Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-09-22

kick against the sharp pointed instru-
ments and the LASH St. Paul looked up
and said: Lord, who art thou| and the
voice answered back and said: am Je-
sus, whom thou persecutest. But rise and
stand upon thy feet. "
Now. brethren. / want to say to you
that the attitude in which a lost world
ought to approach Christ is the attitude
OF Notwithstanding down before God.
And tell you today. whatever this world
needs. il needs a standing Christianity.
II needs a world of Christians that stand
for righteousness. stand for truth, stand
for uprightness, stand for God, stand
against sin and stand against the devil.
want to say to you, my countrymen,
I state a great fact when l say to this
audience today, that whenever the Meth
odists and Baptists and Presbyterians and
EpiscOpalians and Congregationalists and
Lutherans and Cumberlands and Catho-
lies in America shall stand for this Chris
tianity, then every saloon shall have to
go. every gambling hell must hide itself
from the gaze of men, every shameless
house must sink back where the dark
ness of night shall hide 1t from the face
of honest men forever. and when ! say
TO you-listen to me-when l say to. you
that when Christianity, the Christian peo-
pie of America, shall take a stand for God
and sobriety and the right, then the pow
ers of darkness will give way, and we
will have country in which 1t is impos-
sible for a drunken boy ever to stagger
home over the threshold and over the
heart of a good mother. We will have
country where no husband or son will
be given to intemperance and to vice.
We will have a country where mothers
can look out into the distant states and
think of their boy and say: Whatever
betides my boy, he is not a drunkard or
gambler; live in country where char
acter is protected, manhood is developed
and God is honored." And when Chris
tianity shall take a stand, stand for the
right and a stand against the wrong, then
we are going to see America revolu-
tionized into a country of Christians, who
not only profess but possess the power
TO run the devil out of community ard
enInrone Christ not only in the hearts OF
the people, but in the capitol at Wash
ington, on the supreme bench of every
state, in the governors chair and in the
municipal Offices and in the offices of the
clerks and bailiffs and sheriffs of the coun-
ty where every office is set in tune to
the praise Of Christ and everyone shall
honor the faithful officials who stand for
God, righteousness and true holiness The
fault of Christianity lies in the fact that
Christian people do not stand for the prin-
ciples of God and right. We profess 1t,
we approve 1t. we sanction it. but there
is a great difference between the sanction
of truth and standing with the indomita-
BILE manhood that says: My hand, my
soul, my body stand for the thing I pro-
fess. God Almighty. give us a Christianity
that stands for something and stands
against something. Rise and stand upon
thy feet
Now listen. "For this thing have I
appeared unto thee" And now, brethren,
I want to say to you. that when Christ
shall appear to a man, then he will stand,
and until Christ shall make his appear
ance, we are naturally cowardly, natural
~ cowardly. Look at st. Peter, and 1 have
read the history as given in the Bible. st.
Peter had physical courage. Oh! my, he
was not afraid of mortal man, and listen
to me, and many a soldier-you old Rebels
that listen to me today-you have gone to
the army and you have walked up into the
blazing mouth of a cannon without the
culver OF a muscle, and then came home
to cover and vince and whine in the pres
ence of public opinion. 1t is not the cour-
age that faces the cannon, but 1t is the
courage that says, I will do what God
calls me TO do If am the only man in the
world that will do 1t. oh! brother, that's
what we want. We go it in groups and
schools and squads and crowds. Whatev-
er the crowd does we will do; whatever is
customary we will fall in line with. But,
oh! God, how we need Christianity that
looks at this old world and says: Choose
you for yourself" but as for me If there
is only six men on earth that stand for
God and right 1 will be one of the six;