Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-11-10
IS
TOPIC OF DAY
Sunday Schools Will Consider
Text From Romans; Think
in Millions
(By William 4. Ellis.)

(By William 4. Ellis.)
This is one of the occasions when
Christians are reminded to think in
millions. For thirty million members
of the Sunday school, not to mention
other church folk, will observe No
vember IL as Worlds Temperance
Sunday. Such a concentration of at
tention upon single theme is of pro-
found significance. 1t shapes inn
pulses and convictions that will have
unmeasured consequences. There is
no way of knowing what part these
notwithstanding studies of tenn
perance in the Sunday schools of the
world have had in the remarkable
progress of temperance sentiment:
certainly 1t has been great.
It is a jubilant host that is to-day
racing the question afresh. The past
year has been the most triumphant
In the history of the temperance
movement. Russia's results from the
total abolition of alcohol are clearly
known, and wholly glorious. Ru-
mania has followed suit. Germany is
openly grumbling over the use of
grain for beer that is needed for
bread. Britain has increased her re-
strictions upon the sale and use Of
Canada, British Columbia and Ontar-
10, have gone dry" At this writ
ing five American States are prepar-
ing to vote upon the abolition of the
saloon. Even the liquor men them
selves know that the traffic is DOOM
ed. That idea has come to be a set
tied conviction in the public mind.
When, few years ago, Rev. DR..
Francis E. Clark, leader of Christian
Endeavor, raised the cry for the Unit
ed States and Canada, "a saloonless
nation by. 1920" the slogan was not
"a L. caf-fN .Ix
nored it or laughed at it. Now the
cry Is being raised by reformers ev-
erywhere. Victory in the long, hard
fight with rum is almost in sight So
to-day 1T behooves the Sunday schools,
as they consider the annual temper
ance lesson, to view the entire sub
ject in the large.
Catching Up With Paul
If heaven ever laughs at earth,
Paul must indulge in many a
chuckle- as he sees the progressive"
modern world catching up to his pro-
gram. The last word in the tenn
perance reform to-day is economic
efficiency: alcohol hurts q mans
productiveness and impairs his So
cial value. He is being forced to give
up the glass for the sake of the gen
eral welfare. I have under my hand
at the moment a sparkling booklet
featuring concern. 1t is of a piece
with the new kind of temperance
literature.
Which. after all, is but getting into
tune with this Sunday School lesson,
written nineteen centuries ago. Catch
the modern" note in these phrases,
Let no man put a stumbling block
in his brothers way. If thy
brother be grieved with thy meat thou
walkest no longer in love. Destroy
not him with thy meat for whom
Christ died. 1t is good neither to
eat flesh. nor to drink wine, nor any
thing whereby thy brother stumbleth
or is offended or is made weak -.
We then that are strong ought to bear
the inf1rmities of the weak, and not to
please ourselves. For even
Christ pleased not Himself"
There you have the Law, the higher
Law. Society is repeating the lesson
after the old apostle. With cruel
blows the present war has beaten the
same truth into humanity: mo man
l1veth to himself, and no man dieth
to himself" The old individualism of
selfishness has become unendura BILE
AS John Stuart Mill said sixty-five
years ago, my liberty ends when it
begins to involve the possibility of
ruin to my neighbor" Before the
Judgment seat of Brotherhood, which
40 tie oat VI Iou, StFOnB drink has
been condemned to die. Let it be re-
membered, however. that this Law is
no new discovery of the sociologist; it
was written in the New Testam ent be-
fore even the word sociology was in
vented.
Barring the Bar
Page advertisements in the news
papers, q bookful of modern songs.
brilliant cartoons by the score, ridi-
Guile and scorn and jest are all new
weapons welded against the liouor
business. Contrast the character of
the lachrymose temperance literature
of half century ago with the virile
militant productions that pour from
the press to-day, and the changed
status of the fight will be apparent.
Out of prison cell is said to have
come this indictment of 1.-The bar"
which is a colloquial name for the
saloon:
"a Bar to heaven, a door to hell;
Whoever named it, named it WELL
A bar to manliness and wealth;
A door to want and broken health.
A Bar to honor, pride and fame;
A door to grief and sin and shame.
A Bar to hope, Bar to prayer,
A door to darkness and despair.
A Bar to honored, useful life;
A door to brawling, senseless strife.
A Bar to all that's true and brave,
A door to every drunkard's grave.
A Bar to joys that. home imparts
A door to tears and aching hearts;
A Bar to heaven, a door to hell,
Whoever named it, named it we'll"
A clever flank attack upon the
drink habit is this bit of current ad-
vice to the married man who must
have" his Occasional" drink of
whisky:
start saloon in your own
house. Be the only customer
(you1l have no license to pay).
Go to your wife and give her two
dollars to buy gallon of whis-
ky and remember there are
sixty-nine drinks in gallon.
Buy your drinks from no one but
your wife, and by the time the
first gallon is gone she will have
eight dollars to put into the bank
and two dollars to start business
again. Should you live ten years