The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-05-06

rom the tounudllon or the WOrld than to open the way to moral ruin for one
 single human soul
 NOT LETTING DOWN BARS
 So far as you to whom I am speak ing are concerned, I am not letting down the bars. God has removed most of you from the terror and the tempta- tion of Sunday idleness. This is true
 of the worshippers in every church within the city You have your homes
 and your friends; your families and your church. For you. there is your place. But there are others whose lives are not so shielded. or who do not see life with your eyes. Before them, the doors of illegitimate pleas ures are forever swinging wide, and | they have no religious ties to restrain them. These are the ones whose des- tinies in part you are called upon to
 determine at the polls. I wish I could speak to every Christian man within the city, DO not vote with your eyes upon yourself alone, but remember that you are your brothers and your sisters keeper
 There are many sorts of Sundays. l have told you what I think Sunday ought to be. But just because we can not have the best, in Gods name, let us not choose the worst. There may
 not be much spiritual value in moving pictures but there is a great deal of spiritual danger in a multitude of peo- pie with nothing to do. I believe with , all my heart that Sunday of worship | is the truest, holiest Sunday of all II is far better than a Sunday of amuse- ment. But I am morally certain that | q Sunday of amusement is better than a Sunday of idleness, for it is pro- l foundly true that Satan finds work fer l idle thoughts and empty lives.
 PERSONAL LIBERTY
 | These are some of the reasons why I, 1 for my part, hope that as result of to-
 morrow's contest the Sunday pictures will ! continue to run. There are a number of /, other aspects of the case to which can 1 but refer at this time. In the first place l the whole principle of such referendum
 seems to me to be utterly out of keeping with American ideals. That in free | country people should have to go to the
 polls and vote in order to preserve the | personal liberty that the constitution guarantees them is utterly unfair and unjust. If tomorrow as many as 600O or 5000 persons vote for the Sunday closing l law, we shall witness the rather interest | ing spectacle of coco or 5000 persons de-
 terming how 2O0,O00 shall live; and this
 at time when men are dying by the
 millions for the principles of democracy. 1 The Jews have just as much right to ! force their ideas of the Passover upon 1 this nation; the Catholics have just as much right to compel us to observe their ! holy days as we Protestants have to force our conception of Sunday on them. If
 religious liberty means anything, it 1 means my right to observe Sunday in the
 way that seems best to me. It means the same thing for the Roman Catholic and the Jew. If a man is an atheist or an agnostic then religious liberty means his l right to observe Sunday as seems best to him. There are many poor ways Of set ting religious differences, but the poor est and most Christian of them all IS
 to settle them at the polls And the pity Of it is that a Professionalism which had it's inception in rebellion against state
 controlled church should compel us to drag these questions pertaining to the
 religion of God into the courts Of caesar. Those who are seeking the cause Of the 1 churchs weakness today would do well to consider this tendency on the part or her leaders to force their personal relig- ious convictions upon the multitude under
 the forms of civil law. It is my firm be- lief that the seeming success that similar attempts have met with in the past, while heralded as victories for the church, have in reality been her bitterest defeats. for lit is funda mental to human nature that l we do not love the hand that smltes us,
 nor the power, which by force. compels | us to forego our conscious choice. Tne possible victory that the church can win in any test of strength will always be | more than offset by the hatred in the | hearts of those who have been defeated and these unreached thousands, whom even now the churches are threatening
 to alienate, are the very ones whom we
 most desire to touch; the lost sheep to
 whom the church is sent. I think that if
 the churches were less interested in laws
 and more interested in love; l think that
 if they gave more time to the under
 standing of the souls they are seeking 10 save. I think that if they left their i Mosaic codes and went down into the
 street and listened with more sympathy
 to the heart beats of tired. sinful men
 | think that if we gave less time to the vain attempt to shape all men by one
 pattern and more time to the saving of
 men as they actually are; if we did these