1899-01-30-New York Tribune-Our National Perils

New York Tribune, January 30, 1899, p. 4.

"Our National Perils."

"Our National Perils" was the theme of the Rev. Dr. Davld G. Wylie's sermon yesterday morning at the Scotch Presbyterian Church, Ninety-sixth-st. and Central Park West. The text was taken from Acts. xxvii. 29: "Then fearing lest they should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day."

The four most prominent perils to the American ship of State Dr. Wylie held to be intemperance, Mormonism, Romanism and the neglect of special populations. Dr. Wylie maintained that an urgent effort should be made to stamp out Mormonism, the principles of which, he said, were a disgrace to civilization and Christianity. He affirmed that if Roberts, the Mormon Congressman-elect, was seated it would be a National sanction of Mormonism. Of Romanism, the speaker said it was antagonistic to the American Idea of free thought and free institutions, tending toward the centralization of power and authority and compelling its devotees in this country to yield primary allegiance to a foreign temporal power.

Of foreigners who come to this country and retain their own language, customs and opinions, refusing to amalgamate with the people in general. Dr. Wylie said they were a source of much danger. The remedy for the existing evils and those that are threatened he held to be the furtherance of Christian teaching and work and faith in and dependence on God.