p. 2 | National Preparedness No Subject for a Thanksgiving Sermon

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 28, 1915

National Preparedness No Subject for a Thanksgiving Sermon

The MINISTERS in New York City have received letters from the Conference Committee on National Preparedness asking them to talk in favor of preparedness in their Thanksgiving Day sermons. Dr. William F. Merrill’s reply, which was published in the New York Times of October 18, is well stated:—

Even if we grant that an increase of armed force is necessary in the United States at the present time, it is no cause for thankfulness. At best it is a concession to a vicious and abnormal state of things in the world, and a confession that, as a people, we are not high-minded enough to dare to act as Christians should. It is grotesque to suggest such a subject for the national day of thanksgiving. One might as soon give thanks if an outbreak of crime all over this country should lead New York City, in a panic of fear, to double its police force, spending on it the money which should go into making the streets and homes of the citizens safer, better, and cleaner.

I hope the churches of this city will treat the request the way it deserves, by refusing or ignoring it.