The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-03-14
WAR ON LIQUOR TRAFFIC
IS URGED BY A MINISTER
The Rev. Joshua Stansheld Con-
dennis Evils of What He Terms
Political Curse.

'It is hard to see God in the great moral
conflict with the greatest slavery that has
ever darkened the Christian world-the
slavery of liquor, more demoralizing and
disseminating in its ravages than pestil-
ence, famine or sword. 1t is all so material
and social and worldly, so degrading and
debasing; and the sin. if 1t be a sin, is
so peculiar and personal. 1t is a question
of personal rights and habits. 1t is not like
slavery or any thing of the past; 1T parallels
nothing in history. The question seems too
political to be religious and ii is too per-
sonal to be political: how hard indeed to see
God in the dreadful problem of the. liquor
curse of to-day, or in its growing tributary,
the tobacco vice.
Thus spoke the Rev. Joshua Stansfield
yesterday morning at Meridian-street
Methodist Church in a practical sermon
on 1.-The Fact of God In Yesterday and To-
Day." DIR. Stansfield took his text from
Genesis, xviii, LILO! Cod is in this place
and 1 knew it not Speaking further, he
said in part:
"A careful examination of the religious
history of the race Will show that IL mas
always been easier for men to recognize
the divine presence in the past than in the
present of their lives. 1t is probably safe
to say of this entire congregation, that
whatever the varying interpretations, yet
belief in the presence and power OF
God in the life OF the Hebrew race is un-
questioned. Ii Is true we sometimes find
ourselves giving subjective interpreta-
ton TO voices and events of which the Bible
speaks in terms of marked objectivity. But
whatever our personal explanations of these
Bible facts in detail we all feel that God
was in those days verify present with His
own. The canon of Scripture is closed; the
old prophets are dead; there is now no law
10 promugate, no new spiritual doctrine
or revelation TO set forth; except forsooth,
it shall be in Utah, and then so immoral as
to merit the condemnation OF republic.
or in some spiritualistic organization or
circle among classes never yet noted for
either mental perspicuity or moral beauty.
"With4these exceptions, we know all too
little these days of conscious divine dis
closures. The divine presence with us Is
all too largely a thing of the past Ger
tainly God lives and is in some sense re-
la ted to the facts of our life, but not as
in those old Bible days.
How easy it is TO see God in Lincoln's
proclamation freeing four millions OF
slaves, but in the race question now we can
easier see an INDECENT and offensive negro
a bone to political contentious menace
to social comforts buSbear to organized
skilled labor-a scapegoat for the white
mans trutalities and fiercest passions and,
all in all, with his bewildering increase
menace TO the Republic. All this men
see to-day but where Is God? We can see
Him in the emancipation OF thirty years
ago. but where is God now? Possibly II
is because we fail TO see God in the to-day
tndI the WnOlc NucSllOh ID 81 Intensive anu
OminOus.
God in the past may be an aid TO faith.
or may be only an object OF belief and won
der but God in the present is a power for
character and for conquest. How easy 10
hear the song of the angels and TO see the
Prince of Peace in Bethlehem two thousand
years ago but in the to-day, the now, how
| different IL all is. Christian nations vieing
| with each other as TO the strength of their
ornaments and field forces, while the new
countries and peoples of the world are the
| grab-bag OF ChristianiZed hordes. We wor-
! shin at the cross. but clamor for naval
| equipment and 'peace-footing army that
| might do honor TO the crescent as our en-
! sign.
| "Do we not realize the moral and ma
| terial significance of the far Eastern war
! Certainly we do and earnestly hope that
| whatever the cost TO japan or even TO the
! Anglo-Saxon Of the world. the so-called
| Christian Russian. but the really omniver-
| Gus Bear may be arrested in his rapacious
course But while this is a great racial
struggle for the setback OF the Slav IL need
| not be the sustained occasion for inocu-
| lating Young America with the unionism of
! war or conveying the impression that for
| any one TO amount 10 much these days he
must needs smell powder or snif the sea
| breezes from the deck of n man-of-war.
| But unless we shall be able 10 see God.
| 70 the conservation OF our lives TO personal
| abstinence, and TO social and national tenn
| perance Il will go III with the church, with
our homes and with our age"