Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1894-10-23

mercifully preserved by kind Provi-
dence from watery grave, there were
basic defects in my method of approach.
ing truth. Her system had its drawbacks
doubtless, but know from private ad-
vices not to be gainsaid that she rarely
arrived at an untenable position. Great
laughter.
Our splendid declarations are the
compositions of extreme men, against
which the spirit and traditions of Meth
odism forbid the more conservative to
fight, but do not express the real present
sentiment of the body, which is approx
mately this: The liquor traffic can never
be licensed without sin; but, on the
other hand, the Republican party can
never be kept alive without license.
Therefore sin under protest, but stay
with the majority, ''for if any man sin
he has an advocate with the Father"
"for it must needs be that offenses
come, and woe unto him by whom they
come" But once they have come license
the villain until you can kill him by his
own vote. That, as 1 understand it, is q
kind of ecclesiastical echo of the Repub.
lican party, and it is contemplate for
the Methodist church to be an echo of
anything but the voice Of God. Ap-
plause.l
1t improves a resolution to have the
resolvers mean it. There are several an
swers to this-frst, that the Methodist
church does mean what it says, but that
its deliverances must receive a reason
able interpretation; that it is impossible
Immediately to promulgate or enforce
the right in this behalf; that while tho
Republican party is not openly commit
ted to prohibition, but is, speaking in
general terms, license party, it yet
contains great majority of the prohibi-
tion sentiment and has done more than
any other party for that cause in local
way; that its general trend and outlook
are in the direction of ultimate prohibi-
tion; that Democratic success is a thing
greatly to be dreaded, not only on this
one account, but many others, and that
therefore the real, sincere meaning of
the resolutions as we'll as the plain duty
Of the church is to maintain the some
what though insufficiently advanced po-
sition of the Republican party by its
votes until by its precepts it can build
up the public sentiment to the height of
covering at one stride the distance be-
tween the high priced harlotry of Re-
publican party virtue and the sanctified
purity of Methodist desire; that, in
short, the business of the church is to
educate the Republican party to pro-
hibition, and l say frankly think that
might be done, but not with such a
teacher. A Christianity that consents
when sinners entice it will never convert
them from error. [Applause. A judge
who takes bribes openly can never hope
to bring about pure judiciary, and,
putting the whole subject OH the single
basis of education, l say that Chris
tian man, clergyman or. layman, is
guilty of abominable impudence in
teaching the world in general to vote
the way he does not in particular.
A Republican preacher can lead his
flock no higher politically than Repub-
lican politics, and that is no higher than
a dramseller can reach standing fat
footed. The utmost of Democratic
preachers power politically is to make
Democrats The man who is to teach
prohibition to the world must be Pro-
ibitionist-brain, Drawn and ballot.
Loud applause. And the great problem
for the church is to get fit to preach
Christ to the political parties.
Here is food for reflection. Do not be
angry at me. 1t is not worth while.
Think It over The weight and brains
and votes of the Methodist church, from
the bishops to the last class of proba-
tioners, is in favor of the Republican
party, and the Republican party's night
mare is the dread of growing too decent
to be congenial to saloon keepers. My
charge against it is not perfidy SO much
as superfidy, or, in other words, not so
much that it has betrayed the church
as that it has won and deserved the
abiding confidence of the liquor traffic.
Every Republican platform this au-
tumn declares or will declare for Ii
censed saloon in terms as clear as Ian
guage can invent, for in the light of
blazing property, fired by drink crazed
mobs, and flaming hellfire of drink curl
ing around the pyres of martyred loves
and pillaged homes, in the light of our
criminal records, the reports of the
commissioner Of internal revenue, the
teachings of the schools, the voices of
the pulpit and the press, the agitations
of the Salvation Army and the temper
ance societies, the petitions Of the peo-
pie aghast at the copartnership of piety
and piracy under license laws, silence
in platform is only another spelling of
saloon. lApplause.l
Every Republican state ticket this au-
tumn, and the national ticket two years
hence, will nominate in blank space
white in the glare of campaign fam
beaux, but black as Erebus in the white