I do not need to take a moment of your time this morning to convince you that the American saloon is a bad thing. Every mention of that institution at any time during the programs of this Convention, in which it has been described as a bad thing, has met with the manifest approval of the people. The [242] fact is, that the saloon itself admits the proposition. Neither shall I stop to show to you that the whole liquor traffic is a bad thing. Need I stop here even to tell you that the license system, under which it operates, is a complicity in the evils of the institution itself, and that this is a bad thing? The Christian people of the United States have come rapidly to the conclusion--shall I say rapidly?--that the license of the liquor traffic in this country is a bad thing and must stop. It would be the greatest thing in the world if the American people could be brought for a year to stop absolutely the use of intoxicating beverages; and if this could be continued for five years, we should need no prohibition law, for the whole business would collapse. It depends upon the sale of its products. Neither need I stop to say anything to you this morning about the organization of the liquor dealers and manufacturers; that their greed of gain has led them to the most compact, as well as the most extensive, organization that this country has known anything about. And when we attempt to drive out of the locality one saloon, if that saloon-keeper is a member of the National Saloon Protective Association, he has the backing of the National Protective Association, and we come up against the whole organized liquor traffic. It is a difficult proposition. We are up against that proposition, not only as an organized matter, but, while it is an outlaw under the very laws that license it, it is entrenched behind the unnatural appetites of millions of our people, and the platforms and political organizations of the great political parties, which, during their entire history, have refused to consider it an issue in American politics. It is entrenched behind Uncle Sam, until we can not have one county or one precinct, to say nothing of one State, in this whole nation, that is absolutely free from the liquor curse. For under our national law, as everybody knows, and all Christian people regret, Uncle Sam permits the introduction of the intoxicating cup under his license and for revenue only. Neither need I mention to you the fact that in most of the prohibition States and prohibition counties, so called, the law that has been made to prohibit the use of intoxicating liquors is in unfriendly hands, and that sheriffs, judges of court and policemen tell us the people do not want it, and it can not be enforced. We have had such abundant illustrations of the policy of the opposition, that I take it the Christian people of the country have come to believe that when a statute is written, it should be enforced. Nor need I come to you with this statement, that we are being robbed of half our missionary offerings. When Dr. Dye is compelled to go back a thousand miles from the coast in order to plant his station, to escape complicity with the liquor traffic, he tells us that has cut all the missionary offerings to Africa square in two, because the liquor traffic runs all the coasts of that country. Nor shall I try to give you any conception of the great stream of misery, despair and death that sweeps on and on. We still, for the time, the voice of motherhood and the wail of helpless babyhood.

      Some siren voice sings us to sleep, and we justify the wicked for a reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. The situation seems to be described in a parody on the twenty-third Psalm. It reads about this way: "The politician is my shepherd, I shall not want for anything during the campaign. He leadeth me into the saloon for my vote's sake, he filleth my pockets with bad cigars, my beer runneth over. He maketh me great, swelling promises, he leadeth me in green pastures of tariff reform and beside the still waters of prosperity, for his own sake. He restoreth my confidence, he inquireth after my family, even to the third and fourth generation. Yea, though I walk through the rain and the mud to vote for him, and shout myself hoarse, when he is elected straightway he forgetteth me and he forgetteth his promises also. Though I meet him in his own house, he knoweth me not. Surely the wool hath been pulled over my eyes all the days of my life, and yet I dwell in the ranks of the old party forever." Now, I am going to have to preach a sermon. That is my business. It is the business of this Convention. We are into this battle. We are into it as a church. My sermon [243] is based upon the sixteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. There were two great men, Paul and Barnabas, who had been on a missionary tour together. They had undertaken the reformation of the world--just two men. They had returned and made their report to the mother church at Antioch, and they are just now ready to start out again. Paul says to Barnabas, "Let us look at the men who are to go with us in this great battle." "Well," Barnabas says, "I will take John Mark along. John is my nephew, you know." "No, sir, you can't take John Mark with you into this battle. He is a quitter. Why, don't you know, when we got up to Pamphylia, he turned back, saying, 'I want to go home, can't stand this thing any longer.' And away he went." Paul says, "No, sir, he can't go with me." I tell you, friends, it will take some people to win this battle that are no quitters. Paul was about right about it. I have loved Barnabas for his interest in his nephew, for he took John Mark and sailed away to Cyprus with him, and trained him until he was a fine man and Paul could commend him. Paul chose Silas, and jumped aboard the lightning express and struck out for the Mediterranean coast.

