The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-18

p6rtation. But our cities are not only the
centers of peoples. but also of most of the
growing and controlling forces of the age.
They are, as DR.. Strong says, both the
nerve centers and the storm centers in our
pace and pattern of predOminatlng forms OF
thought and life Mighty and controlling
energies are localized in these great cen
tiers. Here money sits a crowned king,
thought is restless and intense, plans COM
Pick and purposes far-reachng, While GUS
toms both good and bad, move like the pro-
and crime tester and ooZe like smallpox.
All classes and conditions of human beings
here meet, from the greatest saints TO the
greatest Sinners-a strange and striking
medley of life. Social wrecks and official
malefactors, commercial robbers and es
capped criminals fly to the great centers to
hide themselves or to further ply their law
less schemes. Smitten with shame or stung
by social scorn. they seek the incognito OF
the swarming, rushing crowds.
THE CULTURED PAGAN.
Here is often met that anomalous
product of our Christian civilization-the
cultured pagan. Theaters. ban parks and
other places of amusement are wide open
on the Lords day, while licensed saloons
with their accompanying dens and dives, are
not inaccessible The railways, through
their cheap excursion rates, pour many
thousands of people from the villages and
country into the cities on Sunday, which is
there becoming to be more of holiday
than holy day. Once in the city on the
Lords day even the average church mem
Der usually prefers to use the time in see
ing the sights'-a phrase of painfully elias
tic import-to attending public worship.
Sometimes he is glad to avail himself of the
company of a resident church member as
guide. Having returned home with fiat
tened purse, the countryman with signing
soul bemoanS the W1ckedness OF the city!
The city is the paradise of the political boss
and the constituencies boodler. The men
who debauched and disgraced the great
90 p.aIf Of
smearing her fair escutcneon with bribery
mostly reside in her chief city. In the COM
ing fifty years what to be the condi-
tons of our civic. social, business and re-
ligious life if such polluted streams are to
flow without ceasing from our cities, both
small and great? No need greater than the
evangelization of our cities looks the Amer
lean Christian in the face to-day. And this
work will call for more heroic service than
the average Christian has as yet
dreamed Of"
Speaking of the saloon, Mr.. Haynes said:
"rhe work of evangelizing the cities is
made doubly difficult by the presence and
power of the licensed saloon. This is our
Nations growing cancer. America with
stands the direct and frghtful waste of
81, 600 600 900 annually through the drink
habit only by reason of her youth, vigor and
unequaled resources. To truly and fully
portray the personal perdition, domestic de-
struction and social subversion wrought by
the legalized rum traffic, would impoverish
even our English language. Compared with
this cruel beast, Mooch was merciful and
Juggernaut was gentle. The Shiny serpent
of the still crawls through Congress, state
legislatures and city councils. 1T has been
known to coil itself about executive chairs
and-municipai police! The two weapons of
the. organized liquor power are the bride
ard the boycott Now the one fact that
should startle and appall us is this: The
loon continues to live because Christian
men continue to vote for 1t. In 1890 our
Protestant churches had 4,55S,4l2 male
voters in their membership. While this was
only about one-fourth of the whole num-
Der of voters in the Republic. yet who will
licensed saloon QOl1ld
for one year except in a few cities, if these
protesting Christians would vote as they
pray? Old prejudceS, which should have
been long since entombed are still allowed
to smother conscience, bejuggle judgment
and bend the backs of Christian voters to
the blood-soaked whips of rum-soaked poll
ticians-groggy in principles. If not in per-
son. Mr.. r. d. Wheelock, president of the
National Christian Citizenship League, re-
Gently wrote: The voter who puts self or
party first and moral principle last must be
recognized as a traitor to his country, If
America is to be won for Christ American
Christians must begin by annihilating the
licensed saloon by righteous living"
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
The right relation of capital and labor
was the subject of the next division of Mr..
Hayness sermon. He said that this was
problem of profound and serious i'm
port Let it be said" said he, that no
class, condition or profession has either all
the good or bad citizens. Christian men and
nc ncnrlStlan men are round among DOtn the
rich and the poor, the highest and the low
est. Honest capital and honest labor are
twin brothers, and should ever walk hand
in hand There are greedy and selfish ras-
calls among the rich, and lazy, selfish dem
agogues among the poor That there is
far-reaching alienation of the children of
Drawn from the church Is fact as appa-
rent as 1t Is deplorable. Not a few of them
look upon the church as hostile to labor or
labor unions. Less than one year ago a
labor leader said publicly that of the sixty
thousand preachers In the land, not one In
four hundred dared raise his voice for la
Dor. With the ministers ii is q question of
the biggest salary, not of truth and right
To quote from Mr.. Wheelock: The preacher
trims the truth with college jack knives un-
til it fits the demands of the prominent cit
liens with the fat pocketbook, must be
reckoned as time-SerVer for place and
lucre If a minister in our great cities does
not hear the oft and impOrtunate appeal of
good men and women for work, simply for
the opportunity to earn an honest living
he must be living far from his Master
What can be said, then, looking toward the
answer to this difficult question? Only this:
can teach and reach every human being in
his every relation. If this hard and bitter
strife is to cease both capital and labor
must be ChristianiZed. Salvation by the
gospel and the application of the ethics Of
Jesus our Lord, to all Christian conditions
and relations is the one sovereign remedy
Only the fingers of Him who was both rich
and poor can disentangle this complex web
so interlaced with the threads of gold and
the nerves OF toll"
Rev. George II. Smiths Sermon
Rev. George T. Smith, of Chicago, spoke
on THE Rainbow and the Throne" at the