D 570 
 .15 
 .G7 
 Copy 1 
 
 } 
 
 <k7 
 
SERMON 
 
 Preached By 
 
 DR. C^*EVEREST GRANGER 
 
 At 
 
 Presbyterian Church of the Covenant 
 
 WILLIAMSPORT. PA. 
 
 SUNDAY. JUNE 5 
 
 WAKE UP, AMERICA 
 
 Could anyone ever think of America as being asleep. She 
 has been wide enough awake in some particulars to be sure. 
 She has advanced by leaps and bounds jn many respects. Her 
 population has increased many fold, her industries have multiplied 
 almost boundlessly, her wealth has become fabulous, her inven- 
 tions have startled the world. In the arts and sciences she has 
 taken a front rank among nations. In all resources she has 
 become well nigh limitless. She has become in a few years 
 a great nation and latterly, a world power and now the nation 
 to which world empires are looking for help and salvation. Are 
 not all these things strong evidences that America has been 
 and is awake? Yes and no! This very progress, this advance- 
 ment, this growth, this accomplishment of the past and posi- 
 tion of the present may prove to be America's undoing. She 
 has become great and she has become conscious of her great- 
 ness. She has become great and she has become confident In 
 her greatness, too confident, over confident, absurdly confident, 
 and has been suffering from a case of big-head for some time 
 past. America must take warning from history, and what if 
 she does stand head and shoulders over any and every other 
 nation on earth, she cannot afford to go blustering and blunder- 
 ing about like Goliath, nor be careless of her armor, nor leave 
 one vital part exposed. Complacent in her greatness, America 
 needs a stinging smack on the face to wake her up. She'll get it. 
 
 When I was a boy on the streets of New York city, being of 
 an investigating turn of mind, as are most boys, I was always 
 interested to travel down about the wharves along West Street 
 and South Street. And there I have seen many an old sailor, 
 who having spent his long and hard earnings on booze, stretched 
 full length upon the street or in some doorway, in drunken stupor. 
 And I was always iterested, if not amused, to see the "cop" come 
 along and taking his night-stick give these poor fellows a re- 
 sounding whack on the soles of their shoes, to bring them to their 
 
Ji 
 
 51^ 
 
 senses. Well, nothing else would do it. Shaking would not do 
 it. Argument would not do it, but that blow from the night 
 stick would do it. America is drunken with wealth and with 
 power and must needs have a vigorous awakening, and, she'll 
 get it. 
 
 The average American thinks honestly that America can whip 
 the world. To him Uncle Sam is just a little bit below the Lord 
 God Almighty. He takes up a map and says: "Why see the ex- 
 panse of our territory." And we answer, "Yes, all of which 
 adds just so much more to the task of protection." He takes the 
 government reports and he says: "Look at our population, one 
 hundred million from which to select our army and navy." "Yes, 
 but it takes from two to five years to create an army or man 
 a navy," we answer. He examines our great mining industries, 
 and says: "Look at these great mines, here are your guns and 
 ammunition." "Yes, we answer again, and there they will stay 
 for many a day. It is a long and tedius journey from mine to 
 finished product." He travels our great forests and says: "Look 
 at these forests, why here are your ships." "Yes," again we say, 
 "but it will take twenty years to convert these forests into ships." 
 "Oh, foolish America, who hath bewitched you?" Armies and 
 navies and ships and ammunition and equipment cannot be made 
 in a day or a year. 
 
 Nor must we forget that while we have been growing great, 
 other nations have been growing great also. We have forgotten 
 that I fear. We have been so self centered, so charmed with 
 our own wondrous success as a people and as a nation that we 
 have failed to see the progress of others. It is time we sat up and 
 took notice. If our growth and advancements have been phenom- 
 enal, those of other nations have been equally so. See the coun- 
 tries of South America, see South Africa, see New Zealand, see 
 Japan, see Germany! Enough said on that score and these facts 
 stand boldly out. We are a great nation but simply one among 
 great nations. We are a great nation, but while blessed with 
 numbers, resources, wealth and many gifts, we are at the same 
 time cursed with self-complacency, if not self esteem, and an 
 overconfidence which is always dangerous and may prove dis- 
 astrous. 
 
 "Wake up, America!" Is a timely admonition. "Wake up" you 
 will, eventually you will, but wake up promptly, at once will be 
 wiser and better. Some are already awake but that will not do, 
 simply to have some awake, all must be awake, wide awake and 
 stay awake. I believe the government is awake, but even that 
 will not do, the people must be awake, the people and all the 
 people. It took England two years to wake up. I wonder how 
 long it will take America. I want to be awake, wide awake and 
 keep awake, and I want you to be the same. 
 
