The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1917-11-01
APAT'RIOTIC SER VICE,
DR.. Peatfield Delivers Splendid
! Sermon in Behalf of Our
Boys at the Front.

If Boys at the Front.
Pastor Compares American Justice
i With the Tyranny and Cruelty
of the Diabolical X aiser.
After a splendid patriotic anthem
by the choir, DR.. Peatfeld, in harmony
with the proclamation of the president
that last Sunday should be observed as
a day Of prayer for the success of the,
American troops, said, among other
things, in the Congregational church:
We have many reasons to be proud
Of our nations president, particularly
during the last year. His communica-
lions to the governments of Europe
have been characterized by splendid
idealism, by sense Of justice, honor
and impartiality that will make them
long to be remembered, while his
proclamations to the world in general,
and in particular that document of last
April, setting forth the crime and
treachery and shame of Germany, will
be immortal in the annals of human
history. But no communication he
has ever framed, no proclamation he
has ever uttered, no document he has.
ever signed is so significant and more
far reaching than this last proclama-
ton calling America TO prayer.
Let us notice first of all that this
appeal Of our president indicates that
he is conscious of the fact that behind
all physical forces there is a great
spiritual reality involving the princi-
pies Of Righteousness emanating from
God himself. Behind the most terrible
guns and most formidable battleships,
at the back Of the most irresistible
armies with their fearful engines of
war, is something infinitely bigger
and more mighty. Back of these
things and mightier, is man, and in
the mind Of man a force, unlimited,
eternal, infinite-the force of inspira-
ton based on conviction. At the back
of every war there have been operat-
ing invisible and mightyforces. Every
war that was ever fought was but an
outer expression of the conflict of un-
seen forces. When Waterloo was be-
ing fought it was not merely British
versus French, but it was the conflict
Of British justice with Napoleonic
tyranny. When our civil war took
place it was not merely a struggle be-
tween the north and the south, but
between the essential principles of
right and wrong-the right Of freedom
Iagainst the wrong of slavery. And
today, in this most terrible war the
world has ever known, the real forces
are not the armies and guns and
equipment of the allies against the
Germans, but rather mighty principles,
unseen but felt more rigidly every day.
Behind all our men, guns and ships
|are the irresistible forces Of righteous
mess, justice and democracy, and oper-
ating in and through the German
forces is the power of greed, cruelty,
Tyranny, and the maddening lust for
|power. Yea, behind the physical forces
and those of our allies is the great God
|of righteousness, and behind and in the
forces Of the kaiser is the very devil
and the, minions and agents of hell.
Hence the president calls us today to
pray. He knows, and he wishes us all
to know, that this war is bigger than
nations. It is being fought between
mightier things than armies and ma
vies. It is war between the eternally
opposed forces of right and wrong,
justice and injustice. And because the
president knows that God and justice
are forever one, and because he knows
that America is fighting, in the last
analysis, for the very issues for which
the Son of God died, he commands the
nation today to pray. ....
| Another point: The president calls
us to prayer because of the justice and
righteousness Of the terrible business
to which we have put our hands. We
have gone to war for two reasons:
First, because Of the conduct of a
power, which for fifty years has been
preparing under the guise of COM
merce and industry to throttle the rest
of humanity, and to cram down the
throat Of civilization it's so-called
"kultur." We have gone to war be-
cause Of the arrogance Of a nation
which regards it's solemn treaties as
merely scraps of paper" nation,
powerful and tyrannical, which has
mercilessly crushed a smaller neigh
boring nation for no reason but one
worthy Of hell itself; a government
which has conducted wholesale muir