Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1892-03-17
The Saloon Has Long Carried
1.-THE Church and Her Al
lies Must Garry 1t too.
A DESPERATE FIGHT AHEAD
The Field of Battle Must be the
Field of Politics.
BY BISHOP FITZGERALD, OF THE METHo-
DIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.


is the arch destroyer of all that is
dear to man. 1t is sleepless, relent-
less. Unsuitable, mighty. There is
but one power in the land that is
stronger, and that is the church. If
the saloon is to be overthrown the
church must overthrow it. Will she ?
The question is one of purpose, not
ability. She can do whatsoever she
will in this important work.
The service which the church has
already rendered in antagonism to
the saloon is not, by any means, to be
disparaged. On the contrary, it is to
be acknowledged as well-nigh inval-
liable.
Nevertheless, we are persuaded that
before she can fully accomplish the
great mission to which we believe
God has called her, she must take a
much longer step in advance and
strike far heavier blows. Her forces
must be thoroughly and permanently
organized, and, combined with kim
dred forces, must constitute the op-
position. The foes of the saloon must
unite against its friends. The issue
be fairly joined. The saloon has long
carried the black flag. HencefOrth
the church and her allies in this par
ticular warefare must carry it too.
The battle must be desperately fought,
and the field of battle must be the
field of politics. This opposition
must enter that field, just as did the
opposition to the extension of slavery,
and it must remain therein until pro-
hibition, like freedom, shall become
an accepted doctrine against which no
party shall dare to speak. From every
organization that sympathizes or COM
promises with the rum traffic Chris
tian men must separate themselves
and unite in an organization, every
member of which shall at all times,
including election days, and in all
places, including the polls, and with
all powers, including the ballot,
stand against the giant evil of the
day. The voting clergymen and lay
men of the church must become a
unit on this great subject at the bal
lot bOx-the point at which they have
been divided in the past and are di-
vided now.
Here is a difficult problem. But it
could be solved, and it would be
solved were it not for the strength of
old political party ties, than which,
nothing on earth seems stronger. In
1S6O-65, many man who thought
himself to be loyal to the nation to
the last degree, became a sympathizer
with the rebellion solely because of
his love for political party. And so
to-day many a man who thinks him.
self to be true friend of Prohibition
becomes an apologist for the license
system simply because he fears that
the political party of his love may be
harmed if prohibition be insisted up
on.
Bishop Foster fOrcibly and truthful
ly says: .The church of today,
much more the church of the future,
must take to its heart the duty of
combining and massing Its forces
against that gigantic atrocity, that
diabOlical conspiracy, that nameless
monstrum horrendum of Christian CIV
ilization, that mothers nine-tenths the
woes and sorrows which blight and
curse our modern age-the traffic in
intoxieants, which hides its deformity
under forms of law"
elbow long shall the face of our
Christian age blister with this worse
than pagan shamee Has the virtue
OF our time degenerated so low that
we do not even blush at the legisla-
tive traffic in the souls of our own
children That by the very doors of
our own homes and our temples an
army of miscreants should by author
ization of law, made by Christian
law -givers, prosecute work of MUIR
der and death How can
we 60 to Heaven with this cancer of
worse than heather infamy fostering
in our bosomf"
What an arraignment is this ? Can
the "Christian law-giversn enter any
plea except that of guilty 7 and can
Christian voters fail to see that they
are particeps criminis Z They unite,
it is true, in demanding prohibitory
law, but they do not agree in support
of men to enforce it, or even to enact
it.
They adhere to the ssold party and
ssstraight ticket and-the irregular
candidate;n and then they go forth
saying, 'sprohibition is, without
donbt, the best thing, but if we can
not prohibit, we must try to restrict .
While it is not surprising that Chris
tian men should pronounce sslicensen
to be "vicious in principle and power
less as a remedy it is more than sur
prising, it is amazing, that they
should east their ballots for any mar
who is committed to that same
ssvicious prnciplen of license.
The sad experiences of the pasi
ought to teach all churchmen the les
son which saloonists have learned SC
perfectly, namely, that men are neees-