Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1911-01-19
UNCLE TOMS LETTER.

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The greatest power among men il
christian education. 1t tames the
savage and makes of him a gentleman.
Our old-time preachers fully under
. stood the rough spirits around them
and while they hewed to the line and
stuck to their calling, old and young
respected and reverenced them When
but mere boy | thought preacher
was next to God and respected him as
such. The rugged honesty of the peo-
pie was such no one feared court week
and they didn't want a multiplicity Of
laws hung around their necks. Now
the people are loaded down with laws
ito such an extent common man don t
know what the law is. In the place
of following in the footsteps of the
great moral teachers of the past, we
have undertaken to save men from ev-
il by process of law, and many of our
preachers appear to have more faith
in the law than they do in the power
of God. Their very acts and conduct
show to me that their ideas of reform
are based on force.
The Bible gives US a splendid rule to
go by and that is, Train up child
in the way he should go, and when he
gets old he will not depart there
FROM" The great tidal waves of re-
ligion and morality that have swept
over the country from time to time
were never brought about by the force
of law. Law is all right in its place,
but as a reformer it is failure. One
Of the Kings of England appealed to
one of his leading Bishops to start a
revival, on pain Of having his head !
cut off if he didn't. Why did the
King desire a revival and why did he
appeal to the Bishop of the church?
III tell you, vice, immortality and
theft were so numerous that the law
was powerless to do what the King
desired. The revival was started and
spread all over England. immortality
ceased aad theiving stopped.
If you remember, last spring said
t you wanted to defeat the forces of
liquor, let all the churches inaugurate
great revivals. 1t beats anything that
las ever been tried as yet. l think
We lived long enough to learn that
he moral uplift of people is done by
hristian education and moral suasion,
nd that is why I've had the courage
o oppose the preacher in politics.
: m not the enemy some MAKE me out
be against the preachers, but | (
would not have them destroy the good {
hey might do. Consequently / hit
he political ones hard, for which |
lake no apology. &
The toughest characters are tanned i
ns subdued by the gentle, soothing
eacIling of the Son of God. The law {
coercion can hardly be enforced
lien the people don't want it. They :
onsider such law as no good, and l {
link we are often too fast in impos-
lg on people what they are not ready Il
II. I've been a close observer and t
ad nearly everything l can get hold b
, and so far | frankly say all moral
cliffs of people comes thru some fl
eat religious uphcaval, and never by n
70 enactment of laws. The origin Of
had its birth in the great Il
importance movement of the world, Is
ID the temperance movement was the "
lid of the christian religion, but F
'lther prohibition nor temperance B
n do for people what christiani- &C
Goes. Therefore, l must say of the
rec, christianity is the safest, and o,
rest, AMI needs no law to enforce its
andates. Just secure to men the
5ht to worship Goa according to -;
cir own way or belief and protect m
EN-, is all the law necessary to til
oralize and civiize. When a people II
come christianized, what other law ~
they need If they have the law of .
I'd implanted in their hearts they'll
ths right and act the right, Snd
re right or according to their best
derstanding. My faith in christian