The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1928-10-01

as TO liquor drinking, at least among the
mass of what Lincoln called the plain
people" and to compare the conditions
now with those of ten years ago. Now
these preachers embody their convictions,
based on first-hand contact with facts in
resolutions in annual conferences and in
the General Conference. I submit that
as long as they do not bring authoritative
pressure to bear on voters it is a strange
freak Of reasoning that can see in their
utterances a threat to the well-being OF
the state
THE CHURCH'S MISSION
There is higher ground than all this.
however. What I have thus far said has
TO do with the more matter-of-fact proc
esses of gathering facts and of making
them known. Is not the Church in this
world to perform prophetic function? It
is the business of the Church to hold on
high the ideals without too much regard
to the difficulties in the way of realizing
those ideals. The ideals themselves have
always been aiming at the realization OF
the highest human values
The prohibition movement is the
largcSt-scale attempt in our time at
social control which aims at a better
chance for human beings by the hundreds
of thousands. If the prophetic voice is
not in order when the Church is dealing
with the elementary pre-c conditions which
make possible q genuine human life il
would be hard to tell when it is in order.
We may well pardon the prophetic
voice, too when it gets bit harsh and
when it seeks to carry out the Old Testa-
ment thought of braying fools in NOR
tar-though that expedient Is not always
promising Just think of the nonsense to
which we have to listen today. Some
time ago most estimable woman wrote
an article for a MAGAZINE IN which she
said that she resented prohibition because
It took away from her son the chance OF
passing by the open saloon door and OF
showing his strength by not going I'M
wonder what saloon men think of that as
an argument by the way, Let us have sa-
looms so that the boys won't patronize
them!
In a %high-brow7 circle with which a
close friend Of mine is connected one OF
the high brows said little while ago that
be resented prohibition SO deeply as q
violation of his self-respect that he had
hunted up bootlegger and had taken a
drink in protest. wonder II he said that
to the bootlegger If he did wonder if
the bootlegger suggested going the fun
logical length and getting drunk to
show complete self respect.
Now these instances are extreme-buE
they are typical Of the floods of nonsense
4Ci tOOhS upon us OOQdy EVEN II Inc
prophet talks nonsense the other side
should not be allowed monopoly OF tho
nonsense; and what seems in the
prophets utterance to be nonsense to the
other takers Of nonsense may by that
very token be entitled to be called wis
dom
THE PURE GOSPEL
OF course we always have with us those
who talk about the pure Gospel and the
duty of the Church to stick to that Cos
pei II by pure Gospel we mean that
which was most often on the lips Of Jesus.
We ought to remember that He was al
ways speaking Of mans duty to his fell
bowman He said something also about
those who put stumbling blocks in the
way Of their fellows He was insistent
upon keeping the road open toward the
Kingdom Of Heaven. Was It not Lord
Bryce who said that 1t is the object OF
government to put "hindrances in the
way of hindrances to the good Ife?" II
the Church Is to preach the pure Gospel
she has right TO cry out against the
htndrances to that Gospel More and
more we are seeing that the Gospel Is for
hfe-not for theology or for ritual II
this Is the true purpose Of the Gospel
and who can doubt that 1t is?-we have
The highest warrant for standing against
anything which does not make for the
largest and best life for men-and stand