The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-07-17
CRUSADERS. WHAT THINK YOU 2

"hoi III bneiI SHY zeal, nave conf
manded you to be content to work as
outlaws, instead of demanding your
rights, as citizens, to a voice in the
legislation which controls the liquor
traffic. haven't you at last learned that
we were preaching the true temperance
gospel when we were urging you to put
on the whole armor of God, that you
might be prepared to fight the demon
with ms o1rH weapons as well as yours {?
What think you now of the ten
thousand iterations that have been
poured in your ears by few zealots,
who, without judgment and common
sense, have urged you on 10 do a work
by prayer alone, which can only be ae-
eomplished through mortal agencies,
after having been properly inspired by
prayer? What think you now of the
mockery that is made of prayer by the
majority of men, who, having the ballot,
can laugh your holiest prayers to God to
scorn while bandying the braggadoeio
of your boy preachers on the street as
proof that Christianity cannot and will
not do what they have claimed for it, aud,
therefore, religion is 4 Haunting lie?
God ever proves himself upon the side
Of the ballot. And if whisky has the
ballot and you have it not, your prayers
are but wretched mockery when
weighed in the scale against it, and it is
time that all preachers who declare to
the contrary shall receive the rebuke
their declarations merit, that God may
not be dishonored by religious fanati-
cism, or Christianity be placed in a false
light before people of common sense
who are out of the fold, because of the
vehement elamor of boys who have
planned a work for you and God, which
everybody can see doesn't meet with the
Divine sanction, or it would be success
full.
We have all along rejoiced in your
work, not because we believed that the
saloons of Portland would tremble under
tive knew better all the time, in spite
Of the declarations of the ministers-but
we rejoiced, because We saw that your
failure to make a permanent success of
the temperance reform through the
necessarily spasmodic efforts you were
making, would open your eyes to the
pOtCer OF the ballot.
Fred. Douglass prayed fervently for
dozen years that God would strike the
shackles of slavery from the necks Of
himself and brethren, but the first
prayer that God answered was the one
he made with heart and heels when he
became Jealous enough 10 use the means
that God had given him to travel
toward the North Star.
So, you are praying earnestly that
God will remove the yoke OF wicked
ness from the necks of the intemperate:
but the first prayer that will be ehectu-
ally answered will be made with ballots
in your hands to keep company with the
prayers in your hearts.
If the preachers are afraid to admit
the truth, the New NORTHWEST is not.
And everybody knows that when human
laws, which are tangible powers, come in
contact with human prayers, which are
ideal creations, that the tangible resist
ance will overcome the theoretical Gre
alton, despite the declarations of clergy
men who make the dispensation Of their
gospel the stock in trade of their sub
sistence, or the blind faith of super
stitious devotees to ministerial teach
ings who are in danger of becoming ar
rant unbelievers in Christianity as soon
as their enthusiasm cools and they dis
cover how completely they have been
misled.
We yield to no one i'm our belief in the
efficacy of prayer. But the crusade in
Portland has terminated in additional
proof that no prayer is answered with
out material agency, however deeply it
may be inspired by the influence OF the
Spirit.
Under the laws Of the United States,
every crusader !s an outlaw, and every
temperance advocate rebel. The Gov
ernment protects the liquor traffic by
license, for which it regularly receives
stipulated revenues. And as long as
this license is granted, the man who
buys il is entitled to the protection for
which he pays, and whenever he ap-
peals 10 the licensing power for that
protection, he will receive il in spite of
the prayers OF men aud angels.
In the face of facts like this, it is the
sublimity of folly to talk about the
power of prayer alone to accomplish the
overthrow Of the liquor traffic. One
third OF the saloons that were closed
under the recent religious excitement
in Ohio are already open again, in as
full blast as ever, and we are disgusted
with the cantIng ignorance that will
mock Gods natural laws by trying uu-
natural means to overcome evils that
are all the time fostered through mate
rial Governments.
Again, good crusaders, what think
you? If you had the ballot, don't you
see that you might WELD a potent, tan-
gible power, through its agency, by
which you might abolish the license
system altogether?