The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-10-29
THE HIGHER EXPANSION
SUBJECT OF A SERMON BY THE REV.
j. CUMMING SMITH.
Political Catch Words Handled from
Religious Standpoint-Sec-
Ond of n Series.

Il
Church yesterday morning. The matters
which are now made so much Of In politics
were reviewed by him with reference 10
their religious aspects. The text was from
1.-THE Parable of the Talents" Matthew
XIV. lila. He said i'm part:
THE word expansion is at the present
moment an incendiary word. setting nre
TO mems imaginations. 1t is associated IN
this campaign with a political purpose; IL
whether our government should branch
out and bring other nations into animation
with us under our flag
The opponents of this idea, at least
some or them, urge that our government
Is sufhcient within itself, that our America
Is for Americans, that our Constitution
guarantees liberty and independence, tnat
our first business Is to develop our own
internal resources and stay at home, look
ing abroad only when we desire market
Tor our eVerrunning products. j say not
always, but I'm many quarters the argu-
ment borders on this cramped and selfish
conception Of our duty
Our America owes its enyiable heritages
TO every part OF the compass. FROM the
Jew we drew our religion. From the Greek
we drew our thought. From Rome we drew
our manly Jurisprudence. From England
we drew the germ of our constitution
From France we drew the bloom OF our
early cultures: Where shall we end? Let us
analyze our inheritance as geologlst does
the basal rock OF cur globe, or as chemist
does the rich compound material, and our
Anglo-Saxon indebtedness to a hundred
sources of original power becomes mani
fest We have had hundred inlets, but
we must have hundred outlets and more
TO keep up our level The law OF nature is
to empty In order to keep full to the brim.
To receive overmuch Is TO become longest
ed unless we are outgivers in proportion.
Our very capacity of reception and gener-
Gus openness toward great things pivot on
our eager sense of the worlds great lie
TO which we owe II TO speak forth our
best life and thought. Paul felt himself
Tor o. fLn n
railway center, receiving trunks from
every direction, but having no responsible
ity to open the baggage and appropriate
the contents What comes TO us we must
break open and seize its good: We must
honor our manhood by bringing II into
sympathy with every message we carry.
/ question IL 1t would be right Tor any
man TO carry a message from God when
his own mental, moral nature found no
affinity in that message Such course
would involve the surrender and repudla-
ton of our intellectual independence and
soon the common people would discover
that ministers were like carrier pigeons.
having no sympathy with the messages
they carried. Our minds can never fathom
revelation, but our manhood must be
sincerely committed to our message or we
will be as machines speaking to souls that
yearn for life. We must, therefore. as
simulate our message, but even that ca
pacty will shut gradually unless we pour
perious and Implying. We must give forth
what we get or we lose the power to get.
PHYSICAL NATURE.
physical nature is tireless round of
| calculations. and land and sea exchange
| their munificence and mountain and plain
| proclaim their reciprocities and sail and
plant interchange their values. Cline min
listers to CLINE and all economists admit
| that the ultimate ideal commerce will be
the full unhindered passage of one parts
| productions to every other part without
any artificial restrictions. To this as TO all
| ideals the world is struggling.
Commerce is at bottom circulation.
Money Rugged and boarded is handicap
| TO the avaricious possessOr. Money massed
| in a few hands as In tplutocracy, or
money in guarded vaults because capitalists
| lack confidence, Is unused money, and
/ therefore public peril and waste. Civiliza-
| ton is the completed capacity for circula-
| ton of high aerial splendors involving a
| capacity TO receive and appropriate and
/ extract the good for ourselves, but only
stunning that capacity If not followed up
| by the desire 10 give out, the ambition to
| reciprocate. Selfshness is uneconomical.
| Selfishness would shipwreck commerce in
/ twenty-four hours-at least selfness would.
| 1.-The old exclusiveness was blight upon
| the race that locked out other races; the
| old conception of election, woefully man.
| gled. which narrowed down the ocean tides
| of Gods grace to a grabbed little set of
souls, was at sin against the circula-
| ton of Gods golden currencieS. All monop-
L
| separate men or make a man feel that he
| must be an enemy to every other man If he
| is to prove able for the struggle of life, all
competitions which pit man against man
| TO be sure, in a potter way, all such
| miserable ideas violate the generous funda-
| mental philosophy that makes God and
| angels and men partners in a sublime en-
| terprise. Fifty years from now. the plat
| form of Debs will be platitude accepted
| by ALL but the world is not ripe for its
g. 49,
| travelled far enough from the icy north
| as yet TO dispense with our fur coats. But
| toward the tropical conditions society at
| large is moving; let us look ahead to the
| luxuriant summers awaiting our develop
| ment: let us applaud every prophet even II
| his dreams are premature; only let us while
| we look ahead be wise enough TO put into
| operation those measures that fit present
| conditions. We advise every man while in
the rainstorm not to throw away his UNI
| brella even though he sees ahead the rain
| bow and clearing sky
IF, therefore, the term expansion gives
birth to ideas of self-suflclcncy and ex-
| clusiveness il Is poison in Our veins. OUI
science will dwarf us. our art will devital-
ize us. our trade will materialize US into
stones, our holy religion, the greatest relig
ion and the only redemptive power, viii
heathenize us, our collective national wis
dom and energy in every direction will
strike us with palsy unless our life foun,
taineous and cverfull flows toward every
race. The policy of miserliness is self
| INSTRUMENTATION
SHALLOW SPELLBINDER.
81 have heard the shallow spellbnde
affirm that America was not benevolen
or a missionary institution, that self
preservation was the first and last law o
| life that our government must nurse an,
foster our own industries even IL it force,
every rival empire to starvation, and tn
statement was received with deafenin,
cheers.
1T took-such was the audience! Tn
Anarchist could utter no more swinish an,
stye. 1t reduces trade TO greed 1t annul
| every sense of brotherhood. Can one MAJ
| trade? Does IL not take two at least? An
are not three better than two? Is no
! reciprocity, therefore, the basal fact? T.
evangalize China is TO multiply her want
and, therefore, TO broaden infinitely he
market. Ought not our government to b
| friendly therefore TO missions? If the isle
OF the sea, with their teeming census an
unreasonable possibilities. can rise into
| higher plane under our guarding infiuenc
and auspices, shall we spurn them away [
| grOpe along their own dark path for som
| more centuries because of some mythica
theories about liberty? Is not development
upward more than liberty? Is not the lowe
liberty often sacrificed to attain the highe
liberty? Are quarreling, self-slaying tribe
capable OF freedom in the un
limited sense? Admitting the pagan
ism lurking in our Christian powers. We
would not an overflow or some OF GU
higher influences upon the inferior 10,
treading races be a godsend to them. an