to the ruin of the world? Is there any sacrifice that we now can make that will save civilization from the accursed Hun? Time alone can tell. At this moment there is much here at home that we wish were otherwise. Of these things, perhaps the less said in print, the better. We must strive to correct certain things under the rose. Out of the welter of today's bloodshed and havoc, only one fact stands out clearly and sharply, like the top of a mountain peak illumined by the golden glory of the setting sun while the zone below is shrouded in gloom and shadow. We have got to help WIN this war! Nothing less will answer. Let it be one more year, or twenty more years, we can not stop until the Hun is beaten,- until Right triumphs over Might. Better a thousand times that we die fighting. like Belgium and Serbia and Montenegro, than yield to the military dragons of Prussia and "the people" of Germany. With "the German people" triumphant we would indeed have a vast hell upon the earth; and in that case, to decent people Life would not be worth living. WILLIAM T. HORNADAY. University Heights, New York, March 25. 1918. INTRODUCTION THE NATION'S CRISIS AND THE PROPHET'S DUTY From a Sermon Preached by the Rev. C. W. Petty, I would have you understand and appreciate the Prophet's place in the hour of his Nation's crisis. It is a timely consideration, for our own wonderful country is facing the harshest experiences and the darkest problems of her history. Where to-day is the place that the Prophet of God and the Ambassador of Christ should find his niche? What shall be the content of the message which he brings to this startled, confused day? The mere preacher of platitudes in a day like this is a mere time-server. Any man who stands before God for the people and does not carry in his breast a broken heart, has no place in the ministry of our age. The world is on fire! The ideals for which the centuries have struggled and bled and died are in jeopardy! There is hate and sorrow and death about us. What shall the Prophet of God do? What shall he say? You know, and I know alas too well, that there is an inclination on the part of the Church to muzzle her prophets when great issues are at stake. "Preach the Gospel," says the pro-German to-day, "and leave the war and its administration to the temporal authorities." "Proclaim peace and decry slaughter," says the Pacifist, "and let us bear the consequences, no matter how unusual they be." "Give your attention to your calling, and the defense of a forgotten orthodoxy," advises the plutocrat who grows rich upon the sufferings of men, and hoards up gold while babies cry for milk, and the poor shiver with cold. "Do not attempt to interpret the world crisis as it touches the spiritual aspirations of the world," calls out the slacker. "It makes us uncomfortable; and we read about the war and hear about the war enough during the week. When we come to church we want to rest." Rest! Rest, at a time like this! Listen to me: That Prophet of God who cries "Peace! Peace!" when there is no peace, is before God, a liar. That man who has given himself to the ministry and purposely avoids the proclamation of the Truth about the War; who feels he has no responsibility to decry the unholy cruelties of our enemy; who finds it possible to evade an expression of contempt for the gross injustice and diabolical unrighteousness that has precipitated this conflagration; who does not identify himself with the crushed and broken manhood who stand between us and the curse of Pan-germanism; I say the Prophet who intentionally evades these moral and spiritual problems is a traitor to his country, and is guilty of treason both to God and to the people he serves. And for the minister of the Church of Christ who has no convictions in these matters; who lolls in his study chair, and reads the contentions and disputes of yesterday to rehash them for his congregation; who dismisses his responsibilities in this hour by assuring himself that he has no obligations as a Patriot; who will pander to the slacker |