Los Angeles herald., 1906-05-14
BEGINS HIS "PlCKED
TOPICS BY PICKED MEN,
REV. A. s. PHELPS DlscouRsEs
ON "MoRE LIFE"
Says Need Of Today Is Christian
Patriots - Believes Talk Is the
Mlehtiest Power In the World, the
Father Of Public Sentiment

At the Central Baptist church Ar
thur S. Phelps began last night a series
which he calls picked Topics by
Picked Men" These have been Sc
lected at his request by prominent
men in various parts of the country.
On the list are two governors of states,
the editor of the Ladies' Home Journal
the president of Yale university, and
others. Well known men of our own
city have also chosen some of these
themes. The list began last night with
topic of more Life" selected by e. T.
Earl. The two topics of more spiritual
life and more civic life Mr.. Phelps
combined under the general theme Of
Christian citizenship. Mr.. Phelps
said in part:
"The men who succeed are they who
do something that the world needs
done, and do it better than 1t was be-
ing done before. PauPs conception of
Christian citizenship is found in Phil.
2.15: That ye may become blameless
and harmless, children of God without
blemish in the midst of a crooked and
perverse generation, among whom we
are seen as lights in the world
Men Behind the Times
''It is no easy task to be without
blemish in a crooked generation. Bad
company makes bad character. When
Johnny came home late on Sunday he
said Sunday school had kept longer
than usual. But when his mother
asked why his hands smelled so fishy,
he said the outside of the Sunday
school paper had been all about Jonah
and the whale. A man that has never
learned that religion is a help to the
daily life is behind the times.
trU icf 10 trt-
OTIS, men who will raise national stand
ards. Christian sentiment is driving
the military spirit before it. We have
had queer ways of uplifting the bar
barous nations of the world. We have
been like the boy who came in with
black eye, and replied to his fathers
questioning: It's all right, father; I've
been civilizing the boy next door, Let
Christian citizenship face the question
of social purity, that most vital OF
all moral questions of the day. Make
high society abandon its rottenness OF
face the light of exposure. Warn young
men against the tricks of the saloon.
The Atchison Globe says: The distiler
rides in the steam yacht, the wholesale
dealer in an automobile, the retail
dealer In q carriage, but the purchaser
of the liquor Is pulled around by
the hair of his head by policeman
What is to be the next move in the
saloon business? 1t Is to ask the saloon
dealer to move out.
The Power of Talk
"a Christian patriot will use love
rather than force, because love Is
mightier than legislation. Unless re-
form is done in Christ's way it will
have to be done over. Stop burying
weeds under a cloud of dust, or top
ping them, but begin to pull them out
by the roots.
"The salvation of all reform is in
Christian sentiment. I have heard plat
form orators ridicule the moral side of
reform questions. Do they prefer the
immoral side? They say, Talk Is
cheap They are wrong. Talk is the
mightiest power in the world. 1t is
the child of passion, and the father of
public sentiment Mark Antonys
speech over the dead body of Caesar
was talk, but it set a nation on fire.
Lincoln's address at Gettysburg was
talk; the declaration of independence
was talk; but they were the soil of his
tory. The sermon on the mount was
talk, but it is Transforming a world.
No accent of the Holy Ghost this heed
less world hath ever lost"