The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-07-08
 DIR. TAIL MACE'S SERMON S o.o.o.o.o.c.O.o.o.o.o.ooo
 BY THE REV. FRANK DE WITT TALmAeE D. D.

OS ANGELES, Cal, July 1.-ln this
 sermon, appropriate to the 1nde- A< pendence day festival, the preacher makes a powerful appeal for further independence which shall result in the redemption of our cities from official corruption The text Is Jeremiah vii, 1T: "Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah?"
 This is the Sunday preceding our na- tlonaI holiday. During the coming week we shall commemorate the time when our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence which declares that all men are born free and equal. This is the hour when thousands of patriotic ser mons arc being preached over this land. most of them in euloglstic strain, to prove that this country is the greatest of all countries, our people the best of all people and this marvellous national condition of affairs the direct result of the work ofa the Continental Congress which assembled in Independence hall at Phila- delphia July 4, 1776 But though l allow no man 10 stand before me in admiration of the Immortal document penned by
 
 would cry; Peace peace, when there is no .peace.' l am not one who would assert that our government and our peo- pie have reached the acme of perfection for as our ancestors had wrongs -to right in 1776 we have governmental wrongs to right in 1906. l want tlfls morning to place my finger upon the most fragrant weak ness of our national life. This is not. the weakness of national or state legislation. I. 4, ,f Yaa411 nal n- ton, which we find in most of the large cities scattered over our land.
 The cancer which is gnawing and eating toward the vtals of mans physical body is even. more fatal in it's results than the dangers which are threatening him from without. Indeed, the only enemies which are threatening to undermine our national foundations are domestic foes and not foreign invaders MT. Lincoln, in one of his addresses, well said: At what point shall we expect the approach of na- tional danger? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step across the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asta and Africa combined, with all the treas ures of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest and with a Bona parte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in trial of q thousand years. At what point then, Is this approach of danger to be expected? If 1t ever reaches us. 1t must spring up among LIS. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must our selves be it's author and finisher. As a nation of freemen We must live through all time or die by sucder' That state- ment is literally true. No foreign foe can subjugate us, England could no more conquer us upon our own ground than we Io,, duo. p1aJJ ,1 quer England. The Atlantic and Pacific oceans are two great meats, thousands of miles wide, which say to foreign foes, Keep out" and also to Americans, "Keep In" No drawbridges will ever be made big enough to span those meats. As long as an invading army has to come to America by ship that army is doomed to defeat before it starts.
 The Horrors of War
 Most great statesmen are as loath to enter an international controversy as iS the present head of the German empire Some years ago the young emperor was looking at the Veresohagin pictures de- picting Napoleon's invasion of Russia. He said: ''Vereschagrin, never did the judgment of God so plainly strike man as it struck Napoleon at Moscow" Then he looked a little longer at the pictures and said: 'Vereschagin. your pictures are an excellent corrective of warlike appettites." Then he looked a little longer and again said: "Vereschagrin, the statesman who would needlessly plunge his country into an international strife Is fool" Emperor William shudders at the thought of war. The great statesmen, both trans and els Atlantic, have the same dread The one great purpose of their lives Is to prevent international com plications. So, in all probability, you and will never live to see the day when this nation shall be warning against an- other frst-class nation. Thus in our present patriotic sermon let us turn our attention to the internal rather than ex- ternal dangers. By the help of God let us go forth as bravely and heroically as did our forefathers at Concord and Bunker Hill to eradicate the greatest weakness of our national life-namely, corruption in our municipal or city gov ernments. These evils of our great cities are to be seen everywhere. Either we must conquer them or they in turn will completely overthrow us.
 The civic problem of our land will never be successfully solved until the Amer- can voter has intelligence and manhood enough to divorce national and state pol-