The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1907-12-27

We must change our course, or We
will perish as the grass.
Similarly the church has been re.
miss The prevalent and profound
antagonism toward and distrust OF
the church upon the part OF too large
a proportion of the working men and
careful thinkers OF this land is
warning that We would do we'll TO
heed We have exchanged leadership
for applause and conviction for ease.
We have become fiabby. Multitudes
of men regard us as the protectors
and special pleaders. for considera-
tion, of the privileged classes. We
are regarded as too prominently the
preservers OF the status quo, the
| brake upon healthy progress. And
il is not strange. For the church has
not, nation wide. locked arms with a
great moral reform openly and ag-
gressiyely I'm forty years. We have
spent our fighting strength lpon
heresy trials and game that is not
worth our energy. In New York Ii
would seem, judging 1N the returns.
that the sure way 10 defeat candi-
date is TO secure for him the open
and avowed support of the ministry
of the church. We have attacked in
dividuals when down and organiZa-
tions that IL cost nothing To assail.
We have objected 10 saloons within
| $50 feet of the churches and been
silent while they suuatted thick and
greedily ia the midst OF the haunts
| of poverty. We have neglected the
| social evil and the men in the pews
and membership of our own organiza-
| tion who have owned and rented
| houses of i'll fame. We have as
saulted the moral character of the
! saloonkeeper and consigned him and
| his business TO eternal torment, while
We have ever maintained by our
suffrage our criminal silent partner
| shin in his trade. The meanwhile
praying God To drive him from our
| midst. And even i'm this day with the
! inspiring and glorious example Of the
! Southland right before us we may
! find ministers in the city Of New York
who will excuse the saloon. and a
/ church that is afraid 10 grapple with
! the enemy in n struggle 10 the death.
| We have been fooled so long political
/ ly that most OF the politicians regard
! the church element as sort OF a
cheerful political Joke.
All of this is the handwriting on
( the wall. 1t is the warning of the
: times. In no unreal sense 1t is the
voice of God TO us. Woe betide us
/ if we fail TO be warned.
Not otherwise is il in individual
! life. What careless host there is
of men who disregard the clear ad-
monitions of Jehovah and who spend
their lives In riotous living, who vio-
late every statute upon the moral
code, who permit in their public
! lives sins they would revolt to have
exist in their private affairs, who live
privately as they neither have the
! courage nor the desire to live openly,
who sell their minds and souls as
| they do their votes for a considera-
tion, who think that they may SOW as
! they please and reap what they like.
who deny the sovereignty OF God and
stife the consciousness of a judg-
ment. Upon the walls of their lives
| the hand writes daily. To their ears
continually comes the warning call of
God. Into the Silly recesses OF their
souls the still, small voice speaks.
But like BelshaZzar they are needless.
They mock the God who cannot be
mocked.
IL is good that God warns. II is
well that we should hear and profit
and reform. For IL we do not, indi-
vidually as nationally. we shall be
overwhelmed. IL could not he ether
wise Ii ought not to be different.
! 1t is for us to watch ont lest IL be
said OF us that In the day OF warning
we were slain.