“It Is Not God’s Way”

Rev. Horace Place Apologizes to the Snake in Calling Czolgasz a Viper.

     Rev. Horace Place delivered a sermon on the assassination of the president at his pulpit at Gordon Avenue M. E. church yesterday morning. After reviewing the facts of the crime, the character of the president and his contribution to the cause of humanity, he said: “My theology may be questioned. I admire his submission, I adore the gentle acquiescence, but I do not believe ‘It is God’s way.’ I cannot say in that sense ‘His will be done.’ I will not venture upon thought so sacred at this time. It is enough to say ‘God has permitted it. God is good.’
     “Surely only an enemy would murder the nation’s president. The cur, the viper (and I apologize to the snake), the incarnate devil who betrayed the president and covered his purpose while firing the fatal shot was a traitor. He hated this country, despised the government, sneered at law and defied order. The penalty of treason is death, and the traitor should be hung ‘higher than Haman,’ without mercy or respite.”