Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-06-22
DIR. TALMAGTS SERMON,
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE eYTt E NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: "Mornl Expansion"-Ou ar Duty to
the Heathens in the Philippine Islands
-Suggestions as to What We Should
Do For Their Religious Welfare.

Do For Their Religious Welfare.
copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1891
WASHINGTON, D. Gin this discourse
Dr. TalmaHe steers clear Of the political
entanglements of our time and recon-
mends that which will meet the approval
of ell who hope for the perpetuity OF our
republic and the welfare OF other lands; text,
Genesis xviii, IA, "Thou shalt spread
abroad to the west and to the east"
Since the Americana Hispanic war is con-
eluded 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 anti lex pansionists. From
different standpoint than that usually
taken I discuss this all-absorbing theme.
leave the politieal aspect of this subject
to statesmen anG 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 l call attention
to the fact that a 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-
ligious movement in pagan lands had to
precede the educational. After in China
ard India and the islands Of the sea the
seventy-fve years the printing press and
the secular school came in. Now to better
advantage than ever before religious and
secular enlightenment may go side by side,
and SO the work be accomplished in short
time and more thoroughly. Starting with
the fact that in Cuba and Porto Rico and
the Philippine Islands at least three-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 ID declaration of In
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 benighted regions. Our
National Legislature by one vote appro-
priated $50, ,000, 600 to give bread and med
icine to Cuba. Why not by similar gener-
osity give $50, ,000, 900 for feeding and heal
ing the minds and souls of those ignorant
and besotted archipelagoes. In the name
OF God nominate school for every neigh
borhood OF Cuba, Porto Rico and the Phil
lppines. AS soon as the gavel falls at 12
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 disenthrallment of the islands in
controversy.
What has made American civilization the
highest civilization the world has ever
seen2 Next to the Bible and the churc b,
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 agitated, some of them to frothing
at the mouth, will settle itself. 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 sucn organiza-
tions as there are States, resolve at the
next convocation to establish in every re-
gion OF those islands printing press, sup
ported by people of this country until 1t
can become self-supporting. Each of these
State Editorial Associations sending out
to those islands at least one editor and two
reporters and enough typesetters, down
will so the ignorance and superstition Of
those Islands as certainly as the Spanish
fleet 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-
pected. Hoes printing pressl Nothing
:dn stand before its bombardment. Ed
ttors OF American newspapers and pub
fishers OF American booksl Take the Or
dination for such magnificent service.
lN-, H. Iz.~ S-l l.
meet the exfgency. 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
pinos see the morning and evening news
papers thrown into the doorways and
hawked along the streets of Havana and
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 sent forth to do
the work will soon be done by educated ma
.ives. Porto Ricans editorsl Porto Rican
reporters! Porto Rican typesetters! Porto
Rican publishers! 1t was great mercy to
take these islands from under the heels of
despotism, but 1t will be mightier mercy
to emancipate them from ignorance and
degradation. The expansion Of the knowl-
Ou6C uuo AutCiioCtudl Vi I'LL
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
nations are for the most part soporiflc
The American missionaries heretofore had
great difficulty in getting heathendom 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 for2'
And then the interrogation 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 Dress which secular educa-