A STINGING SERMON

Otago Witness, Issue 3196, 16 June 1915, Page 79

A STINGING SERMON

THE KAISER AND THE PRESIDENT,

Professor Dickie, preaching at Knox Churcn on May 60 from the text I Kings, xx 41 and 42. delivered a sermon, so profoundly impressive that we have acceded to a request that we should publish the text of it.

Protestor Dickie said: — We have just read of three things in our Old Testament lesson —a decisive victory gamed by Israel over Syria, Ahab 6 wonderful generosity to his vanquished toe, and the verdict of the prophet ot the Lord upon it The narrative is so life-like and so full of human interest that it would be vMi ■worth considering tor its own sake. Uut, of course, our purpose with it is to attempt to apply its abiding message and lesson to tne circumstances of our own

vv hat a contrast between Bonhadad as the head of his mighty army, selt-conhdcnt, boastful, and contemptuous ot every ietraint upon his unbridled lu-o and arm gancc, and Benhadad defeated, cowering fn an’inner chamber like a rat m its ho e and ready to promise anything it Ahab would spare his hie. i , and thv gold is mine; thy wives also, and thy children-, even the goodliest, are mine. “The cities which my lather took from thy father 1 will restore: and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus, as ray father made in Samaria.” _ „ Ahab was not an incapaqlo ruler. Jim he was greatly delighted with hunsed that dav A long and devastating war had been brought to an unexpectedly happy conclusion. He knew what it was to suffer defeat. He .had a fellow feeling foi h.s brother king, the sovereign of a realm so much more extensive than his own. Pioo ablv it gratified his vanity to act handsomely towards so great a potentate as the King of Syria. He may have thought it good policy to do so. Tbo war Rim nothing, and so he could well ahoiu to be magnanimous towards the murderous tyrant'who had brought desolation upon thousands of homes, and had hoped to enclave the whole nation. He was just like the complacent sentimentalists ourselves, who sit at .ease in their Morns chairs, and say “There must no talk ot asphyxiating gases on our side, and ail the time condemn the bravest and the most chivalrous of our choice young men to die a cruel lingering death, such as we do not willingly inflict even upon vermin. Ahab bore the Syrian aggressor no malice, and deq rod to spare him all humiliation. He even welcomed him as a brother into h:s own royal chariot. His own pose as a great and merciful king was more to him than the lives that had been sacrificed for hi. country, or the future peace of his kingdom So he made a covenant with Benhadad, and let him go The terms were good. Doubtless Ahab was convinced that he had done very well for all concerned. Wax is a terrible calamity It entails continuous strain and self-sacrifice. No one ever knows what appalling news the next hour may bring. He had effected an honourable peace, made Benhadad his debtor, crowned himself with the laurels of victory, and gratified his vanitv, both as a general and as a dispenser of mercy. Doubtless, he fully expected that every one would bo satisfied. But there was to be one harsh strident disoordant note; and it came from a prophet of the Lord.” Disguis.ng himself as a wounded soldier he appeared before the King in the role of a suppliant, or rather perhaps of one asking for a judicial finding. He had been entrusted with the custody of a Syrian prisoner of war, and warned that if he let his charge escape, he would have to pay the penalty with his life, or else give as a ransom a talem, ot silver —a I’ctrg‘G sum, far exceeding the resources of any ordinary J.he King replies “Quite right, too. It is juot what you deserve.” Then the prophet reveals himself in his real character, and m the name of the Lord God of Israel pronounces against the King the sentence of which ho had’just signified his hearty approval in the case of the supposed private soldier. Ahab’s rosy dream of a grateful Benha- . dad, a friendly Syria, an Israel free from the threatenings of -war, and himself the central figure of the whole bright picture, the observed of all eyes, the great_ king mightv in battle, but mightier still in his glorious clemency, is rudely shattered. He went to his house heavy and displeased. What was the prophet’s indictment? This, first and foremost, that Benhadad’s life was not Ahab’s to spare. He was simply a trustee for Another. The Lord God of Battles had delivered Benhadad into his keeping, and he had thoughtlessly and light-heartedly neglected a solemn trust. “As thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” He had let Benhadad go, his crimes unpunished, his powers for mischief all but unimpaired. And the consequence. natural and inevitable as the mildew ; if the grain is not stored before the rainv season, would bo Ahab’s own death, and the other-throw of his kingdom. Because an unnamed prophet of the Lord pronounced this sentence on Ahab for letting Bonhadad go, we are not’ warranted in affirming that it is God’s will and our bounden duty to inflict upon the Emperor of Germany a death comparable to that which he and his people have brought to many myriads of the bravest and best of our own and other lancis. I say “ he and his people,” with a due sense of responsibility for every word I utter in this sacred place, I speak neither rashly, nor in ignorance. We are lamentably mistaken if we do not realise that behind the Emperor in all his egotistic unction, his overweening vanity, his unscrupulous ambition, and his remorseless disregard for every principles and every life that stands between him and his self-appointed goal there is ranged an Empire strong, determined, resolute, assured of ultimate victory, and, at least, practically unanimous in its hearty approval of the most diabolical methods of warfare that the trained ingenuity of man and the inspiration of Satan can devise. If a bomb from a Zeppelin were to blot out St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey,’ both filled to _ overflowing with mothers, wives, and lisping little ones, kneeling before their God in one tremulous prayer for the safety of their dearest on earth, as on Thursday the Princess Irene was blotted out, the destroyers _ of the Lusitania would be dethroned instantly, and that Zeppelin crew would become the heroes of an Empire. The Kaiser and his myrmidons are international criminals of a far deeper dye than Benhadad and his Syrian hordes' ever were. They are far more of a menace to the world’s civilisation and to our national existence than,

