The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1917-07-05
PATRIOTIC SERVICE
Was Held Sunday Morning In st.
Mark s Church.

by the pastor, Rev. S. E. Wicker, were
of a patriotic order, interesting and in
spring, while the music was exception
ally we'll rendered. Miss Ashby sang
a solo and the congregational singing
included America.
The church was appropriately dec
Grated with the National colors and the
congregation was large, filling the
auditorium to its capacity.
The pastor chose as his text lisa. 5:15,
and the sermon delivered by him ap-
pears In full as follows:
"And the mean man shall be brought
down, and the mighty man shall be
humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall
be humbled. lisa. 5:15.
True patriotism consists in a back
ward look and forward look. 1t is a
blending together of memory and of
hope. We owe much to sound religion.
At every crisis in our history we have
had the counsel of a sound faith. Our
mSiuOly SHdACHSGo Us HoI " lOIsSL
God and our obligations not only in the
time of peril but also in the time of
prosperity. We are blessed in order
that we might be blessing. And to
that end we are not to forget our
sister nations and our obligations to
them. When Goodwin Smith gave a
stone seat for the campus of Cornell
University, he selected as an inscrip-
ton for it, these words, above all ma
tons humanity" AS nation we must
remember that for there is within the
four corners of this great LAND of the
free and home of the braye" a COM
posite of all the nations of the world.
And, here, if anywhere ought the obli-
cations of the whole world be felt.
AS time of living, ours is one of
signs and wonders. Great events and
crisis times come upon US so fast and
thick that they tread upon one others
heels. From sheer inability to COM
prehend all which is taking place the
world is in amazement and the human
mind is apt to take it all as matter of
course. The Master, himself when He
was among men did not forbid the
stroke that smits down wrong but He
did forbid that animosity which seeks
to return evil for evil. or to repay in
jury for injury. He set forth that the
ideals of loving ones enemies and for
those who despitefully use one were as
binding in war as IN time of peace.
With our great Republic involved in
world war it is extremely necessary
for every Christian pulpit, for every
Christian home, every family altar and
retreat of prayer, to be a place of in
slant and continuous war-praying. BY
that we mean not prayers of bitterness.
not prayers filed with hatred, not
prayers fashioned after the PRAYER of
the self righteous Pharisee, but PRAYERS
whose petitions are filled with nothing
but love pity.
That those prayers might ascend to
the throne of grace, unauthorized. free
from impure or selfish motives, that
God shah have His way in the world
and thatsit may please Him to guide
the SINCERE intent of all of us, who
dedicate our lives IN the service of hu-
mainly and for the perpetutation of
peace, prosp Gritty and Justice.
Then shall the all-wise, ever loving
God destroy the wrong and right the
right, not according to our poor esti-
mate of right and wrong, but as He
sees fit in His eternal wisdom, blessing
not.one nation alone, nor one nation
above another, but equally blessing al
the nations upon the face of the earth.
"Our Nations Glories and Perils. )"
the subject of our study for this morn
ing, naturally divides itself into two
main thoughts ''Glories" and "Perlls. }"
1t is quite natural for the bad or less at
tractive side of any subject to be dis
cussed first, and since that is true we
will look at the "Perils' of our nation
first.
What then are the Perils of this great
land or ours or of any other land be it
ever so large or small? The first and
most prominent of all perils is that
|, Of forgetting God. Have we as a
nation forgotten God? Or are we for
getting Him? Or will we as a nation
and as individuals forget Him?
We know from our study of the early
Jews that so long as they walked with
God they had peace and plenty but
just as soon as they forgot Him, Just
that soon were they in war and famine.
We hear Hezekiah and the other proph-
cts calling the people back to the God
of their fathers, and pleading with
them to give the hand" unto the
Lord. Happy! Thrice happy is that ma
ton whose rulers recognize that the
peoples true greatness, that the peoples
highest worth, that the strongest en-
durance rests in their being godly.
Righteousness is a more powerful of
anI IAf