The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-01-21
Dr. Barnwell Scores Critics of Garfield Order in Ser
 mon Yesterday
HARDSHIPS OF TRENCH SHOWN IN COMPARISON
Disloyalty Posing as Loyalty Is Treason Deserving of the Firing Squad and Prison Wall,
 States Rector

A large congregation was present yes terdav morning at the Church of the Advent when the rector, the Rev M. D. Barnwell, preached on Loyalty me sermon dealt with the various phases ol loyalty to God and the government and was a powerful arraignment oi selfishness and greed and disloyalty III the present crisis of American history. At the conclusion of the service MT Barnwell was warmly complimented on his rnasterly effort. MT. Barnwell said;
 want to speak to you this morn Ing in a general way upon the suo- feet of loyalty. The word itself does not appar in the Bible. There are many texts dealing with faithfulness and zeal and other virtues of kin dred nature, but loyalty is bigger thing than any of these, because it in- cludes them all. And so, while it does not appear as such in the sacred writ ings it forms sort of invisible foundation on which all these other virtues must rest. Loyalty to God loyalty to Christ, loyalty to the gov ernment and to the church; these thoughts run all through the Bible from the beginning to the end. The sufferings of the patriarchs, of the Israelits in the desert. the martyrdom of the prophets and apostles, the cru cifixion of Jeses-all of these hap penings are texts on any one of which a sermon on loyalty might well be preached.
 And so, because it is so eminent ly Christian virtue, and because at this time the government of the Uni ted States has especially asked it of ministers everywhere in circular letter which I hold in my hand, l shall speak today on loyalty to the nation. And because from time to time a spirit of disloyalty becomes mani fest in Christian people. I shall have something to say concerning loyalty to the church.
 MEN WERE INDIGNANT
 We are at war. Sometimes it seems to me that our people have not real ized it. was seated in a group of business men not many days ago dis cussing the order of the fuel admin istrator in closing down nonessential industries for a period of five days. To my utter amazement some men were indignant. When asked why, they replied that they were running laundries or theatres or clothing stores and that they would be unable to SUD- ply their customers With clean col lars or amusement or new clothes To me it was an astounding thing that patriotic men could consider such things of any moment when the des- tiny of the nation was hanging in the balance. could not help but feel that they had visualzed this war. That 1t was still a thing apart to them something of which they read from time to time, but in which they had no vital stake. And as sat and list ened to them in thought I travelled across the sea and I saw a little sal- tent in the front line trenches where a bare score of American boys, cut off from all help and endorsements by a barrage of shell fire were fight ing for their very lives with an at lacking force more than 10 times their, own number. I thought of that soldier sentry of ours, lying there in the darkness of No Mans Land with his throat cut. I thought of Gresham and Enright and Hay dying in the un- equal struggle. thought of Il of our boys carried away captive, to worse than death no doubt. and then thought of the hardships that we would have to undergo if the fuel ad- ministrator's order went into effect