GERMAN SERMONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1525, 21 March 1916, Page 4

GERMAN SERMONS.

THE UNIVERSAL PHARISEE,

“Perhaps there is no belter way of getting an insight into the strangely perverted attitude of the German mind touching the present war than by reading passages taken from the sermons of their great preachers, which have recently appeared in German newspapers,” says the Rev William Burgess in the Methodist Times. “Pastor Zoebel, speaking in the great Lutheran Church in Leipsic, said :

“It is this deep consciousness of our mission that permits us to congratulate ourselves, and rest content with a heart full of grati tude, when our guns beat down the children of Satan, and when our marvellous submarines instruments to execute the Divine vengeance—send to the bottom of the sea.thousands of the nonelect.

“We must fight the wicked with every means in our power ; their sufferings should give us pleasure ; their cries of despair should not move German hearts. There ought to be no compromise with hell, no mercy for the servants of Satan —in other words, no pity for the English, French and Russians, nor, indeed, for any nation that has sold itself to the Devil. They have all been condemned to death by a Divine decree.”

“Pastor Fritz Philipp, of Berlin, from his Protestant pulpit, among other things said : “As the Almighty allowed His Son to be crucified, that the scheme of redemption might be accomplished, so Germany is destined to crucify humanity, in order that its salvation may be secured. The human race can only be saved by blood, by fire and sword. German warriors do not shed blood with a light heart. They look upon it as a sacred duty imposed on them, a duty they cannot neglect without committing sin. Our beloved Emperor hates the horrors of war. Through long years he laboured to maintain the peace of the world. Germany has never employed force to menace the independence of any nation.

“It is really because we are pure that we have been chosen by the Almighty as His instruments to punish the envious, to chastise the wicked, and to .slay with the sword sinful nations. The Divine mission of Germany, oh ! brethren ! is to crucify humanity ; the duty of German soldiers, therefore, is to strike, without mercy. They must kill, burn and destroy ; any half-measures would be wicked. Let it then be a war without pity. The immoral and the friends and allies of Satan must be destroyed, as an evil plant is uprooted. Satan himself, who has come into the world in the form of a great Power (England), must be crushed. “ ‘On Germany is laid the Divine command to bring about the destruction of those who are the personification of evil. When this work is finished, fire and sword will not have been used in vain. The redemption of humanity will be achieved. The kingdom •f righteousness will be established on the earth, and the German Empire, which will have created it, will remain its protector.”

“Professor Rheinold Seeby, who teaches theology in the Berlin University, preaching in the cathedral of the city, said :

“ ‘We do not hate our enemies. We obey the command of God, who tells us to love them. But we believe that in killing them, in putting them to suffering, in burning their houses, in invading their territories, we simply perform a work of charity. Divine love is seen everywhere in the world, but men have to suffer for their salvation. Human parents love their children, yet they chastise them. Germany loves other nations and when she punishes them it is for their good.’ ”