The Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, GA.) 1906-1907, December 01, 1906, Image 11

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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN, iJATLlUUl. DUCUMUKU 1. 1* r= THE COMMON SENSE O. FJ ESUS CHRIST By REV. JOHN E. WHITE, j II PASTOR SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH | - - ■ ■ ■ 1 " ■ ■ "N'mrtheliH, when the Son of Man cometh shall He find faith In the earth?*'—Luke xvil. 8. This question has been made the text of much pathetic pessimism. It is n favorite with the pre-millenarlan •rethren, who believe that the world is ;* itltig worse and that when the Lord • nncs without sin unto judgment very few who believe on Him will be found in the earth. Without entering into that contro versy, I want to say that this text is not one to conjure with on either side of it. An examination of the passage In the light of the context, and particular ly a glance at It In the original, will make deal* that the “faith" here re ferred to is not “piety" of saving faith in God as to personal salvation or the faith used synonomously with the Idea of the Christian religion. Christ is not raising the question whether when He comes He will find piety or Christianity In the earth. This, I say, is made clear by the context: It Is also brought out in the marginal rendering and nil the revised translations. The text is a part of the parable. Our Lord Is teaching His disciples that they ought always to pray and not to faint and Ho shows how a woman perseveres even with an august judge till she gejs justice. Then He turns and by con trast teaches that God’s own chosen ones may certainly persevere In their trust and expectation from their God, who Is more than a Just Judge, even a Heavenly Father. It Is fully borne out by the use of the article with the word translated "faith" thpt He Is referring to this context. What Christ really asks Is, “When the Son of Man comoth shall He find this faith in the earth—-the faith that has confidence In God as one who answers prayer and Is keeping watch over His own." There Is much more danger that the spirit of patient hopefulness will die out among. Christians than thut piety and the Christian institution will perish. The Pessimism of Jesus. There is, however, no question that In these words Christ crowds a distinct note of misgiving: one could almost say a note of doubt*. Does It startle you to think that Christ ever doubted? Yet, vith the New Teslament before us, how can we question It? Does It startle you to thing tttbt He was at all limited in His knowledge of the future or that anything was hidden from His vision 7 Yet, with His own acknowledged words at hand, how can we doubt It? That there were limitations to His knowl edge and that He was subject to the depression and even the agonies of un certainty and that these facta are in the record is to my mind a flawless evidence of the trustworthiness and the divine insplratipn of the gospels. Writers who were conspiring, as Renan charges, to make a God out of Christ, who was a mere man, would never have mentioned such matters, would never have quoted such words as His own. But here they are. In the thirteenth chapter of Mark, in the thir ty-second verse, Christ, speaking of the time of His return, said, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man; no, not the angels that are In heaven, neither the Son, bJt the Father.” Now, we do not like to admit that our Lord was ignorant of anything. We forget that the evident effort of Christ was not to make ihe world believe that He was God, but to make them believe the more wonderful thing that He was man. In the ono confession of Hia deity He made He put the emphasis on His humanity, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of Mam am?" Should this disturb our ccnflaence In our Savior? Rather It should strengthen and greatly comfort us. Of all his ten der words none are more tender than these He spoke to His disciples, "Ye are they which have continued with Me In My temptations. Are we then to be shnken in our loyalty because we are told that He confessed limitations and Ignorance? Christ is our perfect Savior, buc He was perfected In his Savior- hood by His identity with humanity. "For It became Him for whom are all things and by whom are all* things In bringing many sons into glory to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Wherefore In all things It behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren. “For in that Ha himself hath suffered, being tempted. He Is able to succor them that are tempted. Who can have compassion on the Ignorant and are out of the way, for that He Himself also Is compassed with infirmity?