Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-01-16

after he had posed once annoyed him
a trifle. Il am no show" he said. But
he soon regained his good hunor and
posed obliginsIy.
Before leaving the tabernacle SUM-
day said: The whole country has its
eye on Philadelphia. You have no idea
Of the country wide interest. l have
been importuned by people in Des
Moines, in the south. west and east to
send them papers telling of the meet
ings in Philadelphia. / believe this is
going to be q most fruitful eeries Of
meetings.
i've only one gospel to preach, and
1t is the same gospel that men have
been hearing since their mothers first
taught them Now / lay me- 1t Is the
only gospel that will lift up mems
spirits to the heights necessary in this
time. You needn't mind what any
one may say to the contrary
In answer to a question about the
address which the president emeritus
of Harvard delivered In Philadelphia a
few days ago to show that christian
ty has been proved failure by the
European war Sunday said
Yes. I know Of DR.. Eliot. He is n
very able man and l understand he is
very learned, and yet IL all the world
engaged In war twice as bloody and
twice as disastrous as this is 1t should
prove nothing to me except that God
still lives and works IN mysterious
ways.
Who knows what great ends are be-
ing served by the war? Would 1t not
have been as just to say that the civil
war in this country was proof that
God doean't exist. that the tenets OF
Christ are a failure? Who could see
the hand OF God in that war when 1t
was covering the land with blood and
agony. and yet who :iay deny that
Gods hand was in It for the greater
good OF two races?
II shall not criticize Dr.. Eliot, but II
is this sort OF thing that makes one
impatient with the colleges and tho
men who run them. They tack vision"
Not Divine.
In opening the new session of the
United States senate last Monday me
Rev. DR. Prettynan. chaplain Of that
body, prayed in part as follows:
Almighty God, we come before Thee
in the spirit of our high traditions and
! seek Thy favor at the opening Of this
session OF tine senate we have come
with the weight OF world wide In
| fiuence upon US and with large respon-
| sibilities for the welfare OF hundred
| million of Thy creatures. The state
/, is divine institution called into be-
| ing by Thy grace to secure the free
| dom of Thy people and to guarantee
! to them their natural rights. Thou has,
/ called into places of prominence and
| power these Thy servants in this hon.
orable senate and hast sent them forth
| to secure the divine purpose as great
| nation. DO Thou guide them.
! We have nothing to say about the
foregoing as prayer. except that the
more divinity enters into the proceed
ings OF the senate, just as was prayed
! for. the better 1t will be for the senate
and for the country. But as to the
political philosophy which found ex-
be said about that.
| The reverend doctor tells US tina
| "the state is divine institution" etc.
but Is it? Divinity implies, IL no
God, Himself. something GOd-li
something so infalllble. as between
right and wrong. that it is always
right. OF course If this implication
can be correctly applied to a state
then those who thus direct the stat,
must be divine. for the state has nj
more power to guide itself than III
automobile, and. therefore the rea
quality OF divinity must be lodged II
the hands Of those who are in charE
of the state. Presumably DR.. Pretty
man, who is a man OF sense, did no
quite mean that, altho he PRACTICAL!
said 1t.
The proof that the state Is not divin
is obvious enough at any time. TIL
state makes blunders: the state carnO
foresee things: the state is sometime
wholly wrong Perhaps 1t is as nearl!
always right az any human Institution
but that leaves lit long way from
i being divine. It mas inc power o
compulsion--Hs decisions are authori
tative, at least for the time being
. but this power has no divinity In Il
but is simply a rule set UP by maj
and enforced, for human security. w
govern our armies in the same way
the foreman Of a -gangtof street labor
ers exercises, within his little field. III
|, same kind OF power and for the sam
purpose, The real test Of the divinit
OF the state lies. not IN its power. whic
IL an everyday auAfsty In great man
fields, but ins-its AnvAriable Brightness
and at this point the state demon
, strates too often that It is merely
, human Institution.
a 4