 "Wake up, America," to the DANGERS of the hour. We are 
 at war, at war, at war. Few realize what that means. We will 
 yet realize it. We are at war with an enemy of great power, great 
 resourcefulness, great ability. We are at war with an enemy 
 who will own no law but selfish expediency, who will show no 
 mercy, who will resort to and is capable of every cunning possible 
 to men and devils. This is no child's play upon which we have 
 entered, and before we are through with it I predict this nation 
 will be shaken to its very center. Disasters will come upon us, 
 homes will be robbed forever of dear ones, hundreds and thou- 
 sands of our young men will be slain, our resources will be taxed 
 
to the utmost. This is war in which we are engaged, war with 
 a great and awful enemy. Let me impress that upon you. It ia 
 true that we have with us great and powerful allies, but these 
 have been taxed to their utmost. They have done their best, 
 and the very fact of the little they have been able to do is 
 but another evidence of the power of our enemy. We all hope 
 and expect that eventually the allies will win and win a glorious 
 and decisive victory. We have been expecting that for some 
 time, but It has not come. But what if the allies should not win? 
 What then? Could we hope to do what England, France and 
 Russia and a number of other nations combined could not do? 
 Take affairs at home. This is far from being a homogeneous 
 nation. We are having troubles at home; more troubles are 
 brewing; troubles are growing. I have been told that there are 
 eighty thousand secret service men working for our government 
 throughout the country. I guess all are needed and more will 
 be needed. Teuton spies, Teuton intrigue. Teuton influences are 
 at work on every side. And should the fortunes of war go 
 against us, we need expect no quarter. America has been the 
 thorn in the flesh of Germany in all this war, and now that we 
 have entered the war actively we can depend upon it, though 
 she ignors us, she nevertheless hates us with an awful hatred 
 and will, if possible, have her revenge. And should tlie fortunes 
 of war go against us it is not impossible that our navy be de- 
 stroyed, our great coast cities sacked, our commerce ruined, our 
 territory divided, and our people taxed heavy indemnity to pay 
 to the boot. It is an impossible picture you say, but it would not 
 be unique in history — such things have happened and may again. 
 Who knows? 
 
 "Wake up, America," to the DANGERS of the hour. 
 
 "Wake up, America," to the Duties of the hour. Moral obli- 
 gations rest upon nations as upon individuals. A crazy, despotic, 
 cruel nation has run amuck. Small nations have been crucified. 
 All human rights have been violated. Treaties have been thrown 
 into the waste basket. International laws have been trampled 
 under foot. Honor, justice, mercy have been brushed aside and 
 laughed to scorn. America as a nation and as a Christian nation 
 owes a duty to humanity, owes a duty to the memory of its 
 founders and preservers, has a duty to perform. She has had 
 this duty upon her heart and in her mind all through this war, 
 and now at last has entered upon the active performance of it. 
 We all want to see America perform her national duty, to respond 
 to her world obligations and to live among nations with a clear 
 conscience and a pure heart. We are therefore in this war, not 
 for national gain, but to accomplish our national obligation and 
 do our simple duty in the world. Many see it that way. All do 
 not, however. We therefore say, "Wake up, America" to the 
 Duty of the hour. And while we are jealous for the nation to 
 do its duty let us each and every one see to it that we do our 
 duty and be not found wanting in the obligations God has 
 placed upon us as individuals as well as a nation. 
 
 "Wake up, America" to the PRIVILEGES of the hour. Here 
 is a chance, a brilliant chance for America to make an impress 
 upon the world, not of might and power only, but of righteous- 
 ness and brotherhood and love and peace. An irapres.s which 
 the world sorely needs. She must keep her high and lofty ideals 
 before her own eyes and before the eyes of the world. She 
 covets not to whip the world, nor to win the world, but to serve 
 
LitiKHKY OF CONGRESS 
 
 ItSiil iiill SiilS liSSI llil! I!"! '"" '"" "■" ■" ■•! oil 
 
 021 929 143 7 
 
 the world. God help her so to do. Every individual must keep 
 true to these lofty standards in thought and action. And if we 
 can emerge from this awful conflict upon which we have entered, 
 with record true and honor unsullied, and aid the world in its 
 struggle for democracy and brotherhood and peace, we will have 
 served our race and day well and God will own and bless us. 
 "Wake up, America" to the Privileges of the hour. 
 
 We are average Americans and this is an average American 
 city. I cannot with either voice or pen reach all Americans, but 
 I can reach a few. So I want to be awake, wide awake, and 
 keep awake, and I want you to be the same. And I want to do 
 my bit and I want you to do your bit and we will do all we can 
 in the great hour of need. The pulpit must help, the press can 
 help, the schools can help, the banks and financial institutions 
 can help, the farmers can help, the merchants can help, tbe house- 
 wife can help. All can help and all must help to win. How? 
 Oh, myriad ways. First, wake up and keep awake, then give of 
 your time and funds and influence and self, it may be. Stop 
 waste! Buy a Liberty Bond, or more if you can. Pray to the 
 God of just battles. But "wake up" and keep awake and have 
 a heart and mind to do and opportunities will come thick and 
 fast. 
 
 I have just returned from Washington. I had been away 
 from there about a month. I noticed a very evident change of 
 atmosphere down there. A peculiar seriousness permeates the 
 Capitol city. There is realization. I think that seriousness is 
 spreading. Men, women, citizens, patriots we are at war, at war, 
 at war. "WAKE UP, AMERICA." 
 
021 929 143 7 
 
 HoUinger Corp. 
 pH8.5