* What means that cry from the depths, “My God, my God, why hast Thou for saken Me?" It Is a cry and more than a cry. It Is a message. He has gone like the' scapegoat of the old day of atonement into the very wilderness of sin and Is traversing the uttermost pos sibilities of the ultimate war of God forsakenness to which human sin can carry the human soul and from that depth sends back in Hfs own heart break a message to men which means to them that He* is their Savior no matter how sunken In depravity the? may have been, no matter how fat they may have fallen. The Enthuilaim of Jesus. The note of doubt then in the ques tion, "When the Son of Man cometh shall He And faith In the earth?" wo inay readily admit It was a sensible question to ask off men who were be ing trained for a religion off spiritual faith and whose sense off danger need ed constantly to be quickened. Indeed, the good grounds for such a question affe at once apparent. Christ we must remember, was not Ignorant of the con ditions which were to be reckoned with. The aggravating slowness off His own friends to grasp the spiritual meanings of the kingdom; the moral stupefaction of the Jewish people and their faith- weariness with waiting for Slesslah, and especially the difficulty Inherent In a religion of pure spiritual faith, added to the materialistic disposition of the human mind, were facts to be taken into account. To say that Christ meas. ured these facts and realized their! force, and -did not make His reason blind," Is but another way of saying that He was nQ fanatic. Some time ago a brother pastor In this state wrote a letter to one of our woman societies which had advertised a bazaar for the purpose of selling artl- cles, made, by their osn hands, to se cure money for a certain benevolence to which they had subscribed. He read them a lecture and said that he was going to ask his church to make them objects of special prayer. I happened to know the brother and his variable ways, and in answering his latter which had referred with unjust severity to myself as the guilty pastor of a guilty church, 1 told him that he had turned my attention to the study of fanatics, a branch of religious science full of interesting specimens, and that from my study I had formulated a definition of a fanatic: “A fanatic Is a man of such elastic conscience that he cannot help flipping it Into somebody else's territory." Christ was the furthest removed from fanaticism. A fanatic would never have taken Into consideration the diffi culties of the situation. He would have rushed blindly ahead without conslder- DR. JOHN E. WHITE. atlon or forethought for his cause. What a wreck, sudden and disastrous, would fanaticism have made of that little company of disciples had a fanatic been their leader. Peter wa* a constant peril until he was converted from his fanaticism. Christ could not and did not avoid giving offense. There was a war between Truth and Right on one sidrand Falsehood and Wrong on the other, and Christ kept the lines straight In that war. “But -ever over its tu mult," as Robert E. Speer says, “those who 'had cars’ could always hear 'His sweet voice colling.’" Let me Illustrate by a famous con trast the Important distinction between Christ’s measurement of the difficul ties which must have been in His mind when He asked the question, "When the Son of Man cometh shall He find faith In the earth?" and the heedless and blind methods of fanaticism which would have taken no account of them at all. In the year 1094 a man of dwarfish stature, dressed Iff the garb of a monk, might have been seen riding upon an ass through the vlllsgee of Europe. That man had been at one time a sol dier In the French army, but in pen ance for deeds of blood he had become a monk and had retired to the brooding place of a cloister. Am time passed ru mor came to him of the horrible cruel ties practiced by the Mohammedans against the Christian pilgrims visit ing the Holy Sepulcher at Jerusalem, and at his devotions he fumbled at his rosary as If it were a sword hilt. At length the fres of his zeal became un controllable. He could endure the life of the monastery no longer. Voice# came to'him, calling, calling for help, calling from the dungeons of the Turk for deliverance. He mounted and rode forth. His head and feet were bare. In his hand he carried a white lmags of Christ on a cross of Ivory. Passing through the villages north of the Alps, he told in vehement phrase the story of the Christian captives and the de struction of the Lord's Sepulcher. The peasants responded with sobs and groans. "To the rescue!" he cried. "Deus nut." (It Is God’s will!) He tore his red scarf Into cross-shaped fragments and his followers, crowding after him, pinned them as badges on their breasts. From village to village they went until 80,-000 men, women and children were at his back, marching to ue the Holy Sepulcher from the «v»lems. "Honest! 