THE BUILDER FEBRUARY 1918

"THE SWORD OF AMERICA"
BY BRO. JOSEPH FORT NEWTON, ENGLAND

In response to the many requests of our members for information as
to the kind of sermons Brother Newton preaches" we are publishing
the following as a characteristic example. This sermon was
delivered to Brother Newton's English congregation in the City
Temple, London, Nov. 1, 1917.

"My sword shall be bathed in heaven."--Isaiah xxiv. 5.

ALL through the Bible the sword is a symbol of power, sometimes of
a power used for evil ends, sometimes--more often indeed-- for
noble ends. The great watchword of the ancient Commonwealth in its
trial, "The sword of the Lord and Gideon," might be used as a text
for what the Bible has to say about the sword. Now power is neither
good nor evil; it is neutral. The purpose for which it is used, the
spirit in which it is used, gives it moral quality. A bomb may be
used to blow up a building, or to blast a tunnel for a railway
opening new lands and inviting to new adventures. There are those
who think that the use of any kind of force is wrong if it be used
in behalf of moral and spiritual ends. Not at all. Force, used
righteously in behalf of righteousness, is a sword of the Lord.

So, at least, Americans think of it, and with a few winsome and
ardent exceptions, they are quite unanimous in feeling that the
cause in behalf of which America and her allies fight is the cause
of simple justice, decency, and mercy upon the earth. For the
beautiful Quaker tradition America has great respect, and should
have respect. When the Quaker laid aside his great hat and drab
coat and picked up his axe, he laid the foundation of some of the
finest things in American life and literature. But in our wars of
former times, if the Quaker was not permitted by his scruples
actually to fight, he has always been a faithful servant of the
Republic. Take our good, grey poet, Walt Whitman, who was of Quaker
origin, as Lincoln was on one side of his family. He could not
enter the ranks and take a gun and fight, but he entered the
hospitals, and his service is memorable to this day in our annals.
But for the man who will not render any service to his country
because it is at war and he perchance may be lending some
countenance to the existence of war, Americans can have very little
respect. Conscience then sinks to the level of mere crankery. Such
a person is not the object of scorn, but of pity. To such
conscientious objectors then America objects on conscientious
grounds. She holds it to be true that no man has a moral right to
the enjoyment or protection of a country whose institutions he will
not support, and whose existence he will not defend. Let us be as
true to Christianity as our sinful nature will allow us, and the
grace of God will help us to be, but let us not identify
Christianity with moral insanity.

Why did America hesitate to enter the war? Of course, I do not ask
you to approve the reason, I only ask you to understand it.
Washington, in his farewell address, told his country to keep clear
of all entangling alliances with Europe. Why ? Europe was at that
time practically a monarchy from end to end. America, as Lincoln
stated later, was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. Therefore, the first
President thought it wise for the Republic to live aloof for a time
until it should be firmly established. His advice was wise; it was
followed, and became the basis of all our national policy for more
than a century. Now a century of national policy cannot be reversed
over night, it cannot be changed in a moment. But times change, and
men change with them. Europe is no longer autocratic. Our enemies
are trying to hold the last fortress of autocracy, and it must go.
Europe is democratic, and it will be increasingly so in days to
come. Therefore the very reason why our country kept clear from
entangling alliances with Europe in other days, for the same reason
it has come into the fellowship of European nations.

America, then, has not simply entered the war, she has entered the
world, reversing her whole national policy and the tendencies of
her history, and this meant a complete revolution of thought and
feeling in the Republic. In that connection let me recall the words
from a letter of Jefferson to Monroe in 1823:

"Great Britain is the nation which can do us the most harm of any
one, or all, on earth; and with her on our side we need not fear
the whole world. With her, then, we should sedulously cherish a
cordial friendship; and nothing would tend more to knit our
affections than to be fighting once more, side by side, in the same
cause."

Today those words are fulfilled before our eyes, not because we
fear harm from England, or have reason to suspect any threat from
her, but because at last the policy of national isolation having
become obsolete in America, and America having entered the world,
her nearest neighbour is her Motherland. Today the sons of the
great Republic are fighting side by side with the sons of the great
Empire.