ever Syria was to Israel. They have said to Belgium, not, as many believe, in a drunken frenzy, but as a matter of policy, brutal, ruthless, diabolical, carefully thought out before hand, “ Your silver and your gold are Your wives _ also and your children, even the goodliest, are mine.” They have let loose the horrors of war, over earth’s richest and most highly civilised provinces, deliberately calculating not only upon victory, but upon an indemnity that will more than recompense them for all their material losses. I am sure that the Lusitania was sunk partly to overawe Italy and other undecided neutrals. I have a strong suspicion that a further motive was to goad the United States to war, so that their wealth might be available for the great indemnity. It the United States as a w 7 holc is quite unsuspicious of this, and to ctr very considerable extent pro-German, we must remember that 12 months ago the vast majority of our own people wore quite as unsuspicious and ouito as ready to resent any imputation on Germany’s honour and pacific intentions. As a matter alike of common sense and common justice, wo arc abundanly warranted in declaring that clemency to Germany now would be as great a blunder and as great a crime as was Ahab’s treatment of Benhahad. If we do not conquer’ Germany now a worse fate than that of Belgium and north-east France is in store for the whole British Empire. If w r e do not conquer Germany now, so that she is eunk to insignificance, and allowed a place on the map of Europe only on sufferance, and Because she can do no one any further harm, then, like Ahab we shall b" false to -a sacred trust. We arc trustees alike for the future of the British Empire and of humanity. If we are false to our trust, our lives and those of our children will go, for their lives, and our national existence is doomed.

We must conquer or die. The Lord God of Nations has laid this burden upon us. I know not why. nor do I know what the final settlement is to bo. I only know that this war was not of our seeking. We were unsuspicious and unprepared to the very last. A trumpet call was sounded, and we had to respond or perish in dishonour. Germany, with its insolent - disregard for truth, as for everything else, declares that France had already violated Belgian neutrality. The real violation of Belgian neutrality took place several years ago when Germany laid down a network of railways, which could not conceivably serve any other purpose than that of enabling her to attack France through Belgium. We must conquer or die! Victory will coat far more than most even now suspect. We are only at the start of things. But whatever victory may cost, would be a thousand times more costly. Wo must conquer or die' There is no other alternative. ' God Himself had laid this burden upon us, lest the slowly accumulated gains of righteousness, and international law, and the honour of womanhood, and the sacredncss of human life, and the priceless blessings of liberty bo lost in a day. Woe to us, if we refuse the burden! God rulcth over all. But he accomplishes His righteous will chiefly through our human efforts and toils. To be sure, neither we nor any other of His creatures are necessary to Him for the accomplishment of His all-glorious purpose. But if we leave undone, or only half-done, the work He has 'called us to do, ours is the shame; and we must pay the penalty. The cost of defeat would be so terrible that we cannot face the possibilitv. “Our lives for their lives; our country for theirs.” God gives' us nothing worth’ having unless we think it worth struggling for, and if need bo, dying for. He is a God of Love, but also of struggle and toil. In this world where Ho has appointed us our dwelling place, there is nothing without price, except His redeeming grace in Christ Jesus. The greater the Gross, the more glorious the Crown. Some are too proud to fight. They take Ahab’s principle of brotherhood for their moral standard, and tell us that they wish well to both sides. When innocent lives are remorselessly sacrificed, they write polite notes to the murderers, and say “We are sure that you regret this lamentable accident just as much as we do. Will you promise to be more careful another time?” There is a nation, great, at least in numbers, and in wealth, which has long prided itself upon its pacific intentions and principles, and claimed to ho an object lesson in a higher statecraft than that of the sword. No doubt there is much _ that is good in that nation. But taking it all in all, it is a band of shams, hypocrisy, and pretentious humbug in politics, in commerce, in social life, in morals, in education, in religion. Its law courts are corrupt to rottenness In its cities and towns the most disgraceful traffic that over drove men and women to eternal perdition flaunts itself unabashed. In no ether civilised country is business morality so low. Men batten upon the blood and the tears of the widow and the orphan, and then square accounts with their consciences, by building churches, or endowing schools of learning, or, perhaps, giving a percentage of their godless gains to foreign missions, or peripatetic evangelism. Law and public opinion are alike powerless. Often the very police arc, in the hands of commercialised vice.

