The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-01-21

holiness and rapture. Will it be done
oy worldly reform, or evangelism?
VIII it be law, or gospel? l am glad
that wave of reform has swept
across this land, and all the cities
are feeling the advantages of the
mighty movement. Let the good
work go on until the last municipal
evil is extirpated. About fifteen years
ago the distinguished editor of New
York daily newspaper said to me in
his editorial room, s'You ministers
talk about evils of which you know
oothing. Why don't you go with the
officers of the law and explore for
! yourself, so that when you preach
against sin you can speak from what
you have seen with your own eyes?''
[ said Il will - And in company with
4 commissioner of police, and plain
of police, and two elders of my church.
! l explored the dens and hiding places
! of all styles of crime in New York, and
| preached a series of sermons warning
| young men, and setting forth the work
| that must be done lest the judgment
| of God whelm this city with more
t awful submergem than the vOlcan-
! ic deluge that buried Herculaneum
and Pompeii. I received, as nearly as
l can remember, several hundred col
umns of newspaper abuse for I'M
dertaking that exploration. Edito-
| rials of denunciation. double loaded,
and with captions in great primer type,
entitled 1.-THE Fall of Talmage,' or
''Talmage Makes the Mistake of His
Life, or Down with Talmage," but 1
still live, and am in full svmpa1hy with
all movements for municipal purifca-
ton. But a movement which ends
with crime exposed and law executed
stops half way. Nay, it stops long be-
fore it gets half way: The law never
yet saved anybody; never yet
changed anybody. Break up all the
houses of iniquity in this city, and you
only send the occupants to other cities
Break down all the policemen in New
York, and while it changes their
worldly fortunes, it does not change
their heart or life. The greatest want
in New York to-day is the transform
ing power of@the gospel of Jesus Christ
to change the heart and life, and up
lift the tone of the moral sentiment
and make men do right, not because
they are afraid of Ludlow Street
Jail or Sing Sing, but because they
L
have never heard, nor have YOU heard,
/ of anything except the gospel that pro-
poses to regenerate the heart, and by
the influence of that regenerated
heart, rectify the life Execute the
law most certainly; but preach the
gospel, by all means-in churches, in
theaters, in homes, in prisons, on land
and on the sea. The gospel is the only
no of
and save the world All else is half
and half work, and will not last In
New York it has allowed men who
got by police bribery their thousands,
and tens of thousands, and perhaps
hundreds of thousands of dollars to
go scot free; while some who were
merely the cats paw and agents of
bribery are struck with the 1ightnings
of the law. 1t reminds me OF d scene
in Philadelphia when [ was living
there. A poor woman had been ar
rested and tried and imprisoned for
selling molasses candy ON Sunday.
Other law breakers had been allowed
to go undisturbed, and the grog shops
were open on the Lords day, and the
law with its hands behind its back
.. walked up and down the streets declin-
ing to modest many of the offenders;
but we all rose up in our righteous in
dignation, and calling upon all pow
ers, visible and invisible, to help US,
we declared that though the heavens
fell no woman should be allowed to
sell molasses candy on Sunday
, There is that mother who through
all the years of infancy and childhood
,, was kept running amid sick trundle
beds, now to shake up the pillow fo1
that faXen head, and now to give q
drink to those parched lips, and nov
to hush the frightened dream of lit
, tie one: and when there was one less
OF the children because the great lover
: OF children had lifted one out of the
Group into the easy breathing of celes
tlal atmosphere, the mother putting
all the more anxious care on those wht
were lest; SO weary of arm, and foot
and back, and head. so often CRYING
I out, Il am so tired! / am so tired!
Her work done, she shall sit down ADt
L that business man for thirty. forty fl fit,
years has kept on the run, not urged
by selhshness, but for the purpose O
achieving d livelihood for the house
hold. On the run from store to store
L or from factory to factory; meetin.
- this loss, and discovering that inaccu
y, u racy, and suffering betrayal or disar
- pointment; never more to be cheate,
or perplexed, or exasperated, he shall
> sit down. Not in great arm chair o
heaven, for the rockers of such a chat
would imply ones need of soothing, 0
cIinging to easy posture, or semi-indi
vidualism: but throne, solid as eter
nifty andradiant as the morning after
night of storm. They shall 81
u down.
II Frederick the Great, notwithstand
: ing the mighty dominions owe
g which he reigned, was so depressed a
times he could not speak without or,
- ing, and carried small bottle Q