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Unique ILbangeiism in Texas
The Empire of Texas is a land of boundless re
sources and no less boundless resourcefulness. And
in the realm of religion there is just as much enter
prise and activity as in the realm commercial. If
there are thousands and thousands in Texas who
never hear the gospel because they are absorbed in
the din and sin of the world, there are other thou
sands who are trying in countless ways of conse
crated ingenuity to carry the gospel to them.
One of those ingenious ways of reaching the un
reached is practiced daily and devotedly by Rev.
P. F. Morgan and wife of Arlington, a beautiful
town on the electric car line between Dallas and Ft.
Worth. Mr. Morgan has purchased a common-sense
automobile that ought to read a lesson to auto own
ers everywhere. It has high wheels with solid rub
ber rims, so the perplexing and vexing experience
of a punctured pneumatic tire does not halt him
suddenly in the black mud of the plains and ren
der him unfit spiritually to fill his next appoint
ment —for who could feel in a preaching frame of
mind when he had been delayed by a punctured
tire right in the middle of the black, waxy mud
of a Texas prairie?
Evangelist Morgan’s solid rubber tires, therefore,
are a sure and speeding means of grace. Mrs. Mor
gan accompanies her husband in his evangelistic
work and helps him sing the gospel when and
where he might not otherwise have an opportunity
to preach it. Their gospel auto will dash into the
public square of a little town and while the careless
are looking around to see what it all means, Mor
gan will stand up in his unique pulpit, his guitar
in his hand and his wife by his side, and together
they will begin to sing. At once the careless crowd
is all attention. One by one, then in groups of
twos and threes, they gather about the automobile.
They look into the refined faces of a stalwart man
and a consecrated woman who impress their hearers
at once that, they have come to do them good. And
men who seldom enter church hear and receive the
saving gospel of Christ.
Sometimes there are conversions right in the
street, and often the evangelists will adjourn to a
TXE PROHIBITION TIGHT
The committee on legislation of the Savannah
Chamber of Commerce underwrites and dissemi
nates without the name of a solitary responsible
person, a foolish circular gotten up in the interest
of the brewers. It pretends to set forth a list of
facts about the splendid (?) results of the drink
ing of beer and light wines, and claims that the old
countries that drink beer and light wine are doing
especially well. None of which things are true.
It is probable that in America where wine and
beer were rare drinks, the ravages of whiskey and
brandy were much more rapid than in Europe and it
is probable that the reaction against all liquors has
been more radical in America than in Europe. For
this reason it is perhaps true that the cause of pro
hibition has been more aggressive here than on the
other side of the Atlantic. But the fact remains
that in all those countries the demands for re
strictions on the traffic are becoming more and
more outspoken. All the plans of modified drink
privileges which this circular refers to arc but ex
periments to eliminate in part evils that have be
come intolerable. America began that sort of thing
fifty years ago. We are fifty years in advance of
Europe now, but Europe is waking up. It will not
be fifty years before prohibition prevails all over
that country.
It took many centuries for the use of light wines
and mild brews to affect the human race with hered
itary alcoholism. But it is now a fact that nearly
every person among the civilized races is affected
by it. The discovery of the art of distillation and
the abundance of sugar and molasses in the West
Indies at about the same time made rum cheap, and
An Automobile For a Fulpit
Compiled by J. L. D. Hillyer
The Golden Age for May 7, 1908.
church or school house for a night meeting, and
sometimes a .general revival breaks out in the com
munity in which these faithful workers labor with
marked success in a “meeting of days.”
I . ‘
Mr. and Mrs. Morgan not only sing gospel songs
with winning effect, but they often compose and
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Mr. and Mrs. P. F. Morgan.
improvise temperance songs to popular airs that
catch the crowd. They have a rollicking parody on
“Dixie” which stirs the prohibitionists with enthu
siasm and makes the “antis” grin and fear.
Blessings on the so unique workers and speed the
gospel that they preach “on wheels.”
W. D. U.
the appetite for it had been prepared by three thou
sand years of wine and beer drinking. The result
has been modern drunkenness and debauchery and
a well nigh universal appetite for strong drink.
All medical experience is that total abstinence from
all alcoholic beverages is the only safe course
where the hereditary appetite exists. Consequently,
no possible excuse can justify the selling of any
drink in our soda fountains that contains an amount
of alcohol sufficient to make it a feature in the bev
erage. Our boys and girls will acquire the liquor
appetite from “near beers” as surely as the spring
foliage gets its coloring from the sunshine.