What this will mean in the future no one may venture to predict.
Personally, I feel, and I believe it is also the growing sentiment
of my countrymen, that it is the outstanding fact connected with
the whole tragedy of the war, and will have more influence on the
future than any other event. If I should state my own conviction it
would be after this manner:

"An alliance of the United States and the British Commonwealth on
clearly defined terms of unquestionable explicitness, made in the
open light of day, so that those planning aggression could realize
clearly the formidable obstacle in their path, would effectively,
though not absolutely, secure the general peace of the future
world."

Such being the reason why America hesitated to enter the war, let
me ask, in the second place, why she did enter the war? She was not
indifferent; she was not incapable of moral indignation, as some of
you may have felt. Why did we enter the war? Because our citizens
had been assassinated on the high seas in ruthless barbarity? No,
though that were cause enough if citizenship is to have meaning and
value. Because we endured one unparalleled insult after another,
such as perhaps no great and proud people had endured before? No.
A rapscallion cannot insult a gentleman. Did we go to war, then,
because our hospitality had been used for every conceivable kind of
plot, involving our own people as well as the people of other
nations-- like a huge spider spinning its dark web of lying and
spying all over the earth? No, though the discovery of those plots
has made us very angry. America kept out of the war until she
learned that the government of Germany is an organised lie. When
she learned that, there was no other appeal but to the awful court
of war.

Let me read you some words from Edmund Burke, the more so that he
was a great champion of America, in the House of Commons, at the
time of the war of the Revolution--and, of course, I need not say
that America now understands that the reason for that war was that
the King of England then was a German, and made a mess of things,
as Germans usually do--those great words from the "Reflections on
the French Revolution," one of the noblest passages in all
political literature:

"Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership in all science;
a partnership in all art; a partnership in all virtue, and in all
perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in
many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those
who are living, but between those who are living and those who are
dead, and those who are to be born. Each contract of each
particular state is but a clause in the great primeval contract of
eternal society, linking the lower with the higher natures,
connecting the visible with the invisible world, according to a
fixed compact sanctioned by the inviolable oath which holds all
physical and all moral natures, each in their appointed place."

Our enemies have violated the primeval contract of eternal society,
making a treaty a "scrap of paper." An unwillingness to keep any
national engagement that did not entirely suit their whim, throwing
to the winds all moral obligation, is a violation of the contract
on which all human society rests. Consider what would happen in
London if a portion of its population decided to live according to
a law of its own, to keep engagements only when it was convenient
for them to do so; to respect obligations only when it was
altogether pleasant and involved no sacrifice. What kind of
community would there be in London? Law would vanish; business
would collapse; anarchy would reign. What is true of one community
is true the world over, and it was this violation of the primeval
contract of society which arrayed the moral indignation of the
world against Germany and her allies and drew America into the
conflict.

For the same reason there can be no peace, no negotiation looking
towards peace, with the present German government. No treaty of
peace signed by it is worth the paper on which it is written. It
would be treated as lightly and as carelessly and as indifferently
as other treaties have been treated. For that reason America has
not only gone into the war solemnly, deliberately, reluctantly, but
she has gone into the war for profound moral and religious reasons.
And for the same reasons she will remain in it to the end and
beyond, to see that the fundamental decencies of life are kept upon
the earth, and that civilised society shall not perish.

Now, it is not possible for me in the time that remains to tell you
what America in war-time is like. It is a grand and solemn thing to
see a great nation mobilise all its forces, industrial, financial,
moral, intellectual, spiritual--and prepare for a great contest.
Never in our whole history has our Republic been so united, so
cemented as it is today. In no other war has there been such a firm
faith and clear and fixed conviction, not only of the righteousness
of it, but of the necessity for it. I do not even except the war of
the Revolution. I certainly do not except the Civil War. It means
much, then, to have the moral judgment of a hundred millions of
people. Our enemies have ignored these imponderable things. That is
their greatest shame and their surest defeat. These things may seem
to be intangible, but they are mighty; if they move slowly they
move surely, and history thunders in our ears telling us where they
are going. Our enemies thought that the British Empire would fall
to pieces, but instead the solidity and solidarity of the Empire
has been revealed as in an apocalypse. They thought that America
would remain indifferent, or could be frightened, but that was
another blunder. Truly it has been said that our enemies will go
down in history as a people who foresaw everything except what
actually happened, and who calculated everything except what it
cost themselves.

