"THE DOOM OF GERMANY"

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2489, 16 June 1915, Page 9

"THE DOOM OF GERMANY"

« —= — OUR SUPREME TASK SERMON BY REV. DR. GIBB "CONQUER GERMANY OR PERISH" On Sunday evening at St. John's Church Dr. Gibb delivered the last of a • series of sermons which, under the general title of "The Doom of Germany," have been listened to by overflowing congregations, and creatcd a widespread interest. The theme of last Sunday's sermon was: "Our Supremo Task," and the preacher prefaced what he had to say on this topic by a resume of the ground traversed in preceding discourses. Tlie line of reflection had been suggested by the oracles of the prophet Isaiah concerning Assyria and Assyria's King. Between Assyria as Isaiah depicted it and Germany as we know it there were a number of deeply suggestive parallelisms. (1) The Assyrian King aimed at becoming the absolute lord and despot of the world of his _ day. The German Kaiser has shown in manifold ways that his ambition soars to world dominion. Behind the King of Assyria was the peoplo of Assyria, strong, resolute, assured that they and their monarch were dostined to be the masters of the world. The vainglorious egotism of the Kaiser is shared to the full by the German nation. It is their destiny to impose their "kultur" on, and give the law to, all nations. As one of their most approved writers has said, "Theirs is the sceptre of the universe." (2)' The. Assyrians and their _ King marched forward to the realisation of their aim through wars of conquest and seas of blood. And not otherwise are the Germans minded to realise their ambition. They have talked of war and planned war and glorified war through a period of 40 years. And the war which they have in mind has been a war in which every restriction, imposed or suggested by the growing humanitarianism of mankind, should be ruthlessly swept aside. •• We have asked with horrified amazement: Are they men or devils? However that question may be answered their conduct has been deliberate. They have adopted the most diabolical methods of warfare of set purpose. They have planned ''fright-ful-ness" and carried out their plans to the letter. (3) According to Isaiah the Assyrians were permitted to lay their heavy hand on Israel because Israel had forgotten God. He Who can make the wrath of man to praise Him, and purifies His people through the sufferings inflicted upon them by His enemies and theirs, had a definite purpose in regard to the power with which Assyria was clothed. Here again there was a parallel. The miseries the world is experiencing are the judgment of God on the world's sin and His stern call to men to repentance and a better life. The lesson must be laid to heart and supplication mado for the coming of the Christ, Who is yet to be —for the dawning of the day when faith in Him shall be the world's highest inspiration, and the practice of the virtues of His Gospel the aim and ideal, of both men and nations. (4) Isaiah with a serene confidence asserted that Assyria, though permitted for a season to triumph over the people of God, was doomed. She was hastening to destruction. Assyria's King would be "brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." Is there a parallel here ? Germany's doom was not yet accomplished, but could they be sure of it? They could. Sin always finds the sinner out, whether the sinner is an individual or a nation. By their fruits ye shall know them. , The Germans are the supreme enemies of the rights and liberties of mankind, and therefore of God. Their doom is written by His finger. A Holy War. That doorn will come with us or without us, but it was clear and every day clearer that God had called us to be the instrument by which this wild beast Empire must be brought low. "This war," said Dr. Gibb, "is, I believe, in spite of all its horror, a holy war. I dared not otherwise have prayed as I have at every service in this church since the war began, for victory to the arms of Britain and her alließ. The sinß for which we are suffering are Germany's sins too. But Germany has sins of which we are not guilty, and I think could never be guilty. She has trampled in the mire every principle for which Christ died." It is to Britain God is looking. Is it not evident that . if Britain had not drawn the sword, Belgium, France, and Russia would ere now have been prostrate beneath the oppressor's iron heel. Britain has her insular position. She has wealth. She has men and manhood of the best. She,has magnificent assets, and God is calline to her as Deborah of old called to the Hebrews to come "to the help of the Lord against the mighty." We Must Conquer Germany or Perish. This is very certain: If we do not conquer Germany we shall perish. Who with a spark of soul in his breast can contemplate that without an agony of shame and pain? Britain under Germanv's heel! That wore a spectacle to make angels weep. With all her faults, and they have been many, with all the blots .on her escutcheon, and some of them aro deep, there is no land that has such a noble record; none that has been served by so marvellous a succesison of great and good men; none where personal freedom and the rights of the common man have been so ardently striven for and clearly understood : none which has governed subject peoples with such wisdom and discernment. or with so patient an effort to minister to their well-being and happiness. As Lord Rosebery had said: "Human, very human, has the Empire been; yet not wholy human for the most cvnical and heedless must see in its stflry the finger of God, the supreme direction of the Almighty." Shall Britain then perish? With one heart and one voice we say, God helping us, she shall,not perish. God helping us, Germany shall perish. Against the blind barbarian vengeance of these Goths and Huns of the modern world. Britain has but one duty. She ■mist and it or die in the attempt. She will die if she does not end it. Make no mistake about that. We must conquer or perish. A Battle to the Death. But we aro called to conquer Germany by other and wider interests than oven those of Britain. U Germany conquers, the independence of all the smaller States of the world will go. Religious and civil liberty will go. All spiritual ideals, whether helonging to man's temporal or eternal conditions, will suffer arrest for generations to come —all the slowly accumulated gains of righteousness and international law —all the hopes we cherish of tho disarmament of uatiops, all our dreams of a. world in which men shall study war no more will go down in one frightful debaclo, if Germany wins. The Germans have thrown off tho yoke of Christ, and endued themselves with tho voke of Thor and Odin, as Heine seventy years ago declared they would one day. "The savagery of the old fighters," he said, "will gush forth anew." And in giving them battle to the death we are fighting the fight for the kingdom of God and the rights of mankind. Let there he no mistake, howevc-r, the character of the conflict on whicH ■

