The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-24

l Congregation Present.
 At the Church of the Messiah yester- day morning the pastor, the Rev. W. F. | Dickerman, conducted a patriotic ser vice and preached an able sermon on I The Mission of America" It was from
 the text: 'Ye shall proclaim liberty
 throughout the land,' Leviticus xxv, 10. | It was substantially as follows When Saul beheld the Philistines gather in great strength at Shunem he sought direction of God trim and by the prophets in vain. In alarm he in'
 duces the woman of Endor to raise the apparition of Samuel. to whom he can appeal in his Godforsaken extremity. Never in the history of this country
 has there been so opportune a time to
 raise to public view the liberty loving and uncorrupted spirit of George Wash ington. Recent events seem to indicate the disenchantment of our national
 ideals To- day we invoke the noble
 spirit of him who most purely repre-
 sented our nations mission, lest we forget that splendid struggle of our
 
 suit of happiness. These inalienable
 rights are ever in jeopardy, and we need
 to be reminded that no nation as yet
 has been able to guarantee them for
 any considerable length of time.
 It is no easy task for nation to save
 ts soul alive, keep it just and free. The
 struggle with poverty, luxury, lust of
 power, for the mastery, is common to
 individuals and nations, and often of
 long duration. Nevertheless a soul ev-
 cry representative nation must have
 and save-a controlling sentiment,
 central principle, a commanding, one
 ideal All national character is thus
 formed.
 The Hebrew soul was dedicated to the
 affirmation of One God. The Greek soul devoted to beauty, philosophy,
 science. The Roman soul was crystal ized into a code of law. Let us gravely remember that there are dead nations, dead languages, and they are likely to be increased in the ratio of the self-de- structive clements they harbor. We. of all other nations have dreamed of im- mortality, national perpetulty. It is fair question; must we go the way of all the other nations ? In the first hun dred years of our nations life we had to save it's soul from bondage in the boasted Hand of the free and home of the brave" Will the highest civiliza- tion always run in our circle? Our cir cle came very near being broken twice Thus far there has been no continuous and equal movement among all nations to uplift humanity by working out some great thought.
 But individual nations have made valuable contributions to humanity what they have fairly won has been won for all time. So they have not been wholly lost in death. The Hebrews legacy, that of the Greek and Roman imperishable; their "souls go on.'' Has the American idea intrinsic value and persistence enough, and institutions just and perfect enough to preserve our nation forever2 In the light of past history and present prob lems it is bold faith. Have we new and improved faculties, which perished empires had not?
 The mineral kingdom had form; the vegetable kingdom had not only form, but life as well; the animal kingdom had not only form and life, but con- added thereto. The nine teenth century is the product of all the past, Has America superadded any thing unique? Have we purpose broad enough, high and deep enough to develop the entire manhood of the race? Washington and the Revolutionary fla thers though it had Already we are saying in painfully practical way that the fathers were mistaken. If the doctrine of certain 'inalienable rights" is an error then our purpose has not been broad and deep enough for almost the entire history of our national life. On what then shall we base our hope that the new world has a lease of the future to run without end? The na- tions of old were only able to grasp and realize in actual life partial statements. The Hebrew nation said Jehovah is One The first and only nation to utter that noble ideal They poured out their soul into that thought, as the pole star of national destiny and they believed heaven would never forsake them. But they imagined some strange things their One God. Just like modern patriots imagine strange things, about their rights of man. The were blind and deaf to other quite important to the we'll being of mankind. That nation em- 1hasized the fact of God, but 1t could not islander man and survive. It de led human brotherhood, and that was ts death sentence. When the idea of a one only chosen people" dawned, Israel | 1ung it's harp on the willows of Baby | on. It could not chant this hymn to humanity. 1t lacked one Vitalizing orce. The law of permanence is whole 1 less. Not only must God be the unit, | put man also must be a unit.
 At the present period of the worlds | history national life is largely special 1 ind private A large amount of legis- | ation is for special use and private | ,nds.
 By a noble aspiration now manifest | throughout the world, the people, de- pite their rulers, whose ambitions | would continue to respect the right of | night, and royalty, that sworn enemy if democracy,-the people, I say, are claiming a common relation and desti- ". As God is One, so humanity is one and liberty is the goal.
 When Lincoln was conducted from H., to Washington, D. C., S a sort of chief or ruler in whom was 'ested power to preserve this nation on ! he verge of disruption, he exclaimed: If this nation is saved, the people must ave it."
 And now what have we Americans to l