Peanut Patriotism and Pure Patriotism

Our subject this morning is 'Peanut Patriotism and Pure Patriotism: Our Duty to God and our Country in this Time of Crisis.' You will find the text in Judges 5:23, 'Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.' The speaker is the angel of Jehovah. It could be proven, if there were time to go into it, that the angel of Jehovah was the second person of the trinity before His incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth. So this declaration of a curse upon slackers is an utterance of Jesus Christ. The whole chapter from which our text is taken. Judges 5, is an inspired hymn. It is God's hymn. The sentiments of the hymn are God's sentiments, and it is Jehovah God who pronounces the curse of the text. God had called Israel to battle, to literal war, to bloody war against His enemies and theirs. Sisera was the Kaiser Wilhelm II of that day. Some had heard the call of God and rallied to His war. These had conquered the enemies of God and their enemies, and won a glorious victory. God had fought for them and with them. It was Jehovah who had 'discomfited Sisera and all his chariots, and all his hosts, with the edge of the sword before Barak' (Judges 4:15). But in that time of God's war for liberty and righteousness, Meroz had shirked its duty. They had proven shirkers and slackers and brought the curse of the Almighty upon their heads. It is clear that there are times when God calls His people to war, when a war is God's war. If there was ever a time in the history of this country when our side in the war was God's side, and our war was God's war, it is in this present war. It is to my mind far easier to justify the part of the United States in this war than to justify our part even in the War of the Revolution, or to justify the part of the North in the Civil War. Indeed, this present war was forced upon us. We had to fight or else to leave our citizens and our women and children to be murdered by a government and a nation that knew no law, no truth, no honor, no regard for the most sacred rights of other nations, or even of women and children. Because I believe in justice, because I believe in the rights of the weak, both of individuals and nations, because I believe in veracity and in keeping of treaties and covenants, because I believe in the protection of the honor of women and girls, because I believe in everything that is high and holy and pure and true, I believe in this war, and in the destruction of the power of the Hohenzollerns and the punishment and humiliation of the people that support and follow William the Second in his villainies and deviltries. And every man, woman and child in the land has a duty to our government and nation at this time, and those who fail to perform their whole duty at this time, who fail to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, will bring a curse upon their heads.