The Green Forest tribune., 1911-05-19

Isatah's long life as a prophet which vas inaugurated in the year when King Uz- ziah died, B. c. 755 (Beecher), or B. c. 74s (Hastings).
 PLACE-Isaiah.p .prophesied In Jerusalem.
 kINGS-In Israel. Menahem; in Assyria, Asshur-daau H.
 PROPHETS-Hosea Micah.
 Isaiah, like all great teachers, was obliged to speak many stern warnings Individuals and nations are best pleased with leaders that praise and f1atter them; but such men are ene- mics rather than friends, demagogues rather than statesmen. In our own nation we have many braggarts, and many eaSy-going, over-sanguine citi- zens; but the wise men are like Isaiah 2lear-eyed to perceive national and personal sins Vigilance against these is the only price of liberty in a nation and peace in an individual. The old Greek maxim. Know thyself," Is still the foundation of true knowledge and wisdom. In our lesson the great prophet warns his nation against three national evils: National ingratitude to God; the menace of ungodly and un- phtlanthropic wealth; intemperanee the great peril of the nation.
 We can look back over a history full of deliverances. America was settled by men escaping from civil and relt- gtous oppression. The colontsts had many marvellous deliyerances From the Indians and other foes. The Union has been saved by the greatest civil war in all history. We have had among our leaders some of the worlds chief men-Washington Lincoln, Grant, Jefferson, Franklin. The world s greatest oceans preserve our country from attack We have a vast territory, wonderfully rich in minerals and pro ducing harvesrs abundant enough for us and for other nations.
 The natural fruit of a vineyard carefully prepared-fine, cultivated grapes, and full crop that is, he ex- pected obedience to his commands, and love and gratitude and worship Instead, he got nothing but wild grapes, small, sour and hard such re- suits as a nation might show that had received no special benefits from Je- hovah.
 Isaiah next comes to particulars the two great fundamental sips of his people, and of all nations. It is with remarkable persistence that in every civilization the two main passions of the human heart, love of wealth and love of pleasure, the instinct tn gather and the instinct to squander, have sought precisely these two forms de nounced by Isaiah in which to work their social havoc-appropriation of the soil and indulgence in strong drink. Every civilized community de- velops sooner or later its land ques- tion and it's liquor question.
 Is the land question an American question also? In it's essentials, yes,
 But what. back of the land question, is the fundamental difficulty? The menace of ungodly and unphilanthropic wealth, in any form-land, CT rail roads, or mines, or mills, or houses to rent, or stocks and bonds or money to lend. There Is more than one hmeri-
  lion dollars month.
 What is Isaiah's second "Woe?" Against drunkenness and it's accom- panying evils, and the irreligion that goes with them.
 Would Isaiah pronounce this woe upon our nation, if he were living to- day? He certainly would. To be sure, there is the most drinking late at night, especially after the theater per formances are over; and for that req son the temperance reform CTS try everywhere to pass laws closing the saloons by II o'clock at night. Still, it is very common, in our cities, to see drunken men staggering around the streets in the morning. In the midst of a spree" that may last for days Modern men drink many fiery, dis titled liquors unknown to the ancients. They have added the common use of many drugs, such as opium and CO caiae, whose physical and mental ef fleets are more terrible and swift even than those of alcohol. And still thr saloon is the center of all other sins against society-licentiousn mur- der, gambling, graft, political misrule, all are closely connected with the saloon. Ex-Governor Hanly of Indi ana, in his final message to the legis- lature, January 8, 1909, said: "Alcoho. must be held responsible for about four-fifths of the propensities that make necessary the huge parapherna- lia of police systems, criminal courts, tails, prisons and reformatories that constitute so serious a blot upon pres ent-day civilization" This ruin of na- tional character and of individual lives is the indirect cost of the drink traffic, and by far the heavier even in dollars, in spite of the fact that the direct cost of the saloon, our national drink bin, reaches the incomprehensf- ble sum of more than two billion dol lars every year.
 If our public schools are to give the scholars a practical preparation for life, certainly no subject Is of greater importance than temperance Laws requiring scientific temperance in- struction have therefore been passed in all the states and by the national government, and more than forty tenn perance physiologies for all grades, have been written. Nearly million essays on temperance themes are writ ten every year by school children. The universities, colleges and normal schools are taking up the study. 
 Will inherit at Sixty.Five.