The Glenwood post., 1918-11-23
No Room For Sloppy Senti.
timenta|ity. Righteousness
and Justice Must Prevail
Mr.. PEPPERS ADDRESS

At the Methodist church last Sunday
evening Rev. Peppers sermon took the
nature of a patriotic address and it is
indeed unfortunate that more of our
people could not have heard it. 1t con
tanned many truths which should be
brought before our people now as never
before, and thoughts which all the peo-
pie should carefully digest and consider.
The address was based on the one hun
dred and fifteenth Psalm which was
read at the beginning of the service as
a scripture lesson.
Mr.. Pepper spoke in part as follows:
The One Hundred and Fifteenth
Psalm, which was read few minutes
ago, has been read a number of times,
on the field of battle, by the leader of
tine victorious army, Immediately after
the firing had ceased. l think that
probably it was written and sung by
its Hebrew author upon some such occa
sion. He calls upon the people to give
glory for the victory to Jehovah and
not to themselves and their arms. He
thinks that their Gcd has given to them
victory which the gods or idols of si!.
vor and gold were not able to give to
their worshipers. He declares that these
gods consist of lifeless matter and can
do nothing; neither see, hear, speak,
smell nor act, and that their worshipers
become like them. They become i'm
potent in battle and elsewhere. He
tells his Hebrew countrymen that Je-
hovah lives, that he is the God OF the
universe, the controller of all things
and that their victory is to be ascrlbed
to the fact that they fought in harmony
with the things for which He stands.
In other words, he tell, them shat they
won because they were on Gods sida,
and therefore they had the advantage
Of having Him as their ally. He closes
the Psalm by urging them to continue
to act in harmony with Jehovah, prom
isiny that if they do Jehovah will con
tinue 10 be with and bless them and
that tleir children will continue to reap
the fruits of their loyalty to the prin-
ciples of truth, kindness and thought
tulness for others. These are the char
acteristics which he ascribes to .jeho-
vah. The earnestness with which he
urges them to continued trust in JehO-
yah sc"ms to me to imply fear that #
in the hour of victory they depart
from God and the principles which
have made them conquerers they. too,
will, in time, sink into the humiliatin9
position in which their foes find them
selves.
When the great world war began
William Hohenzollern, king of Prussia,
kaiser of the imperial government OF
German, informed us that he was in
partnership with God in the task which
he set out to accomplish. Me und
Gott' was favorite expression OF
his. Now his forces are utterly routed,
whipped to fragile the most drastic
terms of armistice one can imagine
have been signed without a murmur,
and allied troops are marching across
the German border without a word of
protest from anyone. There is only one
thing that the Americans asked OF
Kaiser Bill that he hash t had to do. A
good many of our people kept saying
"To hell with the kaiser,' but he beat
it for Holland instead. Perhaps he in
tends to continue his journey little
later.
Keeping the teaching of this Psalu
in mind, to say nothing Of the teaching
of Jesus which came much later and is
much better and nobler, let us look
back at the attitude Of our own nation
toward international relations before
the war and at the conduct of our sol
diers during the war and see whether
we will not see that the cause OF
our victory lies in the fact that W.
were right and the kaiser was wrong
Let us compare this attitude with thai
of the kaiser and his advisers and ther
ask ourselves, If God is anything like
Jesus said He is, if God Is anything
like He is pictured in this Psalm, whit