I believe this statement would be accepted as true, taking the inward as well as the outward forces into consideration--that every life becomes the product of those forces which play about it. And if we can accept that statement as true without any argument, then I believe I would be prepared to state the problem of our Christian civilization in a single sentence: How may we increase the forces of right which lift men up, and how may we decrease the forces of evil which drag men down?

      In the twenty minutes of time left for this subject this morning, I here and now put this arbitrary limit upon myself, that we will consider but one single force of right which lifts men up and match it with one single force of evil which drags men down. I attempt to find the strongest and best equipped force for evil and put that on one side of the account. On the other side of it, where do we find the strongest organized force for the uplift of humanity? And in this presence I need not hesitate to say that the church [239] of Christ only meets the latter description. It is the finest force for the uplift of humanity that there is in the world to-day. I am not asserting that the church is a perfect institution. I do not understand how one could understand it to be a perfect institution; but the church is the one mighty organization among men. The truth is, that if the vilest sinner on this earth were to walk down the aisle of any church, confessing his sins, and calling upon Christ for salvation, though he be too late to

O. W. STEWART.

be of any help to humanity, you have to take him, and I am glad of it. That is what the church is here for. That is the claim the church makes, that it can take poor, lost, suffering humanity and wash it up and clean it up for God and eternity, and that being the claim the church makes, we can not sit in judgment upon any one who thus offers himself. But that is not the thing I wanted to say. What I am trying to say is this, rather: that whatever one might think about the doctrines of the church, whatever one might assume as the personal attitude toward Jesus Christ or his divinity, yet here is the fact about the church: that the church is such an organization among men with such a purpose that it can not succeed without helping and blessing humanity, and it can not fail without its failing being an injury to humanity.

      So I say again that the church of the living God is the finest organization for righteousness that there is in the world to-day.

      But there may be some who feel that I have not been sufficiently explicit, who would like to say, "Would you put the church ahead of the lodge?" I think the church is better than all the lodges in creation put together. But some one says, "Do you think the church is better than any political party?" Yes, I think it is better than my own political party. The church of Jesus Christ is the strongest single factor that makes for righteousness and peace and virtue in humanity.

      Now turn to the other side and look for the strongest organized force of evil in the world; the most perfectly organized and equipped, to be battling against the church. And when I describe what I am searching for in these terms you all think of the legalized, law-protected saloons. I pass no judgment upon the saloon-keeper's motives. The question does not turn on what his motive is. In considering what we ought to do about it, the question is not, is the saloon-keeper trying to get bread and butter for his children, but, if he runs a saloon successfully, will he keep other men from getting bread and butter for their children? The question for us to consider is not whether the saloon-keeper is trying to get medical attention for his sick child, but it is whether, if he runs a saloon successfully, he will keep other men from getting medical attention for their sick children? We are dealing with the known results of the business, and treading on absolutely safe grounds, when I say that the saloon can not succeed without harming and injuring humanity and it can not fail without its failure being a blessing and help to humanity. So I say that the saloon is the most perfectly organized force of evil battling against the church in its struggle for the salvation of men. They can not both succeed. If the church gets a hold upon a man, it will get him away from the saloon; and if the saloon gets a grip on a man, it will drag him down away from the church.

      Sometimes we hear another statement: this is a Christian nation. What do I mean by it? I mean that Christian men are sufficiently numerous in it that they possess a sufficient amount of influence that if they stood unitedly together for any one thing in government, that it would become an accomplished fact. If Christian men control this nation, how does it happen then, that the saloon, the meanest enemy of the church, possesses the protection of the law in this Christian nation? I account for it on the grounds that the average Christian man hasn't any realization of where he gears up to the Government. [240] It is very much like an electric car that goes up and down the street. It is a great puzzle to you. You do not see what moves it. I tell you the power of electricity is applied. But you say, where does the power of electricity come from? I might show you a whirling, spinning dynamo, and say to you the power comes from here. And you say, now I am just as much puzzled as I was before, and do not see how this can run a car miles and miles away. Then I say, look at the wire from here out on to the street; but you say, no, I have been watching that wire for an hour and it hasn't moved an inch. Then I say, wait and I will explain it all to you. Then I take you into the car and lift up, a trap-door and show you a motor under the car, and tell you that the motor turns it; that it is a law of electricity that when the current comes from the dynamo and goes through the motor, that the current will set that motor turning to correspond with the turning of the dynamo in the powerhouse. So, now you know why it goes.

      I sometimes think this country is much like that. We are doing the work of the Government, we are building schools, we are establishing courts, we watch it providing for license and protecting this liquor traffic, we see it doing all the work of Government and we see that there is a manifestation of enormous power, but we do not see where the power comes from. How does the Government of Kansas or Illinois or the United States get power from these people? I will explain that to you. Come back with me up to the ballot-box, and see a lot of men going up to the ballot-box with what look like little bits of waste paper. What does it mean when a man walks up to the ballot-box with a little piece of paper like that? It means that if we get saloon government in this country we get it out of the ballot-box. You can not get it out of the ballot-box without putting it into the ballot-box, and if you get saloon government out of the ballot-box it is because you put in the ballots that elected saloon-men.

