The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1920-08-13

for endorsed dry candidates at the pi
Effectiveness of Preaching-Article
The result of the long agitation for
national Prohibition is so recent that
think it may be taken as a proof OF
the effectiveness il preaching. | can
recall the days when the craze was
young as a political measure. The
dominant parties were lined UP
against it. No subject gave the wit
and wag such an opportunity. Grover
Cleveland dismissed the whole matter
as a national issue by his happy
phrase that the people should not be
vexed by "sumputary legislation
Every young man who hoped to en-
joy the luxury of political office was
against Prohibtiin. Every business
man in the community was against
it; whole communities were against
it, as were the great cities. When
business man appeared who was will
ing to say something positive against
the drink traffic he was inviting fnan-
cial embarrassment and often bank
ruptcy. Such men were few. The great
dailics, the politicians and states
men, the great corporations, the
great lawyers and the Tor dl y
of every rank were against national
Prohibition Then as now they
scorned to consider the preachers
message as worthy the slightest con-
sideration. In the struggle not many
mighty, not many noble were called,
AS usual, the preacher was the
goat. He believed himself to be
preacher of righteousness and he
preached it. The tree must bear
fruit after its kind, and he meant to
be fruit-bearing tree. While many
churches played fast and loose and
sde-stepped when convenient, the
rank and file of the ministry never
wavered. Those who did not favor
the cause" were marked men. The
wise men in the church and out look
ed OH the crusading preacher as a
fanatic, if not as a harmless lunatic
So tense. was the struggle that some,
despairing of the church, left the
ministry; others moved to more in
viting fields; some resigned under
pressure, not being willing to sur
render their self-respect. All such
were martyrs of the spirit They set
their backs TO the wall and fought
and hoped and prayed. They stood
for Prohibition i'll season and out of
season, sometimes speaking wisely,
sometimes madly, but taking counsel
as they bore their testimony, Of that
elmer light which never yet led
aspiring men astray. d
Kept Issue Alive
With the Frances Wizards inFevery
nook and hamlet of the land, the
preachers cried aloud and spared not
until judgment ripened into victory.
When the Books were opened where
in arc written the records of men and
events which determine the direction
of nations, it was found that the
cause of the preacher was the cause
Of God. Theirs was not futile mes
sage. By il the wisdom of the wise
and prudent was set at naught. 1t
was the ministry more than any other
class that kept this issue alive; their
preaching compelled a nation to see
the enormity of the liquor traffic
preaching that gave the people no
rest until the government was COM
PEELED TO wash its hands OF all COM
plicity. Today it is noteworthy that
the only classes who would go back
to the old days OF drink and deviltry
are those who want to reap the fruits
Of iniquity, and their adherents who
find the purity of water altogether too
pacific for their bolshevistic interiors
The Christian Century.
The Preacher and the Saloon
Article Q
1t may be true that 'the average
is a poor guide in matters
sociological" He may be confused
by The complexity of our industrial
life today. He may not know much
about the problems which battle and
perplex the professional man. But it
was a minister who devised the Anti
Saloon League and it was the coop
Grafton of countless ministers all
over the United States whose mes
sage in the churches ultimately
aroused the forces which put the sa-
loon out of business. He who has
any doubt about it has only to read
Hamilton Holt on "The Doom of the
Liquor Traffic: