WORSE THAN HYMN OF HATE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 165, 14 April 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

WORSE THAN HYMN OF HATE.

LATEST HUN BLASPHEMY IS VILEST YET.

Germany is mad —mad with the blood lust. She acclaimed the decadent "Hymn of Hate." The world treated it half-humorously, halfcontemptuously. And Germany's' reputation, among neutrals and belligerents alike, went down a shade lower, if that were possible. Then the Teuton leaders saw their error, and repudiated Lissauer's insane diatribe. With true Teutonic wrong-headedness, they havo substituted something far worse. The "Chant of the German Sword" ran through half-a-dozen editions in p. fortnight, when produced in Leipsic. The anonymous author makes the Hun sword say: "It is no duty of mine to !>e either just or compassionate; it suffices that I am sanctified by my exalted mission, and that I blind the (•yes of my enemies with such streams of tears as shall make the proudest of them cringe in terror under the vault of heaven. "1 have slaughtered the old and the sorrowing: 1 have struck off the breasts of women; and I have run through the bodies of children who gazed at me with the eyes of the wounded lion. "Day after day I ride aloft on the shadowy horse in the valley of Cypresses, and as 1 ride I dr.aw forth the life-blood from every enemy's son that dares dispute my path. "It is meet and right that 1 should cry aloud my pride, for am 1 not. the flaming messenger of the Lord Almighty? "Germany is so far and fce;*ond all the other nations that all the rest of earth, be they who they may, shall feel themselves well done by when they are allowed to right with the dogs for the crumbs that fall from her table.

"When Germany the divina *s happy, then the rest of the world basks in smiles, bul when Germany suffers, God in person is rent with anguish, and, wrathful and avenging, He turns all the waters into rivers of blood."

AWFUL PICTURE.

duration of the war—the most drastic punishment yet meted out to any German paper of standing. THE BLASPHEMERS. GERMAN PASTORS CTTF'I SERMON'S RKEKING WITH LAUDATION OF DEATH AND SLA CGHTER. " Perhaps there is no bettc way of getting an insight into the strangely perverted attitude of the German mind touching the present war than by reading passages taken from sermons of their great preachers, which have recently appeared in the German newspapers. ' says the Rev. \\ illiam Burgess in the "Methodist Times." "Pastor Zoebel, speaking in the great Lutheran Church in Leipsic, said: 'lt is this deep consciousness of our mission that permits us to congratuJate ourselves, and rest content with a heart lull of gratitude, 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 non-elect. DIVINE MISS)ON OF GERMANY. 'We must fight the wicked with every means in our power; their suffering's should give us pleasure; their erics ot 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. indeec.', for any nation that has sold itself to the Devil. They have all been condemned to death by a Divine decree.

EVEN GERMAN PRESS DEPLORES "ABANDONED IMMORALITY" OP THE HUNS. Appended are some facts about the hideous immorality and depravity of civilian Germany that do not "jibe'' very well with the burning sermons by German pastors reprinted in the next column: "Some time ago attention was drawn," says the Amsterdam correspondent of the 'Sunday Times.' "to the number of items of criminal news appearing in the German Press. The increase in crime and immorality has been so mnrked since then that now '■ven the German journalists have given up the farce of trying to hide the truth in this respect. There is no paper that does not join more or less in the general chorus of protest against existing conditions. "THE BERLIN KREUZZEiTI'NG" SAYS: "The people are living a life of such repulsive immorality and indecency, so shameless in its open ostentation and depravity, that soldiers retrrning heme turn their heads away in horror and ask themselves why they should sacrifice their lives for such a people. Did these heroes know more of the secret of what really going on, they would see that, dark as the picture is on the surface, it is far blacker underneath." Even the "Berliner Tageblattt," which lias striven so long to uphold the impression of the moral regeneration of the people by the war, now frankly confesses that it is appalled by the state of affairs. "News of murders of the most revolting description," it says, "reach us from all parts of tlie Empire. Convictions of all kinds of swindling operations occur daily." THEATRES BLAMED. The "Deutsche Tagezeitung" de plores the "abandoned immorality'' of the general public. "The divorce courts are busy, and nearly all the cases involve the wives of soldiers. It is of quite common occurrence for a young soldier to return from the battle line to find his wife carrying on a liaison with another man." The theatres are to blame," says the paper, "plays are produced so nauseating in their depravity and lasciviousness that they may well fill our soldiers, purified in the fire of war, with disgust at this decay of the national morals. The German people must not tolerate such degeneration . . they must eradicate these plague spots the radiant features of Germania." HORRIFIED CLERGY.

"Pastor Fritz Philippi, of Berlin, from his Protestant pulpit, amongst other tilings said:

GERMANY TO "CRUCIF* HUMANITY."

" 'As the Almighty allowed His Son to he crucified, thn_t the scheme of redemption might be accomplished, so Germany is destined to crucify humanity, in order that its salvation may he secured. The human race can only he saved hy hlood, hy fire an<v sword. German warriors <"o not shed hlocd 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 years he laboured to maintain the pence of the world. Germany has never employed force to menace the independence of any nation.

'' It is ivally because we are pure that we have been chosen hy the Almighty as His instruments to punish the envious, to chastise the wicker.', and to slav with the sword sinful nations The Divine mission of Germany, or brethren! is to crucify humanity; the duty of German soldiers, therefore, is to strike, without mercy. They must kill, burn, and destroy ; and half measures would be wicked . Let it, then, be a war without pity. The immoral and the friends and allies of Satan mu-.t 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 crusher.'. " '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 cf righteousness .wil be established on the earth, and the German EnipiYe, which will have created it, will remain its protector.' A KILLING CHARITY. " Professor Rheinold Saeby, who teaches theology in the .Berlin University, preaching in the cathedral of the city, saic: " '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 tlirm it is for their good.' "'Teaching of this kind." adds Mr. Bui'gess, "in the twentieth century ot the Christian era, is saddening in the extN'iiio. If this is German Kultur, the less we have to do .nth it the better. Ti savours more of Mo lainmedanism than Christianity: but it need's 110 comment. The Hook says: 'They that take the sword shall perish hy the s'.vord.'

The German clergy also seem to consider it their duty to call attention to the immoral tendency prevalent in the Empire. At the recent meeting of the General Synod of Berlin, the Rev. Dr. Weber, of Bonn, declared that conditions in the Rhine province were unspeakable, that the criminal and immoral contamination of the youth, of both sexes was appalling. Other clergyman told similar tales of their own districts, and' it was generally decided that the state of affairs was so bad that it was a case for special legislation. The great war, said one pastor, which, it was expected, would raise the moral tone of the nation, had. to the horror of all true Germans, the exactly opposite effect. THOSE GIRL WIVES AGAIN. It may he remembered that jus! before the suppression of his journal, "Die Kukunft," Maximilian Harden was becoming daily more vehement in his cen-neiation of the general immorality in Germany. It was hj? who revealed the fact that since tlTo war girl wives had been divorced in Berlin alone. Harden also devoted his attention to the profitmongers, and it was perhaps his overzoalousness in demonstrating the evil wrought by them that led him to betray to the people the actual ruin that, faces the country. On the outbreak of war, Harden created surprise of his display of ari ent patriotism. He was a .Tinge among .Hugos. But bitterly it was evident that he was not blind to the truth, of the economic situation. Many home industries "in Germany are absolutely at a :.!andsti;r. and llardea has more than once cited this fact to support his arguments. The Gov(rniiu nt is. of course, most anxious

that these truths should not out. and !! anion's love of that b'.'gbear of the (If rman authorities has new led to the suppression of his journal for the