and service into the bread road of salfshness and rule, to acquire territory, to increase revenues, | and to win the glory which belongs to power and to physical might. It is a strong temptation even though it carries with it the solicitation to desert . God and to worship the devil. But this . tation-like every ptation-is not only solicitation to evil, but an op- portunity for good. No man and no na- ton ever resists temptation and over comes it, like Jesus himself without be- coming greater and nobler. The pres mt hour like certain hours of the past, S our nations signal opportunity.
 I would speak with becoming modesty lpon a subject upon which great law yers and grave statesmen have spoken, put upon which they have not agreed. I would speak in all kindness of men in official position who are compelled to .ction and who are sure to be criticised whatever action they take. But as an American citizen I have a right to speak md as a Christian minister I have the luty of declaring those principles which lnderlie the only enduring kingdom, namely, the kingdom of Christ and which must underlie any kingdom of nen which is to have prosperity and ermanence. I assume that our present relation to , he Philippines islands is not the re- ( ult of any deliberately planned pur- pose preceding the events of the past i ,ear I accept on behalf of the peace ( commissioners the statement of one of . hem, Senator Gray, who opposed talk 7 ng the islands but who signed the reaty because he says: "It came to a I ,oint, at last, or break off the negotia- f l. l,@~