Mount Vernon signal. (Mt. Vernon, Ky.) 18??-current, 1918-06-07
UNDER WHICH GOD.

kaiser of Germany to the kaiser
of Austria. Forward with God =
to the destruction of men by every
conceivable device of diabolism.
Forward with Cod" in the sweep
of poisonous gas across the fields
of war. Forward with Godm in
the raining of bombs upon the
peaceful inhabitants of unfortihed
cities. Forward with God - in
the,willful destruction of churches
and hospitals. +" Forward with
God =" in the violation of women
and the mutilation of children.
Forward with God :" to the
downfall of civilization and the
enslavement of humanity. Who
is this God who i, thus associated
with deeds of cruelty unparalleled
in the worlds history, deeds be-
yond the power of imagination or
execution of any other race or any
other time? Is it the God whom
we have worshiped. and whom We
now worship? is 1t the God to
whom the nation offered up its
prayers last Sunday: Is Il posi-
bic that this new and superior
Attila is indeed the scourge Of
God, our God?
No. it is not possible We do
not know this God. Our God is
not God of hate, buJ of love; not
a God of cruelty. but God of
tenderness; not God of savagery,
but of humanity; not a God of
destruction, but of construction.
Ard We, too. have our visions of
a divinely guided nationalism, a
vision of people created for d
purpose: created by him and led
by him. Emerson has been re
Gently quoted as saying that
America is Gods last chance TO
save the world? Is that So?
Hardly, for it puts Limitation up
on Gods powers, and makes them
subject to the elem ant of chance.
If America is somehow to save the
world, it is not by chance, but by
direction. "There is a divinity
that shapes our ends, rough-hew
them how we WILL" ana we can
not believe that shaping power is
limited or may be frustrated By
circumstances. Rather would we
believe that its processes, how
ever slow, however strange, are
superior to chance and inevitable
in their results. Nearly twenty
years ago the following lines, writ
ten by st. Louis scribe, is re-
printed here because they seem to
express the American vision of
divine leadership. and to express
it better now than then, for its
fulfllment is now more easily
discernible
"Tis God who leadsus on. Our destiny
He holds within the hollow of his hand,
And all the armies, all the fleets of earth.
Can nothing do 20 chrck our forward
course
Till he achieves tais end. Upon the
rocks
OF stern New Englad's coast he sowed
the seed
OF Liberty three hundred years ago,
He warmed it with his breath; with hu-
man tears
He watered it, and from the sterile soil
Brought forth a tree whose fruit when
ripe should be
For all the people of our mundane
sphere
This Western Continent he held till time
Should make it ready for his plan di-
vine;
Then peopled it with men of Drawn and
brain,
Who loved his laws but hated tyranny.
of such he made a nation, gave it
wealth
And power; gave it the first rich fruits
From Freedoms ever-blooming tree,
and fitted it,
In every way, its mission to fulfill
We are that nation; ours the grateful
task
To lead the world to Liberty end Him
And shall we draw back now? Shall We
sit down
And rest content with what we have,
and hoard
Our blessings as the miser boards his
gold?
If he has spread our land from coast to
coast,
And placed cur flag upon the verdant
isles
of Indies and the Orient, shall we decline
The burdens which his leadership
entails?
No, no! We could not even five would,
The hand that led us to our Present place
viii not relax its grasp till We have
reached
The glorious goal he fixed for us
In some dim cycle of the boundless
past"
Which God is the true God, the |
God of progression, of construc |
tive purpose, of benevolence and
love here visioned. or the God of |