The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-01-24

an ECCLESIASTICAL JOKE at WHICH
no man can laugh who has never seen
the tyranny and domestic Indebtedness
which always appear where that relig-
ion gets foothold. It has marched across
continents and now proposes to set up
it's filthy and accursed banner in Amer
lea, and what it has done for Turkey
ii would like to do for our nation. A
religion that brutally treats woman
hood ought never to be fostered in our
country. But there never was a religion
so absurd or wicked that it did not get
disciples, and there are enough fools in
America to make large discipleship of
Accommodation. This corrupt religion
has been making steady progress for
hundreds of years, and Notwithstanding
all the splendid work done by the Jes-
sups, and the Goodells, and the Blisses,
and the Van Dykes, and the Posts, and
the Misses Bowens, and the Misses
Thompsons, and scores Of other men
and women Of whom the world was not
worthy there it stands. the giant of sin,
accommodation, with one foot on the
heart of woman and the other on the
heart Of Christ, while IL mumbles from
its minarets this stupendous blasphemy.
God Is great, and Nohammed is his
prophet" Let the Christian printing
presses at Beyroot and Constantinople
keep on with their work and the men
and women of God in the mission fields
toll until the Lord crowns them, but
what we are all hoping for is some
thing supernatural from the heavens. as
yet unseen, something stretched down
out of the skies, something like an arm
uncovered, the bare arm of the God of
nationsi
Evils of the Day.
There stands also the arch demon of
alcoholism. Its throne is white and
made of bleached human skulls. On
one side of that throne of skulls kneels
| IN obeisance and worship democracy, and
on the other side republicanism, and the
one that kisses the cancerous and
gangrened foot of this despot the often
est gets the most benedctions. There is
Hudson river, an Ohio, a Mississippi
] or strong drink rolling through this
nation, but as the rivers from which /
! take my figure of speech empty into the
Atlantic or the gulf this mightier flood
I of sickness and insanity and domestic
ruin and crime and bankruptcy and woe
| empues into the hearts. and the homes,
and the churches, and the time. and
the eternity Of a multitude beyond all
/ statistics to number or describe. All
nations are mauled and scarified with
baleful stimulus or killing narcotic. The
| pulque of Mexico, the cashew Of Brazil
the hasheesh of Persia, the opium of
China, the guavo Of Honduras, the wedro
/ of Russia, the soma of India, the
aguardiente of Morocco, the arak of
Arabia, the mastic of Syria the raH of
I nTkeNs the peer or Germany, the WHISKY
/ OF Scotland, the ale of England, the all
drinks Of America, are doing their best
! TO Stupefy, infiame dement,, impoVerish,
/ brutalize and slay the human race.
Human power, unless reinforced from
| the heavens. can never eXtirpate the
( evils / mention.
Much good has been accomplished by
the heroism and fidelity of Christian re-
! formers, but the fact remains that there
! are more splendid men and magnificent
women this moment going over the Nj
! agara abysm of inebricty than at any
time since the first grape was turned into
wine and the first head of rye began to
soak in a brewery. When people touch
! this subject they are apt To give statiS-
| ties as to how many millions are in
I drunkards' graves or with quick tread
marching on toward them. The land is
fun of talk of high tariff and low tariff,
! but what about the highest of all tar
/ ifs in this country, the tariff of $780,.
/ 100000 which rum put upon the United
/ States in 1891, for that is what it cost
/ us? You do not tremble or turn pale
| when l say that. The fact is we have
| become hardened by statistics, and they
| make little impression. But if some one
| could gather into one mighty lake all
! the tears that have been wrung out Of
| orphanage and widowhOod. or into one
! organ diapason all the groans that have
| been uttered by the suffering victims of
II
! the signs of centuries of dissipation, or
| from the wicket of one immense prison
/ have look upon us the glaring eyes of all
| those whom strong drink has endun-
| geoHed, we might perhaps realize the APP
palling desolation. But no, no; the sight
] would forever blast our vision; the sound
/ would forever stun our souls. Go on
/ with your temperance literature; go on
! with your temperance platforms; go on
! with your temperance laws. But we are
| all hoping for something from above
| and while the bare arm of invalidism,
and the bare arm of poverty. and the
: bare arm of domestic desolation from
/ which rum hath torn the sleeve are
! lifted in beggary and supplication and
/ despair let the bare arm Of God strike
the breweries, and the liquor stores, and
/ the corrupt politics, and the license
/ laws and the whole inferno of grog-
shops all around the world. Down, thou
accursed bottle, from the throne. Into
/ the dust, thou king of the demijohn!
Parched be thy lips. thou wine cup, with
fires that shall never be quenched!
Plenty of Ammunition.
But I have no time to specify the
manifold evils that challenged Chris
tianitv. And think l have seen in some
| Christians. and read in some newspa-
pers. and heard from some pulpits a dis
heartenment, as though Christianity We're
| so worsted that 1t is hardly worth while
| to attempt to win this world for God
| and that all Christian work would col
| Lapse. and that Ii is no use for you to
| teach a Sabbath class or distribute
| tracts or exhort in prayer meetings or
| preach in a pulpit, as satan is gaining
| ground. To rebuke that pessimism, the
| gospel of smashup, preach this sermon,
| showing that you are on the winning
side. Go ahead! Fight on! What 1 want
| to make out today is that our ammuni-
! ton is not exhausted; that all which has
| been accomplished has been only the
| skirmishing before the great Arranged
don: that not more than one of the thou
! sand fountains of beauty in the Kings
| park has begun to play; that not more
| than one brigade Of the innumerabl
| hosts to me marshaled by the rider on
the white horse has yet taken the field
| that what God has done yet has been
| with arm folded in flowing robe, but that
the time Is coming when He will rise
| from His throne, and throw off that
| robe and come out of the palaces of
| eternity, and come down the stairs OF
| heaven with all conquering step, and
halt in the presence Of expectant nations,
| and flashing his omniscient eyes across
| the work to be done will put back the
sleeve of his right arm to the shoulder
| final and complete rescue make bare
| His arm. Who can doubt the result
| when. according to my text, Jehovah
does His best, when the last reserve force
of omnipotence takes the field, when the
last sword Of eternal might leaps from
it's scabbard? Do you know what de-
| cided the battle of Sedan The hills n