2 * 4 Very honest- earnest! Terribly In earnest! Relig ious—vehemently religious! But fa natics! That man, Peter the Hermit, sent 2,800,000 to their death. One hun dred thousand children perished under his Incitement, The Turks remained undisturbed In the end afld remain so till this day. What a contrast do the crusades pre sent to the methods of Jesus. He pro claimed a great triumph, but It was to be a victory of patience, a victory of faith. Twelve legions of angels stood unsummoned ever at His calk All pow er was His, but the bruised reea He would not break and the smoking flax He would not quench. Christ wae no pessimist. Christiani ty Is not a pessimism. Hla question, "When the Son of Man cometh shall He And faith In the earth?" Is not of one who Is discouraged by the diffi culties he takes Into account. JThe kingdom was coming: He said "not with observation," it was true, but it was coming Just the same. The en thusiasm of Christ was wonderful. Bui It was not wonderful for notae or shout of frenzy. It was an enthusiasm of an eternal faith In God, marvelously calm, and cosmic In Its quiet, relent less, hopeful confidence that God His father was on His throne, to be trust ed, to be Inquired of, and to fulfil! all that whereunto He had been sent. The Liquor Traffic. Let us not shun Christ’s question. Let It come up before us today. “When the Bon of Man cometh shall He find faith In the earth?’’ The good grounds are here for Its tieasking. Doubt and fear sometimes creep over the stanch est Christian heart. The old forces of difficulty that encamped about Christ in Palestine are encamped about His cause In our own land and times. The weakness of disciples, the impatience of the weary world that gropes for the golden age. the high, hard, but glo rious standurds of a spiritual religion over against the cross materialism of mammon In tho hearts of men—we cannot and should not blink the facts. Will He find faith In the earth?" Let ur faith in God. our confidence, our trust and hope bo the answer. "He would find ft should He come. He will find It In me." Put your hand on your heart and say, "No panic here." The kingdom of God is coming, "not with aberration." not with boisterous ban ners. not with revolution and fierce rending aftunder, not with a crushing overwhelming denouement as the Jews expected, but steadily, realstlesaly and gripping Its foundations In the age aa it comes so that Us gains are irreversi ble. Thus the kingdom of God Is at hand three hundred and sixty-five days In the year, twenty-four hours In the day, for It comes even as we sleep. Take for Illustration the liquor traf fic. It Is with one fell stroke, but like the pressure of some great natural force the anti-saloon sentiment has quietly Invested public opinion. Space by space the conviction against It has seised community after community In the South. That movement so much unobserved because It conquers In the hearts of men before It secured Institu tional prohibition, Is going on today. One county after another in Georgia ' han come Into Jlnc*. We are not far from the day when the state will be covered and controlled by the convic tion of the public conscience against the saloon and the traffic as the waters cover the bed of the sea. A representative of the business has frankly said to me. "There is a tre mendous difference between the way people feci now about the whisky bus iness and the way they felt thirty years ago, when I went Into It, and tho sentiment against it Is growing all the time. Every intelligent man In the business knows It." What is behind It? God and Hfs will Is behind it. As His kingdom comes In men's hearts the Institutions ..f Satan's kingdom take down their ban ners and depart not to return. So It Is with every righteous cause. So It shall be with all unrighteousness. This faith Is In the earth. