TEMPERANCE SERMON.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1292, 22 November 1911, Page 8

TEMPERANCE SERMON.

TRUTHFULNESS V. PROHIBITION. (From tho "Sioux City Tribune.") "The real danger in , the background of. our present so-called temperance vrork lies in the assumption flint we can climb up some other way into temperance tiM by training ourselves and our children, iix* truthfulness and self-c-:-ntrol." This wa.s the temperance idea expressed by Rev. Wallace M. Short, pastor of the First Congregational Church, ir'his termon on "The American Saloon." "My purpose is merely to si tc a few facts that must be soberly con dered by every person who believes truthfulness is necessary in dealing with all question';:," began tho pastor. "Seventy-five years ago the makers and sellers of alcoholic beverages were going about their business as quietly and obediently as any other man whoso busine-s was treated by legislature and police in tho same manner. The temperance movement was cutting deeply into their business, but (hey had no complaint on that score. If pcoplo did not wish to buy, they did not have to. And no injunction had then been invented to prohibit one man from persuading another to cut out rum from his daily diet.

Use of Alcohol Grows. "During the decade from IS4O to 1850, tho Prohibition idea was taking po.'.vssion of men's minds, the first law of the kind being enacted in ISit", and the 'Maine law' iu 1.5.J1. As the Prohibition idea grew, the temperance movement died out. During the last sixty years at "jt three-fourths of. our territory ha.* been covered by prohibitory law. The per capita consumption of alcohol as a beverage, instead cf. decreasine. has doubled. The saloon has been consolidated into an entrenched power of resistar :e. 'The American saloon' is the direct and inevitable result of the methods of attack on intemperance that have been followed during the last sixty years in this country. "Fiftv or ?ixtv vears asa. ABRAHAM LINCOLN said:* 'PROHIBITION WILL WORK A GREAT INJURY TO THE CAUSE OF TEMPERANCE.' It may bo that time will prove his profound insight and common sense were unerring hero as in a great many other matters. MR. LINCOLN added: 'IT (PROHIBITION) IS A SPECIES OF INTEMPERANCE WITHIN ITSELF, FOR IT GOES BEYOND THE BOUNDS OF KEASON.' "It is an ungracious task to h.\ to point out tho misstatements and questionable methods of a party, many of whom are sincerely hoping to promote temperance. But all who are truly sincore aro more than willinj; to find tha tiuth. One is almost driven sometimes, as ho hears tho statements of Prohibition orators, to believe that Mr. Lincoln is correct iu declaring that Prohibition is a species of intemperance within itself. "Wo have gotten ourselves into tho strange situation where an.army of men aro organised ostensibly to fight tho saloon, and are drawing salaries larger than their abilities would command in their regular callings, and whose very occupation depends on the continued existence of the saloon.

Wrong Idea. "Now, my friends, tho real danger point in tho back ground of our present so-called temperance work.lies in tho tacit assumption that wo can climb up sjmo other way into temperance than by training ourselves and our children in truthfulness and self-control. It is as though ono should stand on tho shoro of tho sea and lash himself into fury at tho number of ships that every year sink in tho briny deep, and should declare tho maritime powers of tho earth criminals because they do not create a sea on which unseaworthy ships can sail safely. "We shall establish proper lighthouses and map out tho course of the sea, and puL i.-h proper charts. Hut the fact is, try as wo will, never shall we discover any way by which leaky hulks or untrained captains can sail without disaster on God's great ocean. "So it is actually coming to pass that many ••-"'German beer-driver is training' his bofs'/to a temperance and self-control that is sadly lacking in multitudes ef lx'.vs that aro growing up in the homes and influences of our churches. "When a man pete this notion into his head, the logical thing for him *to do is to quit preaching, and go into tho business of temperance by external compulsion. Three-fourths of the men who are throughout the country leading Ihesj various kinds of Prohibition movements arc men who have quit the ministry for this sort of work. "I beg you, brethren, not to think Hint I find any unhallowed delight in criticising tho methods of my brethren. 13ut if I believed as they do I should also quit my ministry. Ajiil I cannot have a church that is interesting to me, as a vital christianising force, except as I con help men to see what tho real business of the church is. "Into nearly every church home to-day there comes every week a lutlc publication that has emblazoned at the top of the front pace, 'The anti-saloon loa.?uc is the church in action acainst the whvn.' That is not the legend I dimiM rh.-o«. to write over the door nf my church." N.B. —After this I am fully persuade to striko out the bottom lines on both ballot-papers. Why should the ClmVinii Church 1)C eclipsed by Prohibition and No-License ?-l'airplay.* [Wo have inserted the foregoing on tho same terms as other similar articles bearing oa the subject discussed..!