The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1922-06-05
AMERICA Q.
FOREDAS Herr
BY DR. /: Graf A is
Abolition of Twelve Vices Will
Mark Transformation,
He Declares.

IL 81 enjoy talking to the young
|. people and telling them how to be
cheerful and pepful in the seven
ties" said DIR. W. F. Crafts, head
of the international reform bur
eau, who spoke six times in this
city yesterday afternoon. just be.
fore he boarded a train for Wheel
ing this morning.
II made six talks in Fairmont
yesterday, including two big union
meetings. declared DR.. Crafts this
morning, and yet i was feeling SO
pepfu1 that L remained up until
1880 last night and got up. at
1880 this morning l have been
preaching for ffty-fve years now,
delivering several sermons a
week, and I am still going strong.
am now starting a tour that will
last three months, taking me
through West Virginia, Kentucky,
Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and sections
of New York State. l am booked
for Parkersburg. Huntington and
Ashland this week.
Sunday morning DR.. Crafts adj
dressed q union meeting of the
churches on the East Side, the
meeting being held in the Dia-
mond Street NJ. E. Church. THE
New America" was his subject.
According to the speaker, the abol-
ition of twelve vices and the res
toration of three virtues will mark
the transformation of the America
of old into the America that is to
be. The twelve vices tosbe exter-
minated are piracy duelling, slav-
cry, polygamy, sexual vice, puSll-
ism, lotteries. race-track gambling
the opium traffic, liquor, autocra-
cy and bolshevism. The three
virtues to be restored are family
worship, the Bible in the schools
and the American Sabbath.
Some of3these vices are already
dead, and others are, squirting in
the throes of death, but all are
doomed" DR.. Crafts declared. All
of our thoughtful statesmen and
thinkers agree with church lead
ers in sounding the slogan, Back
to, the, Bible
when majority of a whole
nation spends its Sunday after
noon and evening-its only oppor-
tunity for thorough thinking in
den, absorbed in amusements, it is
easy to see that there is left no
adequate opportunity for discus
sion of the problems of the day,
and so the opportunity forscorrect-
ing abuses passes and everything
is left to the rulers.
italian, the greatest OF ph1lo-
sophie historians, explains the out
come of this in aoll lands of the
continental Sunday: The Shrewd
despots of Europe have studiously
cultivated a love of Sunday past
times to keep the people quiet I'M
der political distresses.' Bob Bur
dette the Baptist deacon humorist,
put the same great historic truth
more strikingly when he said:
The Declaration of Independence
was not written in a. beer dive on
a Sunday afternoon-not by a jug
full
Careful observers are recog--
nizing that the same selfish for
eign forces that are overthrowinS
law and order in the interest of
one. class with a view to social
revolution and confscation for
their own profit, are battling de-
terminedly to capture the Ameri-
can Sunday for commercialized
amusements.
The business world, regardless
of the religious views of some OF
its people expects the church to
provide good citizens, who will
neither. sell votes nor steal goods.
If the boys of today are to be made
into such citizens, there must be a
day in which to do it, and it is not
in the interest of religion any
more than of business and of pat
riotism that the day should be seq
regated from the tide of selfish
ness.
'.The Bible definitely forbids
two things on the Sabbath: Selfish
pleasure, and selfish work; and
promises two things~in their place,
higher delight in altruism, in, place
of selfish pleasure given up, and
greater earthly prosperity. in place
of work for gain set aside. This
promise has been signallyE fulhlled
in human history, for Sabbath OBJ
servers have been, as a rule, the
most prosperous persons IN the
community, and Sabbath keeping
nations have excelled all. others
physically, mentally, morally, mn
a1Cldlly dud pOl1LANoA1y
THE centennial Sunday Hal
lam called the holiday of depot
ism The American Sabbath is
the holy day of freedom"
In the evening DR.. Crafts spoke
before union meeting of the
churches of the west side of the.
city held in the Methodist3Te Temple.
His subject was THAT Boy and
Girl of Yours" His discourse was +!
along the lines of the modern in :
terpretation of the second great
commandment, Thou shalt love.
thy neighbor as myself. The
modern Interpretation of this. ac-
cording to DR.. Crafts, is Get men ltel1
right with men socially.
The speaker declared that aall
law hangs in two loves, as shown
in the Commandments: Thou shalt
love God and thou shalt q love
man"
& Nations he declared, will
some day love their neighbors as