The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-11-20
PREACHED ON PROHIBITION.
DIR. THOMPSON WANTS THE WILL
LINGHAM BILL To PASS.


tives From Chatham of the senti-
ment He Is Sure Exists for Prohi-
bition-The Presiding Elders Ser
mon Last Night at Seventh Street
Chureh-Argument He Advanced
in Support of the Measure Pending
Before the LegisIature-The Way
Claims OF Opponents of the Bill
Are Met.
Prohibition was the theme Of the presid-
ing elder of the Savannah District. Rev.
John A. Thompson, D. D., at the Seventh
Street Methodist Church last night. The
speaker was forceful in his presentation
Of his subject and occupied no halfway
position. He is unfiinchingly and unalter-
ably opposed to the sale of liquor in the
state, and his hearers were impressed
with his earnestness.
DR.. Thompson led up to his subject by
treatment of the two great classes into
which the people of the earth are divided
these classes, he said, being saints and
sinners. Sin and righteousness are the
two great principles in the world, there
being no middle ground, as whatever is
not right is sinful, and so If one is not a
saint he must perforce be a sinner As
with sin and righteousness, there is no
middle ground
Into the hereafter, DIR. Thompson said,
this great division extends, there being
but two states awaiting those who depart
this life, happiness In heaven for some
and torment in hell for others. These is
sues are inevitable, and since the time
of Adam mankind has been arrayed on one
side or the other; the side of Christ fight
ing sin or the side of the devil fighting
Christ. A man Is either sinner or
saint, there being no self-satisfied, uncer-
tain, intermediate state that leaves one
rather sure of heaven and less certain of
hell One is either at peace with God and
IN harmony with Him or arrayed on the
side OF His enemies, there being no unre-
generate whose mind is not set upon the
dethronement of God and the elevation of
evil
Simple indifference to the cause of
CHRIST marks a man as a sinner, Dr.
thompson said and the mere fact that
one is not a member of the church does
not relieve him from the necessity of
hshting the battle with those who are on
His side.
Turning to his immediate subject. DR..
Thompson said he desired to address his
congregation plainly and dispassionately.
This question of prohibition has become
one of life and death, he said, men and
women having addressed themselves to 1t
with all the fervor of their consecrated
lives and in the determination to conquer
traffic in liquor so long as they find
strength, in their desire 10 see souls saved
and buckler in their faith and reliance
in help from on high, Their conviction
Is that the manufacture and sale of liquor
is a curse to mankind, and the courage
OF that conviction is marked in the strug-
gle that win continue against 1t until
1t is no longer bought and sold.
The spectacle of man debauched by
drink, low and depraved in his degrade
tion. is an affecting one, DR. Thompson
said, and ne Is ever inspired with the
desire to raise the wretch from the state
to which he has sunk and place him upon
a pedestal of reliance in his own power of
will, resistance to that mighty craving for
the enemy that has destroyed him and the
determination to fulfill more nearly the
destiny for which he was intended than
could ever be found in frequenting the
barroom and firing his frame with its bev-
erages.
The speakers pity for the self-made
drunkard, he says, is not equal to that for
him to whom the craving is transmitted
He said every woman should think of the
danger to which she is subjecting her chill
dren when she touches wine to her lips
While the manufacture and sale by women
of domestic wines at a place not far dis
tant from Savannah was condemned in the
most severe terms.
1t Is with the practical consent of the
church members of Georgia, DIR. Thomp-
son said that the liquor traffic is carried
on. He said the majority of the qualified
voters in the state are members of the
church, a circumstance that should enable
= Il efr IL. 1,
state prohibit the sale of liquor The col
ored vote is strong element, he said, in
the retention of liquor and the white man
who votes for it is arraying himself on
the side of the negro and voting with him
for the continuation of a business that
instead of furnishing revenues for state
counties and cities, In sapping their finan-
cial prosperity and dragging upon them
with a weight that thrown off, would
leave them so lightened that 1t would not
require long for the wisdom of the move
ment 10 be seen.
IL is the money consideration In liquor
that makes dealing in il popular the
speaker said, and many are willing to
blight and curse mankind for the sake OF
that money He bel ewes will the scrip
lures that covetousEess is idolatry, and
said that a Chiraman worshpplng h
idols in his joss house is TO more an idol
tor than the man or woman who stands
those who VIII buy. Never, he sad, was
there time when money is crayed so as
at present, a fact that is emphasized in
the fiauni ed intention of some girls to win
wealthy husbands, thereby nopncing
themselves as in Tie market and for sale
TO whomsoever will pay the highest price.
The doctor touched on politics, saying
he had not voted in Twelve years and that
he does not believe in a preacher having
anything 10 do with political matters but
that no candidate who advocated the sale
of flqucr could ever win his vote He con-
fessed that he could give no intelligent
Idea of he difference between Democrats.
Republicans or Populists, saying that. It
really makes no practical difference If
Bryan or Mckinley is in the White House
to the people at large. but that. with a
staunch Prohibitionlst occupying the
pace, there could be no question of the
result and that the country would be
blessed.
DIR. Thompson said the opponents of
prohibition have never put forward a fem