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JUGS AND JHQS
Solomon’s Stirring Plea For Boys.
The question is often asked, “What is the Anti-
Saloon League?” In general terms I would say:
It’s a born enemy of the saloon, a defender of
the home, a strong ally of the churches. Indeed
it’s the churches in action against God’s worst
enemy. It’s an uncompromising friend of a clean,
sober, virtuous government. It makes for real man
hood in the citizen, happiness in the home and power
in the State. It's opposed to everything the saloon
stands for. and stands for everything the saloon
opposes. In the very nature of things, they can
not agree. They are diametrically opposed to each
other—as much so as daylight and darkness. There
can never be any compromise. The one is born of
heaven, and is seeking the welfare of the people;
the other is the child of Hell, and is making for the
people's damnation. But to be more definite, the
Anti-Saloon League is a federation of the churches,
Missionary'Societies, Sunday Schools, W. C. T. U.’s
and all good people that hate the liquor traffic—
marching with concert of action, with united pur
pose and with definite methods against the foulest
blot on Christian civilization—the licensed saloon.
As I see it, outside of Jesus Christ, who hung on
the tree, poor, suffering, down-trodden humanity has
no sweeter, stronger friend on the earth than the
Anti-Saloon League. Under its mighty power in
other States many a saloon has been closed, hun
dreds and thousands of young men have been saved
from drunkards’ graves, loving sisters saved from
wretchedness, poverty and disgrace, and poor old
mothers have had their bleeding hearts rejoice again
as they would see their children coming home to
live clean, sober, happy lives.
One Out of Five Boys.
When the saloon would go out of town, how
often would heaven come into the heart. The roses
would bloom afresh, and withered hopes revive, and
singing spring from an exulting soul, and laughter
come to lips that were dumb. It’s said that one out
of every five boys is captured by the saloon. Father,
that boy may be yours. What are you going to do
about it? What is he worth? What would you
take for him? Mark his splendid brow, his rosy
cheeks, his roguish eyes. See his manly form, his
graceful carriage; hear the merry laughter as it
peals out on the air. Ah! that boy is a very prince.
My boy! you ask; what I would take for my boy?
Why, sir, his price is above rubies. He is not for
sale. All the wealth of all the worlds could not
for a moment tempt me. He is beyond price. But.
stop, man! Have you not already sold him? Did
you not offer him up on the altar of greed or lust
or paltry honors when you cast that vote in favor
of the rum shop? You did not think of your boy
then. Alas! that he was so easily forgotten. It
was your selfish self that was so dear. Perhaps it
was the emolument of office that appealed to you;
perhaps hope of renown; perhaps the fear of pub
lic opinion. But let that be as it may. You cast
your vote for the liquor candidate. You said by
the freeman’s ballot, “I am in favor of the sa
loon;” but remember in lifting up the saloon you
have cast down • your innocent and helpless boy.
Dare you take the risk! Will you sit quietly by, or
soundly sleep, while the infernal gin mill is grind
ing up the precious children? The next child that
goes into the hopper may be your child. Methinks
I see him now right on the brink of ruin. I see
the gilded, glaring palace of hell, as it makes a
bid for him. He is walking mid the pitfalls of death.
Thousands of the most promising young men of the
country are going down every day to a drunkard’s
doom. Sirs, it’s enough to make the very stones
beneath our feet cry out. Will men, will civilized
men, will Christian men, hold their, peace?
Roosevelt said: “All I ask is a square deal for
every man. Give him a fair chance. Do not let
him wrong any one and do not let him be wronged.”
But how can our young men and boys have a
The Golden Age for March 1, 1906.
square deal and a fair chance with an open saloon
before them. Our beautiful boys and girls in all
their innocence and promise, with dumb eloquence
cry, “Give us a chance; take the saloon out of our
path.”
Vermont Exports Men.
Some one said: “Vermont’s chief export
in the past has been men.” It’s equally true that
Georgia’s blistering shame is her licensed saloon.
Shall Georgians any longer for blood money of
fer their children on the altar of moloch? Aside
from damning the ones next to your own hearts,
you are opening the black portals of death to the
saloon keeper. To the God of Avarice and Greed,
gentlemen are sacrificing, and that without one drop
of mercy, their blind, deluded victims. Think how
these lost souls must haunt their murderers through
all eternity! It’s high time that the public con
science were quickened, and that the fine sentiment
in the State were crystallized and focalized against
the monster crime of civilization.
Unfurl the banner, let our churches begin to
march, and in the strength of the eternal God, we
shall break the liquor power in Georgia and close
the last infamous saloon. For surely the saloon
bar is:
“A bar to Heaven, a door to Hell,
Whoever named it, named it welt.
A bar to manliness and wealth,
A door to "want and broken health;
A bar to honor, pride and fame,
A door to sin and grief and shame;
A bar to hope, a bar to prayer,
A door to drunkenness and despair.
A bar to honored, useful life,
A door to brawling, senseless strife;
A bar to all that’s true and brave,
A door to every drunkard’s grave;
A bar to joys that home imparts,
A door to tears and aching hearts;
A bar to heaven, a door to hell,
Whoever named it, named it well.”
J. C. Solomon,
State Supt. Georgia Anti-Saloon League.
o Sam Jones and Whiskey.
