The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-02

one Sunday in November is desig-
| mated as Worlds Temperance Sun
| day." and the regular course of Inter
| national Sunday school lessons is in
/ terrupted to make way for it. The
study is less a study of a Scripture
passage than of a topic.
/ Thrust into the foreground of all
the worlds thinking by the eXigencies
of war, the temperance question has
4 made greater strides in the past three
years than in the preceding three
hundred years. There has been a real
revolution in mems attitude toward it.
Stern reality has lifted the subject out
| of the realm of theory. It is now
seen to touch the very vitals of ma
tional existence.
High Motive for Ordinary Life.
The fact is undeniable that Chris
tianity brings to bear upon the race
new impulses, and erect within the
spirits of mankind, new IDEAS There
| is nothing irrational in Worlds
Temperance Sunday for the church
| and Sunday school. In this they
business. For the gospel has to do
with the ordinary relationships of
| human beings 1t is in the business
of creating new men and women.
Cleanness, sobriety, chastity, self-de-
NAL, have been cardinal to its teach
ings. AS the letters of Paul make
clear, Christianity stands for a type
of character, in contrast of that of
C10 Ola, QISSO1uI6 nations.
This is wildly brought home to
the traveller IN Bible lands. Why is
it that these once flourishing cities
proud Ephesus where Diana was
splendidly worshipped; Sardis, where
Croesus reigned; 1conium, which
boosted of being the first spot to
emerge after the deluge-are now of
interest chiefly for their ruins.
What laid low the power of this
proud Rome, I asked, myself as my
horse 1OPppd the ach0inp r.
BILE highway. Uttered with broken
columns at Ephesus, while the only
habitation in sight was a shepherds
hut? 1t was self-indulgence. Rome
did as it pleased and is now but
| a memory. Christianity taught puri-
ty, self-deniaI, love, and 10, it reigns
in increasing power over the greater
part of the earth. The calloW youth
who sneers at the oldfashioned vir-
tues of his mothers religion, should
4 go to the library and get a volume of
general history. No drunken, self
pleasing nation never had a long life.
The reason the outlook for the Turk
ish empire seems dark to many close
Z observers is that the people them
/ selves are not noble, broad-minded,
pure-souled and fraternal.
Very divergent forces have been at
work, in many different ways, to over
1 throw the drinking customs of ages.
There is first the open assault and
direct charge of the regular temper
ance army, with all it's divisions and
weapons, its big guns and it's small
arms. These have taken position after
position and have been in the stress
3 of 1hand to hand conflict. They are
4 the main reliance of the besiegers.
The sappers and miners have been
at work, also, by patient process OF
education and ,tunneling under the
very foundations of the mighty institu-
ton. More than one mine has been
exploded with disastrous results by
4 these skillful warriors. The fleet of
4 literature has bombarded the forts
from where it rides in the offing.
Great authors and modern newspapers
alike have poured hot shot into the
liquor camp.
Deprivation has been at work as a
temperance ally. Society has de-
prived the liquor dealer and the
drinker of its approval. Great COM
mercial institutions, railways and such
like have closed their doors to strong
| drink. The most eminent periodical
publications in the land refuse to ad-
NIT to their columns the advertise
tments of spirituous liquors. So the
siege goes on with the besieged in
creasingly concerned.
Intemperance is linked to evil. al
ways and everywhere. Strong drink
and hard times go together. So do
. drink and physical suffering. The
saloon and the prison are cause and
effect; likewise the saloon and the
|. asylum. disgrace, SndIH6y poverty
and sorrow all follow in the wake of
the bottle. Surely this should teach
men to shun drink. But it does not
The benificent Teacher puts the thorn
of suffering on the rose of sin, but
men heed not the pain or the blood
Neither Israel nor America could be
moved by the clear monitions of God
regarding drunkness. It has taken
this holocaust of horror, this bap-
tism of blood this rending of the
| do Of infx m oh
the temperance lesson.
Then the Preachers Go Wrong.
A drunken preacher is almost un-
heard of in this land and day, though
IsraePS fierce condemnation of such
is quite comprehensive. The people
expect better of their religious leader
than they do of themselves. There
were no UNCONVENTIONAL lines, and no
! secular nor religious in the recent
outcry from all parts of the world
over the action of a certain British
church gathering, in refusing to ac-
cept personal total abstinence during
the war. Daily newspapers We'd with
temperance organs in holding the ac-
ton up to scorn For the most part
the pulpit has assumed advanced
ground on the temperance question.
Not only does it practice and preach
temperance but it is quite generally
committed to the crusade for the to-
tai extinction of the liquor traffic
sun II may De SafQ InaI the greatest
need of the present day temperance
cause is a clear. consistent, persist
ent and unequivocal message from the
Christian pulpit. Unless the proph-
cts of God warn the people they
themselves share the sin. Put an
I Israel in every church in America,
and the conditions with respect to
strong drink would be changed at
once.
The Little Lion and Big Dog.
Some time ago in the Berlin Zoo
| logical Gardens, 1 saw a lions cub
and a grown dog in the same cage
together The dog was bullying the
baby lion most thoroughly 1t knock
ed the little beast over, and snapped
it on various parts of the body and