The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1910-04-21
The Church and Temperance.

-''' ''''' WI "''II' tI'N can O'
p"ud.-EXchaugc.
The Church and Temperance.
Sine" the angel with the namin.
sword stood at the gates Of Edel
history does not record an instauc,
where vie" and virtue, evil and good
faIshpod and truth, hate and love
wrong and right, met more squarclS
face to face than when the legali2rC
liquor traffic cuufronts the Church
Of tn" living God and demands the
right 10 live.
I What right have Christian people
! anywhere to acquicscc in the perpet-
uation of an institution which is So
unmitigatcdly bad, 50 incurahly
evil, so atrociOusly wicked, 50
diamctricalIy opposed to all good rs
the liquor traffic is always and
everywhere known to he? BY the
love of Gods day and Gods Book
and Gods house and Gods people
and Gods honor, by every instinct
Of seli-prcservatiom, the Church is
IN duty bound to aim at nothing less
than the tn" utter destruction Of thi,
R"lial Of the bottle. Whenever any
evil tends to neutralizr the influence
Of IT," Gospel, aud blocks the way
To the sanctuary as this evil does
that moment ought the Church 10
lay violent hands upon it, whether
II he moral, social, financial or pu-
ljtiral
In dealing with this thing the
Church must not cuudonc, nor cx-
cus", nor "yado, nor apologize, nor
compromise, nor be- silent; she must
smitc 10 Kill. If the Church is right,
the liquor traffic is wrong. Christ
did not say that h" came to regulate
the works Of the devil, but to destroy
them, and it is enough for Christians
that they he rs their Lord
To say that the Church shall take
no part in the temperance reform is
to say that there shall be no such re-.
form, and t. say there shall be- no
temperance reform is To say that,
sooner or later, there will hc no
Church; and to say there will be no
Church is to say there will be no
Christian civilization.
When it can he shown that the
was wight, and that Nero
was good; that PLATE was just and
HerOd was pure; that LcunidnS was
u traitor aud Benedict Arnold pa
triot; that infid"l anarchy is better
than responsible Christian govern
mcnt; that the plague Is blessing
and the dcCaloguc a curse; then. per-
haps, but not until then, can IT be |
shown that 1t is wise To build tails /
and p"nltcntlarics, and asylums and |
llms-houscs, and hospitals and or
and license liquor dealers ,
10 populate them. Then will il he .
craftsmanship TO maintain Il ma |
.iOnal quarantine against idiots,
,aupers, criminals and lunatics from
lhroad, and license 5000 saloon
keepers to manufacture that kind of
| product at home. Then will it be
economy to levy taxes to support
orphans and widows and license the
murder of husbands and fathers.
Then will 1t be good to maintain 27j
ifcsaving stations, at n million and
| half, and under the same flag and
'ut Of the same pockets maintain
30 900 iife-destroying stations at
wo billions and half.
Oh, church of living God, thou
Who has been set as n Waterman on
he wall, cry abound, and warn this
Iation that he who smote Egypt
nd Greece and Rome for their cor
upton, and Judah for her idOlatry,
nd Venice for her pride, and Spain
or her avarice, will not hold us
il we do these things! Oh,
'hurch OF Christ, thou who oughtest
ways to be In the van of Gods
squadrons, cry out, and
ell our people that he who watched
yer us in infancy and has run with
$ in battle now demands that we
hall purge our land of this curse,
nd that the dramshop must he con-
igned to the museum of the past,
18th the rack, the thumb-screw, the
calping knife, the tomahawk, the
irate ship, the Inquisition, and
ther relics of barbarism, while the ,
OLDEST aspirations of a noble people 9
re embodied in the noblest laws of !
OLDEST men. -Exchange.
George Albert Jackson, a negro,
to be hung at Charleston on May
'th for the terrible crime of rape.