From the Rocky Mountains in the Far West; from the great prairies
of the Middle West; from the valleys and forests of the South; down
out of the stony hills of New England; up from the great Central
States, come young men marching, marching, marching, most of them
having volunteered, most of the States having filled up their quota
by volunteer enlistment before the draft came into effect. These
young men come from all walks of life, our universities and
colleges especially giving their very best, some of them being
quite depopulated. They march with one step and they sing one song.
It is quite different from the war with Spain in one particular,
there is very little noise; there is a quietness that is rather
unusual in America, and which is for that reason easily mistaken as
to its meaning. I should like to speak a word particularly about
the Middle West, which English people do not understand at all. It
has been quiet; we have made very little noise out in the Middle
West, but the Middle West and the South are the most American parts
of America. Out there men do not say: "Let somebody else go and do
it"--they go themselves. So when it came to the matter of
enlisting, when it came to furnishing funds for the great Liberty
Loan, the Middle West was in the van and led the way.


Let me also say something about our fellow citizens of German
origin. Perhaps 85 or 90 per cent of them are as loyal and
true-hearted in their devotion to the Republic as any other class
of citizens. They are not pro-English, they are not pro-French, but
they are pro-American. They came, or their fathers came before
them, to America, to get away from the hideous, hateful thing that
has turned Germany into what it is today. They hate the Kaiser and
all his works. They love America. They were attracted to America by
its idealism, its opportunity for development. Karl Schurz was
typical of this large class. You have read of his flight from
Germany, of his short stay in England, of his journey to America,
where he climbed from the bottom to the top and became a member of
the Senate. A very able and noble man he was. When he returned to
Germany he took pains to tell Bismarck of the difference between
living in a Republic and living in an autocracy. You may find it in
his "Conversations with Bismarck," after this manner: Living in an
autocracy is like riding on a great ocean liner. All the
appointments are perfect, but you have nothing to do with running
the boat. The details are quite satisfactory, but the general
direction is wrong. Living in a democracy is like riding on a raft
or a flat boat. The passengers get their feet wet, they take cold,
and they sneeze. They have an uncomfortable time, but they run the
boat, and they know where it is going.

These people sympathise deeply with the folk of their own blood in
the Fatherland, but they have no sympathy with the German
Government or that for which it stands. There is a small minority,
perhaps 10 per cent of late comers to America, attracted not by its
idealism but by its opportunities to make money, who have not yet
become American. For I take it that an American is a man who holds
in his heart as sacred that for which America stands, no matter
what his race or religion may be. And America is not a new England,
it is not a new Europe, it is a new world. It is founded upon a
principle to which it has been true through these years, to build
a nation not for the rich, though its resources may make men rich,
not for the elect, who can make their way anywhere or everywhere;
but a nation where the plain common man can stand erect, can
stretch his arms and his soul and be free; own his home; cast his
vote and have his voice in the affairs of the State. That small
minority of Germans who have not yet become American have made a
good deal of noise, have acted very unwisely, aided by
propagandists from the Home Country, but Americans know how to deal
with them. Either of three things will happen, or all three: they
will be interned, their property will be confiscated, and at the
close of the war they will be deported back to the Germany of which
they are so fond.

