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Banks County Gazette. VOL 2.—NO. LI. The Liquor Power. The liquor traffic, of course, has reference to parties who buy and sell liquor. The following discussion re lates die former, and only a few words touching the latter. According to the report of the commissioner of internal revenue for the year 1883, there were then in the United States 206,970 liquor dealers and manufacturers. Their saloons, allowing twenty feet front to each, would reach in an unbroken line from Chicago to New York. There is invested in this business $1 ,000,000,000, so says good authority. It is estimated that the annual liquor bill of the nation is $900,000,000. So great wealth in the hands of one class having common interests and a com mon purpose, is a mighty power, and this power does not lack organi zation. There is a combination of all the dealers north of the Ohio, from Washington to the Pacific, and their success at Washington a few years since, in securing legislation which granted to whisky makers pe culiar privileges according to no other tax payers is sufficient evidence of their power. At llie brewers’ congress held in Buffalo, July Bth, 1868, President Clausen, speaking of the action of the New York branch of the association relative to the excise law of that statu said: Neither means nor money were spared during the past twelve months to accomplish the repeal of this dotes ted law. Before the election 36,(MM* campaign circulars were distributed among the voters of different coun ties. They held a convention and adopted resolutions pledging them selves to support only such candidates who bound themselves to work for the repeal of the excise law and there by check the progress of the tem perance party. Let us look now at some of the methods of tho liquor power. The brewers favor boycotting. The fol lowing resolution was passed at their seventh congress: Resolved; That we find it necessa ry, in a business point of view, to patronize only such business men as will work hand in hand with us. A b’acksmith who had served on a jury which conicted a saloon keeper of selling liquor contrary to law, was employed by a brewer, and in conse quence lost bis situation. Jiy their own confession they spend money freely at the polls. It is said that the brewers of Illinois have spent $lO,OOO to beat the temperance cause at a single election. The liquor lobby at Albany, N. Y., at the session of 1878-9 admitted be fore a legislative committee that they had expended about $lOO,OOO to in fluence legislation. If the stiff necked legislator could not be induced to Vote directly against temperance measures, or per suaded to dodge, the cause would prevail, but he is convinced that lie is sick, threatened with pneumonia or something else and unable to leave his room. A sworn affidavit of the doctor to this effect costs anywhere from $25 to SIOO, accordi: g to the size of the lie sworn to. These cases of illness, however, never prove fatal, and recovery is always rapid. A senator was in great distress about a mortgage that was being fore closed on his house, amounting to about $1,500. The man’s trouble came to the knowledge of the lobby when suddenly 'brie of the lobbyist was missing and in a few’ days later the senator received Lis mortgage cancelled, through the postoffice. lie never forgot the favor, and his vote weighed heavy on their side in the future. Thus you see that the liquor power corrupts public morals and defeats the popular will. And this power which does not hesitate to buy votes or in timidate voters, to defy the law or bribe its officers and comes to its kingdom through political partisan ship which enables it to make one of the two great parties its slave and the oilier its minister. There is two things that can reach the top of the pyramid—the eagle and the reptile. In 1883 of the twenty-four aldermen ot the city of New York ten were liquor dealers and two others including the presi dent of the board were ex rumsellers. The liquor power is a peril at the east. Since pro-historic times popula tion has moved steadily westward as if driven by the mighty hand of God. The world’s sceptre passed from Per sia to Greece, from Greece to Italy, from Italy to Great Britain, and from Great Britain it is passing to a great er power—to our mighty west, there to remain, for there is no further west. Beyond is the orient. Like the star in the east which guided the three kings with their treasures eastward until at length it stood still over the cradle of the young Christ. So the star of empire rising in the east has ever beckoned the wealth and power of the nations westward until to-day it stands still over the cradle of the young empire of the west, to which the nations arc bringing their offerings. God save the great west from the domination of the liquor power. A. A. White. Hold Up Your Pastor’s Hands. That successful winner of souls, Dr. Payson, of Portland, organized an “Aaron and Ilur society” in his church; it was composed of zealous Christian workers who were ready to hold up their pastor’s hands. But every church member ought to do just that very thing; he or she