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, It Is here, it is here becausn the power that supports It is her*? and at work. Evil is doomed. "To me," said Paul, "the world Is crucified." He meant that to him the world of evil was ns a dead thing. It was judged, condemned and delivered to die out before -the cross of Christ. This Is the Christian's faith that our Lord, would find in the earth and He wilt find It, for It is growing with each passing year as we look back and see the sure gains which the cause of the kingdom has made over great Iniquities. As ono of Ihe great prophets of our generation has said, "Morally evil Is dead olreadv. The sentence has passed 4he judge's Ups." The weakest child of God may safely defy It and scorn Its boasting. Its visible force is still Immense; Its sub jects multitudinous; Its empire to ap pearance hardly shaken. It towers Ilk* Goliath confronting "the armies of the . living God, but the foundation of its strength Is gone. Decay saps Its frame. Despair creeps over Its heart. The con sciousness of Its Impotence and misery grows upon It." Mr. Gladstone, standing in the house of commons after the defeat of a great moral reform said, "You have de feated us today, but, gentlemen, tlw future Is against you." "Right forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne! But that scaffold sways the future. And behind the dim unknown 8tandeth God within the shadow Keeping watch above his own." WHAT IS RELIGION?—IV By REV. JAMES W. LEE, PASTOR TRINITY METHODIST CHURCH The primitive man felt God’s pres-1 through the utrueture ot human lif t-nee In the object* of nature. He wa* ha* been converted Into those great ■ - the crude forerunner of IVhlttler he- ] religion* we know a* Bnlhmlnl.ni, k fore he had advanced sufficiently to Zoroastrianism. Confucianism and ■.write the beautiful prayer: Buddhism. tTnllke the-fetishists, who Ho sometimes comes to soul and sense The feeling which Is evidence, That very near about us lies The realm of spiritual mysteries, The sphere of-the supernal powers Imping—* eh tills world of: our*. The low and dark horizon lifts To light,- the seenlc terrer shifts Th< breath of a diviner air lllows down the answer to a prayer That dllkiorrow, paln'and doubt, A great compassion rlasps about. He was Wordsworth before he was developed enough to say: * "And I have felt r A presence that disturb* me with a Joy of elevated thoughts, a sense sublime of something far more deeply Inter. ■a fused. Whose dwelling is the light of setting And the round ocean and the living air. And In the blue sky and In the mind of man: A motion and a spirit that Impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought. And rolls through all things.” 2. The second divine element of re ligion Is the revelation God makes of Himself In the constitution nf man. The world without Him was no greater mystery to the primitive man thnn was the world within him. but both con tained for him, he felt, the revelation of a power higher thun himself. He had within Ihe half of everything out of which civilisation has been built, but It was an undeveloped half. He was under the necessity of finding and de veloping Ills outside half of the means of subsistence, knowledge and re ligion, by opening up within himself, through struggle and trial and experi ment, the Inside half. At the begin ning both the inside and the outside were unknown. History Is the record of the gradual coming together of these two unknowns into the unity of catho lic religion, verifiable knowledge and modem civilisation. The revelation God makes of Himself find the divine In nature, the leaden of these faiths found God making Him self known In the moral and mental constitution of men. In Bnhmlnlsm, the best example of pantheism, man sought for God In thought; In Zoroas trianism, Confucianism and Buddhism he sought for God In conscience.' a. The third divine element of re llglon Is ths'rsvslatlon God makes of Himself through the Old and New Testament Scriptures, and through Jesus Christ, who In Himself sums up and makes direct and living and human all revelation, whether found In nature, the moral constitution of man, or In tho Holy Scriptures, The whole naturo of God, glimpses ot which the anlmlst got In nature, and the great religious leaders nf Persia and India and China saw In the moral constitution of man, and the chosen people found In tho Scriptures, Christians believe was re vealed In Jesus Christ. They believe that Jesus Christ was In nature and mind from the beginning, though tilt world knew Him not; Just ss the laws of gravity dominated all worlda from the beginning, though men knew them not. 