      Those men were wise men. They were not like us reformers. Now, when two of us reformers differ as to companionship and method, I get my friends here and you get yours here, and the first thing we know the old Antioch church is torn to shreds and we are ruined for life. We reformers want to learn of Paul and Barnabas, and when we can not work together, let us work separately, but work against this enemy of ours. Let us do it.

      Paul and Silas came finally on their journey down to Troas, directed by the Holy Spirit, and here, in the night, Paul had that marvelous vision.

      In two days they were in Philippi, and they found their first opportunity to preach the gospel in a women's prayer-meeting at the river-side. The men were all too tired, having been busy with selling clothes and second-hand goods the day before, and they could not go; but Lydia was there. And then there was another woman that came along that way, and she engaged the attention of Paul, and Paul cast the evil spirit out of her; and when he did so, he found himself in trouble, for this woman was a slave and she had been the source of much gain for her masters, and when these men found that the hope of their gain was gone, they laid hold of Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place and accused them before the rulers. And when the rulers had heard the charge, they caused the clothes to be torn off the men and they were beaten with rods and turned over to the jailer; and the jailer was charged to keep the men safely. Having received such a charge, he thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. Now, Paul and Silas have a little talk Silas says, "I told you there wasn't any popular sentiment up in this country, and we are having a hard time and likely to have a harder time." Beloved, it would have been a sad era for Christianity if these men had had any converse like that. But they sang praises to God, and the prisoners heard them. They prayed almighty God, and he heard them, and shook the foundations of the prison, and the doors swung open and the bonds were off the prisoners' limbs. And then the jailer, who seemed to be a very sound sleeper, waked up, and, with his sword, was about to kill himself; and Paul said, "Do thyself no harm; we are all here." And the jailer called for a light and sprang in and sought Paul and Silas, and fell down at their feet and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And Paul said unto him, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."

      I want to call your attention to the character of the message that Paul delivered; rather, to the spirit in which he delivered it, in the first place. When Paul saw this man over here about to commit suicide, he might have turned aside, and said, "Silas, did you see that fellow over there about to kill himself? Isn't that strange, that he should do that? Of course, it's none of my business. I had nothing to do with getting him into it; I haven't invited him to do it; it is his business if he wants to kill himself. It will be a good riddance of bad rubbish." Well, if Paul had had any conversation like that, he would [244] have treated the question just about as we treat the question of the drunkard, about as we treat the question of the saloon-keeper, the brewer and distiller. We are ready to heap epithets upon them, despise them, hate them, and to do all manner of things against them, except to save them. Beloved, has it ever occurred to you that the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ requires us to come with the message that Paul brought to this man, "Do thyself no harm," and rescue the drunkard and the saloon-keeper, the brewer and the distiller? I have never found it in my heart to curse those men. It is enough that the sword of almighty God hangs over him who putteth a bottle to his neighbor's lips. The business of the church of Jesus Christ is that of the salvation of sinners. We will curse the business, hammer the business, put the business out of the way for the salvation of men. Let us keep it uppermost.

      Now, I want to call your attention to the character of the Philippian jailer. There was something about that man before he was converted that I admire very much. He was there, a sworn officer of the law, charged with certain duties, and there comes a time in his history when he apparently failed to be cognizant of his duties, and rather than be caught in that condition by his fellow citizens, who have entrusted him with this, he draws his sword and is about to kill himself. Beloved, let me tell you I have never read that account of the Philippian jailer that I have not wished we had more about it, and I have said, "O Lord, I want a jailer of that kind for my county, for every county in my State, for every State in my nation." But jailers are not enough. I go on to pray that we may have prosecuting attorneys, that we may have judges of court, that we may have jurors, that we may have sheriffs, that we may have policemen and Congressmen and Governors and Presidents, all made out of the same kind of material, that would rather die than be caught faithless at the post of duty. Law enforcement is the great need of this country. And we are going to have it, it is going to come; the sentiment is rising, brothers. But I could not stop my prayer here, for in America our common people are responsible; and, oh, for a constituency like the Philippian jailer, that would rather die than fail to discharge its honest duty when it comes to the ballot-box. When we shall have reached that point, perhaps then we shall relieve this country from the thralldom of rum. To this end was the American Temperance Board born, that the Christian Church, which has been a leader in thought for a century, should take the lead in this great matter in the development of its own strength within itself. And I beg of you to become better acquainted with the American Temperance Board, that is providing for this definite work. [245]

[CCR 242-245]