The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-09-02
A PROVINCIAL GOD.
eY Or. FRANK CRANE
Copyright. 1915. by Frank Crane)


of Montpelier and SEWN of Lyons, is
sued a joint letter about the first of Aug
ust enjoning all French bishops to APP
point a day of prayer for the blessing
of a durable peace with the triumph Of
our army"
II is to be presumed therefore, that
the Divine Executive will be flooded with
French petitions urging Him to endow
the bullets Of the allies with eXtraor-
binary killing power.
Meanwhile the German emperor's in
innate connection with the Deity is well
known. The monarch admits II; he is
even not averse 20 advertising II. When
certain prelate ventured 10 congratu-
late him upon the triumph of the kaiser
liche arms in Poland where the last and
greatest griSt of human lives had been
freshly ground from the war mill, his
majesty pointed reverently to heaven,
remarking, "He up there has helped me-
Also, on August 4, the whole OF the
British empire united in prayer to God
the same who helped the kaiser, an
nouncing TO Him their mistaken deter
mination to go on manning and murder
ing for the glory of the crown. for the
carrying out of the will of God, and for
the delectation of His Son Jesus Christ,
whose sincere followers all true Britons
are. King George and Queen Mary at
tended i'm person the services at st.
Paurs and similar ceremonies were held
throughout the realm.
The car Of all the Russias not to be
outdone. likewise assures his devoted
people. who among the Polish Jews are
wing in Schrecklichket with the Ger
mans in Belgium. that God is right with
them. and ne ought to know. since he is
vice gerent of divinity TO the majority
OF Slavs.
Italy. too is fervent in prayer The
Turks. though they call Deity by an
other name, and the Japanese, are in the
same measure confident that the heaven
~ Ruler is anxiously planning the
triumph of their deadly weapons and the
spread of their peculiar civilization.
To the ordinary and common egotism
that we have inherited as patriotism the
explanation of this is simple and salts
factory; we are right, the others are
mistaken.
To the minds who know no religion
except the conventional institutionalized
organizations. and must choose between
1 them and common sense, the whole mat
ter seems so absurd that they dismiss
il as one of those fctions necessary to
statecraft
But to people who still cling to be-
( lief in a Deity Of justice the principle
/ Of omnipotent goodness, the entire per-
Torrance is saddening and humiliating.
II there is a God He is not provincial.
If there is a God He is not German,
nor English, nor Japanese, nor Turk
fish.
/ There can be no conceivable God but
God Of Humanity.
He must think as much Of French as
Of Germans, Of Mohammedans as or
Americans, Of Negroes as of Whites, OF
one set Of people as Of another, else lie
would not have made them.
For the human being Of one territory.
therefore, TO ask Deity to help them
slaughter those Of another territory.
shows the world TO be yet essentially
heather and as ignorantly provincial as
an African tribe that believes its fetish
will enable them to exterminate their
enemy who worship fetish of another
shape.
When such performances are engaged
in by those who know no better their
ignorance may be excusable. But when
intelligent, civilized people, who for two
thousand years have had the humanity
Of Jesus blazing before them, indulge in
such hypocrisies, it is the apex of bias
phemy. the qualification of reason, and
an open insult to Him they profess to
obey.
Is BANNER COTTON COUNTY