Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1899-06-14
SERMONS OF THE DAY.
Preached by Rev. DR.. Talmage.

Preached by Rev. DR.. Talmage.
Subject: "Moral Expansion"-Our DUTY e
the Heathens I'm the Philippine Islands
-SuggesfiOns rs to What We Shout
DO For Their Religious Welfare.
Copyright. Louis Kiopsch. 1891
WAsHINeroN. D. C.-In this dtscou,s.
DR.. Talmage steers clear OF the political
entanglements of our time and recon.
mends that which will meet the approya'
OF all VINO hope for the perpetuity OF our
republic and the welfare OF other lands; text
Genesis xviii, IA, "Thou shalt spreaf
abroad to the west and to the cast"
since the Americana -Hispanic war Is con-
cluded and the United States ambassador
Is on the way to Madrid and the Spanish
ambassador Is on the way to Washington
the people OF our country are divided into
expansionists and danti-expansionists.F From
different standpoint than that usually
taken discuss this ali-absorbing theme.
leave the political aspect Of this subject
to statesmen and warriors and pray Al
mighty God that they may be enabled
rightly to settle the question whether the
Islands in controversy shall be finally an
nexed or held under protectorate or re-
signed to themselves, while call attention
to the fact that campaign Of moral and
religious expansion ought to be immedia-
tely opened on widest and grandest scale.
At the close OF this war God has put into
the hands OF this country the key to the
worlds redemption. Heretofore the re-
lfgious movement in pagan lands had to
precede the educational. After in China
and India and the islands OF the sea the
missionaries have labored over fifty or
seventy-f1ve years the printing press and
the secular school came in. Now to better
advantage than ever before religious and
la wtxAo
and so the work be accomplished in short
time and moro thoroughly. Starting with
the fact that in Cuba and Porto Rico aud
the Philippine Islands at least ree-fourths
OF the people can neither read nor write,
what an opportunity for school and print
ing press! Within five years every man In
those islands may be- taught to read not
only the Bible, but the D eclaration of In
dependence and the Constitution of the
United States and the biography of George
Washington and OF Abraham Lincoln.
1t seems to me that the Government OF
the United States ought by vote Of Con-
gress afford common schools and printing
presses to those benighicd regions. Our
National Legislature by ono vote appro-
priated $50 900 900 to give bread and med
fcine to Cuba. Why not by similar gener-
Osity give $50 0o0 900 for feeding and heal
ing the minds and souls of those ignorant
and besOtted archipeagoes. In the name
OF God nominate u school for every neigh
borhood OF Cuba, Porto Rico and the Phil
ippines. As soon rs the gavel falls at IL
O'Clock OF next December on the table of
Senate and House OF representatives and
the roll has been called and the prelimin-
aries observed let some member OF our Ma
tional Legislature, with mind and soul and
voice strong enough to be heard not only
through those halls, but through Christen-
dom, propose measure for the mental and
moral disenthrallmant of the islands In
controversy.
What has made A ne e-ican civilization the
highest civilization The world has ever
seen? Next to the Bible and the church
schools, common schools, schools reaching
from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from
British America to Gulf of Mexico. Five
years under such educational advantage,
and this whole subject that keeps our pub
lie men agttated, some Of them to frothing
at the mouth. will settle itsel'. Give those
islands readers, spoilers, arithmetics, HIS
tories, blackboards, maps, Biographies,
| globes. Let the state Legislatures at their-
next meeting, some OF them assembling in
early autumn, take parts of those islands
under their especial educational patron
age. What Is needed is State and National
action in this matter Of schools.
Then let the editorial associations of the
United States, as many Of such organiza-
tiOns as there are States resolve Mt the
next convocatfon to establish in every re- -
gion Of those islands a printing press, sup
ported by people of this country until 1t
State Editorial Associations sending out
to those islands at least one editor and two
reporters and enough typesetters, down
will go the ignorance and superstition of
those islands rs certainly as the Spanish
heet under Cervera sank under the pound
ing of our American battleships, and into
their every port will go intelligence and
love OF free institutions as certainly as into
the harbor Of Manila went Admiral Dewey
on that famous night when he was not ex-
nod pfEH rtnffn
can stand before its bombardment. Ed
itors OF American newspapers and pub
fishers Of American books! Take the Or
dination for such a magnificent service.
Eloquence on yonder Capitol hill cannot
meet the exigency. Epigrams OF political
platforms or in State Legislatures will not
hasten the desired consummation one
week or one hour or one moment.
When Cubans and Porto Rican and Fill
pfnoS see the morning and evening news
papers thrown into the doorways and
hawked along the streets of Havana AMI
Santiago and Manila, those who cannot
read by the force OF curiosity will learn to
read, SO that they may know what infor.
nation Is being scattered, and that which
may be missionary effort at the start and
carried on by Americans sert forth to do
the work will soon be done by educated ma
tives. Porto Ricans editorsl Porto Rican
reportersl Porto Rican typesettersi Porto
Rican publishersl It was a great mercy to
despotism, but It will be a mightier mercy
to emancipate them from ignorance and
degradation. The expansion of the knowl-
edge and Intellectual qualification of all
those islandy regions is the desire of all in
telligent Americans. Awake, all you schools
and colleges and universities and printing
presses, to your opportunity
Still further, here Is a wide open door for
Christianity. First of all, We have the at
tention OF those people. The heather
thn
The American missionaries heretofore had
great difficulty in getting heRthendom to
listen. They excited some comment by
their attire, so different was the parting Of
the hair and the shape Of the hat and the
cut OF the coat and the formation of the
shoe of the evanGelizers, but the questions
constantly arose In regard to the mission
ary: "Who is hep" "What is he here for?"
And then the interrogator would relax into
the previous stupid Indifference. But that
condition of things he's passed. The guns
Of our American navy have awakened
those populations. They do not ask who
we are. They have found out. They are
now listening to what American civiliza-
tion and our Christian religion have to say
on any subject. Now is the time, while
their ears and eyes are wide open, to tell
them Of the rescuing and salvable and in
spiriting power OF the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, the Saviour OF the world. The
steam printing press which secular educa-
tion plants tnefo may Dc used ana Will De
used to print religious newspapers and
tracts and sermons and mighty discussions
Of questions temporal and eternal.
The comfortable homes OF those popula-
tions, when Christianized, standing side by
side with the degraded huts of those who
remain pagans will be revolutionary for
good. The Porto Rican and the Filipino
will come out from this uncleaned and low
rooted and uninviting kennel and say to
his neighbor of beautiful household, "Why
cannot l have things AS you have them?"
And when he finds that it Is the Bible, with
its teachings on family life and personal
purity and exalted principle, and the
church Of God that proposes the rectifica-
tion of all evil and the implantation Of all
good, he will cry out, "Give me the Bible.
and the church. and the earthly sllevia-
tions, and the eternal hope which have