The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-04-20
SETTING IDEALS TOO LOW.
Evangelist j. G. WOOlley Addresses An
other Large Audience.

Evangelist John G. Woolley did not talk
long last night, but he set out some plain,
practical facts about the saloon business
during the half hour that he entertained
the usual large audience at Tomlinson Hall.
The meeting was opened with prayer and
Scriptural reading by Rev. James Pinkham,
of Minneapolis. The audience contributed
substantially to the the cause of good citi-
zenship during the singing of the hymn,
"Blest Be the Tie that Binds" Mr.. Wool
ley arose with a letter in his hand. He said
that it contained an appeal from one in
the audience who wanted to be delivered
from the curse of whisky. He hoped that
every Christian in the audience would pray
for the sufferer. The evangelist chose for
his text a passage from the book of David,
r'Wherewithal shall young man cleanse
his ways?' Cleanliness, he said, is the sub
ject of the gospel; clean hearts, clean char
acters and clean ballots He believed that
a young man should be just as clean as he
expected the woman whom he loved to be.
The man who wouldn't like to have his wife
chew tobacco, ought to keep his own mouth
clean; a father who wouldn't want his
daughter to tell an immoral story should
keep his own tongue clean. These things
worked both ways and a man ought TO be
consistent about them.
az have heard" said the evangelist, "of
people who said that salvation was sort
Of tobOggan slide. l don't believe anything
of that sort, but lot of fine fellows have
been fooled with just that kind of gospel
God can't save man until he's ready to be
saved and anything to the contrary is de-
fusion and a snare"
''Ah, friends, there are not enough people
who keep themselves as clean as we re-
formed drunkards do / don't propose to
spend much time in urging drunl<ards to
join a church until the church gets clean
There's no use to talk to young man
about cleansing his way unless he wants to
do it. The great trouble is like this. Too
many people are satisfied with themselves.
When a man sits down in his splendid pal
ace and wants to know how he may cleanse
his way, then l have q message from the
gospel for him. What's the reason that a
saloon beats the church? It's because the
proprietor attends to it. He keeps his slick,
we'll fed barkeeper there 10 look after the
business. TO see that the drunkard gets his
right change or if he's drunk enough, that
he don't get any change He's there. He
keeps an eye on his business. L tell you
that when you vote the same ticket that
your neighbour the saloon-keeper, votes, you
are helping him along.
I'VE set our ideals too low; our stand
ards are too low We try to size up to
mean things that we wouldn't take into our
own home. Republicans take your eyes off
the Republican party, for Jesus sake;
there isn't any Republican party till the
election comes round. Democrats do the
same thing Take heed of the word of God.
Why, when the Democrats are in power the
laws are one way, when the Republicans
are in the laws are different, but the word
OF God is the same on all lands and on all
seas"
The evangelist referred TO the whisky traf-
fic as the insult OF childhood. of wifehOod
and of motherhood, and painted a vivid
picture of the ruin that follows its intro
duction into home. Continuing the
topic he said:
IT'S time John Ba rleycorn be forbidden
from shedding the H. teful green light of his
luStful eyes across the communion table of
the Lords supper; it's time that We real
iZe that the cut-glass decanter from the
Christians sideboard cannot reform the
GROWER of the poor mans tenant and il
is time that the family physician. no mat
the bedside when he puts alcohol into the
prescription. l have three boys and / love
them almost TO idolatry. but l would raJh-
er take one of my darlings by the hand
lead MIN 10 the door and invite consump-
ton in than To have alcohol in my house
on any terms. Consumption kills but the
soul lives on Unscathed; the druukard's soul
sinks down by its own weight into the
pens OF eternal death. 1T is time that the
Christian man quit whining about the
dTunkard and turn his attention TO the sa-
loon. The saloon is the creation of the law
and i once said II is as lawful as the
church. But IL is different from the church
for il has 10 come back every twelve
months 10 get license 10 live Ii sheds its
skin once year. as every other serpent
does. IL you are afraid TO tell your party
that you object 10 the liquor traffic If YOU
can't stop UP the national snake-hole at
Washington, why give the Woman's Chris
tan Temperance Union a chance TO hunt
the thing 10 hell"