Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1894-08-07
A GREAT SPEECH.
DELIVERED BY A CATHOLIC PRIEST
ON PROHIBITION.

lopeecn delivered by Father Murphy OF
Montreal at the Prohibition Park temperance
conference.l
We are not Of the night nor of the
darkness, but of the day, and the new
day of the civilization of tomorrow
must dawn without the liquor traffic If
we will save the millions of the indus
trial classes who are being gradually
alienated from the churches and from
moral rectitude.
/ como here today as Roman Cath
olic priest to lift up my voice and to
tell the house of Jacob, or, in other
words, the churches, of their sins
come here today to emphasize the
civilization wide cry Of enslaved mil
lions to tho churches for emancipation
and higher code of ethics.
will not speak to you of the jugger-
nauts of India, nor Of the cannibalism
of distant islands, nor of Hindoo moth
ers throwing their children into tho
river Ganges, but will tell you of the
juggernauts of SO called Christian civil
lization, which are crushing the hearts
blood out of millions Of our fellow be-
ings.
The burning question Of the hour, o
question which is convulsing the worlds
thoughts and hopes, is, Shall the sleep
ing churches awaken to the cries Of the
heart bleeding multitudes, and with q
baptism Of heavenly deliverance sweep
away, as by divine tidal wave, this
idolatrous temple of the liquor traffic?
The social, political and economic un-
rest and distress of the world demand
an answer, and that answer will be
either religion or revolution.
1t will be the whirlwind of revolu-
tion if tho churches continue, with
tinkered logic, to wrap the mantle of
compromising creeds around the inher-
tied lie and consecrated folly of the
liquor traffic.
1t will be revolution if the churches
will continue with eyes rs blind as
crustacean trollobites to the abject pow
erty that crouches in the shadows of
costly temples.
1t will be revolution if the churches
continue with ears as deaf as death to
the cries Of the suffering Christ, whose
crimsoned cross of redemption is frus-
trated and Knocked by the Tyrian dyed
trident of rum
1t will be revolution if the churches
confused by worldliness and selfish appe-
tite as of old on the plains of Shinar,
will continue to misunderstood the vi
brations and spirit speech of heaven
against this nefarious destroyer Of
souls.
Will it be revolution?
1t depends.
1t is solemn time, and its urgent
and high demands will test the heroism
of the purest and bravest souls
The past is fixed and sad, with its
baff1ed endeavors and buffeted hopes.
The future lies before us.
Shall the churches lay hold of their
divine resources, Of the redemptive op-
portunity?
If so, there must be change of front
and spirit.
After generations Of moral and reli-
gious effort, after processes of total alb
stinence, compromise with the demon
Of alcohol and the farce of unenforced
legal enactments to curb the audacity
of the saloon keepers. the liquor traffic,
alas, today engulfs the nations like an
immense sea!
IT therefore takes no scientist with
wrinkled brow to tell us that it is the
disease and not the symptoms with
which we must deal if we will make
the world morally free
If we will stop drunkenness, with Its
train of appalling evils, we must stop
drinking, and woeful experience tells
us that we cannot stop drinking unless
we stop drink.
Total abstinence is all right if you
give the boys and girls a chance, but ex-
perience proves too sadly that the boys
and girls will not be total abstainers in
the presence of the temptation of drink.
Here, then, is the rub.
Drink itself is the rift in the Lutte to
which we all look for melodious music.
AS we'll try to gather the rose hues OF
the setting sun as to stop drinking in
the presence of drink.
The saloon is the proximate occasion
for all men to drink, and drinking is the
proximate occasion of drunkenness for
the majority of men.
No theological casuistry will reason
this logic of experience away.
Hence, if the churches cannot ami
hilate the devil, they can surely prevent
objective temptation.
The liquor traffic is an open pit Of
perdition in the very jostling highways
of social life, and countless thousands
are blindly precipitated into it, drag
ging with them defenseless mothers and
innocent babes.
Are not the churches bound to close
up this internal pit?
No danger signal will do.
The temptation must be removed.
Men are weak; at best they have as
much as they can do to morally stand
,,,,-;c ;cbtlv. banca the churches are bound