South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1920-04-26
SOUTH BEND MINISTERS
RAP CITY OFFICIALS FOR
ALLOWING OPEN TOWN

Reveals Beauty.
He was always revealing 10 men
/ the beauty and values OF the soul
/ He was always telling them that If
/ they won the whole world and spoil
I ed their souls they lost everything
/ lie was always warning men against
I sin.
ours is a world that exacts the
/ uttermost penalty from the trans
sressOr. The youth who plays with
passion need not pray afterward
Tor the human body will not forgive
/ once the glutton, drunkard or SEN
sualist nave drained precious nerve
I force the end is in sight.
IF Jesus stood on our streets to-
day and saw how many people broke
I the laws Of God and decency on the
Sabbath day, lie would wonder and
/ be perplexed.
Slams Movies.
If He could see today the crowds
attending the motion picture places,
/ He would weep as He did over Jeru-
| salem.
But that it is not the worst Of it,
/ the moving picture places are train
| ing more children than the home of
I this city are. The screen pictures
are giving instruction that will
mould the character of those child
\ rem and determine the kind of citi-
\ zens they VIII be
Jesus would wonder why the
mothers OF this city would turn the
I training of their children over 10
I the motion picture places. 1t is not
because the managers of the mo-
\ ton picture places love children. We
I wonder whether they even love de-
\ cency. They are persistently trying
4 TO break down all observance of the
sabbath day They are persistently
I holding prohibition Up to ridicule.
RidicuIe Prohibition.
I have not seen a screen picture
/ for six months that in some way pro-
hibition is not ridiculed. This is a
natural propaganda. When the
moving picture places become unsafe
places for children, when. they lend
themselves 10 the whisky trust, as a
christian citizen i am compelled to
protest When they start out TO
break down all decency by breaking
down all reverence for Gods day, il
is time that the people who love
Righteousness better wake up and
get on the job for God. the children,
our homes and our dear city.
If Jesus came TO our city. He
would walk up our streets and see
i
I would wonder II we are concerned
I about morality. whether we care
about personal cleanliness, and
/ whether the harlot is in good stand
/ ing with the administration.
'Well what Jesus would see, He
/ knows we see. and He commands Us
/ 10 clean house"
At the First Methodist church Dr.
| J. n. Greene took as his subject
I The Sins OF South Bend" and
\ preached 10 an audience that fille0
| the large auditorium to capacity.
/ The sympathy Of the audience was
/ evidenced ia the outburst of ap-
/ plause that greeted the speakers
1 denunciation OF immoral conditions
| in the city and his plea for a clean
inE up. The speaker took his
/ theme from the Indignation which
\ Paul manifested when ne looked
\ upon the immortality OF Athens. The
I account says Paul was stirred" in
/ his spirit. The speaker said, The
word stirred in the original IS the
I word from which we get our word
/ paroNysm.
1T means that Paul had a perfect
] spasm of righteous Indignation when
I he saw the wickedness of the city.
/ A life unblunted in its moral sense
and in its right relation with God,
is indignant at the sin it SECS
around IT,
Brings Charge.
The charge L bring against this
age is that we have already in many
I quarters allowed our moral sensibil-
tiles 10 become blunted and our eyes
I morally blinded until we do not see
| the enOrmity OF the sinful conditions
about us. Our shame ia that We
~ n
. evils that ought 10 make US boil
with Indignation. We have come
. upon a period OF paganism in our
national life and and in our city
life, and yet we are not stirred by
the sight OF il. We aTe afflicted with
a moral malaria which has sickened
manhood, discredited religion and
forgotten God. What we need is
such "a divine quickening as Will lit
us out of our diseased condition and
restore the lost sense OF being indig-
nant at the havoc Of sin.
Rotten Conditions.
Conditions in South Bend are
such as ought 10 make every good
citizen riChteously wrathfuL The
immoralities hare have been forced
ON my attention in an unpleasant
manner We should face tie facts.
IL is not knocking the city 20 point
OU its defects. We need 10 change
some of cur silly notions about
knocking the city. If a doctor tells
YOU that YOU have contagious dis
ease he is not knocking, but doing
YOU a service When good cltl-
zen points out the contagious OF a
city he is doing IL a service. There
Is much in south Bend 10 boost but
we can an do a better job OF boost
ing il we are not compelled 10 feel
hat back of our virtues there are
immoral conditions that make us
Inundated and ashamed
THE liquor question is still a
serious one in south Bend. / am
told that there are places where
LIQUOR is openly sold in defiance Of
the law and without molestatiou
from the authorities. one night last
week i've men were arrested for
drunkenness and no one has eN-
{ planned where they secured the
, liquor old citizens who know con