Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-05-18
REFINING UP FOR REIGNING OVER
The international Sunday School Lesson For May
20 Is, "The Importance of Self-Control" Isaiah
28:1-13. GA Temperance Lesson).
BY WILLIAM L. ELLIS

The international Sunday school
lesson for May 20, is, THE Import
ance of Self-Control." Isaiah 2S:1-1S
GA Temperance Lesson).
BY William T. Ellis
Even the comic papers have learn
ed that John Barleycorn is a war;
victim. Mars is apparently putting
the finishing touches upon the fate
o. the liquor business. AS we come
teAthis regular quarterly temperance
lesson of the Sunday school, which is
to be studied topically, we find our
selves in the position of a friend of
mine who is leader in American So
cial service. Commenting a few days
ago upon the condition of the tenn
perance reform he wrote, Things
are moving so rapidly that it is all
one can do to keep up with the pro-
gress of the movement. much less
try to lead it." The speed at which
the saloon is being driven from
trench to trench. from position to
position, until it is now near to en-
gulfment in the watery sea of oblit-
Grafton, is bewildering and dazzling
and glorious.
War in speeding up everything. Re-
forms are being accomplished at
breathless rate. THE work that CEN
turies should have done, must crowd
the hour of the setting sun" So we
read of blow after blow at the liquor
trade, each severer than the last, and
now the confidence pervades the
land that the entire business is to be
wiped out quickly, in the interest
of military and economic advantage.
There seem to be no friends left for
John Barleycorn, except the men
who profit financially by his continu-
ance.
Fit For Fighting
soft" and "Out of Condition"
have been characterizations heaped
upon the nonmilitary nations of
civilization. They were self-indul-
gent. Ease and appetite held sway.
One of the most shameful incidents
of the early stages of he conflict was
the refusal of a body of British
churchmen to give up the use of
liquor during the war. They had
wandered so far from the Christ
principle of self-denial for the sake
of others that they were not so much
as willing to surb their appetites for
the sake of God and country. The
stigma thus placed upon Christianity
has been remarked upon by the
secular and religious press around
the entire globe.
In Canada, and in the fighting
zone of Europe, people are becoming
more fit for fighting. They have
learned the great self-renunciation
which underlie all discipline of mind
and body. Real preparedness is
thing of the spirit, a state of mind,
Success in war, as in all the other
battles of life, strikes its roots back
into the character of the individual.
SO long as a people are self-pleasing.
and accustomed to put comfort
ahead of conviction, the state is in
danger.
Here we come directly upon the
reason why the Sunday school should
study a temperance lesson. We hear
a great deal about the economic as
poets of the fight against the use of
strong drink; and not one word too
much. Nevertheless. the issue is
fundamentally religious. Its appeal is
TO the Christian spirit of altruism
and vicariousness. For the sake of
Others the disciple of Jesus, like his
Master, denies himself.
The New Kind of Hcrctics
The person who will not deny his
own desires for the sake of his coun-
try or his God violates the very gen
ius ~ the New Testament. They are
poor Christians indeed who have not
learned to subdue an impulse at the
behest of a principle. Their undis-
ciplined lives are doomed to slavery
Only reined spirits reign.
All Christians who are represented
by those British ecclesiastics, men
toned above, who refused to abstain
from the glass during the period of
the war, are real heretics., They are
disloyal to the first principles of
Jesus. Such seltiShneSs is worse than
doctrinal unsoundness. The world
knows and cares little about a Chris
tian's creed, except as faith is
wrought out into life. But it clearly
n. l..
Indulgence and self-seeking as has
been indicated. The churchman who
cares more for his wine than for the
name of the Master which he wears
and the business man who puts his
dividends above his duty to his fell
low men are alike traitors to their
land and their Lord. They have not
learned the first lesson even of tenn
perance, which is self-control, and
the art of holding things in propor-
ton.
The Patriotism of Prohibition
l have been trying to imagine the
feeling nowadays of the veterans of
the temperance reform movement
the Women's Christian Temperance
Union workers and the eccentric"
prohibition advocates who, fifteen
or twenty years ago, were but voices
crying in the wilderness. Few of
them dared to hope to live to see the
fulflment of their dream and desire
Now, statesmen and economists and
educators and labor leaders are one
in pleading with the nation to go the
extreme limit of national prohibition.
What would Neal Dow or Frances
Z. Willard have said to having as an
ally the president of the National
City bank of New York, Frank y.
Nanderlip, formerly. of the United
States Treasury? Yet here is an ex-
tract from a recent telegram by Mr..
Fandelip:
II believe we are facing a serious
test of our national character and
efficiency and am firmly convinced
that a national prohibition measure
would be of transcendent importance
in its effect upon the national spirit
in conserving and increasing our
food supply and in raising the eff
cheney of the nation. The man-power
released from the liquor industries
could be directed into other produc-