The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1917-10-31
SUNDAY SCHOOL NOTES
Side Lights on Next Sundays
Lesson for Teachers and Pupils
Edited by Charles K. Meyers.
OYFICE3e.

Second Vice-President, L. G. Wig.
gins, Dow City.
Third Vice-President, :? VIM. Lind.
berg, Kiron. >.-e" 81 ,asr,
Fourth Vice-President, Edward Ly-
on, Charter Oak.
secretary-Treasurer, Chas. X. Mey
ers, Denison. ....., ...-t
Elementary Superintendent, Mrs.
Anna Williams, Denison.
Secondary Superintendent, Frank
Woolston, Denison.
| Adult and Homo Superintendent.
Mrs. z. w. Pierce, Denison.
| Educational Superintendent, Miss
Monetta Jorgensen, Vail.
Supervision Superintendent, F. L.
| Hoffman, DenisOn
Nov. 4-Defeat Through Drunk
enness. Kings 20, III. ,.....
Well that does seem familiar'-de.
feat through drunkenness. 1t did not
need for US to go back to the days of
the history of the Jews hundreds of
years before Christ was born for ma.
|terial to found talk on this topic.
Defeat through drunkenness. In.
stances abound in every family of the
readers ofithis column. Poverty, want,
business failures, educational defeats,
crushing out of the life. of the chill
dren, womanly spirit of the women, the
hopes of the girls and boys, and SO on
without seeming end, all come from
drunkenness and the things which 60
with it.
In the scripture of the day we. are
told how Ben-ha-dad, king of Syria,
came upon the city Of Samaria with
a vast army with intent to subdue the
city, lay waste its wealth, bear off it's
people as captives. He was so sure
of his prey that he gave way to feast
ing and drunkenness near the city and
when thus besotted, Ahab the king of
Israel came upon the Syrian army with
picked young soldiers and destroyed
the invaders root and branch !
There is in this lesson further his
tory of how Ben-ha.dad first demanded
the surrender of the city, with most
humiliating terms, and how Ahab said
yes" to these, and how the Syrian
then demanded more, and how the
prophet of God came forward to say
that the invader would be defeated to
make one more showing that the God
of Israel had power to save th\'e
whom he chose so to save.
The lesson brings up the temper
ance situation in Iowa. OF course the
temperance people feel sorry that pro:
hibition was not put in the constitu-
ton. There had been the vain hope
that the Promised Land" had been
reached, land no more battles need be
111 1S,n4o %r. AIT
saloons. God, however, decided to set
the trenches for work. Happily they
have been there before, and can be and
are trained soldiers. The enemies of
right living have triumphed, but have
not won out a victory by any means.
THE most ardent liquorite does not
dare at this time to ask back the legal
lied saloon as in Iowa for the past
Years up to the present law. They
dare not face the record Of those sa-
loon days. They are obliged to say.
Far be it fronhus to want saloons as
of yore," but we want an ideal kind,
which will have none Of the bad fea-
lures of what used to be. The world
has moved up a notch on the liquor
question and will never go back. The
talk that saloons are good in way,
a necessary need for community, are
the means of less liquor being drank,
prohibition does not prohibit, has been
abandoned as utter nonsense and so
known by the people.
There had come upon the temper
ance forces feeling that the days for
personal work had gone by, that easy
street had been reached, prohibition
was about to sweep the land over.
This was the cause of much lack of
enthusiasm and the defeat Of the
amendment. These are peculiar times.
The war with its rigid rules stepping
! in to private affairs in way hereto
fore unknown in the country caused
a resentment at legal restraints. The
Germans of Iowa in main resent the
forced, suppression of their ideas as
to the causes and conduct of the war
with Germany, and they struck back
with their ballots with force and in
ward satisfaction. r.--
In the matter of the defeat of the
amendment in Iowa. attention can be
called to the tendency of voters to tire
fOf good government, Of high ideals.
/ civic Righteousness. Just now there
lis mayoralty campaign going on in
New York City. Mayor Mitchell has
honestly tried to give the city reforms
along right lines, and has in many
ways succeeded. Now he comes up for
reelection, but the fact of his good
record is not gaining him waves of
popular enthusiasm. There need be
little surprise if the berated Tammany
Hall candidate, Hylan, is elected. The
voters seem simply tired of high ideals,
what they are pleased to call in de-
rision "Puritanic Laws" and are will
ing to try the wide open times again.
1t seems human nature to do this, and
there seems no way to stop it, at the
A. L. Brown and wife to A. l..
will in time return and carry public
opinion to former high levels Looked
upon from this point of view there
may be something to be discouraged
about but the battle for temperance is
not lost in Iowa or the nation. De-
feat Of the liquor power will come
again through drunkenness, ] and
Righteousness triumph. r'
Among the men who can't buy lib
erty bond are those who fear lest it
might depreciate 80 cents worth on
the stock market .