Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1917-06-22
DIR. THOMAS TRACES
KAISER'S DESIGNS
Would Rear Civic Temple of Stones
of Caesars Palaces
But World Says Galilean Preeepts
Must Govern Nations POLL
Giles In Future,

delivered in Mead Memorial Chapel on
Sunday to the members of the gradual
ing class of Middlebury College, Presl,
dent John M, Thomas said that not
since Gl had class left college with
greater privileges and responsibilities
than rested upon those who were leaV-
ing this week, destined in one way or
another to be called to the service of
their flag. Standing beside the flag "a
silk one which the college training corps
recently presented to the chapel the
President preached from the theme
1.-THE Glory of Lebanon" delineatlng IN
"A most clear-sighted manner the designs
of the German Emperor to rear "A civic
temple from the stones OF Caesar $
palaces rather than from the cedars OF
Lebanon, and the ultimate disaster with
which such purpose would meet, The
full text Of his address follows;
oThc glory Of Lebanon shall come unto thee,
ihc Gr.lIcc. the pine, and the boN-trcc together
10 bcauty the place OF mysancluary and lWll
make the place OF my iectgorious" Isaiah ooJ3.
The world was startled a few weeks
ago by the publication in English trans
lation Of Friedrich Naumann's Mittel-
Europa, an essay which sets forth in
startling frankness the German dream
of a vast military empire extending
from the North Sea through Austria,
the Balkans, and along the line of the
Bagdad railway to the Persian gull
This volume makes the purpose of the
war and the object Of the German con-
quests in Belgium and Servia stand
forth in new light. Naumann has re-
yealed the real German AMBITION
world empire, mastery of the shortest
trade routes between the east and the
west, primacy and mastery among the
peoples of the earth.
Some fifteen years ago ! picked up in
"a little German book store slight
volume entitled Asia by the same
Friedrich Naumann. He was then a
pastor and home missionary o. the
German State church. He was known
chiefly for devotional writings, warm in
pety, poetical, mystical, fervent, and
of rare literary beauty He had left
his country church and put aside the
pen to enter the service of the Kaiser
in establishing public sentiment in
favor of great German fleet. lie &C
companied Kaiser Wilhelm on his cele-
brated journey to Palestine for the
dedication of new German church in
the Holy City. He sketched delight
fully the lands and cities which We're
visited in the imperial pilgrimage, and
took no pains to conceal the possible
significance of the undertaking with
reference to the expansion of German
power toward the east. He marked
that the power and wealth and glory
which had been associated with these
names had largely disappeared. Where
were once nations and cities of name
and fame in the world were only des-
olatons of poverty and squalor, cursed
by the rule of the Turk.
Naumann thought earnestly of the
causes of this contrast and the reason
for the sad decline of vigorous and
prosperous nations. His conclusion was
that their sin was weakness. They al
lowed themselves to lose their vigor,
their insistence on their right, their
resolution to defend their possessions
and their liberties by the sword. They
DtCdluC luhuIlOuSj ClLGullluICJ NNdhi
and they went the way Of all weakness.
The just God reasoned Naumann,
must give the treasures of His earth to
the ambitious, the energetic, the
peoples of pride and strength. To them
that have must be given, and from
those who have not the force and skill
to defend their own shall be taken even
that which they have"
On his return to the fatherland, and
upon the continuation of his efforts in
behalf of the Strengthening of the i'm
perial navy, Naumann wrote a little
book entitled Letters Concerning
Religion" in order to explain to his
friends how he could maintain his posi-
ton as a devoted Christian, author of
tracts of mystical and almost pietistic
turn, and at the same time be an
agitator for greater fleet. With
Naumann' reconciliation of his views
we need not concern ourselves, but his
clear and frank statement of the doc
trine that the state rests upon force,
and must push its way in the world by
force, and extend its power and in
fuence among the nations by force is Of
great interest in the light Of recent
events. "MiIitarsm, he says, ''is
the foundation of all civic order and
national prosperity Military weak
ness leads inevitably to ruin and de-
ytruction, to poverty and anarchy. The
future of Germany depends absolutely
upon the preservation of its military
power. He urges that the nation
cannot apply the principles of the New
Testament in its political councils.
The precepts of the Sermon on the
Mount have no place in the council halls
of state Nations pursue their life
under the regime of the struggle for
existence, in which only the strong pre-
serve their life, and the weak go to the
wall. To take the Galilean precepts
as the guide of the policy of a nation
would be suicide. 1--WE build our civic
temple, he says, mot from the cedars
of Lebanon, but with the stones of the
capitol of the Caesars.
No one can deny that the imperial
German government has followed faith
fully its model, confessed so clearly
fifteen years ago by the Kaiser's dis
tnguished advocate Acts which speak
with an eloquence more terrible than
the world has ever before heard testify
to the belief of the German nation in
force as the first duty of the people, the
sole reliance of nation in their expan-