The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1914-11-29
THE REV G. D. SMITH. b. D.

THE REV G. D.
forth with an issue. For now in our
time 1t seems the final struggle is to
be, and for all time 1t is to be de-
cided whether autocracy and militar-
ism or peace is to be the goal of the
nations; whether the man who Stays
million or the man who stays a
plague shall be called the greater;
whether the flower of the nations
manhood shall be sent to slaughter
or to build homes and rear families;
whether few tyrannical bigots shall
plunge the whole world into war to
feed their own pride and ambition,
or whether the people shall rule. We
may pray for peace or we may not,
we may pray for this side to prevail
or the other, but be assured that the
God of the nations will not be dis
interested. Excessive SHOWS drove
Napoleon from Russia with heavy
toll; a shower OF rain lost the battle
OF Waterloo to Napoleon and saved
Europe. A storm at sea crushed the
Spanish Armada and saved infan.
Professionalism in England. Be assured
that the God Of the rain and the
snow, the wind and the waves will see
to 1t that the adverse winds of fate
SERM0N-GALLEY TWO ). ;. 49,.
will beat heavily enough against the
wrong side to defeat it.
We speak of this war setting civil
ization back fifty years. So it would
seem from mans standpoint But
what IL within ten years the sea is
cleared OF every battleshtp. and every
armored vessel put in the same class
as pirate ship, and stationing great
seige guns be put on the same plane
las pistol toting. What If at the end
OF this conflict no sanding armies are
left to menace the peace of Europe,
no further war debts to be created,
we will see that God c>sl make the
wrath of man to praise him. and that
this awful conflict was but a short
cut to certain world peace. 81,
Since America is the only human
dnstrumentality left the Almighty to
work out such consummation, my
earnest message to America is "In
time of peace prepare for war" And
do it quickly. Emergencies may
arise, crisis may come any day.
The other day the bow of the battle
ship Tennessee was fired upon and
We did not know but what we were
the next nation to be drawn into the
conflict. What is some deadly mine
would send one of our ships down?
wonder II we would be caught nap
ping and thrown of our guard as We
were when the Maine went down In
Havana harbor? wonder If We would
kindle the fires of revenge, and adopt
such an i'll becoming slogan as
Remember the Maine"
when / say "In time Of peace pre-
pare for war;" mean not in pagan,
but Christian sense. The great war
IS terrible rebuke to the pagan
idea that the best way to prevent war
is to prepare for it. If that be true
then the best way to prevent drunken
ness is for an old topper to get hold
OF a few dimes, gather up few
chums, enter a saloon, watch other
men drink, get the old fumes in his
nostrils and thus prevent drunk,
No, we will not prevent war by build
ing bigger guns, and increasing our
armies and navies, and giving every
citizen military training and throw
ing around, the nation the environ
ments that suggest war. But by en-
phasizing all these things less and
the arts OF peace more.
Nations must learn that their pow
er does not consists SO. much in the
size of their guns or the skillful use
of mind and sword. but in the right
use OF mind and heart 1t is right
eousness that exaltetli a nation,' and
the preparation for war that plead
for, Is the preparation of the gospel
of peace. and that we put on the
breastplates Of righteousness. Then
we shall have a self-possession, q
patience and forbearapce that will
be equal to the emergency of war
War struck from the slave his
shackles of iron, but it could not free
his mind from the darkness OF ignor-
ance and superstition, ane no sabre
stroke or cannon shot could strike
down the gloomy wall of sectional
prejudice. But little heart power,
/ the spirit of forbearance and conces-
sion through two generations has
practically solved the. question that
war left unsolyed.
The nations Of Europe are but
reaping their own folly. They have
been engaged in building modern
Babel. Each has been trying to build
a little higher than the others. and
they have como to q confusion Of
tongues, and the confuesion of the
earliest is no more pathetic than the
confusion Of the latest Babel. All
heavily projected institutions from
the earth upward are doomed to
failure. Man knows not the awful
distance he must span in building up
into the heavens where he can be
safe and free. Man must learn thu.
the power that can save him is not
the power projected from the earth
upward. but that power projected