'Ill Knowing the facts of religion, human and divine, we are prepared to deter mine what the religion of science la By the religion of science It It Implied that the facts of religion contnln thought bearing on the spiritual Inter ests of man, which can be turned Into verifiable knowledge. Just os by chem istry H Is Implied that there are atomic facts expressing thought bearing on the practical Interests of man which can be turned Into verifiable knowl edge. No one disputes the human facts of religion, and even Herbert Spencer, In whose esteem God was unknowable, was forced to admit the unknowable had revealed Itself in almost as com plete a sense as professors of religion are accuslumed to think God has re vealed Himself. on page- <6 of First Principles Mr, Spencer declares: "Common sense assert, the existence of a reality. Objective science proves that this reality cannot be what we think It. Subjective science shows why we cannot think of It as It Is, and yet are compelled to think of It as exist ing; and In this assertion of a reality, utterly Inscrutable In nature, religion flnfls an assertion essentially coinciding with her own. We are obliged to re gard every phenomenon os a manifes tation of some power by which we are acted upon. Though omnipresence Is Unthinkable, yet as experience dis closes no bounds to tbe diffusion of phenomena, we are unable to tjilnk of limits to the pretence of this powsr, while the criticisms nf science teach us that this power is Incomprehensible." Analyse that sentence. Read It cars, fully and you will find that Mr. Hpen- cer knows there Is an ultimate reality. Then It has being. It acts upon us. Thsn he give* to It the attribute ac- tlon. All phenomena are manifest!!-1 tions of It. Then It has power. All f ihenomena are manifestations of this' nscrutable power by which we are, acted upon. Then It has caused ener gy. We are unable to think ot limits to the presence nf this power. Here he gives It omnipresence. Ot his un- scrutable, unknowable something, then, he knows that It has being, power, ac tivity, causal energy and omnipresence. Precisely along the same lilies of rea soning by which Mr. Spencer deduces these attributes of what he calls his unknowable the Christian who accepts the God revealed In the Bible might de duce the wisdom, tnercy, Justice and truth of Cod. There are equally os much data furnished for Ihe deduction of wisdom, Justice, mercy and truth as for being, power, activity, causal en ergy and omnipresence. The synthetic philosophy of Mr. Spencer consist of two parts (1) "The Unknown'and Unknowable," (J) "The Known and the Knowable." He do- votes small space to the treatment of an Unknown and Unknowable, but out of this dark void he manages to draw a magnificent universe. It Is remarkable how a man who knew so little In the beginning ot his system knew so much at the end nf It. How from such a limited and meager absolute" creed he managed to find such a long and comprehensive relative one. He says: "Amid the mysteries which grow the more mysterious the DR. J. W. LEE. more they are thought about, there will remain the one absolutely certainty that man stands In the presence of an infi nite anfi Inscrutable energy from which all things proceed." Hut this Unknown, Mr. Bpencer places In relation to the known. He says that all phenomena are manifestations of the unknown. It would seem therefore that In so far as tho Unknown manifested Itself In things known, It managed to make It self known. Think of the Unknown manifesting Itself, uttering itself, cloth ing Itself in form mid see If you ran resist coming to the conclusion that In manifesting IlsOlf and In uttering Itself, the Unknown has come to be so far known. You can know no more of a man than you are able to team from the manifestations be make* of him self. But we hare an understanding with ourselves that we know men from their deeds, from their speech, from their achievements, from the outward expressions they make of themselves, and we know nothing of men except that which we learn In this way. Noth ing ever proceed* from the Unknowable except what was In It, and whatever comes out of It helps us to Judge of It, and form an opinion of Its nature and resources. If mind comes out of the Unknowable at we sea It in man. then we know that mind was In the unknowable before.lt appeared In man. There Is no element In any legitlmato conclusion that was not In the premise. There Is no element In any tree that was not In the germ nf It, and ns, ac cording to Mr. 8pencer, all that Is, pro ceeds from the unknowable, we have a right to conclude that the whole manifest universe was all In tha un knowable before It came out and pro ceeded to paaa before our eyea, and provoke us to ask questions about It. IV. With no one questioning the reality of the human half of rellgfoua facts, and with the grant apostle of agnosti cism admitting the leading facts of the other half, we may take It as settled that there are facts aa permanent and fixed for constructing the religion of science as there are facta In the heav ens for building