the world by championing the cause of international arbitration. And now at length, when it has become evident that a sinister government could be appealed to by neither reason nor humanity, America has thrust herself into the vortex of death, into the mouth of hell, with a certain fierce joy that she might have a part in making the world safe for Democracy, nay, that Democracy might live.

If you would appreciate the identity of America. with service, mark the distinction between the leaders of America and of Prussia at every critical era, since America became a nation. In the first scene is Washington, the incarnation of the spirit of renunciation. Risking all for the sake of freeing his country; accepting, not a crown, but a presidency, then like Cincinnatus to his plough, going into private life content not that he has power, but

that he has served.

At the very same hour in Europe, Frederick the Great of Prussia was laying Europe red with blood for the sake of his own tyrannous purposes.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, Lincoln was the embodiment of American ideals. Contrast his love of democracy and freedom, with these words of Bismarck, who at the time was the ruling power in Prussia and afterward the creator of the new Germany. Speaking before the Budget Committee of the Prussian Diet, in 1862, Bismarck said, "Our blood is too hot. We are fond of bearing armour too heavy for our small body. Germany

does not look to Prussia for liberalism, but for power. Let Bavaria and Würtemburg and Baden indulge in liberal ideas, no one will assign them the rôle destined for Prussia. Prussia must consolidate its might and nurse it for the favourable moment. Prussia's boundaries, as determined by the Congress of Vienna, are not conducive to its welfare as a sovereign state. Not by speeches and resolutions of majorities are the mighty problems of the age to be solved (that was the mistake of 1848 and 1849), but by blood and iron."

The life-line of American democracy spells service; the life-line of German autocracy spells self. The conflict is inevitable. We rejoice that it has come! We give ourselves whole-heartedly to the task. This today is our happy land of service.

Our task is the more happy because service is the Christian ideal.

Jesus came to establish the Kingdom of God here on earth. The Kingdom of God is a redeemed society of men and nations who seek to realize Jesus' ideal of brotherhood and justice, and to express devotion through service.

There is a Kingdom of Evil opposing the establishment of the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom of Evil is not a metaphysical one of Satanic origin; but a real one of Satanic spirit.

The Kingdom of God stands for brotherhood, the Kingdom of God stands for sacred obligations of family life; the Kingdom of God stands for truth; no liars shall be found therein; the Kingdom of God

stands for the love, protection, and development of little children; the Kingdom of God stands for democracy; the Kingdom of God stands for the freedom of all peoples everywhere; the Kingdom of God stands for justice; the Kingdom of God stands for the right of the weak as well as of the strong; the Kingdom of God stands for unselfish service; the Kingdom of God would teach to all men everywhere the principle of sacrificial service. For this cause Jesus died on Calvary.

Germany, as impersonated by the Kaiser and the militaristic gang, stands as the very antithesis of the Kingdom of God. Germany is the incarnation of the Kingdom of Evil. If we have been accustomed to admire Germany as the country of Goethe and Schiller and of kind-hearted folk, then we have to confess that Germany is the Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde among the nations.

If the Kingdom of God stands for brotherhood, the Kingdom of the Kaiser stands for a deification of the state that seeks, not to serve the people, but to subsist on them. If the Kingdom of God stands for virtue and purity and the sacred obligation of family life, the Kingdom of the Kaiser tramples virtue and innocency in the dust, not only for devastated enemy lands, but even sows the self-destruction in its own homes by encouraging the coming into the world of children of unmarried parents for the benefit of the state.

If the Kingdom of God stands for the love and protection of little children, the Kingdom of the

Kaiser stands for their maiming, their desolation, their starving and their death. If the Kingdom of God stands for truth and no liars shall be found therein, the Kingdom of the Kaiser stands for lying and deceit and regarding of solemn treaties as scraps of paper. If the Kingdom of God stands for democracy and the freedom of all the people, the Kingdom of the Kaiser stands for autocracy and enslaving of the many for the sake of the few. If the Kingdom of God stands for justice to all, the Kingdom of the Kaiser stands for injustice except to the chosen few. If the Kingdom of God stands for the might of right, the Kingdom of the Kaiser stands for the right of might. If the Kingdom of God would teach to all men everywhere the principles of sacrificial service, the Kingdom of the Kaiser would sacrifice all for the sake of a superman and a super-nation. If Jesus died for all men on Calvary, the Kaiser would have all men to die for him.

The issue is joined between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Evil. Well do we give our constant and untiring devotion to the government of the United States in its stern struggle for humanity, for right.

We are proud to have stars in our service flags in these war-time days.

But the spirit of service has come to stay. Service must be the underlying motive of democracy, or democracy will be a vain thing. The Prussians conceive the state as having a divine right to subsist

upon the people. Democracy believes that the state exists for the sake of serving the people.

Spirit of service is the only thing that can save the world from greed and despotism. America tried the gold-cure only to result in fatty degeneration on the part of the rich and dyspeptic unrest on the part of the not-rich. Germany tried the superman-cure only in her delirium to well-nigh wreck the world. Intellectualism tried the mind-cure only to prove its vanity in the face of grasping ambition.

There is only one hope left for the world and that is to try the service-cure, the Christ-cure. There is no question but that this service-cure will heal the old forms of foul disease and the thousand wars of old, and usher in the thousand years of peace.

To build the republic of God on the ruins of the old world drunk with materialism and the vanity of empire, is the task of the pioneers in the happy lands of service.