The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1888-10-17
SteepIes and Quicksands.

In the county Of Kent, England says the
Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts in the Voice, is the
little borough of Tenterden, containing
about five thousand inhabitants About
thirty miles away, in early times, was the
estate Of Earl Godwiue, on the sea coast
Half century after the Earls death, about
500 years ago. the bishop Of the diocese built
steep,e TO Ienterden church. A few months
afterwards the sea swept through the diRes
and carried away the Ear's estate, which be
came dangerous quicksand, known since as
Goodwin Sands. No sooner had the angry
sea carried of his prey than the villagers
gathered together to ask themselves why the
calamity had occurred. The older men of the
village were asked for their opinions in turn
At length one old man, pointing to tine
steeple thirty miles away, said solemnly,
"Tenterden steeple was the cause of Goodwin
Sands. The remark was greeted with o
burst of laughter, and for centuries was used
as proverb whenever any one fell into
the illogical argument known as post hoe.
ergo, prOpter hOc-after this, therefore be
cause Of this. But later explorations prove
that the old man was right. Historic docu
mentS show that revenues previously de
voted to keeping the sea-wall in repair were
taken by the bishop, because the sea had been
quiet for a year or two to build the church
steeple, and so the dixie had been neglected,
and gave way before the wild charge Of the
waves, and a fair estate became deadly
quick-sand
Why have the floods Of intemperance il
the last thirty years captured so much of
our national estate, and made it quicksand
full of licensed pits of deathi "Tenterden
steeple was the cause of Goodwin Sands
Our churches have given too much of Their
time and money and energy to building
steeples of ecclesiasticism, and too little to
the practical dixie building of preventive re
form work. Let us not put into the steeple
building of church pride the money an6
effort and work that is more imperatively
needed to make every Sabbath school n repi
ment or company in the Cold Water army
to make every Christian an abstainer and
an advocate of abstinence Down there
in the pews there are men ano
even boys whose flushed faces and
beery breath proclaim that the alcoholic
flood is breaking through upon them. What
is the minister doing up there in the pulpit
Steeple- -building-preac about future
probation for dead heathen that cannot be
helped by any theories we may devise Mar
of God bark! Do you not hear the crash OF
the wild sea on the neglected dykes close al
handi Do you not see men and boys-aye,
women and girls-right before whose fair
estate of health and home and hope will soon
be the drunkard's quicksand, if you do not
strengthen the old dikes Of the pledge and
Prohibitions
Come down from your steeples, o men of
God, preachers teachers, parents, and
strengthen these dikes
ThiRk of a preachers meeting DISCUSSING
"The Politics Of Calvin when the politics OF
the devil, with its mad waves of rum. is
dashing against their very doorsl Well has
it been said that pulpit silent on the temper
ance question discredits itself as much as
pulpit silent about dishonesty Both of these
questions are 'in politics. as subjects of leg
islation. Let not that fact make conserva-
tives neglect the dixie OF Prohibition, nor
radicals the equally important dixie of the
pledge.