Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-12

CHARLESTON, s. c.
Please advise a young man II years
of age of the Presbyterian faith. con-
sidering marriage with girl 10 years
| of age of the Roman Ca hole TAI h
whose mother Is very much opposed,
saying there can be no true happiness
| in such a marriage.
We are both members In good stand
| ing of our respective churches.
Answer-Difference in religious
| faith is not an insuperable obstacle to
the blessedness of marriage. But
| there Is wisdom in the opposition of
| the girls mother, and you have to
anticipate the education of children
| who NAV be born of the marriage. If
these difficulties are but a spur to
your mutual love and you have dis.
counted or provided for them ahead,
the solution of the problem is in your
| own hands as an engaged couple.
But if either of you is heSitant or
does not feel equal to leaping over the
barriers you mention, then second
thoughts are best. To marry without
| the determination that the union shall
not end disastrously so far as you are
concerned Is inadvisable.
NEW YORK CITY.
We are called upon to give up light
wines and beer because some people
abuse whisky.
We are nat called upon to give up
the dance, the theater or sport be-
cause some people abuse them.
Why the distinction?
AnSwer-There is q disposition to
put a halo of harmlessness around the
wine cask and the beer keg, as If the
reputation of these two ancient
friends of man" were suffering be
cause they have been found in the bad
company of gin and whisky.
The indictment against alcoholism,
however is a general one. and the
theory that the use of wine and beer
should be legalized because they will
eliminate the use of more concen-
trated forms of alcoholic liquor is not
supported by any facts known to me.
Meanwhile. citizens are required by
statute to give up all intoxicants,
whether in the form of those limo
cents, the wine cask and the beer
keg, or those wicked desDeradoes,
whisky and gin. The basis of this
legislation is the claim that intoXi
cants in any form are a public menace
requiring social control.
Should dancing, theater-going or
foot ball become q similar menace to
the health and morals Of the Nation
it would be justified in prohibiting
them. In fact, some of New York
City's convivial cafes are now being
compelled to close before 3 am. be-
cause they are the haunts Of Grim
inals. thugs and gunner. Those who
object to prohibition as a policy can
use every legitimate means to repeal
it's enactment. Meanwhile, I can
repeat that 1t is the law.
READING, PA.
Why do so many modernists in the
pulpit concede everything to science?
Surely they must know that the pull
pit is the place for revealed religion!
Answer--Preachers may be modern
lists, fundamentalists, or neither, but
like the rest of thinking men they
cannot ignore the scientific temper of
this age. Although the assumptions
on which science rests its case are in
some respects inadequate, they have
become an inseparable feature of
trained minds, and are SO deeply in
grained in the average educated per-
son that he often suppOses they have
no alternatives.
1t is as habitual for your children
as college graduates to construe Gre
alton in scientific terms as 1t was for
the Hebrew to construe it in terms of
the supernatural Surely the pulpit
must recognize their attitude or fail in
it's mission to them. No teacher of
sacred truth can dismiss the mental
climate of his people, and If he could
he would betray their spiritual
interests.
Yet. If there must be a fight, why
not take the war into Africa? Instead
Of fighting science, let ministers annex
it. This Is what that notable divine.
the late DIR. w. L. Watkinson, did
with conspicuous success
Who knows, for instance, that what
Is called the scientific order is the
final order? It's beginnings were fire.
Guently speculative, not to say super
stitious; its growth will surely involve
Great changes DIR. Whitehead cor