ought to imitate Jonathan when he “went to David in the wood, and strength ened his hand in God.” And I wi l give you a few hints asto do it: 1. Keep your own seat in the sanc tuary always occupied. If your min ister can come to church through a storm, so can yon; the same obliga tion rests on you both. 1 never have delivered a discourse strong enough to move a parishioner who was loit ering at home, or wandering off to some other house of worship; nor have I ever made any converts in an empty pew. If a good reason keeps you from the house of God, try to find a substitute to occupy your seat. The person you invited to attend your church may find that sermon a word in season, and that house of God to be a “gate to heaven” for his soul. 2. If the truth proclaimed from the pulpit is adapted to the case of your unconverted husband or wife or child, then co-operate with your minister in making that truth effective. It never strengthens the hands of a pastor for a church member to go home and pick flaws in a faithful sermon, or to dissipate its influence by trifling con versation or some other conduct to grieve the Holy Spirit. I have known an unconverted husband to go home from church deeply impressed by a solemn sermon, and the whole im pression nullified by the captious criticisms and disparaging remarks of his professedly (?) Christian wife. The Holy Spirit preached to him from the pulpit, and the devil preach ed to him from the inconsistent wife at home. Follow up every earnest appeal made by your pastor by fer vent prayer and by such kind words as you can lovingly utter to the un converted members of your family. Half of all the good preaching in our land is killed during the first hour after the church service is closed. Just imagine what the effect would be if on next Sabbath all the mem bers of any one church wore to follow up the pulpit message from heaven by fervid prayer and immediate pet - sonal efforts for the conversion of the impenitent. Let every church do that, and we would see a revival from Maine to Mexico. Yet that would he only the discharge of a simple and solemn duty on the part of every fol lower of Christ. 3. For every member of Christ’s blood-bought, flock is under just as strong obligation to labor for souls as any pastor possibly can be. Your promise to be a witness for your Mas ter is just as solemn and binding as his promise. It is your church just HOMER, RANKS COUNTY, GEORGIA, WEDNESDAY, JULY 22,1891. as much as it is your pastor’s church*' Christ's claim on you is the same as his claim on your pastor. What gen eral over gained a victory without the aid of his army ? What could a Spur geon accomplish without his great, zealous, praying church behind him ? Aaron and Ilur are as important in their places as Moses. Charles G. Finney, the king of revival preachers, tells us in his autobiography that for fourteen successive winters there was a rich spiritual blessing brought down upon a certain church, just because it was the custom of the church officers to “pray fervently for their minister far into the night before each Sabbath.” Those wise, godly men felt their responsibility, honored their embassador from heaven, hon ored the gospel preached from his lips, and God honored them by his blessing. 4. Pastors ought not to be obliged to rely on one or two or half a dozen co-workers. Suppose that his “Aaron” is sick and his “JJur” is out of town, then who shall stay up his hands ? And what sort of an apple tree is that which bears all its fruit on one or two branches? It is tho united move ment of the whole regiment that car ries tho redoubt; it is the united pull of the whole church that sends it for ward with the “li\ing spirit within the wheel.” Peter preached a great sermon at the time of Pentecost, hut there had been some great praying done beforehand in a certain upper room in Jerusalem. This brings us to the main point, the clinching point of this brief arti cle. Prayer is power. The conse crated prayer of all the sincere, clean living Christians in any church is con centrated power. Turn all the latent strength of every ton of coal on board a Cuuard steamer into the sylinder of its engine, and the piston will drive that giant vessel to Liverpool in a week: The cylinder of your church the prayer meeting and (he other places of prayer in the closet and at the family altars. There the heat, the power, the life of the church must lie engendered. Your praying helps your pastor preach. Your prayers wing the arrows of the truth and lend them into the sinners’ hearts, l’rayer rolls away the stone behind which dead souls are entombed like poor Lazarus in his sepulcher. Prayer brings the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire. And ' when the whole church besiege the mercy seat with united requests, and back up their mayors with personal efforts, then are a pastor’s hands mightily strength ened in the Lord. If I know your minister’s heart I feel pretty sure that he cares more for souls than for salary, but don’t cheat him out of either. Between the two, he could stand an empty purse better than an empty prayer-rooin. The bitterest trial you can subject him to is to make him spend his strength for naught. The sweetest solace you can give him, the most exquisite joy you can send through the core of his heart will be to rally closely around him and give him the mighty love-lift of your prayers and your co-operation.