The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1910-05-04
Sunday School Column
Side Lights on Next Sundays Les
son for Teachers and Pupils.
By CHAs. K. MEYERS

May b. Temperance lesson. FrOV %
1926.
The greatest evil the church and
Sunday school has to combat at the
present time, is that OF intemperance.
Thanks be to God, mighty progress
has been made in the past twenty
years. In fact more than It would
saem had been accomplished In three
times that period before. This fact
alone Is sufficient answer to- those
claiming the world is getting worse.
O but It is an old, old question!
Many hundred years before Christ
was born, the utterances Of our lesson
were written and they cannot be i'm
proved on by any writer or thinker
of this day, for the words Of our lesson
are the famous ones Of Solomon. They
make the searching inquiries Who
hath woe2 Who hath sorrow? Who
ksth contentious? Who hath babbling
wounds without cause? Who hath red.
ness of eyes?" OF course there is but
one answer. They who tarry long at
the wine." Soon follows the truth
which has branded itself into ten
thousand lives. "At last 1t biteth like
a serpent, and stingeth like an adder"
Sunday school teachers, pastors, pa
rents look ing to the best welfare of
the little ones, can do nothing better
for those put in their charge, than to!
Impress them with the awful conse-
quences of becoming addicted to the
use Of alcoholic liquors. Examples of
what It will do, are to be seen on
every hand. There is no need of max
Ing up stories to illustrate, for they
can be found right in ones neighbor-
hood.
The brewers and distillers have
themselves given up the plea that
there is nothing wrong with saloons.
They are banding together to try to
rid the saloon business of the OBJ
jectionable features. From the stand
point Of the prohibitionists the only
way to cure is to wipe out. But a
great gain has been made when the
liquor men are driven by public SEN
timent to look about for means to dig
nifty their business, and are willing to
say it does have bad features.
There is truth in the statement that
we cannot by law make men and wo-
men stop the drinking habit. The
laws help, but in self-governing re-.
public where the people make and en-
force their own laws, absolute wiping
out of the liquor traffic by law is at
present impossible. For this reason
the work of the Sunday schools and
churches become SO important and
must not be overlooked. The time
to bulwark the boys and girls is now.
Let the pledge be signed, and the evils
of strong drink be thoroughly drilled
into their minds. We teach them to
keep from eating rank poisons SO that
their health may not be injured, or
sudden death come upon them. 1t can
be shown that alcohol damages the
= Z r /
heart, the blood vessels, the lungs, the
nerves, the brain. If it were not that
nature uses every effort to throw OF
the poison and in part succeeds, death
would catch shortly the more than
moderate drinker. This being true
there is no good reason for the chill
dren not being told of the exact facts.
The last verses Of the lesson says
that after all is known. that people
will up and seek liquor again. The
thirst becomes the master. and respect
for love Of wife and children is no
barrier to a continuance Of drinking.