      "But," some one says, "that argument is shown to be invalid by the fact that it proves too much; it leaves out of consideration the godly life and the daily walk and conversations of godly men for the other 364 days in the year." But your godly living for 364 days can not change the fact of the saloon ballot if you put it into the box on election day.

      "But," some one says, "that is too narrow; under the stress of political exigencies, I go and vote for a saloon man as Representative in Congress because he is on my ticket. I can do that as a Christian man, and yet, accord to your logic, I become responsible, though I can change the effect of that ballot the very next day. I will tell you how I do it. I vote on Tuesday for the Congressman or the member of the Legislature who stands for the saloon, I give him my power, and the next night I walk into the prayer-meeting and offer a fervent appeal to God to kill the liquor traffic. I say, 'Lord, clothe me with power to fight this thing.' Won't that prayer change the effect of the saloon ballot cast on Tuesday?" No, it will not. When a man votes one way and prays the other way, he loses his prayer and his vote counts.

      I believe in prayer with all my heart, but if I know anything about what the old Book tells about prayer, the thing we call prayer, in order to be prayer, must be backed up by every utterance of power that we possess ourselves. We count the ballots. Did you ever hear of a man being elected sheriff of your county by a majority of two hundred prayers? And if the average judge of election where you live is like where I live, half of them wouldn't know a prayer if they found it in the ballot-box. It is the ballot that determines your agent with reference to this thing.

      The wise man acts within his limitations, accepts them and works within them for what he wants to do. Let me give you a little illustration. I found myself one day in Buffalo, N. Y., without any appointment to speak. I spent that day restlessly, with nothing to do, like a cat in a strange garret. I answered my mail at the hotel; I found some letters, among them one from Mrs. Stewart, who was in Cincinnati that week, attending the National W. C. T. U. Convention. After the mail was all out, I happened to look at the postmark on the letter from Cincinnati, and I said, "Isn't this queer? This letter was [241] written night before last. Now I didn't hear from her yesterday or to-day. What have they been doing in that convention in Cincinnati? What did they do yesterday? What did they do to-day?" I don't know. Then I decided to call up central, and I did so, and said to her, "I want long distance, to speak to Cincinnati. I want to speak to Mrs. Stewart, visiting at the home of S. M. Cooper." Later the bell rang, and I went into the booth and waited a few moments, and then I heard Mrs. Stewart's cheery voice at the other end of the line. Then I couldn't think of anything to say. There I was, holding onto a copper metallic circuit, five hundred miles long, at two dollars a clip, and I couldn't think of anything. First of all, I had to convince her everything was all right. With a woman's unerring instinct, she knew that there was something wrong. But I said there was not. She said, "I know there is." Then she said, "Why did you call me up?" I said, "I called you up because, because--because I called you up." That was the chief reason for that. I soon learned what I might easily have guessed, that she was having a good time, visiting, etc., and that was the end of it. There was no commotion of any kind except in my pocketbook, when I paid for it. And I can't remember what we said, and if I could remember it even, I wouldn't think of repeating it. Even the operator listened only a second.

      Now, supposing I had said to her, "Do you mean to tell me that when I am in Buffalo, N. Y., and want to talk to my wife in Cincinnati, O., I have got to go into a little booth and talk into a little hole in the wall? You can't fool me with any such foolishness as that, nor limit me by any little telephone system." Now, suppose I had gone out into the street in front of the hotel in Buffalo, N. Y., and had hallooed for Cincinnati. I would have had a crowd in short order, and the last man to get into that crowd would have been a policeman. They always get there the last thing. He would have pushed his way into the crowd, and finally would have come up to where I was standing, and would have said, "What do you want?" "I want Cincinnati." "Do you think you can get it that way?" "I don't know, I am sure, but I am trying." Now, that policeman would have taken me and I would have been quickly railroaded to an asylum. Yet, I didn't get into an asylum, and I did talk to my wife five hundred miles away, and I did it by accepting the limitations of science and knowledge. As a clean, decent, self-respecting man, would you like to say to your State and to the nation that it must count you against the protection of the liquor traffic by law? Would you like to say that to the State and nation? Go into the long-distance election booth and stay there very quietly, and when you get the use of the telephone, call up the State, and say, "Hello, is this the State of Pennsylvania? All right. I am so-and-so, living at such a place." "What can we do for you?" "I want you to count me as a Christian man against the protection of the saloon any longer by the license system anywhere." And back over the wire comes very sweetly the voice of your State, saying, "Just make it that way on that piece of paper and put it in the box."

      When will we win this fight? We will win this fight whenever we Christian men have sufficiently in our hearts the grace of God and faith in him to go up on the day of election to the ballot-box and choke the life out of the liquor traffic.

[CCR 239-242]