astronomy. In a sys tem of thought arranged from a study of celostlal facts and ons that accounts for, accommodates and accords with ths facts, we may say that ws have the star* of science. Ho In a system of thought, patiently arranged from n study of religious fact*, and one that accounts for, accommodate* and ac cords with the facts, we may say that we have the religion of science. Pro fessor Huxley says: "By science I un derstand all knowledge which rests upon evidence and reasoning of a like character to that which claims our as sent to ordinary scientific propositions, and If any man Is able lo make good the assertion that Ms theology rests upon valid evidence and sound reason ing, then It appears to me that such theology must take It* placa aa a part of science." Another master In science lays down the following dlitctlons as preliminary to a definition of science: “1. The senses place before us the characters of the book of nature, but these convey no knowledge to us till we have discov ered the alphabet by which they are to be had. 2. The alphabet by means of which we Interpret phenomena con sists of the Ideas existing In dur own minds, for these give to the phenomena that coherence and stgnificanca which Is hot an object of eenee. t. The two proceeees by which science la con structed are the explication of concep tions and Ihe colligation of fact*. Knowledge requires us to possess both facts and Ideas. Every step In our knowledge consists In applying the Ideas and conceptions furnished by our minds to the facts which observa tion and experiment offer to us. When our conceptions are clear and distinct, when our facts are certain and suf ficiently numerous, and when the con ceptions being suited to the nature of tho facts are applied to them so aa to produce an exact and universal con cordance, wa attain knowledge of a precise and comprehensive kind which we may term science.”- It must be clearly understood, how ever, that the Ideas and conceptions furnished by our minds, which we are to apply to the facts offered us, are such as we have obtained (pom a study of the facta themselves. We must not come to facts with preconceived opin ions, with a view to forcing them Into conformity with our Ideas. That wa* the mediaeval method. Every fact is related to some other fact, ofid what a fact Is for another, that It Is In Itself. In finding what, by observa tion and experiment, a fact Is for an other or for a group of facts, and, therefore, what It Is In Itself, we get a theory of It that accords with Its na ture. Ptolemy came to the heavens with a theory ot them already In hla thought, but he could never corral the stars with It and pen them In his mind. Copernicus came to the heavens to find a theory through the study of the planets, and tbe conception of them he formed by this method enabled him to house tha firmament In his Intelligence. V. It is only by reducing facts to terms of science that we are able to get from them all they contain for the practical life. Fire has been hot and useful ever since men first learned to kindle It. But It never yletded up all that wu In It for comfort and for service until, by the experiment of Count Romford, It was proven to bn a mode of motion. He showed that things are hot or cold In proportion to the rapidity with which the particles composing them vibrate. This discovery revolutionised the world. It was the first time In tha history of the race that a conception of heat wa** formed In the mind by the study of fire Itself. - That Idea alone shifted from human shoulders to machinery half tho burdens of toll. For thousands of years man has stood In the presence of the Illimitable store* of wealth he has Just now teamed, by means ot the modem scientific method, to take from nature. He remained hungry In the presenco nf bountiful supplies of food. He remained thirsty close by water ready to gusli from every hill. He went half clad with raiment hidden beneath the sail and diffused through the sunshine. Iln shivered In the darkness with warmth and light going to waste over every waterfall. He painfully trudged over muddy roads with palace cars burled In the mountains, standing In the trees and fulling from the sun. He housed himself In rude shanties with mansions concealed In the hills and rising to heaven In the forests. He sent his messages by meant of torches from height to height with tbe undulations of luminiferous ether penetrating every recess of his body xnd every object be fore his eye*. He remained half bent beneath loada with forces enswathlng him ready to bear them. He slept be neath skies filled with constellations, with telescopes lying