Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1894-11-13
MISSISSIPPI TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13 1894.

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despicable webs about him and should
say, II am Christian man; am for
protecting America from the invasions
of European criminals and paupers; l
am for protecting American labor from
competition with the underpaid and un-
derfed labor Of other countries; am for
the protection of American capital in a
fair show against the immemorial plants
of foreign lands; | am for the absolute
freedom and purity Of the ballot box;
am for the prompt and effectual enforce
ment of law; l am for protecting the
honor of the land and her youth and
homes by the faying and pulverizing of
the liquor traffic, he would sit at the
head of the nations table and honor
himself and the memory of Rutherford
B and Lucy Hayes i'll serving water to
the diplomatic guests and wear as king
ly diadem in this country's gratitude
as Lincoln, Grant or Garfield wears in
its memory. IGreat applause.
The Methodist church ought to de-
mand party that saloon keeper could
consistently hate and candidates that
would scorn to win an office by sitting
an honest thought, intelligent enough
to see an enemy and bravo enough to
meet him.
Some one is sure to think that l am
forcing upon you the claims Of tho Pro-
hibition party. On the contrary, al
though am a loyal member Of it, l am
ready to leave it this minute to jo;a the
Christian manhood and womanhOJd of
this nation in a new party, provided
only it be in favor of prohibition and
brave enough to say so; but SO help mo
God, Twill never take orders from q
dumb general, nor join the standard of
a coward, nor vote for any man for Office
who has not plainly spoken out and
spoken loudly on this subject Tire
mendous applause.
All the accusations you can lay
against the Prohibition party of prema-
tureness, shrewish temper-anything-
l will confess or stand mute and help
you obliterato it if you will only raise
the Methodist colors somewhere else and
get under them, or l will gladly return
to the Republican party just as it is if
it will plainly pledge itself to withdraw
the sanction of law from the liquor
traffic.
have no pet theories as to the neces-
sity of new parties, but Christian poll
tics must have some place to stay and
some means of expressing Methodist
piety i'll continuous pressure. Natural
gas has great capacities of illumination,
but is apt to blow itself out. Laugh
ter. Church resolutions are like that.
What we want is burner. "No man
lighteth a candle and putteth it under a
bushel" If he does, people think him
fool, and if he should justify his con-
duct by offering to prove that it was a
true, standard, perfect bushel they
would be sure he was. Laughter.
We have a candle. We must put it
upon a candlestick-not to make people
see, but to light the house. If we were
simply to deal with the old question
and hold to the old levels, l should in
cline to count the Republican party
quite satisfactory, but we cannot keep
this level.
Dead fish, dead men and dead nations
float down the stream of life or lie
helpless and superhuous in its eddies,
but life, whether by fins or feet Or faith,
goes up. 1t never despises the great,
brackish, bitter sea from which it came,
nor chides the long lagoons it passes
through. 1t makes no great point of
speed, but always and always turns
away from the lower levels toward the
heights and the sources.
Nations are Gods ships that trade
from port to port across eternity, gath
ering men and women and gems and
dyes and fabrics for his many mansions;
ours a catamaran whose everlasting
mutiny as to who shall do most makes
her uncapsizable, vibrant and very slow.
When the crews shift, there are mutter-
ings and loud complaints, but never any
lack of willing hands to serve or hearts
to dare.
Churches are locks in the river that
proceed forth from the throne of tho
universe. Men build them, but the en-
gineering and motive power are divine.
They are the immovable and imperisha-
BILE gateways up to new levels. While
there is channel and sea room all is
plain sailing straight ahead or up the
winding convolutions of the rent and
storm swept earth, but when the hills
dip to the waters edge and block the
future and make future progress impos-
sible to any PROV then comes the cru
cifixion of endeavor, and after that the
miracle of the lock, and resurrection
power, and the new birth of opportu-
nifty, and new earth and heaven of as
piration. [Applause.l
Judaism lifted the world out Of the
bed of the Nile up to place where
Egypt's cats and paltry, purring gods
could not survive or follow. Catholi-
cism lifted it again up into the foothills
of Europe. The reformation mounted
another rise Methodism was up from
! that, and the irrepressible crystallization
of young Christian life into unsectarian
n