PATRIOTISM V. PRUSSIANISM

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2333, 15 December 1914, Page 7

PATRIOTISM V. PRUSSIANISM

: * ■. Preaching at the Vivian Street Baptist Church on Sunday evening the llev. E. Herbert Hobday said that Prussianism is the direct negation, of patriotism. The pno encourages the shining virtues of justice and generosity, the other encourages the mailed fist and the-shining armour.: The watchword of patriotism is liberty, the watchword of Prussianism is dominion. Patriotism ' quickens. Prussianism crushes. Patriotism binds-tho diverse races in cords of unity, Prussianism destroys everything that is not! German. Patriotism is a sublime thing, Prussianism is of tho devil I The fact is that Germany, had deliberately allowed herself to'do degraded by a literature, the brutal.God-denying character of which is enough,-to make b.cr.,own Luther and Goethe turn in their graves. During these last decades "the doctrine of tho supreme and ultimate prerogative in human affairs of material forces had been steadily developed, and the multiplication of the machinery of destruction had been wantonly encouraged." The beatitudes, of Christ had been impatiently pushed aside for what was called "The New Imperative." Under tho tutorship of Trietsche, Berlin had dethroned Jesus, and crowned the Junker I The worship of the meek and lowly Man of Nazareth had given place to a blind devotion'to the War God of Mars. As one has said,- this must be the "Never Again" wa*r, Prussianism must be stamped out for the poisonous fungus that it is. It-has been tolerated all too long. German cities would bo preserved. Neither Bonn nor Berlin would be desolated, as tho Germans had desolated Reims and Louvaiu. But there were certain things which Justice would not spare, and which even Mercy shall cry to have demolished. Krupps and Wilhelms-' haven, the warships and arsenals, which bad been: tho drunken pride of Prussia and a menace to civilisation for a quarter of a con-' tury must be remorselessly destroyed. There must bo neither truce nor compromise. The struggle must continue, not until Germany is destroyed, but until the monster of militarism which she has set up shall be_ smitten to the du6t never to rise again. ,

Let us pray that the day be.not far distant when Germany will awaken to the truth that her flatterers have been her betrayers; when instead of tearing up her. treaties she shall tear up her Trietshes; when her love for ilomardiism shall be turned to a holy hato; when her now despised Luther and hor yet more despised Bible shall be pondered once more and once more honoured. For if ■Prussianism perish, Germany shall yet be saved. Let us'pray for "the day"—a different day to that for which she prayed in her pride—the day of Germany's awakening from the wild dreams of Prussianism, the day of her repentance and redemption 1 For us also a better day is dawning. We as an Empire shall emerge from this fiery ordeal stronger in faith and with a nobler trust in God than we have ever known. Already our estimates are being revised. Our love for little children is being intensified. Our reverence for woman is being deepened. Our respect for our plighted word is being emphasised. Our affection for home and hearth and country is being hallowed. Our chivalry towards the helpless and the weak is being quickened. Our vision of God and the eternal verities _is growing clearer. The night is passing, the day is dawning, when justice, liberty, and righteousness shall be blazoned on the banners of the nations of the world.