FAITH THE JUSTICE OF OUR FIGHT BY GEORGE F PENTECOST, D.D. "Out of Egypt," "In the Volume of the Book," etc., etc. I FOREWORD HAD the pleasure and profit of listening to the timely sermons contained in this volume and am more than glad to write this Foreword. Who will ever be able to put proper valuation upon the part taken in this war for Righteousness, by the Protestant, Catholic, and Hebrew clergy of the Allied countries during the war? Thousands and thousands of these men, too old or overworn to serve either in the Army or Navy, have faithfully laboured to instruct the ignorant, restrain the unguarded, comfort the sorrowing, and inspire the valiant to duty. Call the roll of the active workers in the numerous religious, patriotic relief and humane organisations to which the war has given birth and it will be found that a large majority of the volunteers and enthusiastic lovers and givers have come up to their high calling and consecration to service in the Army and Navy at home and in foreign camps, and have been inspired to do so by the ministry of the Church; among whom Dr. Pentecost has been in the front rank. But let all the praise be unto God. "O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise." "For God is King of all the earth. Sing ye praises with understanding." This volume of sermons, preached with no thought of publication, is a fair sample of the ceaseless work of our ministers. Take the instance of this one man (himself a veteran of the Civil War), the Rev. Geo. F. Pentecost, D.D., who in the past four years since the beginning of the war has preached more than four hundred sermons to large audiences in the Bethany Presbyterian Church, among them these and other "war sermons." Called from the west soon after the close of the Civil War, when less than thirty years of age, to the pastorate of one of the great Churches in Brooklyn, N. Y., he became the friend and confrère of Beecher, Storrs, Cuyler, Buddington, Scudder, Talmage, Henry Hall, Van Dyke, Schenk, and other giants of those days. He is the only survivor of those great men as he was the youngest among them. Subsequent to his Brooklyn ministry he was for twelve years the companion, friend, and co-worker of D. L. Moody, in his evangelistic work in England, Scotland, and Ireland, as well as in the great cities of our own land. Moody said of him: "He is the ablest evangelist that ever crossed my path." Afterward his well-known mission to the high-caste Brahmins of India and more recently as Special Commissioner of the American Board and the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions to the Philippine Islands, China, and Japan, has given him a wide knowledge and experience of the world, of men and conditions, political, social, theological, and otherwise. Dr. Pentecost comes of a fighting and soldier stock. His Huguenot ancestors were both preachers and soldiers. His great-grandfather was a soldier in the Revolution; one of his grandfathers was in the War of 1812; his father was in the Mexican War; himself a soldier in the Civil War, first as a private in the 8th Kentucky Federal Cavalry; afterward the Chaplain of his regiment and still later Captain Adjutant on the staff of Gen. James Shackelford, at the time of the capture of the celebrated John Morgan at the close of his famous raid through Indiana and Ohio. Too old himself to go get into this war, he has given a nephew and grandson to the Navy and another grandson, now a Lieutenant, in the Aviation Corps. From the beginning Dr. Pentecost was a stalwart advocate of preparedness; our duty to join the Allies in their great fight against the autocracy of Germany and our debt and duty to France in particular. Since our declaration of war against Germany he has steadfastly stood back of the President and the Government in the prosecution of the war for Righteousness, by preaching scores of war sermons, of which those in this volume are samples. From his pulpit he has advocated and encouraged his people to buy Liberty Bonds, subscribe to the funds of the Red Cross, Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., and every appeal to succour the suffering and starving victims of Hun frightfulness. A stalwart and yet broadminded Evangelical Theologian, he believes that the present war is largely the product of German Philosophy and Theology, and that, if we are to maintain righteousness, the pulpit must valiantly reassert the apostolic doctrine of the "faith once for all delivered to the saints." That only thus can we hasten the kingdom of God, which is "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Hence the incorporation of several of his doctrinal sermons in this volume of war sermons. Though preached in the ordinary course of his pastoral ministry and with no thought of their publication, they are in their way "gems of clearness and simplicity." God speed this volume to Churches without pastors, to Y. M. C. A. Huts, Camps, and Cantonments for public reading where pastors and chaplains may be temporarily absent, and to every loyal American who wants more clearly to know "Why We Fight," and the |