we have embarked. We have already paid a dreadful price. Ho was no alarmist but tlioro scorn to bo few peoplo in Now Zealand who suspect the severity of tho struggle which still lies beforo us. ' Before Germany goes down she will fulfil her boast, and stagger the world. Let this praiso at least bo accorded to her: Slio will spend her last man and hor last coin in this war. Sho will do hor utmost unhindered by any i scruple to turn the earth into a shamblos before she perishes. What Is Our Duty? What, then, is our duty? This first: To roaiise that till now the war has been a war between tho German nation and the Army and Navy of Britain, and i to realise further that wo cannot conquer till the nation, tho whole nation, every man and woman, is yoked to tho task of overcoming this grim enemy. Into this struggle must be put all that we are and all that we havo. And one of the first results of tho mastery of our minds by this convic-t-ion will be this: Every man physically fit. a,nd of suitable ago, will enroll himself in tho army of the Dominion. We cannot all go. Young men and strong men must stay behind for the sake of the men who go, as well as for other reasons. But jet this point be stressed. The quostion whether any man is to go or stay should be left to the authorities. Our duty is to volunteer. If the lot falls on us to stay at home, let us in our home sphere gird ourselves in all possible ways to help on the great issue; if the lot falls on us to go and , fight, then in the namo of God let us go and play the man. Whose heart did not thrill yesterday at the sight of those gallant men marching through the streets of our City. One thought of the cry of the old gladiators: "We who are about to die salute you." God grant that many Of them may ieturn. Doubtless many of them will rot. They will die and be buried in a strange land. But they reck not of that, these splendid men, the flower of our youth, whose faces seemed to betoken self-control, a clean life, a high purpose. The men who are now going to the front or volunteering to go, know what is before them. They havo counted the cost. They have given up all for the sake of their country and the cause of freedom. God bless and reward them I They are going for us. They are going for you. Did you who looked on them yesterday—you who might go, but have never faced the question—foel no prick of shame? You cannot all go, but every young man ought at the least to offer his services to his country. It,is a source of unmingled gratification to me that nearly a hundred of St._ John's young men aro already enrolled in the army of the nation. It will be larger presently. Shame on the laggards, shame on the cowards, who hang back in this day of Armageddon ! For tho rest, let us each do what we can in our respective spheres to uphold the hands both of our rulers and the men who are fighting our battles. ' Exactly what we may do will become clearer as time goes on. The New Zealand Teachers' Institute set us the other day a splendid example. But one thing is surely already clear —that this is not time for follies such as those that have recently defamed our streets. Surely this is not a time for wasting money in fripperies and vanities, even although the object be to gain monoy for the purposes of the war. How can we, oh, how can we devote ourselves to these inanities at such a great and such a dreadful time as this? "Loin don," wrote a contributor to the "British Weekly," "lately has no heart for dancers, _ singers, cricket matches, horse races, with wounded men coming across the Channel as they are coming now." But Wellington can frivol while day after day the tidings reach us of hundreds upon hundreds of wounded men, and the roll of the dead mounts steadily higher. Finally, Dr. Gibb called on them to repent of their sins, to turn to God and make incessant supplication that victory might crown their arms. Pray that we may emerge from this conflict purified and ennobled, that Britain may more than ever be devoted to the furtherance of the high ends of the kingdom of God. Pray that peace may come again, but not a half-peace, not a peace that will leave Germny free to begin all over again her work of hell, but a peace based on the utter destruction of her power to assail the nations by land or sea"