The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-05-19

Geiger for November 10, 1914, we read as follows:
But the deepest and most Mountaineering re-
suit of the war Is the German Cod Not the ma
tional God, such as the lower nations worship,
but our God who is not ashamed of belonging
10 us, the peculiar requirement of our heart. Max
LEM has already testified to the revelation of the
German God and Luther's hymn, Elm feste Burg
list unser GOtt,' merely expresses the same idea in
other words"
Doctor Bang then proceeds TO substantiate his
statements in detail by quotations from German
war sermons, of which we have only space for
one or two samples. II. Francke is the author of
a popular book of "war-sermons,' which was
with the iron cross and published at
the request of numerous members of his flock.
Here is a typical utterance of the many quoted
by Doctor Bang:
A Promise of the Lord.
"They envy us our freedom, our power to do our
work in peace, to excel in virtue of ability, to full
fill our appointed task for the good of the world
and humanity, to heal the world by the German
nature, to become a blessing to the people of the
earth. Wherever the German spirit obtains SUI
premacy, there freedom also prevails. And have
not our enemies to fall back upon lies and ven
omous calumnies in the endeavor to justify their
assault in the worlds eyes and their own? Does
this not prove that the truth, too, is with us?
Truth and freedom, those two great blessings, are
in our gospel promised by the Lord himself.
Germany Is precisely-whO would venture to
deny it?-the representative of the highest mo-
rality, Of the purest humanity, of the most
chastened Christianity. He, therefore, who fights
for its maintenance, its victory, fights for the
highest blessings of humanity itself and for human
progress. Its defeat, its decline, would mean q
falling back to the worst barbariSm."
Walter Lehman is the pastor of Hamberge In
Holstein. lie has preached a series of sermons
which he has published under the title: about
the German God" The book is ornamented with
the Iron cross.
In a sermon of August % the question is put
"Who is responsible: the crazy murderer in Sera.
jevo, the weakling In character and will on the
Russian imperial throne, the criminal grand dukes
our n~eighbors on both sides, or the deceitfuI
islands? In any case 1t is not we." He then
lauds the Fatherland, the mother tongue-it is
for these we are fighting, and Germany is the
future of humanity"
"He who in these days sets forth to defend the
German hearth, sets forth In a holy fight he sets
forth to a great, incompatible divine service, In
which, indeed, one neither prays nor sings, but
in which one stakes life itself, this single sweet,
beloved life, for the life of a whole nation, q ma
ton which is Gods seed-corn for the future"
In q discourse on Sedan day, September 2, he
rises to loftier heights. "Once again German sol.
diers are treading the soil of places rendered IA
nous by the war of 1901. Once again German
soldiers lie at st. Quentin, preparing, quietly and
confidently, for the march on Paris. God writes,
indeed, a wonderful history.
"Yes, but so 1t is, my friends that glorious feat
of arms A years ago gives us courage to believe
that the German soul is the worlds soul, that God
and Germany belong to one another"
Here is one from Karl Koenig, the author OF
"Six War Sermons :"
II ls Gods Will.
"God does not will the war, but he wills that we,
as Germans, shall will freedom, because other
wise we cannot fulfill our great tasks in the sery-
ice of mankind, and be enabled to become a source
of love and light, of truth, virtue and religion.
We Germans did not will the war, but we did will
and are bound to will freedom. And because they
will rot let US have 1t, 1t was Gods will that we
should will the war. And thus we carry on thu
war in Gods cause, In the cause of mankind, II
the cause of liberty, in the cause d.. our dear
great Fatherland. Kansas City Sta