The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol. 1, January 9, 1915: What Americans Say to EuropeVarious
Philosophy
The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol. 1, January 9, 1915: What Americans Say to Europe
Various
World War, 1914-1918
"But I have changed my mind. I have seen that I was mistaken. Several
months ago I gave instructions to my lecture bureau to withdraw my
lecture, 'The New Germany,' from my list. That was about the middle of
September, and it was only then that I realized what a German success
would mean to the world--how there could be nothing else but a world of
armed camps, how we in this country, too, would have to adopt militarism
in order to live.
"Just prior to that time, in the first of my Sunday evening sermons in
this course, I had praised the Kaiser. I believed in the German ideals,
I believed in German progress, German inventions, German principles. But
I was wrong. I have now become convinced of what I never imagined
before--that in the German viewpoint the only sin against the Holy Ghost
is military impotency, and, to use Treitschke's words again, the only
virtue is militarism."
The pastor of Plymouth uttered this attack upon Germany with a
scornfulness which the printed word can hardly indicate. He was as
strongly against Germany--more strongly against Germany now than he had
before been in favor of Germany, he said. It was a position, he said, to
which everybody in the United States was turning, and it was inevitable
that Germany should find the world against her.
In his frank avowal of his position regarding Germany and the Kaiser,
Dr. Hillis admitted, too, that his sermon last night had contained more
than appeared on the surface. When he stated in the sermon that no man
or ruler should ever adopt the view of the peasant and the cave man, and
try to make the Eternal God a tribal God, he had the Kaiser in mind,
said Dr. Hillis. The sermon is published in full in today's sermon pages
of The Eagle.
In addition, Dr. Hillis said that while he believed that his sermon
could not be considered in any way a violation of President Wilson's
appeal for neutrality, yet, indirectly, the passages to which exception
had been taken could be rightly construed as an attack upon Germany and
the Kaiser.
"You believe that it is right for a minister to use the pulpit to
express his own views upon a subject like this?" was asked.
"I do not believe that it is right for a minister to air his peculiar
political views upon any subject--personal, social, or economic,"
answered Dr. Hillis, emphatically. "The church is a conservatory where a
warm, genial atmosphere should be created. My conception of the work of
a minister is that he is to create an atmosphere in the church on Sunday
so that the Republican with the tariff, the Democrat who believes in
free trade, and the Single Taxer can all grow and express their judgment
during the week.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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