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AMONG THE WORKERS
Compiled by J. L. D. Hillyer
The story given below is from an exchange. It
deserves to be passed around. It shows the inesti
mable importance of a faithful adherence to sound
doctrine through all our evangelism. It is for the
future of the world a hopeful sign that our evan
gelism tends to seek after genuine gospel soundness
more than it was wont to do a few years ago. But
the story follows:
An Awful Mistake.
Charles G. Finney relates the following incident:
Very early one morning a lawyer belonging to
one of the most respectable families in the town
called at my room, in the greatest agitation of mind.
He introduced himself and said he was a lost sin
ner —that there was no hope for him. He informed
me that when he was in Princeton College he and
two of his classmates became very anxious about
their souls. They went together to the president
of the college and asked what to do to be saved.
The doctor told them to keep out of bad company,
to read their Bibles statedly, and to pray God to
give them a new heart. “Continue this,” he said,
“and press forward in duty; and the Spirit of God
will convert you; or else He will leave you; and you
will return to your sins again.”
“Well,” I inquired, “how did it terminate?”
“Oh,” he said, “we did just as he told us to do!
We kept out of bad company and prayed that God
would give us a new heart. But after a little our
convictions wore away, and we did not care to
pray any longer. We lost all interest in the sub
ject,” and then, bursting into tears, he said, “My
two companions are in drunkard’s graves, and if I
cannot repent I shall soon be in one myself.” This
remark led me to observe that he had indications of
being a man who made too free use of ardent spir
its. However, this was early in the morning; he
was in terrible anxiety about his soul. I tried to
instruct him, and to show him the error he had fall
en into as to the instructions he received, by wait
ing to do what God commanded him, to repent
(Acts 17:30) and God could not repent for him;
to believe (Acts 31) but God could not be
lieve for him; God required him to submit (Jas.
4:9, 10) but God could not do it for him. I tried
to make him understand the agency of the Spirit
THE PROHIBITION TIGHT
It will be recalled that over a year ago this col
umn contained a suggestion that it would help the
State very much in its efforts to control inter
state shipments of liquors, if the Legislature should
pass a law declaring that, 4 'Alcoholic drinks are not
property, but are contraband of commerce and not
entitled to any legal rights in Georgia.” A late
copy of the "American Issue” contains extracts
from reports of the United States Senate judiciary
committee explaining why Congress does not stop
the traffic. The report comes specially from the
hand of Chairman Knox, one of the finest lawyers
in America. Among other things his report says:
"The whole subject of the use of liquors is within
the exclusive power of the states. The federal
o-overnment has nothing to do with it and can
have nothing to do with it except incidentally and
indirectly in connection with commerce in liquor
among the states, and then only upon the theory
that they are legitimate subjects of interstate com
merce.
"The states have not undertaken to control any
thing but the traffic.
"Can Congress surrender its exclusive control
over interstate commerce in legitimate articles of
commerce the possession and use of which are aw
ful under the laws of the states where sold and
‘bought before they are delivered to the consignee.
"None of the states have outlawed the use or pos
session for use of the article now sought to be ex
cluded from the channels of interstate commerce by
the indirect action of the states.
The Golden Age for August 6, 1908.
of God; that it is the divine persuasion; that the
Spirit leads him to see his sins, urges him to give
them up, and to flee from the wrath to come. The
Spirit presents to the sinner the Savior, the atone
ment, the plan of salvation, and urges him to ac
cept it. He was an intelligent man, and the Spirit
of God was upon and teaching him, and when I saw
that the way was fully prepared, I called on him
to kneel down and submit; and he did so, and to all
outward appearance, became a thorough convert
right on the spot. “Oh,” he afterward said, “if
Dr. Green had only told us this that you have told
me, we should all have been converted immediately!
But my friends and companions are lost and what
a wonder of mercy it is that I am saved!”
R
To the same general effect, but touching a differ
ent doctrine, is this fine paragraph from The Sun
day School Times:
“If our salvation depended upon our holding true
to God, there would be little hope for us. The
outlook is brighter and surer than that. Here is
our ground of hope: 1 Being confident of this very
thing, that he who began a good work in you will
perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.’ Our con
fidence is not that we shall hold out to the end,
but that he will. God does ask us to permit him to
begin in us the good work which shall end in vic
tory. He cannot begin this until we have surren
dered ourselves to him in Christ. But when we have
done that, the fight is in his hands. And he has too
jealous a regard for his name ever to fail one who
has thus trusted him. 4 For Jehovah will not for
sake his people for his great name’s sake, because
it hath pleased Jehovah to make you a people unto
himself.’ Because of what he is, not because of
what we are, God will not forsake us and leave us
to ourselves. This does not mean that we are there
fore to sin freely in the confidence that it will come
out all right because God will not let us go, but rath
er that we are to look confidently to God for the
power that shall give us present and eternal victory
over sin. Such victory is the work which he has
begun in us. We cannot be true to God unless we
are winning victories for him day by day; but in
him alone lies our only hope of being true to him.”
