Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-03-05

country. They simply preached ct
the people. not over their heads. They
said the saloon, with all its attending
evils of gambling and houses of i'll
fame, where inmates are numbered
by the police for periodical taxation,
in gentle cities, are not for the lattel
day saints, and they had none OF it.
More Grain for Beer Than Bread.
81 would not criticise or condemn
the church; | do not claim any per-
sonal exemption from the meshes of
selfshness that hoId the business
world in it grasp. | do not talk for
prohibition or say a man has no right
10 drink a glass of beer, or even get
drunk if he wants to-; all this is con-
coded. I do not deal in pessimistic
forebodings that have gone astray
from facts, but if l am to speak OF
the church and the necessity for a de-
parture, | must be candid, not polite;
must speak the thoughts that come to
me, no one else being responsible.
must hew to the line as | conceive the
line TO be, let the CHRIS fall where
they may Every sane man, | care
not what his business is, knows tina
| what the reverend priest says is true,
ana d liCulIiU III VI
might be said of the saloon-the era
die and stepping stone to all drunk
enness, crime and wretchedness. With
out the waste and Decentralization
caused by the drink habit there would
be comparatively no poverty, no di-
vorce, no wretchedness, no hell. Our
census reports show that there is more
than fifteen gallons of beer matted ev-
a., ,-~o, fo,, ~ y-rn n, II oni
child in the land; more grain rotted
for beer than is used for bread.
81 hope ! am not speaking harsh
or hasty words when | say that there
can be but one church of Christ-that
there never was but me-. May / not
ask, is there one in the world today?
God does not demand p%rohibitory laws
or the use of carnal weapons against
evil. He does not demand that in
thought, desire, attitude and ideal, his
church shall set the world right side
up; that the Flaming sword at the en-
trance of the garden of happiness shall
not be sheathed when the monster sa-
loon applies for entrance, just be-
cause it is a monster, and we fear that
if we do not license its entrance it
might be worse for us.
Thought Rules World.
Thought moulds, controls, moves
and rules the world; the church is to
use this power for good and for right.
eousness in all material things.
God, to show that He is the Lord
God, and to increase the faith Of his
church said to his prophet of old.
phophesy on these dry bones. and
, there was a rafting Of the dry bones
!, they were clothed and in their right
; mind. So God zones to this age to re
!, veal His power, and the power OF
thought, by ~uncovering the Hertziar
t waves, that are to penetrate deserts
, through storms, and over seas remote
to carry messages and greetings OF
| good will to man, and love of oul
neighhor as ourselves, 10 the remot
est corners OF the earth in the hun-
dredth part of a second of time, with
t out material conduits or anything ex
cept the power of thought.
Arrests in ottumwa.
we are told in Mythology that Pro
I metheus was chained to the rock 0
Mt. Caucasus there to have his vital
e torn out by vultures at night, and re
stored again by day, and thus he wa
e fated to live on ard on. Our police
reports of Ottumwa, say they max
t 24S arrests per month. What are on
churches doing towards relieving thes,
unfortunates from the rock to Whicl
4 they are chained? They can't go Il
the house of worship, they are hel,
by the chains Ottumwa is fortunat
in having a grand and generous char
acter who, to save our boys from thes
e chains, mostly built and added to b.
re- our Y. M. G.. A. But what do we do t
d encourage him in this grand work
,rI If the proper incense had been goin
up from the seventeen churches OF o.
tumwa, the miasma from the promo
ton of the drink habit would not hav
settled down on our library lot an
confiscated it to the use of the "Al
gean Stable" driving our library int
d the ground and under the shadow of
i greater building. The circle of Dante
: hell would not have bee
Il enlarged in our borders with the nam
of the king promoter of the drin
n habit to stand out in bold relief, a
much as'to say t all conner and g
ers, This is what we believe; Gin sci
+ timent" we must follow.
"a 1.-THE heart sickens to see what W
I'll have on this ground and with th
minds eye see what we might hav
had. Why? Why? the echo will go dow
to the ages to be hurled back in OF
At faces. Why, oh why, did the churche
" and good people permit this brut'
% and shameful disgrace to settle dow
~ on the brow of Ottumwa? Why acceI
9 what we have rather than civic bea1
ID ty, flowers, lawn, trees, fountains al
N library, which Col. Ballingall, the do
~ or, intended we should have on tn
eligible ground?
N The only answer to the dying eel
a why, is, that we hoped this promot
70 would build us a hotel in connectit
ie with his liquor business, a par exc
h. lence answer.
ST 81 believe that civic beauty, ethic
no culture of ideals and properly lool
ing after environment is as much t
nv duty of the church as is the worship
ed God in our material temples. | belle,
lie. the church is being tried as in a CT
he chile as never before, that the Girls
ii. is upon us. It's membership is nur
he bered by the millions. Among the
are the illustrious and the great, a
vet tho world &c lriyino IN in a m