In brass and saint to bring them near. He was Ignorant of the doings of hla brothers on tho R lanet with movable type plied beneath la feet to give him news every morn ing of the activities of humanity. He was lonely and depressed with songs circulating In tha air and capsulate in the woods and the metals to thrill hla heart. Ha was slrk with msdlelnes In minerals and waters and plants to euro him. He waa In pain with opiates to relieve him. And hs was thus deprived of what belonged to him and of what God mads for him for the simple i *a . -n that he blindly persisted In taking to faets self-devised theories with SBkb . to manipulate them Instead of forcing facts lo give up tbe theories embodied In them. CONFERENCE COMMENDS THE GEORGIAN FOR ITS POSITION ON LIQUOR QUESTION At tli* closing session of tho North Geor- gls reference nt Mlllcdgeville, the commit tee oh temperance reported some strong re*pultons, which were adopted. SiMH-lal mention I* given Tbe Georgian for Its refusal to accept liquor advertising. It Is the only large dally In tbe state occupy ing tbla high position. Tbe committee calls ou tbe legislature ta enact laws prohibiting the manufacture or sale of liquor, within the lionndary of Georgia, and also suggests that tbe confer ences should 'devote wore time to this sub ject. The resolution lu full Is as follows: Tha Resolution. The committee ou temperance beg* leave to dte the following facts: balance Is now teaching what the Bible has lieen declaring for thousands of years, that alcohol Is n deadly potion— 1 "at last It hiteth like a ser- l**nt and etlngeth like an adder." Alcohol is no more a food than chloroform and has bat one medical property, that of a heart stimulant, aod that only because It Is both a narcotic and irritant poison, therefore It « •« misnomer to apply the word temper* **»"• to the beverage use of Intoxicating liquors . , * me «»f ths grefttest delusions that ever fflbfed our race la the alcoholic delusion; It promises wraith and gives poverty; It promises wisdom and gives folly; It prom ises strength and gives weakness; It prom I sea health slid brings disease and death. The people of the United State* consume annually twenty gallons of Intoxlratlng liquors, or one gallon and three quarts of pure alcohol per capita, and these poison ous liquors arn putting Into their graves approximately iw.ooo people every year. The cost of the poisonous liquors to the poor, deluded psople who consume them amounts to 11*400.000,000 annually, and the Indirect coat which falls mainly on the community amounts to half as much more. Oar own Dr. Powell and other experts In this country and Europe tell us that 70 per rent ot the Insaulty Is caused directly or In directly by the use ot alcoholic liquors. The courts Inform us that at least 6) per cent of crimes are traceable to strong driuk. The poverty, desolation and rain wrought by this monster evil cannot be estimated. It strikes down the rich as well as the poor, the high as well as tbe low. * Encouraging Facta. ire glad to be able to call atten tion to some facts which are encouraging: The churches and other enemies of tbe ne- fariuns train# were never so united and ac tive aa at the present trme. Perhaps the greatest achievement In the greet move* ment for the deliverance of onr country from this, diabolic tyrant la the fact that the W. C. T. I, r . Ims secured a law In every state of tbe I’nlpu requiring scientific tom peraucp taught In the public schools. Hlucc congress gives us denatured alco hol for mechanics I purposes, and moat churches no longer use fermented wine In tbe holy communion, and doctors have found that alcohol has but one medical property, and may be substituted, we And about the only remaining u*e for alcohol la In the making of tinctures, and aa we understand that fluid extracts are equally as convenient and efficient, therefore It seems to us that the time has come in our clvlllxatlou when there ran no longer !