Not lightly did America go into the war, offering her bravest and
her best to stand side by side with your bravest and best. The
mingling of our common blood in a common sacrifice means the
consecration of us all. We must renew our vows, our high and holy
determination that the Britain for which Britons have fought so
valiantly, with such superhuman courage, the America for which
young Americans are now to fight, shall in the future be a greater,
better Britain, a greater, purer America. Back across the years
come the words of Lincoln in the hour of our national crisis, which
express today the feeling of his country in a greater time of
trial--these words:

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge
of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue,
as was said 3000 years ago, so still it must be said, 'The
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' With
malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the
right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish
the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him
who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan;
to do all which many achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace
among ourselves and with all nations."

"My sword shall be bathed in Heaven," in heavenly principles, in a
heavenly spirit. So far as we in America are concerned, it is not
a war of hate. It is not a war of revenge; we have no old scores to
clear off. It is not a war of conquest, we do not want an inch of
land from any people. But we realise that Europe cannot be free,
America cannot be free, that no free institution can be safe, until
the military autocracy of Prussia is crushed, and to that one end
we unite with you, heart and hand and soul, that the future may be
safer and nobler for your children and for ours.

Our philosophy of patriotism is that each nation has, by the gift
of God, something unique, particular and precious; something not to
be found anywhere else, and therefore it has a gift to make to
universal humanity. That it may make that gift it should be free to
develop what is most unique and precious in its life. Therefore we
say to our enemies: "We will not impose our culture upon any other
people, and you shall not impose your kultur upon any other
people." Kultur! The very word stinks to the stars. We do not want
an internationalism that is a mere abstraction, that bleaches out
all our local loyalties and human heroisms. Not at all; just as in
religion, we do not want unity of the churchyard, we want the unity
of the Church-- unity with variety, the unity of a flower garden,
where there is one soil and one air, and every variety of colour --
so we want an international understanding that shall permit each
nation to develop, not a narrow bigoted nationalism, but shall give
to all what is most precious and holy in its life. To do that it
must be free. For that it is that America is fighting, seeking the
Excalibur that King Arthur found at last. When he was beaten and
broken and wounded and his sword was of no further use, in the
enchanted lake he saw the white arm of a woman holding a sword, the
most excellent sword of right, with which he had vanquished his
foes. The name of that sword was truth, its sheath was faith. And
so armed with this bright blade, we join with you, this England--
this Great heart--in the spirit of these lines from our young poet,
Thomas Curtis Clark:

"AMERICA'S MEN"
We are America's men,
Strong, forceful and free; 
We are America's men,
Children of Liberty; 
Ready to march at the trumpet's call, 
Ready to fight, ready to fall-- 
And ready to herald, peace for all!
We are America's men.

We are America's men,
Brave, dauntless and true; 
We are Americas men,
Ready to dare and do; 
Ready to wield the sword with might; 
Ready the tyrant's brow to smite-- 
And ready to sheathe the sword--for Right!
We are America's men.

We are America's men,
Loathing the despot's rod, 
We are America's men,
Under the rule of--God: 
Ready to battle giants grim, 
Ready to fight till day grows dim, 
But ready to sheathe the sword--for Him!
We are America's men.


AN ECHO

When war is rampant, death a common prize 
Upon the bloodstained stretches, far and wide; 
When vengeance stalks with dripping sword, 
We hear the echo, "Lord, with me abide."

May it be thus, that He who died to save, 
Wrest from the wrecks of nations, in this night, 
The spirit of the right, and from the fields arise 
A Living Thing, triumphant in the fight.

Let then the slumb'ring fires break forth anew,
Let then at last "the Prince of Peace" be king,
Let holly be the crown, and not the thorn
Beside the cross; yea, let the welkin ring

With victory! and not a warrior's boast, 
But one great prayer resounding o'er the plain, 
Where silent sleeps a countless multitude, 
Who died that kings might live to fight again.

Let not the world forget Gethsemane! 
The Sword! The Cross! Well hath each served to give 
An untold share to gray Golgotha's rising mound; 
Yet hope in Life and Death shall always live!
--Bro. Denman S. Wagstaff, Calif.

A fool with a good memory is full of ideas and facts, but he can't
draw sound conclusions from them; everything turns upon that.--
Vauvenargues.
