The Chosen People and its Mission.
(After July, 1914.)
117. He who does not believe in the Divine mission of Germany had better hang himself, and rather to-day than to-morrow.—H.S. Chamberlain, D.Z., p. 17.
118. Now we understand why the other nations pursue us with their hatred: they do not understand us, but they are sensible of our enormous spiritual superiority. So the Jews were hated in antiquity, because they were the representatives of God on earth.—Prof. W. Sombart, H.U.H., p. 142.
119. God has in Luther practically chosen the German people, and that can never be altered, for is it not written in Romans xi., 29, "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."—Dr. Preuss,[14] quoted in H.A.H., p. 223.
120. I want first to make it clear in what sense we may say, without extravagance or the least trace of self-exaltation: Germany is chosen. Germany is chosen, for her own good and that of other nations, to undertake their guidance. Providence has placed the appointed people, at the appointed moment, ready for the appointed task.—H.S. Chamberlain, P.I., p. 25.
121. There is a gospel saying which bursts the bonds of its original historical meaning and takes new wings in the storm of the world-war, a saying which we may well take as the consecration of our German mission: "Ye are the salt of the earth! ye are the light of the world!"[15]—Prof. A. Deissmann, D.R.S.Z., p. 24.
122. It is no foolish over-valuation of ourselves, no aggressive arrogance, no want of humility, when we more and more let Bismarck's faith prevail within us, that God has taken the German nation under His special care, or in any case has some special purpose in view for it.—"On the German God," by Pastor W. Lehmann, quoted in H.A.H., p. 86.
123. Then a newly purified and newly strengthened German folk-soul would arise out of the war, to new thoughts and new deeds, to a new sense of its world-mission—that of imparting to the other peoples, in a pure spirit, the achievements of its Kultur, so that all lands may be filled with the glory of God.—Pastor M. Hennig, D.K.U.W., p. 63.
124. As heralds of God's will, messengers of His word, witnesses of His benefactions to the world, we shall take up our work after the war, and with German endurance and German industry, with German competence and German faithfulness, with German faith and German piety, we shall permeate, in the name of God, a world which has become poor and desolate.—"War Devotions," by Pastor J. Rump, quoted in H.A.H., p. 128.