—Weekly Witness. Sub-Treasury Substitute. A financial substitute proposed by Senator George for the sub-treasury warehouse scheme comes surprisingly close to the plan The Voice has been recommending. lie quotes Senator Beck to the effect that the SIOO 000,- 000 of gold held in the Federal treas ury as a reserve for the redemption of $340,000,000 of greenbacks, iN doubly sufficient for the purpose. He proposes that an increase of green backs, or treasury notes, as he prefers to call them, be issued, until the money in actual circulation reaches $lO per caput. The mode of issue lie describes as follows: “Reduce or suspend taxation still further, so that instead of a surplus there will be a deficit in the treasury. Let the surplus he oil the side of the people, and the deficit transferred from the people to the treasury. Let this deficit be supplied by the issue of treasury notes to the amount stated, and let them be paid out in the ex penditures of the government. This is the way all government notes have heretofore been paid out and get among the people.” This would provide for an increase of greenbacks to an extent variously estimated from $120,000,000, to over $300,000,000, without any addition to the gold reserve. There would be grave reason to dread that distrust and fear would be engendered at once, by the banks and the capitalists if this was done. Our plan contem plates the use of all future purchases of gold or silver as a reserve fund for the issue of anew series of treasury notes, in the same proportion as now prevails, that is, three and one-half, or, better still, three dollars of treasure notes to each dollar’s worth of gold or silver held in the treasury. One third of this issue would be made in payment for the gold or silver pur chased. The other two thirds would be issued as SenatorGcorge describes, thus materially reducing taxation. The senator’s plan provides for a very limited addition to the currency. Our plan would provide for a possible increase to the extent of SSO per caput. His plan would enable the capitalists to throw doubt and dig credit not only on the new issue, hut even on the present issue of $340,- 000,000. Our plan would not, impair to the slightest degree the present issue, and would give to the new issue the same unimpeachable credit that the present greenbacks possess. The plan would be safe, simple, unobjec tionable ns to principles involved, and sufficient to meet the requirements of the situation.—The Voice. Half and Half. It is wonderful to wdiat shifts men will resort to avoid the plain teaching of the word of God. Even some of those ordained to preach it. A Leices ter England, pastor,.preaching lately in London, said that “he would not lik& to say that he believed in the doctrine of eternal punishment. But he believed that the future of the man who was impenitent to the last must he a dark and gloomy one, whatever it might be, and the desire to save men from such a future should stimulate us to greater mis sionary effort and increase our desire to bring men to the knowledge of Christ crucified.” It may he that the preacher feared prejudice among his hearers against the clear teaching of Christ, “The wicked shall go away into eternal punishment.’’ There is more doubt of tlie truth of Christ’s words among English Congregationalisms than among American. It was not this that led him so to speak, his remark was certainly r a very anomalous one, and must have left his hearers in a very singular state of mind. Our Lord told the Jews: “If ye believe not that I arn he, ye shall die in jour sins, and whither Igo ye cannot come.” Paul told the Thessaionian church that vengeance upon “them that know not God and obey not the gospel” would be “pun ishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord.” Clearly these two declarations mean one and the same thing, and “a dark and gloomy one.” Did the London preacher mean less than Christ and* Paul? What right has he to teach less? Did he mean that the man “impenitent to the last” will go where Christ went, and not “suffer punish ment, even etosnal destruction from the face of the Lord”? Then certainly his future cannot bo “dark and gloomy.” This is worse than tamper ing with God’s revealed will from fear of man and moral cowardice. It is making God a liar, or else—what is no better—his word is self-contra diction. If the wicked do not go away into eternal punishment (and if (his preacher knows better than Jesus Christ, and that he spake falsely), then “there is now no condemnation to them that are (not) in Christ Jesus,” and we shall hear him say to those “impenitent to the last,” “Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom,” and yet their “future will be a dark and gloomy one!” What, then, of those who d:e peni tent, believing, accepted, holy ? will their “eternal life” be “dark and gloomy” too? Can the saints escape eternal punishness and