River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1894-01-11
"Who Will Roll Away The Stone?"

The Scripture scene is a marvellous
commentary upon woman's quiet,
indomitable, determined faith. Hope
is hopeless, life smitten and dismay-
ed, and yet she viii do something.
She will go and see the place where
Jesus sleeps, embalm the body with
her spices, shed few more tears
maybe something will happen.
But who will roll away the stone?
The huge boulder was there against
the slab that held the Christ entomb-
ed, it was there as the obstacle that
defied their access to Him. They
could not remove it; and now, who
could?
When they looked, 10, it was roll
ed away. The strong angels of God
were there, to do what, and all, these
women could not do. God works
by His own methods, but always by
instrumentalities. Faith without
work, is dead, being alone All the
miracles of Old or New Testament
were a cooperation of the divine and
human. Faith goes to the absolute
line of attempt, and God does the
rest.
The boulder of the saloon lies
right in the path of progress, lies
over against the fairest things and
best we know, and it entombs the
hope and happiness ofsixty-hve mill
ions OF people. 1t rests against the
door Of every nome. No home in all
this fair land is free. No mother
knows when her boy leaves the fire
side, whether he will come back UNI
tainted and unframed. 1t may be
the walk to business, to the post
Office, or the social call; it may be
ON his way to the house OF God,
that, also, the pitlall throws its allur
I
ing, enticing glamour across his
way. In order To recruit the saloon
and support 1t, in order to till the
depleted ranks OF the great army OF
Jaded, rlbald, specter-rIdden drunk
ards doomed ami damned by 1t
every year, 1t must rob from seven
ty-tive to eighty thousand homes
annually.
Tie saloon is tie boulder that is
wrecking our railroad trains. A
prominent railroad superintendent
recently said to us, I'VE fear the
drunken engineer or swltchnan
more than we do broken bridges,
overworked men, or all the other IN
lelcItIes OF the business. Seven
times out of ten when accident oc-
Ours, lie find the drink curse has
gotten in It's work somewhere anu
made somebody incompetent"
The saloon stands right in the
way Of the development, social,
mental, and moral, of the voting
classes. In Boston, New York anu
Chicago, the saloon mas already
wrested the municipal government
| from the hands of the sober, indus
trlous ctasses, and given 1t to the
iawless, the ignorant and vicious.
The Inebriated ana lmbruted classes
mold the reins, AID the man who
drives the brewers wagon drives the
mayor, the police, the council and
courts. The saloon is the boulder
resting hard against the financial
prosperity OF the country. Eight
hundred thousand dollars for pau
peIs; forty million dollars for crime,
courts and jails; two hundred and
twenty-five million dollars waste in
industrial power; one hundred mill
ION dollars for the insane; nine
hundred million dollars for the
drink. Add these and you have
only the approximate cost of this
mighty load which the nation has
legallzed and is trying to carry.
And yet, good men are telling US
to lift this stone by prayer. They
gather IN Its presence and sing gospel
hymns, reassure each other as to the
promises OF God, and believe that
some rare miracle of God will, at
last, lit the awful shadow from our
hearts and homes.