*e any excuse for tbe use of Intoxlratlng li quors. Our Information Is that tbe legalised li quor traffic In the Imunds of onr own con ference Is restricted to nine towns, one of which has a hotel bar, three the open saloon aud live one dispensary each. Wo And that there are but twenty saloon towns and twenty-four dispensaries In our stole, and from this It Is evident that the vast majority of the law-abiding, Ux-paying FOR CHRISTMAS “ELASTIC” BOOK CASES =MOWER-HOBART CO.' 00000000000000000000000000 O LETTER OF APPRECIATION I. O FROM CHA8. N. CRITTENTON.O O O O Milledgeville. On., Nov. 29, Hog. O 0 Mr. F. L. Ueely, Publisher of The 0 O Atlanta Georgian, Atlanta, Ga. O O Dear Sir and Brother: Dr. Lew- O O Is ha* went mo a clipping from O O your paper. The Georgian, of the'O O 28th Instant, In which there l» an 0 S extract from an address which 0 you made the day before In the 0 O First Methodist Episcopal church. O O It certainly touched my heart, and 0 O brought tears to my' eyes, to think O O that kind words and looks to a boy O ■** * id been remembered tor nearly O . „ quarter of a century, and sub- O 0 stantlal evidence thereof given, O O even In the education of a young O - I to place herself In a position O , . take a place in this corner of 0 O our Master's vineyard. o O clod bless you, my boy! (I fee! 0 O like calling you such.). Should I 0 0 at any future time return to At- O 0 lanta, I shall hope to have a face O O to face talk. 0< O Faithfully yours. 0 0 i\ N. CRITTENTON. 01 0 0 0OOO0O0O00QOO00000000OO000 people of tbe stall? favor prohibition, there- fore ws appeal to the legislature to give Georgia a law prohibiting the manufacture | and sale of liquors tbronfebont the state. , We are the more free to urge this appeal j because It Is the duty of the legislature to t give to tbe people such laws as the people need. The people need this legislation more j that* ntiy other, and it f* the sense of the •nfereace that It Is the duty of the tcgl*. lature to enact such a law ami not shirk responsibility by submitting the Issue to s popular vote, which woubl Inevitably lead to great strife, confusion and demoralisa tion. Protection of Paopla. One of tho fundamental principles of Democracy la the right of local self-govern ment. and Georgia Is n Democratic state, ruled by a Democratic legislature, and yet the will of the people of n hundred and twenty dry counties la defeated In tbe In terest of the liquor dealers In a few Geor gia towns who are piling ap great fir tunes by the Jug trade. It Is tbe sense of this conference that the least the legis lature ran do Is to enact such law as will protect the people of the dry eoautlra against tho Jug trade. Ilecognlalng the powerful Influence of sec ular press, we request that In every way possible they aid n* In farthering this great movement. It affords us great plsasare to GEORGIA RAILROAD IMPORTANT CHANGES IN SCHEDULES EFFECTIVE DECEMBER 2nd. ARRI VALS AND DEPART URES, ATLANTA, GEORGIA. No. >1 arrives 12:43 p, m. No. 3 arrives 5:00 a. m. No. 27 arrives 8:30 p. m No. 2 departs. 7:20 a. m. No. 4 depart* ...11:45 p. m. No. 28 departs 3;25j>. m. R. E. MORGAN, Gan. Agsnt commend The Atlanta Georgian and. three other papers Id onr state whlrb refuse II quor advertisements. We are gratified at the great work the Woman’s Chrfstlau Temperance 1'nlon Is dolug lu Georgia. We commend the Autl-Hsloon League and Itcxpcnk for It the support of the people. It Is an Important mission of the chnrcb to Ineulente the principles of total absti nence and to lie active for the suppression of the legalised liquor traffic, aud, following the suggestions of the Godly women of the Women’s Ubristlau Temperance Uniuu, designate the fourth Huiiday In April, or ^^■tlsmo as possible, to be observed ns a day of spsclpl prayer that Goil will move the hearts of our law-makers to give ns state prohibition, anil we request that all our pastors aud other ministers preach prohibition that day. We request that total abstinence pledge he circulated among our yonug people at that time. respeetfnlly request Senator Ibiron and Senator flay and our representatives lu congress to do all In their power to seenre the enactment Into law of that hill now pending in congress to prohibit the ship ment of liquors Into states aud counties where the state law prohlbta their sale and that other bill designed to repeal thnt part of the Internal rereunc law that li censes the sale of liquors In states ami counties where the state law prohibits thclt sale. It Is the sense of tbit conference that tbs cause of temperance and prohibition I* of such Importance ss to merit more time and attention than It usually receives at our conference, therefore suggest that nt the next session of the annual conference, tin hour bo set apart for tbe consideration of this subject. LONG WINTER EVENINGS Then why not get the “whole family group"—The Delineator. McClure’. Magazine uml The World’* Work, to gether with The Georgian for 16.60 per yekr In advance. The price of there magxxines alone tx »•;. The Georgian lx 16.60. But *11 of them i nn b.- ob tained for 1 year by tending Tim Georgian now 16.64, or you < un k-i The Jeffersonian (Walton*, new maga zine) ahd The Georgian each one year for S6.60. PAUL BURKERT Kixed over 2,000 Umbrella.- list year. Let him fix vonrs. 1 Viaduct Place.’