Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-30
REMARKABLE SERMON
Delivered Without a Text by a
Prominent Episcopal Minister.
DIR. RAINSFORD ON PARKHURST.
He Declares an offensive law Cannot Be
Strictly Enforced.
A BOLD DEFENDER OF THE SALOON

Rainsford, on the methods of moral war
fare, OF which DIR. Parkhurst is the ex-
ponent and leader in New York City. These
are some OF the things he said:
There is one man who has been promi-
nently before us in the last few months a
leader and captain in a most necessary cru
sade against evil. His course has not
surprised those OF us who know and trust
him. l have the honor of DIR. Parkhursts
friendship, and l consider him second to
none in the sturdy Christian piety which
comes from strong Christian view OF the
situation. Every pious minister ought, and
every Christian man must honor him for
what he has done. His conduct needs no
Vindication.
Now Tor the future. 1 believe this is an
important movement. In what have got to
say may seem to criticise the steps taken,
but have the right to do so. because love
and respect, as a weaker man may, great
leader who has put his hand to this great
work. Now l haven't the slightest doubt
that 1 will get into trouble for what am
going to say, but l can't help saying it. We
have got to be very careful about these
movements started in the church. They
must not be merely anti-vice movements.
Why? Is not anti-vice strong enough? Can
we not ind in it sufficient ground for organ
iZation?
Not Time to BE Bind.
Friends, when we come to deal with an
evil that did not spring up yesterday, but
exists IN all cities that have grown great
which does not touch that individual but
the multitude, We don't have to be blind.
We don't have to put down Our heads,
snort, and charge and utter 4 theological
roar. There are lots of good people that do
il, and they only break their horns. 1t is
very easy to raise cheap hurrah: 1t is easy
10 shout out ''vox populi vo1 del" or any
other lie loudly. and il passes for trtuh. But
We must recognize that shout and a hurrah
will not permanently cleanse and lift up a
city, that it will not reduce single evil ele-
lueut in it, 4 change must be made either |
by legislation or administration.
Vice in this city must be confined to dis |
trictS. There are two horns to the dilemma.
You cannot continue to enforce the present
law, regardless of consequences. That is one
horn. You cannot license evil That's the |
other To license is to add enormously to
the facilities of the commission of vice. |
\ on will never get the churches, please God, |
TO license it. On the other hand L don't |
hesitate to say that to continue ruthlessly
TO enforce the present law is simply to make |
that evil stronger.
An Evil That Cannot Be Pent Up
You might as well have gone to the North |
Brother Island when the typhus fever |
patients were there and think you are i'm |
proving the health of the city by forcing |
those fever-stricken wretches to hide them |
selves from the health board in the dense |
places OF the city as to take this pent-up |
evil and to drive it into the tenement houses, |
10 force it into the boarding houses, and |
pursue it until it hides its head in the hotels. |
This is folly.
Let us know where vice is and it is the |
ea sier to deal with it, We can succor its
sorrows or avoid its pestilence. Let us know
where vice is and we can control lt. Let us
know where vice is and we may be sure that
the police will not blackmail it, 1t is not an
easy subject to speak of, but we must not
simply enforce the present inadequate law.
We must educate the people, so that they
may know what to do and how to legislate.
At Cooper Union l was struck with the
of one woman when the reso-
T1froG TO n aiNln to nnr1f
our amen. Her voice uttered protest
against the inadeQuacy of the resolutions.
Are you going to leave the law as it is now,
when it only persecutes and prosecutes the
women and does not touch the men? A
more in nfeInally unjust and unrigh teous law
can scarcely be conceived.
Offensive Laws Can't Be Enforced.
When a law thus offends public sentiment
it cannot be permanently and success :ully
Let Us to it that a law is not
only enforced, but that it is worthy of being
enforced. If this is not remembered it is
not hard to say what will happen. Even
such a strong, healthy public opinion as
flows in the city will be diverted from its
true purpose, instead of turning the mills of
our social order and grinding the grist of
healthfuI reform, and with roar and foam
before our eyes for brief hour, throw up
much mire and dirt and end in a march.
would express the greatest possibIe SYM
pathy for the earnest and godly people who
believe that for the Christian man and es-
pecially for the priest in his pulpit to touch
evil is sin well nigh objectionable. That
this Is the view of many good men you
would not doubt If you should see the letters
that have come to me in the past week. 1t
Is very hard to protest that thing is right, |
when, in the tears and groans in the name
Of Him whom you should love above all
others, the name of Jesus you are implored |
10 hold your peace. But am just as certain
that this has got to be done as that l stand
here.
The Saloon Come to Stay.
My friends, the saloon has come to stay.
! on cannot abolish it. Men will drink; nor
is it a sin to drink; nor is it sin to keep a
saloon. Ii, in the vast body of civilized
men the use OF alcohol in some form or
other is universal, you can be sure that the
Creator of all things intended to the vast
BODY OF civilized men to use alcohol. l
lon care how opposition bellows or lowers
rs head, that IS SO. The saloons have come
to syay. should they be made as good as
possible or as bad as they can be?
Go down this Sunday afternoon and walk |
down the streets east of the Bowery. Have
You any right to deny the men YOU see there |
their little club, when we have our clubs |
v here we can pass the time? Many people |
want their drink on Sunday. They must
and should have it. l agree with the remark
Of K. Fulton Cutting, at the meeting whose
JrganIZatlOn was afterward captured by our |
prohibition brethren, when he said that if
by holding up his little finger he could close
III,
You should not try to ignore the needs of
human nature. The New Englander is q
persistent force, but the New Englander,
" hen he undertakes to make an excise Ia w |
tor New York, is out of his depth This is
not a New England city. 1t is an Irish city
Hebrew city, a German
sity3 and we are warned it may become an
Italian city. We are not a city of one party. |
Beer Better Than Some Soft Drink
You cannot convince an Englishman that
"a /, l,aa |
yhy am not convinced, perhaps. Ifa man
ired with the sweat and CRIME of New
\ Ork life wants his beer he should have an |
opportunity to get it. He ought not to be
empted to send out his child to break the
aw. All saloons are open on Sunday, every
me knows You may issue an order for a |
week or month, but the 500 policemen on
uty at this moment, good fellows as they
nay be, cannot close the saloons if they
want to, as long as the large body of public
eminent believes that liberty is infringed
n closing them.
We ought to say that we will open for a
ew hours, and after that keep the blinds up,
o we can know whether the la W is enforced
here should not be saloons where simply
trOng and stimulating drinks are sold
here should be a choice of drinks. l don't
ant to see schoolboys filling up with gin
er ale ana l bad soda water at the corners.
lany OF those soft drinks are wretched con-
octlOns, and good, light beer is better 1t
not altogether impossible to hope that the
luIfAeS VIII move In tl1S matter MusG
ne church draw its skirts aside and say she
annot touch this great evilP We must
nderstand the spirit of the times.
The Days of Association.
These are days of association. If we want
make money or obtain education we must
vail ourselves of association. There is an
,casiOnal man so abnormaIly good that he I
lrries all necessary charity, pity character J
Orality under his own hat but he is rare
I'd not always pleasant to live with. Make
brief visit to the country, and a pleasant