The New York Times/1918/11/11/Clergymen Aid War Drive
CLERGYMEN AID WAR DRIVE.
Peace and German Revolution Also Discussed in Churches.
A plea for hearty support of the United War Work drive was the keynote of the sermons in churches here yesterday. Revolution in Germany and approaching peace also were discussed.
The Rev. Dr. Charles A. Eaton in his sermon in the Madison Avenue Baptist Church said recent events marked the first time the world had passed consciously from one era to another. He paid tribute to Cardinal Merster "as the greatest figure in the religious world today."
Rabbi Silverman in Temple Beth-El said the world was nearer its millennium today than ever before, and asserted the war had brought mankind nearer to brotherhood than had centuries of religious teachings. War, he added, had brought religion back to its original task of combating bigotry, fighting sin, and uplifting mankind. The rabbi dwelt upon the comradeship and co-operative spirit of chaplains of all creeds in the army and navy.
"The very angels of God have been fighting with our soldiers," the Rev. Dr. John Roach Straton said in his sermon in Calvary Baptist Church. He expressed belief that the world war had recreated spiritual thought, and cited teh declaration of "a man so practical as Marshal Joffre" that he believed the first battle of the Marne was won by God.
The Rev. Dr. S. Howard Young, in the Bedford Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, said "in the Providence of God Kaiser ished by the German people themselves," ished by the German people themselves" and that their face could not come more bitterly than at the hands of the Socialists they had denounced. Retribution upon the war lord he described as divine, and as the first world lesson to be derived from the German downfall.