*
Dr. J. B. Cranfil, of the Associated Prohibition
Press, says: “The sad news has gone forth to the
world that the congressional district which fur
nished ‘Uncle Joe Cannon’ as Speaker of Ihe House,
has gone for prohibition. ‘Uncle Joe’ seems always
to have gloried in his wickedness and to have es
pecially opposed all prohibitory legislation. It was
he who killed the Littlefield bill, and he has been
hand-in-glove with the liquor power every time
they have asked him for his influence and support.
It looks now very much as if he would be offered
a job of staying at home unless he mends his ways.
Unless he does change his attitude people will soon
be wondering why such a small political gun was
ever called a Cannon.
“Hon. Matthew E. O'Brien, now in Washington,
sends the cheering news that a prohibition party
club has been planned for the District of Columbia,
and that when the organization has been perfected,
delegates to the national convention will be selected.
It is thus that we are storming the liquor forces at
their citadel. They are more strongly intrenched at
Washington than at any other point in the nation.
“Plans have been perfected for placing in the
hands of every member of Congress a copy of the
pamphlet recently issued by the prohibition club of
Kansas City, in which the true conditions in Kansas
are given and the false reports sent out by the li
quor interests are refuted.”
*
There is a notion that is very widespread that the
liquor business has the same kind of right to ex
istence that other kinds of business possess. This
is not true, and never was. No business has a
right to live when its life is injurious to the com
munity. That has always been a principle of law
in England and America. Hence the law against
nuisances. If the business of the J. M. High Co.,
or the Chamberlain-Johnson-Dubose Co., or of L.
IV. Rogers’ groceries should develop features that
injure the public, they would become nuisances and
would be stopped by law under the principle cite!
above. Many years ago the liquor business devel
oped evil qualities. It would long since have been
driven from the land as a nuisance if the license
system had not been devised to protect it. This
condition of things is not my speculation about it,
but is fully shown by the supreme courts of the
United States. Here are just a. few samples:
“There is no inherent right in a citizen to sell
intoxicating liquor by retail.” (137 U. S. 86.)
And again: “If the public safety or the public
morals require the discontinuance of any manu
facture or traffic, the hand of the legislature cannot
be stayed from providing for its discontinuance by
any incidental inconveniences which individuals or
corporations may suffer.” (97 IT. S. 32.)
Just one more extract from the same decision:
“The power which the States unquestionably have
of prohibiting such use by individuals of their
property as will be prejudicial to the health, the
morals or the safety of the public is not, and —con-
sistently with the existence and safety of organized
society—cannot be, burdened with the condition
that the State must compensate such individual
owners for pecuniary losses they sustain, by reason
of their not being permitted by a noxious use of
their property to inflict injury upon the commu
nity.”
The Rome Tribune-Herald tells of the disgrunfle
rnent of Dr. Robins because Dr. J. C. Solomon took
advantage of the hospitality of Dr. Robins and
preached some politics from his pulpit. From the
story that we have read, it does not appear just
what offensive words fell from the lips of Dr. Solo
mon, but it is safe to express the conviction that
there are several hundred thousand Georgia men and
women who know him well and who know that it
was impossible for him to have been less than a
Christian and a gentleman. They will all feel sure
that if his remarks were offensive to anybody, it
was somebody who objected to the remarks and pre
tended to think that the speaker should not hawe
made them. “No thief e’er felt the halter draw
with a good opinion of the law.” The Tribune-
Herald could not reasonably be expected to ap
prove of one of Dr. Solomon’s campaign sermons,
and it is an easy and cheap method of attack to
raise holy hands of horror because a preacher, de
livering a message from his divine Master to his
mortal brethren, ventures to tell them of some of
the civic duties they owe to the glorious country
that God has given them. If this nation is ever to
bo delivered from the dominion of sin, graft, er-me,
trusts and all sorts of unholiness and official un
faithfulness, it will be when all the people of the
Lord Jesus Christ learn to render unto Caesar the
tribute they owe him, that is the tribute of a right
eous citizenship.
*
The Baptist Visitor says:
“The negroes are becoming enlisted in the pro
hibition cause. The papers state that in some places
they gave a solid vote for temperance. In other
places they held meetings to discuss prohibition and
adopted resolutions endorsing it. The whiskey traffic
seems to be losing ground everywhere. The white
hand and the black hand are both against it and
have it marked for slaughter,”
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