Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1900-09-28
CLERGYMAN.
"GOd Has Expanded U.s." Says
Bishop G. II. Fowler.
A Powerful Sermon on Expansion and
the Duties of the Hour, Preached
by the Noted Methodist Divine.

coin. We see him as one Of Gods
prophets.
History repeats itself. One generation
stones the prophets, and the next, their
children, build them monuments. Only
a few souls have the intuition to recog-
nize a living prophet. These prophets
neither dress nor act like the old proph-
cts; that would be mere charlatanism.
Every prophet must be fitted into his
own time, suit his own environment. One
comes as a pilgrim, like Abraham; an
other as a hired man and herdsman, like
Jacob; another as a leader and lawgiver,
like Moses. Another as a warrior, like
Joshua; another as an executioner, like
Elijah; another as a scholar, like Paul;
each man fitting his own age.
To find prophet, we must not take
the grave clothes of the dead seers, and
run through the mart, trying to find some
man whom they will fit We must so
read events as to recognize the man who
fits and fills his time. He must be in
league with events. Napoleon on st.
Helena said: "At Waterloo events desert
ed me-" He dropped out of the nick of
time. The prophet must be history
maker. To find our prophet, we must
find the trend Of events: then we can
easily find the hand that is making the
bend in the stream of history.
This hand we find in the White House.
President Mckinley may not fit the
a. h. al hnt hn is
fitting the trend Of events in this age.
He so stands in the midst Of the worlds S
forces that he reaches results In civiliza-
ton. He is bending the streams Of his
tory in the right direction. Sink down
into the undercurrent, down below the
party strife on the surface, down into
the great stream that sweeps on through
the sea of the centuries bearing the races
up to higher latitudes and levels, and
catch the moral forces that are evolving
the worlds destiny, and you will find that
this statement is not politics, but relig-
ion-God's religion, that moves always on
in one direction.
The three greatest missionary events of
the Christian era since the cruci6XiOn of
Jesus are: First, the conversion Of st.
Paul. This opened the door to the Gen
tiles; this was our chance. Second, the
firing on Fort Sumter. This made the
Saxon race fit for evangelical uses. Third
the blowing up Of the Maine. This uni
fed the nation and sent US out about
our work.
1t melted the American elements in the
furnace Of war, and made all Americans
one. The son of Gen. Grant and the
nephew Of Gen. Lee marched side by side
under one flag and against a common en-
emy.
These Saxons are said to be bad neigh
! bors. We have some dark spots in oul
history. The Saxon sometimes has made
a bad record. Yet it must also be sale
| that we have never enslaved a race, with
out leaving it freer than it was before We
enslaved it. For the ages through anG
the world around, there can be found NJ
such liberties anywhere else as are founC
under the Stars and Stripes.
The blowing up Of the Maine was al
eye-Opener to us, and soon to all the
world. Our great Washington 1--WE SHOULD
never speak his name but to honor it)
our great Washington said to MS, as
little strip of Atlantic colonies, "Bewar,
of foreign entanglements." 1t was tn,
height of wisdom. 1t suited our infanc.
like bib. He pinned this bib upon II,
and said, keep in the middle of the lot
or the boys on the next lot will throw
mud ON your bib" So we kept in tn,
middle of the lot, and grew till we out
grew the lot. We grew from three mill
ions to seventy-fve millions. The bill
was too small for us. 1t looked like
cotton patch on the breast of our uni
form. We had more beefsteaks and sill
dresses, more spelling books and New
Testaments. to the thousand people, thar
could be found anywhere else in tn,
world.
We were as much under obligations t
help the poorer and more ignorant race
as ever. st. Paul was to go "far henc
to the Gentiles"; but we stuck to our AT
lantic waters, coasted by our shores, w
held on TO our little big, contented, ex
pecting to stay always in our western
waters.
But one day the Spanish touched off
magazine under US. Then the jig was ur
Come what might, we must fight to til
finish. We went up into the air, an,
came down everywhere-to stay.
This sent us out about our providen
tial job; this made missionaries of us
We are in Manila. We are ready to hel
China.
God has expanded us; we can't help Il
Gou might as well try to catch yonde
eagle perched on a crag of the mountain.
pluming his pinions to wrestle with tn
whirlwind, and then try to crowd hir
back into the little eggshell out of whic
he has broken, as to try to throttle thi
American race and crowd il back int
the thirteen original colonies. Some q
the old gentlemen on that old soil of som
of those old thirteen colonies, who hav
never left 1t, may think it would be
good thing for our great continent-en
bracing people to come back home. Bu
1t is impossible.
God has expanded us.
: Long years ago, back In the fortie
Thomas II. Benton, United States Sen,
tor from Missouri, standing 10 his plac
in the Senate, pleading for a Pacific raj
road, pointed toward the setting sun an
cried: See there, gentlemen, there
the Eastp'
To-day We catch up our papers an
! Continued at bottom Of sixth column. ]