Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1895-02-26
Let Her Last Impassioned Words
Sink Deep Into the Souls Of Men.
HER FAITH In GOD NEVER WAvERED
Therefore Her Faith In the Prohibi-
ton Cause and Its Ultimate Sue
cess Was Upon the Rock.
Mary T. Lathrap is deadl

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hibition.
Thousands were won over to the cause
by her burning. eloquent words
We have made careful selections from
her more recent speeches, and we pray
that they will be read by thousands.
and that blind eyes will be opened:
80
Yesterday the temperance question
was relegated to the realm of morals,
and the demand was made that 1t should
be finally settled by the forces there to
be applied.
Today the temperance question has
come to the realm Of politics, and the
demand is made that its final settlement
shall come through the forces there to
be applied
Yesterday all the world outside Of the
saloon, and, strangely enough, part Of
the world inside Of the saloon were
praising the temperance men and WON.
en-, because out in the moral realm they
were using it as forces for the reforma-
ton of the drunkard.
Today all the world inside the saloon,
and, strangely enough, part Of the moral
world outside Of the saloon is hurting
criticisms, not to say anathemas. at the
heads of those same temperance men
and women, because in the political
realm they are seeking to use its forces.
-.
From these facts two conclusions are
to be derived.
The first, that the battle line Of tenn
perance reformation has changed front
and moved on.
The second, that this change Of front
and onward movement is toward the
final victory, because the cry Of wrath
and fear has gone up from the camp Of
the enemy.
Whatever weak hearted and weak
faced temperance people may think
about the final conclusion Of the liquor
traffic, the liquor fraternity and their
support understand that the knell Of
this business is not to be sounded until
conviction and intelligence and con.
science and indignation come to the bal.
lot box and crystalline there in that ON.
nipotent thing that falls
As softest snow falls on the sod.
Yet executes freeman's will,
As dghtntngs do the will Of God
This nation has admitted in the past
that man is not fitted for citizenship
by being magnificent physical animal;
that if a man will be free his brain
must be free; that he must be able to
stand between the history Of the fast
coming people of our future and speak
his vital word in the living present
For that reason we have our system
Of public education, build our school
houses, pay our teachers out Of public
money, ring our school bells by law, in.
vite the willing and compel the unwill.
ing to 60 to the American schoolhouse,
there to find the way to best serve this
nation as American citizena
Sad will it be for us, dear friends,
when we attempt to run this govern
ment ON merely civil and monetary
Questions-when we dismiss conscience
and thought of home from our political
deliberations.
Sad it will be for us when we do not
listen to the best things our people are
thinking about
Anything that our people pray about
at the family altar, anything that our
students think about in the American
schoolhouses. any question that the
church brings conscience to white heat
upon. is bound sooner or later to ap-
proach the doorways Of empire and ask
for expression there, and any party that
listens to the voice Of the beer brewer
and the saloon instead Of the voice of
home, the schoolhouse and the church
will be relegated to oblivion. and ought
to be-
80
Ever since we have been q nation the
drink habits of the people and their le-
galized mode Of supply have been trou-
bier in our moral and political Israel
The people that love humanity have
been seeking by certain moral agencies
to beat back and down the evils OF
which we complain.
You will remember we had church
in this country before we had q saloon,
before we had the legalized saloon sys-
tenn. and for 200 years the church OF
God has been doing its work in the re-
public Of America
And yet the church of Christ, by her
past methods practiced in this country,
has been able to offer no perceptibie
check to the steadily growing civil and
political power of the legalized liquor
traffic
Now, do not misunderstood me and do
not misrepresent me after am gone.
do not say that the church has not
saved the victims of the liquor traffic.
She has, with hand as gentle and
heart as tender as her Masters. gone
down into the slumways where these
victims lie and picked up the battered
lives that nobody else ever cared for and
poured into their ears the only story that
could save them.