Mower County transcript., 1903-02-25

a
It Is Of course sull true that 1le.|
devil does business IN Conrad. Etk
has told me that the whisky men Ike
never ceased from the day they ykre
driven out Of Conrad to attempt to
come back In some form and carry pn
their work. At the present time he /
tells me that through failure on( he
part Of the officers Of the law I'd In
force the law the whisky men hdpes
grown bold and opened several PLACES.
He is right now in the midst of the Ia
struggle again. This time it is strtk-
gle with state and county, officials who
have broken their oaths Of Office. Ills
the same struggle in another form kt
the bottom Of the whisky businessln
any state, whether 1t has prohibitfy
statute or not, is the inceptive OF grht
financial returns for q very little r}al
labor and also the human passion pr
drink, two things which Kirk sRs.
must be recognized by. the temperate
people and always .reckoned upon hn
the problem OF temperance. .ss.5 81
at remains therefore to be said tiet
20 far as Kirk and his wife are en-
cerned the contest they began hde,
the battle they entered for victory oer
the world, Estill goes On. IL 'theraa
place in the world where a Christiln.
may cease from fighting the good n9ht
Of the ;faith2 But l am profoundly
touched by the extent OF overcoming
to be seen In this place.. have BEN
unable to silence the question, 'Whatlf
every minister as he entered q new
place, no matter how small or di4-
cult, entered it with q passion lie
Kinks to redeem the lost part of 1t
and bring it back to GodT l know
this much is true of the work dole
here. There has been no unusual et-
citement and no extraordinary meats
employed to produce the astonishing
results. There is no question that Xix
has certain qualities that have helped
him. His voice is, as it always was, %
talk to people, and he writes uncon-
monty we'll. But, on the other hand,
he is still awkward, homely Of appear
ance and by no means always at his
best. He loves people. He longs, as
Paul did, for the salvation of the
world. And there lies the secret Of his
work. 1t is nothing which other men
may not also have:
II don't know q minister In our
churches anywhere who might not
claim all that Malcom Kirk and his
wife have claimed. They have over
come the world by means Of their love,
by following the plain path of duty at
the cost of suffering, by not pleasing
themselves. They are still engaged in
the struggle. It will never cease this
side of death and paradise. Buts1 wish
that every pastor and every church
might come here and see what has been
done and what the future seems Ger
tain to record. The most malignant
forces of. evil, have evidently arrayed
themselves against Kirk and hts wife,
and So Tar these two have overcome
them ell. Heaven has won the victory
out here, and ] do not know why II
should not do 50 everywhere. Do We
want the world to be saved7 Do I'VE
have plSssiUu TO save tt7 Do We put
the kingdom first7 II We did, should
we not see the results everywhere that
we see here? I shall return home from
my. visit to Malcom Kirk with that
question sounding In my heart"
> There was one brief a1lusion In this
letter which meant even more than
Wilson knew. 1t was his allusion to
what he called Maicom Kinks '.pe.
culiar habits Of generosity Indi'
rectly these led to events which have
to do with this history OF the human
conaict against sin and involved in
that growing conflict all the members
ss, .,r:-rn1.