In his recent speech at the Bijou theater in At
lanta, under the auspices of the Anti-Saloon League,
Sam Jones said: “I began life with as bright pros
pects as any Georgia boy ever had. I went away
and married a lovely blue-eyed Kentucky girl, who
trusted me with herself, her future—he rearthly
all. But whisky soon tempted me and I fell. For
several years I trampled on her loving, tender,
bleeding heart. The sparkle faded from her eye
and the roses fad?d from her cheeks. I think of it
all now since God has redeemed me. I think of
all the sorrow whisky brought my poor wife and
my poor life—and I hate whisky; I hate it! I’ll
hit as long as I have a foot! I’ll BUTT as long as
I have a head! I’ll bite as long as I have any
teeth—and when I wear my teeth* out, I’ll GUM it
to death!”
By her influence in the political world, Rome pre
pared the sphere in which Christianity was to work,
She made it possible by the protection she afforded
the workers, the roads she built as well as by her
ships on every sea, for the missionaries of the new
way to go and freely tell the story of redeeming
love.
For the first time since then is the political con
dition practically duplicated to-day. One of the
greatest phenomena in the present day world is the
marvellous growth of the Christian nations in po
litical power. In 1600 the Christian nations ruled
over only 7 per cent, of the surface of the earth; in
1893 they ruled over eighty-two per cent. In the
same time the extent of the surface of the earth
ruled over by the non-Christian nations receded from
ninety-three per cent, to only eighteen per cent.
Junius W. Millard.
The Tabernacle Pulpit.
(Continued from page 3.)
no mind so dull but that it can take in this argu
ment. It is hard enough to get a sick man to take
medicine, let alone one who thinks himself veil. The
mission of the doctor is ever to the sick, and the
more dangerous the sickness, the more urgent the
need for the doctor.
2. The Appeal. “Go ye and learn what that
meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice.” Ref
erence is made here to Hosea 6: 6, where the prophet
says, “I desire kindness and not sacrifice.” It is
a kind of rebuke to these proud Pharisees who sup
posedly knew the law. They were great sticklers
for the letter of the law, but knew nothing of its
spirit—the spirit of mercy, kindness and goodness.
Alas! alas! there are so many like them now.
Mr. Moody once said: “I had rather fellowship
one of these big-hearted, jolly-spirited, mercy-lov
ing weaklings who now and then stumble and fall,
than one of these cold, lifeless, money-grinding le
galists whose bowels of compassion are never dis
turbed.”
I am sure that the church of today does not real
ize the force that there is in this remark. We some
times hastily deal with the first man, and fawn
before the second. The second man is generally the
man of affairs, ne is such because he has no com
passion, no mercy. And the man of affairs usually
controls the church.
3. The Declaration: “I am not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Oh, what a
glorious mission! How full of comfort and hope it
has been to earth’s millions of tempest-tossed souls.
From palace to prison it has shed its light of hope.
“Sinners to repentance!” How glad we are that
he did not come to call the righteous; “for there
is none righteous, no, not one.” “All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God.” Jesus came
to call sinners! If we had to work out our salva
tion we would never get to Jesus. The injunction:
“Work out your salvation,” to be sure has a mean
ing, but it does not mean that we are to work our
selves into salvation. It is an injunction given to
those who are already Christians. It is to work
out that which he has worked in.
Never mind about the gravity of sin. It may
stand before the soul as a great barrier, but Jesus
came to overcome the barrier and save the sinner.
I wish we could feel the force of this fact. I am
sure we would be found praying and laboring for
men and women who are now ignored. For, after
all, Jesus does not look upon sin in the way that we
do. To him unbelief is sin—the biggest sin in the
world. These Pharisees who criticised Jesus for
eating with publicans and sinners, never thought
this. They thought that to live a fairly moral,life
was enough. There are thousands at the present
time who are just like them.
Once I asked a woman, who was attending mv
meetings, if she was not a sinner, and she got mad.
She took it as. an insult. She said, “No, lam not
a sinner, I am a lady.” It never entered her head
that unbelief, a failure to accent Christ, was a sin.
Ob ! let us remember that Jesus is here in this
world to save sinners, and when his salvation comes
in, sin goes goes out, and goes out forever. No other
gospel is needed; no other will do the work. All
the preaching of culture and civilization and hu
manitarianism that this world can have is not
enough to save one sinner. Christ and Him crucified
is the sinner’s Savior and the world’s Redeemer.
In recent meetings in Boston I met a man who
for twenty years had drunk whiskey and managed
theatres. He was one of the most noted theatre
managers in the country. His drink finally got the
best of him, and he became a vagabond upon the
Boston Commons. He tried every remedy known to
man, and they all failed him. Finally, on the Com
mons, one Sunday afternoon, he heard a redeemed
drunkard tell of the power of Jesus Christ to save
and sanctify a drunkard. He yielded his life to this
Savior, and walked out of the Commons a saved man.
For a number of yeais this man lias been one of
Boston’s most effective Christian workers. His tes
timony alone is mightier than many sermons. He
never speaks without telling of the power of Jesus
Christ to have a drunkard, and take the thirst for
liquor out of his mouth.
Thank God for the feast in Matthew’s house!
From it we get our assurance that Jesus Christ is
come into the world to save sinners.
