The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-07-26
MASSACHUSETTS, PROHIBITION.

which forbids the sale of ice cream on sun
| day, and even the Gale OF ice has been l"ber-
dicted, with the evident purpose OF prevent
| ing the ungodly from making their own
cream at home. Such legislation may seem
TO belong to the sixteenth rather than 10 the
nineteenl h century; but with the help OF the
police and sufficient corps of spies 1t Is pro
! posed to make the cause OF morality 1alf4y
| jump on hot Sundays.-Leavenworth Times.
All penal laws are bat problbItory
laws with penalties attached. There
is no other way TO restrain crime, ana
such laws are right. But prohibitory
! laws of penalties passed for the purpose
of intoxicating either morals or religion,
or for taking the place of moral suasion
and the precepts of the pulpit, are OF
very doubtful utility or wisdom.
! When it is once settled. If ever, that by
penal enactment morality and religion
can be enforced, then all farther use OF
moral teaching and its accompanying
| intellectual expansion cease. Ii pro-
| hibitory legislation ever can be made
! effective In elevatIng either the relIg-
! ious, moral or mental standards OF peo-
/ pie. then Christ should have said 10 his
disciples, Ego We out into the world and
institute campaigns to the end that men
may be saved by legislation; for it Is
not desirable to persuade men to be
christians when they can be effectively
enforced by law TO see the error OF their
ways and fee the wrath to come.
But Christ said No such thing. Paul
and Silss. Timothy and Peter and all
the twelve persuaded men into right
eousness. And SO preachers should
preach Christ and His love, rather than
use stringent criminal laws With any
expectation of elevating men morally
and religiousiy or of bringing many Of
such as shall be saved thereby
into the church. ''Come, let Us
reason together" was the loving precept
Of Christ, rather than "foIsake thou thy
evil thoughts and immoral practices or
the law will put you where the dogs
can't bite you," of the st. John third
party Prohibition platform. A young
man stood upon a street corner IN Nich-
ita, a few days since, and declared the
editor of the EAGLE to be an anarchist,
because we believed in Christ's way of
saving humanity from itself, rather than
the compulsory way Of the priest. That
young man imagined that he was
inspired by the loving spirit of the
purest and wisest Being that ever bore
the burthen OF humanity, while in fact
he had the devil in his heart and would
be dangerous with dynamite bomb in
his pocket; besides he is fools Such as
he would blow up the EAGLE-for
Christ'S sake, and commit great wrong
in the name of morality.
Christ plucked the ears of corn-on
the Sabbath day, and would have
rebuked anyone for Interfering with His
eating of them as he would anyone for
finding fault with another fo- eating
Ice cream on Sunday. When, ii
ever, prohibitory laws are found
effective for enforcing morality
then will not only ice and ice cream and
meat and corn in the ear" be prohib-
tied on that day, but numerous other
things, including the Sunday morning
paper wit b its church notices. These
things accomplished, enforced worship
will follow, together with enforc ed con-
tibutiOns to the church, to charity and
to the preacher, with consequent hypoc-
risy everywhere and a final reaction
to the other extreme.
AT such time and under such condi-
tons a single man, Hilderbrandt, over
turned Rome and revolutionized the re.
ligious world. Hypocrisy had been sue
ceeded by open usurpation, wrong and
outrage. Whatever may be thought of
Hilderbrandt's church, he, by the power
of moral methods and an awakened con-
science-not by penal laws-forced the
thrones of the world to his feet. 1t was
ali by the force of his personal example
and by pr eaching to the conscience of
the people. Another decadence of hypoc-
rlsy from unwarranted church rule and
penalties was as suddenly terminated by
the preaching-not penalties-of Martin
Luther. Still another by Wesley.
"a mans man for "a that, and a
that" The most marked and rapidly
wide spreading moraland religious move
ment sweeping the globe today, reach
ing classes that no penal laws or statutes,
never SO wise could possibly reach, is
the despised "Sslvation Army" Go
hear them on the street corners, as the
shadows of night fall, In every city of
every country. There is no dynamite in
their prayers, no threats of human laws
and statutory penalties in their exhorta-
lions, only meeEness-meekness that
gets down into the dirt of the street
aud living solicitude for the present
and future welfare of Gods poor chill
dren. Sunday ice cream eating and
Saturday night beer drinking and all
other wrongs are left to the individual
conscience which they would awaken by
song and prayer, by example and ex-
horIation, by humility and faith, not by
threats of penal laws.