Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-07-06
DELIVERS SERMON
ON PATRIOTISM
Rev. P. H. Barker Regrets So
Many Persons Are Managed
by Political Bosses.

I'VE therefore swear fidelity to the
starry banner. Its stripes of red rep
resent the blood of our heroes; its
stripes of white. the purity of our
wives and daughters, our sisters and
mothers, while the stars in it's blue
are like the stars of heaven, glittering
proofs of Gods tender mercy to man
kind" These were the closing words
Of a patriotic sermon by Rev. Percival
H. Barker in Christ Reformed Church
yesterday morning Mr.. Barker said
in part:
You don't need to blow your neigh
boris head off to be patriotic Once it
was thought that a patriot was a
soldier who was willing to fight on
the battlefield, and, If need be-. die
for his country. But what's needed
today is not men and women who are
willing to die, but folks who are
willing to live for their country, fight
ing the bloodless battles against in
justice. dishonesty and lawlessness.
1T is amazing how few men in this
land refuse to be managed by a po-
bt3AdA OOoc. tity viii tiOiSlig OGAt-
brate the anniversary of their coun-
try's birthday, eloquently declaiming
about liberty, but will slavishly obey
the dictates of political manpula-
tor. Many men are like puppets that
jump according as the political trek
ster pulls the string. There will be
political bosses as long as these men
who are willing to be bossed, and as
long as men put loyalty to party
above loyalty to principle.
But more discouraging fact is yet
to be stated. In every community
there are civic nonentities. They take
no interest in their city or country.
Election day is for them a holiday for
fishing or baseball. They never at
tend primary. Now the listless in
difference of these puppets in panta-
looms only permits the political dicta-
tor to ply his dirty trade with greater
zeal Their apathy makes bribery and
graft and corruption all the more pos
sible. Every man who thus carelessly
and criminally treats his duties as
citizen ought to be fined.
''Once patriots cherished the delu-
sion that our nation was eternally
guaranteed against extinction. They
professed immutable faith in the in
herent Immortality of this country,
and otter said that for our nation to
decay and decline and cease to be,
would be a serious Intervention of the
divine plan. But the patriot of today
knows that nations die and that the
plains of history are strewn with the
wrecks of civilizations that once were
almost as fair as our own. They per-
ished, not because they were aged,
but because they were corrupt; be-
cause they thought more of coin than
of character, more of party than of
principle.
Lives by Invisible Flame.
Like the individual, the nation
lives by an invisible flame within. II
that flame burns low in the fogs of
national eelfishness or goes out in the
darkness of sensual Indulgence, no
wealth of material resources or exter-
nal pomp and pride of power can save
the nation from inevitable decay.
Will the republic of America end in
an oligarchy as did the once fair re-
public of Venice? Less than $4,000 of
our people possess more than one-half
our wealth? Ours is a land of immense
fortunes and of glaring inequalities,
but of generous people. l am an OPP
tinlist.
81 believe the average American is
striving to maintain integrity and
purity in every relationship of life;
regarding home as the citadel of the
nation, and woman an ethical, indie
pendent personality who can be trust
ed as we'll as loved; awakening and
making strong a community of inter-
est and feeling between class and
class in the industrial world, insist
ing on honesty in trade and patriot
ism in politics.
In justice to ourselves we ought
not to permit a few political mi
crobes, social wreckers and moral
imbeciles to cause us to lose, our
faith in democracy. We should judge,
the standards of the American peo-
pie not by men who are today dis
grazing our politics, but by the in
sistent and growing demand that
political action shall be free from
selfish control and that faithfulness
shall dominate all our political life.
believe democracy in this country
will yet make good what was once
dreamed in ancient Greece but missed
in the French Republic.
Let us take deeper interest in our
city and nation. The young man
who lets things go from good to bad
and from bad to worse, and worse to
the devil, without lifting his voice in
protest, and without fiinging himself
into some holy scheme for the better
ment of the nation, is a traitor to
God and man. Be 1t yours to lift
your country one step higher in
righteousness, which alone assures
the, continuity and prosperity of a
nation. And doubt not but that the
sordidness of sin will eventually be
transformed into the gold of integ-
ri g-iu t,-ta<