"If citizens of a state may lawfully use these
articles and may lawfully have them in their pos
session for personal use, why should the national
government be asked to permit their transportation
to be so interfered with as to prevent their delivery,
even if it could constitutionally enact such a law?”
The meaning of all of which is that if a state
should outlaw alcoholic drinks and declare that no
property rights attach to them, the federal author
ity would be estopped at the state line, if it at
tempted to extend the protection of the law to
such drinks.
M K
An Open Letter.
Atlanta, Ga., July 30, 1908.
Chief Henry Jennings, Police Headquarters,
Atlanta, Ga.
My dear Brother: Today at about two o’clock
at the rear end of the Grant Building, east side of
Broad street, a man stepped up to me who was
evidently drunk. He asked me for a dime for car
fare. I asked him what he had been drinking.
He replied, "Bud.”
"Where did you get it?” I asked.
"Oh, anywhere round here!” he answered.
I looked for a policeman, but could not find one.
Now I submit that this is outrageous. Here we
have a law that makes it a misdemeanor for any
body to sell any liquor that will produce intoxica
tion when drunk to excess. Our court of appeals
has held that:
It does not make any difference what the drink
is called, if it is capable of making anybody drunk
who drinks it to excess, it is prohibited. And yet
here in Atlanta, in the middle of the day, these
beer saloons are selling’ a drink that the police are
seeming to allow and men are actually getting drunk
on it, and yet the sale goes on unchecked.
I saw in The Constitution of Tuesday morning the
report that Judge Broyles and you had both said that
the appellate court had decided that near beers are
not prohibited, and therefore you could not stop
their sale. I knew that the appellate court had not
made any such ruling, but I went to Judge Powell
and asked him about it, with The Constitution in
my hand. He told me that the court of appeals
had made no such decision, that on the contrary it
had decided that no drink that could make any
body drunk could be sold under that law.
Now, I appeal to you as a good officer, a fearless
Christian man, to break up this near beer business
that is defiling our principal streets with drunken
sots as it was under the old regime.
Very truly yours,
John L. D. Hillyer.
R R
The Mission Girl.
(Continued from Page 2.)
Leighton Barrows laughed softly, but melodiously.
His wife smoothed down a fold of her nile green
morning dress, observing quietly:
“You need not feel overwhelmed, Reece; the
brilliancy of that speech was adapted from a news
paper, and his father taught it to him, with malice
aforethought.”
“Leighton,” Reece ejaculated, “to what depths
have you fallen?”
Mr. Barrows pinned on the tea rose, his wife had
brought to him, with scintillating eyes.
“Well, why not?” he said, in justification. “Your
actor learns his lines from Shakespeare, and nobody
objects to his want of originality, or refuses to be
amused.”
Reece knelt down by his nephew, and looked at
him, smiling through his glasses.
“So it seems you are not original, son, if your
parents are to be believed.”
“Tell him that you have nothing original in you,
except original sin,” Mrs. Barrows quoted serenely.
The boy caught the emphasized word, and, leaning
over, kissed his uncle between the eyes.
“Is dat original?” he enquired naively.
Dr. Redmond crushed him to his heart.
“You rascal,” he said.
There was a smothered shriek from the next room,
and Dr. Redmond sprang to his feet, and bounded
away.
Leighton Barrows closed the door after him, and,
going up to his wife, laid his hand in a caress on her
shoulder.
“Well,” he announced with a glance of tenderest
sympathy, “Dr. Cortelyou and Reece think that
Sylvia’s symptoms point toward brain fever, caused
by shock and grief.”
“How awful,” his wife exclaimed, “for both
her and him!”
“Who? Rodney Hill?”
“No,” Mrs. Barrows answered, “I was not think
ing of him. He is too weak to discuss. I was
thinking of Reece.”
“Why, Reece? Doubtless he has had a number
of cases of brain fever, during the years of his
practice.”
Mrs. Barrows looked up at her husband reproach
fully.
“I wonder if you are so obtuse as you seem to
be?”
At that moment the butler appeared with a tele
gram. John bowed low as he presented the yellow
sheet to Mrs. Barrows, on a Japanese salver.
The lady’s white fingers trembled slightly as she
tore open the ocher envelope.
She read:
“Mobile, Ala., September 11, 190 S.
“My cousin is much improved. He hopes to be
in your city within ten days.
“Lawton Hill.”
(To be Continued.)
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