119. God has in Luther practically chosen the German people, and that can never be altered, for is it not written in Romans xi., 29, "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."--DR. PREUSS,[14] quoted in H.A.H., p. 223. 120. I want first to make it clear in what sense we may say, without extravagance or the least trace of self-exaltation: Germany is chosen. Germany is chosen, for her own good and that of other nations, to undertake their guidance. Providence has placed the appointed people, at the appointed moment, ready for the appointed task.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, P.I., p. 25. 121. There is a gospel saying which bursts the bonds of its original historical meaning and takes new wings in the storm of the world-war, a saying which we may well take as the consecration of our German mission: "Ye are the salt of the earth! ye are the light of the world!"[15]--PROF. A. DEISSMANN, D.R.S.Z., p. 24. 122. It is no foolish over-valuation of ourselves, no aggressive arrogance, no want of humility, when we more and more let Bismarck's faith prevail within us, that God has taken the German nation under His special care, or in any case has some special purpose in view for it.--"On the German God," by PASTOR W. LEHMANN, quoted in H.A.H., p. 86. 123. Then a newly purified and newly strengthened German folk-soul would arise out of the war, to new thoughts and new deeds, to a new sense of its world-mission--that of imparting to the other peoples, in a pure spirit, the achievements of its Kultur, so that all lands may be filled with the glory of God.--PASTOR M. HENNIG, D.K.U.W., p. 63. 124. As heralds of God's will, messengers of His word, witnesses of His benefactions to the world, we shall take up our work after the war, and with German endurance and German industry, with German competence and German faithfulness, with German faith and German piety, we shall permeate, in the name of God, a world which has become poor and desolate.--"War Devotions," by PASTOR J. RUMP, quoted in H.A.H., p. 128. 125. When these storms have done their work, Germany's purest mission begins: to become a place of refuge, a holy grove for all the seekers of the earth, a central land, a land of wisdom, a land of morals.--F. LIENHARDT, quoted in H.A.H., p. 51. 126. The divination or the assurance of this special calling [on the part of God] has long been present to the best among the German people; many quotations to this effect (for example, Geibel's lines) are to-day in everybody's mouth. Deeper thoughts are aroused by a less-known remark of Richard Wagner's: "A great mission, scarcely comprehensible to other nations, is unquestionably reserved for the whole German character (_Anlage_)"; this character he defines as "the spirit of pure humanity," and the mission of the Germans as "the ennoblement of the world...." Not to believe in this mission is folly, is treason.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, D.Z., p. 14.