The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-01-30
PITCHES INTO THE n
DIR. GROVE AssAILS HIS "PO0R
MANS CLUB" REMARKS.
Declares That the Evil Influence of Bishop
Potter's Utterances About the saloon

Declares That the Evil Influence OF Bishop
Potter's U~tterances About the saloon
IL Such Tint All the Temperance
Workers Cannot Overcome IL in n Year.
The Rev. DIR. W. 8. Grove OF the Church Of
the Eternal Hone. in West .Elghty-1rst street.
the Third Universalistisociety church. took for
the subject OF his sermon at yesterday morn
inR's services Bishop Potter and the Saloons"
1t seems that we are never to have done
with clerical surprises" he said. AS q rule
the SURPRISES afforded by the ministry are in
politics or theology. On moral questions the
world expects the preacher to be very ciroum-
spect in his precepts. It is pretty generally
accepted that the preacher can be trusted to
give not only the.riRht exampIo.but the right
advice. The ministry has earned this wide
confidence. Even a little slackeninR OF that
public confidence is "a calamity. A preacher
is a pilot and should know where the dangers
are and where he Is going. And there is no
excuse for q preacher not being right on moral
teachings. Everything else may be pardoned
q preacher, but In moral teachings there Is no
excuse for him TO be wrong.
1T was not O mistake when n business mar
said to me the other day that this community
had never been more deeply shocked than by
tho utterance Of Bishop Potter condoning. II
not commencing. the.saloon as the poor mans
club. We can hardly think that so conserva-
tive q man has been moved to speak so freely
unless he h~as.long pondered.the subject. He
ought not to have spoken without prayer
fully considering 1t. A great man in q, place
of unlimited responsibility should not Hing a
dynamite bomb into q community. unless he
feels that he can Justify his iconoclasm. The
public feeling, is that a famous pilot supposed
to know the channel has struck a reel"
DR.. Grove thought that the public should
have all the arguments supporting. the Bish;
the temperance workers could not In a year
overcome the effects OF his remarks. and that
II the Bishop felt eli that that he had w maGs 4 mistake ! Srsei
relief: 1t was generally supposed that the
moral status, OF some things once in DISPUTE
OF conquest. polygamy. slavery, the lottery
and rasetrack And Samblisn ing houses; He He
generally regarded as evil. So it was supposed
that the time had passed. also. when the moral
quality s nSn9 Fl the oeis sfloof tbN Waf few GiSS @es We're 81 m was
deeply surprised than the saloon men them
selves to find, that they we're In a laudable
saloon man apologized for his business. How
odd ne must feel in his new character. He
f~ormer-helping mothers to rear their young
men.
made use Of what he called the most insidl-
Gus phrase ever woven TO screen things that
cannot bear the light.rthe ,apoor:map,s club.
clubs In the city did not cost, the rich men, SO
much as the day lahorer paid into HIS club"
". sooner or later, to become poor. Let the
Bishop call It by its right name; 1t Was a
the saloon q liquor store the problem would be
isty the appetite that is: a SALOON aggravated
phrase Of the business for which cur good
The saloon element.was.the purchasable ele-
ment IN politics; i was always on the wrong
the conditions be got away from that brought
men to the drinking level. there would be
ernment. And It is against that hope that
the Bishop turns his great influence said the
preacher
an overplus OF sympathy" he continued; we
may take 1t for granted that Bishop Potter
was moved BY great generosity, II, that
| joice in L. But why should generosity. any
more than selashness. be permitted, to bring
evil 10 a man? We should be able to bring our
that dserades the man. And how, and whep:
indeed. did it become necessary for the poor
man to have a club for three or four hours
tenth Of their evenings in clubs. Why should
the workingman be the only, one to spend
every night at the drinking club: TIL work
he becomes a husband and father and Spend
his tims with his family. Why shouldn't we
expend some Of our episcopal sympathy, on
have had to stay at home all day. The men
have been out doors and they have been toll
ing all day in the narrow, rooms;
"St. Paul makes it his climax that the Church
must stand.for certain things, There is Meth
ing more Important that the Church can do
than to stand. like a lighthouse. and beam forth
the EVERLASTING truths IT.. Of H. ri q tS|S sISs w 9vep
so many half baked theories are, promulgated
for the regeneration of the world without the
fails OF moral idealism the world will have
none"