The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-05-08
Preachers and Baseball and So o.


Jacksonville Courier: A st. Louis
preacher has resigned and will move
to Detroit. One reason for such action
given by this gentleman, who is a
PRESBYTERIAN, is the woefully rotten
article of baseball put up by the two
alleged clubs in ST. Louis. The III
gers have had their claws sharpened
and give promise of scratching the
life out of everything that goes up
against them.
This preacher is an ardent admirer
of the game and he simply can't toll
crate city which will put up with
two such bum aggregations as those
inflicted upon poor old ST Louis.
And he is right. 1t is downright
shameful that the people of ST louis
should year after year pay out good
money and, unless some accident hap
pens to the visiting ball players, new.
er see game won by either of the
home clubs.
We're for this preacher. And nom
mate him for the first president of the
Society for the Elimination of Long
Faces. Well bet if he had boy the
boyd be baseball player and as
hardy as an English sparrow.
!. The right sort of preaching consists
in something else besides standing in
pulpit on Sundays and telling what
should or what should not be done
1t consists in supporting right living
and encouraging everything calculat
ed to bring out the best that is in us
both physical and moral 1t consists
In striving to better the human race
job that can never be done save in
an optimistic way.
Two-thirds of the spiritual talk from
the pulpits OF the best men in the
nation, as Wen as those who may
come in a good second or even later
is as ineffective as would be a charge
of navy beans fred from thirteen
inch gun at a floating target seven
miles away. 1t may not fall upon bar
rem soil, but in large measure it falls
upon unresponsive soil 1t may be al
most sacrilegious to say this, but il
is true and the preachers know it
The people are more practical thar
they were a score of years ago. They
may be more worldly, but their world
mess consists in their merely having
taken themselves out of narrow ruts
and, having shaken themselves, ar
rived at the conclusion that it is moi
necessary to be a long-faced pessi
mist IN order to be good citizen.
II God mad wanted US to be mourn
ing and sorrowful bunch He would
have made us that way and would
have kept the laughter out of oul
hearts and the generosity and the
liberality out of our minds.
Only the other day at Bloomington
a preacher devoted whole sermon
to the story of Jonah and the whale
He had convinced himself that, il
necessary, God created special fish
for the sole purpose of having Jonah
swallowed. And he didn't add mite
to the faith of single nearer. Had
he taken the ground that, even if the
story might not be true, right think
ing people should regard it for its
lesson, he would have hit his congre
cation in responsive spot. He made
the whole matter stand in worse light
than before he touched it. Few peo-
pie will swallow In a literal sense the
Jonah story. Few will fail to appre
ciate the lesson which may be drawn
from it, and that without any attempt
to explain away any part of it, either
1t is not intended to criticize the
preacher. He should know his bust
ness and probably does. But it i:
hard to keep from suggesting tina
many of them could do heap more
good If they would take off theil
binders.