Such is the country whose ruler, too proud to fight, aims, wc arc told, at giving the world an object lesson in Christianity as applied to politics and diplomacy. So he sends birthday greetings to the ravager of Belgium, and writes letters protesting gently against the wilful murder of his people, and then becomes apologetic loss he should have gone too far. Meanwhile, one of his minions, a professor in Princeton, where ho used to bo, writes magazine articles to show that America 'must succeed to the leadership of the nations, if only she sits still and does nothing while the nations of, Europe throttle each other, and that the very worst thing in her interests would be a decisive victory for either side, especially for the Allies. Look at another picture, by way of contrast. A father robbed of his second son, has gathered together the broken fragments of information which tell all that can bo ascertained of how his boy mot his end. Tie was little more than a lad, when strangers laid him in an unmarked grave. I know and loved him for more than half of his short life. “Nobody saw him shot, —at anyrate, nobody now alive.” Such are the closing words of the pathetic record. They are written from the field of battle by a friend and companion whom 1 have known even longer. This ie how this young Scotsman died. I am quoting from a letter sent by one Colonel to another, amafterwards forwarded by the recipient to i ; . sorrowing, yet I doubt not proud, father. “He took his two telephone men with him, but sent them back after he had gone 50

yards, saying it was too dangerous. The men saw him go on some way and then disappear among trenches, and (I think) trees. This was the last that was seen of him. . . . The boy met his death through trying to do hie duty, nay, more than his duty. That ho met his death like a gallant English gentleman 1 know. We were under shell tiro the previous and I have seen no one regard it of less account than ho did. The boy had my highest admiration. He had the makings of a brilliant officer. I had reported this already officially, and also that he was without any exception the most hard-working officer I had ever met.- He was unselfish and full of thought for others. Ho was keen —all that an English Christian gentleman should be. I sympathise with you, and I ask you to convey my very deepest sympathy to his mother and father in their sad loss.” This cannot mean to you onetenth of what it means to me, who knew him so long, and loved him for all that makes any growing lad dear to his father’s friends—naturalness, manliness, zest, and in a word every excellence of character appropriate to the budding years of fresh young manhood. But I ask you which is the worthier disciple of the Crucified that boy, so thoughtful for others, so unselfish, so courageous, giving his life for his country as a matter of course, or the man who is too proud to fight, Woodrow Wilson, with his self-conscious pose, dreaming of Ins country / raised to world-dominion by the self-immo lation of less calculating peoples, dazzled by the prospect of the- glory of being himself the arbiter of the world’s power, and afraid lest the dream slip from him? Ask your own hearts, and I shall abide by the answer. You fathers and mothers, which would you rather have your sons to bo like? You, young men, which gives you the worthier and more inspiring outlook upon life? If then, duty and honour are more to you than your own ease and comfort, and no higher, more insistent claim restrains you, bo obedient to the very heavenliest vision. Respond to the call of King and Country and God; and may the Lord God of our fathers prosper you in your laying of your all on the altar of self-sacrifice. —Amen.