Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1894-08-07

American hemisphere.
Let all the Catholic prelates of Can
ada and the United States meet, say,
two years hence all the leading repre-
sentatives of the Protestant churches in
the city of Chicago, and let Christian
edict go forth anathematizing the man.
ufacture and promiscuous sale of alco-
holic intoxicants ON the American hemi-
sphere, and $4,000, 900 of Catholics,
| 10, 900, 900 of Methodists, 1000, 900 Of
Baptists, 5000, 900 of Presbyterians
and 10, 200, 900 Of all other denomina-
tions will manfully, fearlessly, rejoic-
ingly, and, if necessary, aggressively,
back this divine manifesto, which in
its emancipation of the people will be
grander and more benefcent than all
the magma chartas of the world.
Can 1t be done?
1t can
The people want it.
The churches must go with the people,
or the people will leave the churches
Most of the Catholic bishops are pre-
pared for it.
Most of the Protestant clergy are in
favor of it.
Let us, the people, force it on the un-
willing ones by demanding it in the
name of God and of his Christ.
Leaning on the mighty power of
Christ behind us, we will win, we will
bear in triumph the fronded palm Of a
victory that will be the child of the
dawn of a glorious day of righteousness
and freedom from the direst bondage
that ever enslaved the human race, for
the combined tyrannies of all the ages
could not fetter man, but the accursed
liquor traffic has.
Liquor is no more the gift Of God
than cholera. Both are the productions
of human perversity.
God never made cholera; filth makes
it.
God never made alcohol; man makes
it by destroying the healthy ingredients
of the fruits of the earth.
What has alcohol ever done for the
world?
Does it make men chaste, knightly,
faithful, pure in thought, beautiful in
word, pious in deed?
Does it help men to sustain their parts
bravely, cheerfully and piously in this
world Of eternal order, beauty and love?
Docs it sanctify the individual, con-
secrate the homo and sweep the soul
heavenward in it's aspirations for ever
lasting righteousness?
No
1t destroys the body and damns the
soul.
1t lowers manhood, degrades woman
hood, estranges man from the fellowship
Of the angels, from the kinship of God,
and chokes the Christ within the soul
Soul discord, poverty, crime and sin
are the baneful fruitages of this curse.
1t awakens all the chords of savagery
and brutally in man.
1t disintegrates character, generates
crime and foments all the sensuous sedi-
ments of sexual immortality.
1t is the stumbling block of youth,
the wreck of manhood, the despair Of
old age.
1t crowds the prisons, populates the
asylums and poorhouses and fills the
untimely grave.
1t silvers prematurely the hairs Of
fathers and mothers, breaks the hearts
of loving wives, cruelty outrages the in
nocence of childhood, while it banishes
God and the angels from the sacred
precincts of the soul
Show me poverty, show me crime,
show me anguish of soul and body, and
will show you that three-fourths of it
come either directly or indirectly out Of
the whisky bottle!
1t is the cause of three-fourths of our
spiritual ailments and physical diseases.
1t keeps the doctor busy in his Office,
the priest weary in the confessional
1t is darkness in the home, cloud in
the church and night in the heart Of
man.
1t blights the sweet roses of charity,
withers the adorable blossoms of love,
darkens the sublime radiance Of the in
tellect, chases every sunbeam of happi-
ness from the human heart, extinguishes
every lamp of holiness in the lighthouse
of the human conscience and makes of
the soul sovereign in prison, Napoleon
looking out ON the sad and solemn sea.
1t is the giant evil of all evils, the
greatest force out of hell, the greatest
enemy of humanity, the greatest desc
orator of godliness and of God
1t wastes Gods gifts to man.
If homes are destroyed, like birds
nests in a hurricane, are not the
churches the guardians of the homes?
If saloons are bad near churches and
schools and cemeteries, are they not
worse when located near homes and un-
der homes?
If drink is bad ON Sunday, when the
churches are going full blast, is it not
worse on Monday, when the churches are
shut down?
The 1000, 900 of men out of employ
ment in the United States and whose
wives and little ones are begging for
bread spent 500, 900. 900 in strong