The log cabin Democrat. [volume] (Conway, Ark.) 1901-1982, 1915-11-25
HURTS CONVENTION
MESSAGE A CLASSIC
TEMPERANCE REPORT ALSO
STRONG UTTERANCE OF
ARKANSAS BAPTISTS.

A message to the Arkansas State
Baptist convention from Rev. John
Jeter Hurt, pastor Of the First Bap-
fist church at Durham, N. c., for
several years pastor of the Conway
church and secretary of the conven-
ton, which was read to the assembly
by President Barton, deserves to be
ranked as classic, and is so beauti-
fully worded that he Log Cabin
Democrat secured copy of it for
publication. 1t is as follows:
president, State Baptist Convention ::
"For your splendid past, which ad-
monishes you; for your throbbing
present, which challenges you; for
your glorious future, which beckons
you; for the splendid house and
hearts and homes which hold YOU
for all these, | love you.
John Jeter Hurt"
Out of the many strong reports
which were submitted during the con-
vention, that of the committee on tenn
perance was regarded by all as per-
haps the most vigorous and eloquent.
1t was drafted by Dr.. M. P. Hunt OF
Fayetteville and is reproduced in full
below:
| The past year has witnessed many
notable victories for the cause of tenn
perance and prohibition. Six or sew
en- states have swung into the prohi
bition column. Even in the state
where we have lost, we gained ground
that really constitutes a substantial
victory.
The outlook for saloonless ma
ton grows brighter and brighter with
each victory. Today, for the most
part, our enemies concede that ulti-
mate victory is inevitable, and the
best that can be hoped for, by them is
to stay it's coming as long as posi-
BILE. The change of front upon the
part of many political leaders in the
last few years is significantly indica-
tive OF the change of public sentiment.
When you see politicians by the
wholesale climbing into the band
wagon of state and nationwide pro-
hibition forces, you may know that
the day of our deliverance draweth
night. The night is far spent and
the daw dawneth in which the unre-
hitting toll and prayer of the past
half century has brought us within
sight of the long-desired goal, when
our nation shall wash her hands of
her hitherto unholy alliance of the last
half century, with the vile, corrupting
and damnable liquor business, and the
whole unspeakable curse shall be out
lawed, root and branch, forever.
"The cataclysm of war in the old
world has, in the providence of God,
brought the -that-be to see the
unspeakable evil of the nefarious
business as never before; purely up
on economical grounds and apart
from any moral consideration, in one
instance they have destroyed it, and
in many other instances restrictions
have been added calculated to check
and lessen its evils. With grateful
hearts we record the victory and
blessing of statutory prohibition for
our own beloved state This was by
all odds the browning act Of our last
legislature. The enactment of statu-
tory prohibition voiced also in re-
markabe way the transition through
which we are passing. The grip of
the liquor power on legislatures is
rapidly being broken. What but
few years ago was all but unthinka-
BILE, has come sooner and easier than
many had even dared to hope. Among
the agencies that have made possible
the good hour to which we have come
we would mention the w. c. T. u,
the Anti-Saloon League, the teaching
in our Sundays schools and in our
public schools as to evils of alcoholic
drinks, the untiring warfare upon the
evil by the religious press and the
ceaseless, courageous utterances of
our evangelistic pulpits upon this
damnable agency of hell, for the
blight of man, made in the image of
God.
THE victory is as yet by no means
complete, nor the dangers past. The