Speaking of Prussians Part 3

XV

Had Doctor Bang set forth as his own views, as a neutral, the amazing utterances which make up the bulk of his compilation, no one here or abroad would have believed that he described a true condition. But he was smarter than that. He was mainly content to repeat literal translations of indubitable prayers, poems, sermons, addresses--written and spoken statements of contemporary German clergymen, German professors and German statesmen.

In further support of the point which I have been striving to make I mean to take the liberty here of adding a few more extracts from the first American edition of _Hurrah and Hallelujah_, in each instance giving credit to the original German author of the same.

For instance, the Reverend Doctor Vorwerk, who appears to specialise in prayers, begins one invocation with this sentence, which is especially interesting in that the good pastor couples the Cherubim, the Seraphim, and--guess what?--the Zeppelins in the same breath:

"Thou Who dwellest high above Cherubim, Seraphim and Zeppelins; Thou Who art enthroned as a G.o.d of Thunder in the midst of lightning from the clouds, and lightning from sword and cannon, send thunder, lightning, hail and tempest hurtling upon our enemy; bestow upon us his banners; hurl him down into the dark burial pits!"

Another poet, Franz Philippi by name, in a widely circulated work called _World-Germany_, delivers himself in part as follows:

"Formerly German thought was shut up in her corner; but now the world shall have its coat cut according to German measure and, as far as our swords flash and German blood flows, the circle of the earth shall come under the tutelage of German activity."

Herr J. Suze, a prose writer, says with the emphasis of profound conviction:

"The Germans are first before the Throne of G.o.d--Thou couldst not place the golden crown of victory in purer hands."

On November 13, 1914, according to Doctor Bang, a German theological professor preached an address which the _Berliner Lokal Anzeiger_ reproduced, with favourable editorial comment. Here is a typical paragraph from this sermon:

"The deepest and most thought-inspiring result of the war is 'the German G.o.d.' Not the national G.o.d such as the lower nations wors.h.i.+p, but 'Our G.o.d,' Who is not ashamed of belonging to us, the peculiar acquirement of our heart."

The Reverend H. Francke is a pastor in the city of Liegnitz. From his pulpit he delivered a series of so-called war sermons, which afterward, at the request of the members of his flock, were printed in a book, the cover of which was ornamented with the Iron Cross. And we find the Reverend Francke adding his voice to the chorus thus:

"Germany is precisely--who would venture to deny it?--the representative of the highest morality, of the purest humanity, of the most chastened Christianity."

The Reverend Walter Lehmann, pastor at the town of Hamberge, in Holstein, went a trifle further. When he got out his book of war sermons he published it under the t.i.tle _About the German G.o.d_; and therein, among other things, he said:

"This means that we go forth to war as Christians, precisely as Christians, as we Germans understand Christianity; it means that we have G.o.d on our side.... Can the Russians, the French, the Serbians, the English, say this? No; not one of them. Only we Germans can say it.... If G.o.d is for us who can be against us? It is enough for us to be a part of G.o.d.... A nation"--Germany--"which is G.o.d's seed corn for the future....

Germany is the centre of G.o.d's plans for the world.... That glorious feat of arms forty-four years ago"--the Battle of Sedan--"gives us courage to believe that the German soul is the world's soul; that G.o.d and Germany belong to one another."

These are the concluding words of the Reverend Lehmann's book _About the German G.o.d_:

"Oh, that the German G.o.d may permeate the world! Oh, that the eternal victory may blossom before the G.o.d of the German soul!"

It will not do to slight the Herr Pastor Job Rump, lic., Doctor, of Berlin. Hearken a moment to a word or two from one of Doctor Rump's published pamphlets:

"A corrupt world, fettered in monstrous sin, shall, by the will of G.o.d, be healed by the German nature.... Ye"--the Germans--"are the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the peculiar people."

A learned and no doubt a pious professor, Herr G. Roethe, is credited with this modest claim:

"While other nations are born, ripen and grow old, the Germans alone possess the gift of rejuvenescence."

And so on and so forth, for two hundred and thirty-four pages of _Hurrah and Hallelujah_. The run of the contents is quite up to sample. None of us can object to these reverend gentlemen seeking to walk with G.o.d; what we do object to is their undertaking to lead Him.

XVI

So far as I can tell, Doctor Bang has not overlooked a single bet. He makes out a complete case; and, what is more, in so doing he relies not upon his own conclusions, but upon the avowed utterances of distinguished German savants, clergymen and versifiers.

These, then, are the spoken thoughts of civilian leaders of our enemy.

If the leaders believe these things their followers must also believe them; must believe, with the Reverend Lehmann and the Reverend Vorwerk, that G.o.d is a German G.o.d, and should properly be so addressed by a wors.h.i.+pper upon his knees, since one prayer begins "O German G.o.d!"; must believe, with Von Bernhardi--who spoke of "the miserable life of all small states"--that "to allow to the weak the same right of existence as to the strong, vigorous nation means presumptuous encroachment upon the natural laws of development"; and with Treitschke, that "the small nations have no right to existence and ought to be swallowed up"; and with La.s.son, that "It is moral, inasmuch as it is reasonable, that the small states, in spite of treaties, should become the prey of the strongest"; and must believe that to Prussia was appointed the task of curing the whole world, America included, of what--according to the Prussian ideal--ails it.

It is the nation which believes these things, and which has striven in this war to practice what its teachers preached, that we now are called upon to fight. If we remember this as we go along it will help us to understand some of the things the enemy will seek to do unto us; and should help him to understand some of the things we mean to do unto him.

Indeed, there is hope of his being able some day to understand that we entered this war not against a people or a nation so much as we entered it against an idea, a disease, a form of paranoia, a form of rabies, a form of mania which has turned men into blasphemous and murderous mad dogs, running amuck and slavering in the highways of the world.

What would any intelligent American do if a mad dog entered the street where he lived, even though that dog, before it went mad, had been a kind and docile creature? And what is he going to do in the existing situation?

The same answer does for both questions. Because there is only one answer.