Ohio History Journal

  • 1
  •  
  • 2
  •  
  • 3
  •  
  • 4
  •  
  • 5
  •  
  • 6
  •  

48 Ohio Arch

48       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

represent the majesty, the dignity, the power and the

glory of this Great Republic.

 

THE GOSPEL OF BURNISHED STEEL

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE BROAD STREET PRESBY-

TERIAN CHURCH MAY 25, 1924.

Although the Honor Roll which we are dedicating

today contains names only of World War soldiers, it

is thought something should be said about the soldiers

of former wars and, perhaps, in this day of mistaken

pacificism, something about war in general.

As this service is conducted in a church, I shall speak

from a text but, not having been ordained, I will not

take it from the scriptures but from the inspiring Bat-

tle Hymn of the Republic, written by Julia Ward Howe

at the most desperate crisis of the Civil War. It is a

single line and reads thus "There is a fiery gospel writ

in burnished rows of steel." It is supplemented by an-

other line which recites that God "has loosed the fate-

ful lightnings of His terrible swift sword."  This

means (let it be said reverently here in the temple of

the Prince of Peace) that war, cruel, death-dealing and

abhorrent as it is, hath its uses and its good uses in the

hands of an overruling Providence. It means that the

Creator, in his flawless economy, purposely endowed

His image with war-waging instincts. It means that

the wrath of man has ever been the mighty engine

whereby godless and barbarous nations were leveled

one by one and better civilizations built upon their ruins.

It means that every prayer for the elevation of man-

kind has been accompanied by sacrifice upon the deep-

stained altar of Mars; and that every footstep in the