Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-10-22
Sessions For Maine Religious
Gov. Brewster Declares
Maine Should Lead Way
In Spiritual Regeneration

developing Names Spiritual Re-
sources" was the subject of Govern
or Ralph o. Brewster at the meeting
of the Maine Council of Religious
Education, Thursday evening, at the
South Parish Congregational church
He spoke as follows:
Spiritual interests will become
predominant in America not because
of any external authority, nor be-
cause of any mass appeal. but 'slmp-
ly and solely as a result of indi-
vidual Americans coming to recog-
nize that spiritual things are more
attractive than the things that are
of the flesh.
In seeking the broader utilization
of the material resources of the
State of Maine a national authority
was asked as to how we might
bring more people within our State
A profound truth was expressed in
| his simple reply: Make your pres
their light will then shine through
out the world" An advertising ex-
pert thus recognized the prime
factor in successful merchandising
as the intrinsic merit of the wares
The churches of Maine will not
hold our eight hundred thousand in
habitants and our million annual
visitors when the people at present
attending those churches demon
strate the JOY of the simple Christ
ian life. =
Journalism and ritualism was the
thing that Jesus chiefly fought. The
hardest thing in the world is to be a
judge Of our fellow-men Jesus
thought it so difficult that he re-
peatedly refused to act.
The heart and the conscience OF
America will express itself in ever
higher laws but those responsible
for. that Capitalization of public
opinion bear tremendous burden in
SO conducting their own lives that
their fellow citizens shall necessarily
recognize the sincerity of their de-
VOtion to the ideals which are so
earnestly expressed. There is in
every man and woman that which
responds to the elemental virtues
that the man of Nazareth so simply
taught.
The history of all legislation has
been a painful progress from the
habits of the jungle that once uni
yerSaDy prevailed. Within the past
century one of the most brilliant
minds that America has given to the
governmental progress of the wOrlG
was struck down in the full vigor of
MS powers in the name of the lib
erty of Americans under some cir
cumstances to kell their felloWInen.
Personal liberty has been constantly
restricted. But ii behooyes those
who sponsor these progressive steps
to see to il that their moral example
and Christian living far outrun the
laws that they impose upon the
habits OF a nation slowly awakening
to the evils of the things that once
seemed right.
The churches and the religious
leaders Of our country have assumed
a heavy responsibility n enacting
prohibition into our fundamental
Law. They have crystallized a moral
precept into an offense against the
state. The militant minority who
feel their rights infriuged will nat
urally be most eager to point out
/ the moral flaws in those who stand
conspicuously for this great cause OF
temperance reform. The slightest
lapse Will be heralded as an indica-
ton of the hypocrisy of their ways.
lntemperance is an evil but Jesus
denounced hypocrisy more earnestly
than all else. The spiritualizing in
liuences Of prohibition will be large
~ lost unless associated with its ex-
ponents is the most exalted conse-
Grafton to the leading of a more
Christian life. The last state of our
nation will be worse than the first II
we simply fall into a group OF war
ring factions seeking to make more
moral someone other than ourselves.
In three hundred years America
has toiled painfully TO the pinnacle
of human power and from its eXalt-
ed peak may now contemplate a
world that rests materially within
its thrall. America Stirs restlessly
as it considers its birthright and It's
mess of pottage born of sudden gold.
There are not wanting indications of
Il spiritual renaissance. How much
farther the pendulum of materialism
will continue its outward swing or
whether the turn is already at hand
in the still. small voices that are APP
pearine on every side time alone can
tell. 1t seems evident that America
will soon have run the camut OF
matter worship and naturalization
Will follow as the darkest portion of
the night precedes the dawn
Prohibition will be sustained but
only at the sacrifice by its opponents
of many other pleasures Of the flesh.
The Implications of this reformation
may now be but dimly guessed
Maine was the pioneer In the last
century in blazing the way 20 this
revolutionary step. 1t would. there
fore. be peculiarly appropriate that
Maine should seize the opportunity TO
lead her sister states in that indi-
vidual eXemplitication of Christian
living which can alone make of this
temperance reform a success. A lit
tie aside from the torrent of cont
mental culture that has overwhelmed
the central part of the United States
Maine stands mistaken by the cos
mopolitan tempests that elsewhere
have their day. but Maine needs to
put its own spiritual household In
order lest ii suffer from dry rot.
In the first century Of our ma