The Washington herald., 1918-04-07
HERALD'S SUNDAY
SERMON.
The Liberty Bond Of God
and Country.

The following Sunday sermon was
written especially for The Herald by
Prof. Ludolph @. Schroeder.
The hour Is now at hand when every
one who lays claim to the love of
their country will have the oppor-
tunity of putting themselves to the
test.
Try the spirits, whether they be
OF God" and surely shall be the an
swer, Love II Of God. The spirit of
love Is divine, for should we have an
manner Of gifts and earthly posses
sions, all manner Of wisdom and all
manner of knowledge, and yet not
have love-it shall profit US nothing,
and We shall be as "a sounding
brass and a tinkling cymbar' giving
forth only sharp, piercing, changing,
rasptng noises; without harmony and
without q sympathetic chord to be
perceived.
Love Is the most wonderful divine
attribute within the power Of man to
possess. By its possession a world
Of darkness can become a heaven of
delight. By its rays of sunshine may
the coldest hearts be made to melt
into responding heavenly mildness.
How wonderfully does love dis
play itself. How unmistakably does
1t manifest its power.
II we love, We first wake to the
realization OF 1t by the unmistakable
and urgent craving within our own
being for the object Of our love. We
never rest satisfied until we come to
a perfect understanding-untiI we
give expression to this great divine
gift and desire. Until we have un-
burdened our soul and made known,
in Its fullest sense, the fact that we
love. We are perfectly willing that
the world should know. We are OBJ
lfvious Of anything and everything, of
anybody and everybody, their
thoughts and their opinions, as long
as We may but express our love.
The real proof Of love, however, and
that which will form the basis or rule
by which we may prove-really verify
our love-will invariably be found in
the accompanying desire to give-give
to the object of our love.
There never was one who truly
loved who did not also freely give
give with an open hand and will
ing heart and without letting the
one hand know what the other was
doing. Give silver and gold, dia-
monds and Jewels and pearls, houses
and cattle and lands and-bonds.
Here we come to the place where
we. each individual one who
claims to be an American, whether
by birth. adoption or choice, will
have the opportunity to truly
search his heart in order to prove
his sincerity and the quality Of his
love. His love-for this. our coun-
try. the land for which our fathers
died. the land of our pilgrims
pride. the land of our free and our
brave. Now IL the time. Now,
Do you truly love? Do you freely
give? Have you freely given? The
love Of liberty surely is Of God. n.
even in the spiritual sense. the
word Of God clearly speaks stand
fast therefore in the liberty where
with Christ has set you free. I"
should not the same edict apply to
us as free Americans, lovers of the
liberty which our fathers SO dearly
bought for US. lovers Of our native
soil? Stand fast in our libertyI
II, therefore, we love, let us
ffreely give. Give what we are!
Give what we havei Give to the
object Of our love-our own beloved
country. Let us, In q sense, not
give less than the early Chris
tians gave for the cause which they
espoused. for Of them "did neither
anyone say that aught he had was
his own"
How should we not be willing to
give to our government our most
liberal support 30 as to quickly
subscribe for its new issue of Lib
erty Bonds? We all know how i'm
portant It Is at this time that quick
and concerted action Is necessary In
order to enable us to bring to an
lend that which so ruthlessly
tthreatens. not only our liberty, but
our very existence.