yet suffer it too? or something just like it? Or is there something in eternity that is neither an eternal kingdom for the blessed of the Father, nor an eternal fire for the cursed, and yet is some anomalous, unscriptural future of woe ? It is high time the pulpit in Chris tian lands had done with this shock ing disloyalty to the God of Truth. Whatever the cause of it, or the temp tation to it, there is no salvation for hearers in it. What impenitent men dread is the exact penalty of sin, un mistakably recognized by the Script ures and the Savior, just that; and no half-and-half punishment hereafter will have moral power wiih them- Scaling down the motives God’s mor al government employs will never be an improvement on the divine plan. “Stimulate to greater missionary effort,” indeed! If the reasons why we should bring men to Christ are less pr tent, or it is represented or pretended that they are, will they lead the Church to do more than if they are more potent? Will the half weigh more than the whole? Or will the effort to whittle down God’s truth make it “of none effect”?—Keligious Herald. The Bible. A book which needs to be exposed, demolished, and refuted so many times, must have strange characteris tics. If the gospel was a fable, it would have been exploded long ago. If the Bible contained only dreams and fancies, it could not have surviv ed the ordeal of criticism through which it has passed. Man after man has assailed this book with arguments, with insinuations, with misrepresent ations, and with falsehoods, but it still stands firm, its walls buttressed with the broken and demolished theo ries of men who have butted against it; as night birds dash themselves against a light-house. The keenest criticism of the ages only scrapes the barnacles from the hull of the vessel; the sharpest investigation only scours the rusts from the sword of the Spirit. After 1800 years of sceptical as sault, the book still remains, and the men who are now laboring to destroy it may as well undertake to demolish the pyramids of Egypt with a tack hammer. Infidels die, but this book still lives. Scoffers fade like the flowers, and wither like the grass, hut above their graves this book marches triumphant ly on, and on its pages we read in characters of light, “The grsss with eretli, the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth for ever.”—lL L. Hastings. Partners. A sturdy little figure it was, trudg ing bravely by with a pail of w'ater. So many times it had passed our gate that morning that curiosity prompted to farther acquaintance. “You are a busy little girl to-day?” “Yes’in.’' The round face under the broad hat w'as turned toward us. It was freckled, flushed, and perspir ing, but cheery withal.' “Yes’m; it takes a heap of water to do a wash in’.” “And do you bring it all from the brook down there?” “Oh, we have it. in the cistern most ly, only it’s been such a dry time lately.” “And there is nobody else to carry the water?” “Nobody but mother, and she’s W’asliin’.” “Well, you are a good girl to help her.” It w'as not a well considered com pliment, and the little water-carrier evidently did not consider it one at all, for there was a look of surprise in her gray eyes, and an almost indig nant tone in her voice as she an swered : “Why, of course I help her. I always help her do things all the time; she hasn’t anybody else. Moth er’n me’s pardners.” We looked after her as she picked SINGLE COPY THREE CENTS, up her pail and walked on, bending under her load a little, but resolute, and with no thought of complaining or shirking. A stout, old fashioned, homely little body she was, but wo called her mother a rich and happy woman. Did you ever think of taking your mother into partnership, girls? of let ting it be “our work,” instead of “Mother’s,” and “our vacation,” in stead of “mine” ? Did you ever no tice how many demands there are upon her in n day, and how many ot them you might take upon yourself ? Isn’t it possible that if you went into partnership with her in regard to the mending basket, she might be very glad to form a partnership with you in some of the reading you enjoy? Did you ever think how much of re gret aud privation might be covered by that gentle “I haven’t time, dear,” which you hear so often ? Try Becky’s plan, go into part nership with the dear mother in work and pleasure, cares and confi dences, and see if both members of the firm are not the happier for the union.—Kale W. Hamilton. The Christ of the Bible. The man who knows Jesus Christ experimentally is-the one who most loves and admires him. It is a great accomplishment to come into a sweet and saving knowledge of his grace character, and life. lie is presented to us in a way that we may know him as our Friened, Savior, Exemplar, and glorifier. lie is set forth most fully and clearly in his work, that we may learn who and what he is; and he sends his Holy Spirit into the mind and heart, so that we may obtain the spiritual apd loving apprehension and appropriation of him which render him a real and living person to us in our inner and outer relations. He then appears to us an object of beauty and delight and adoration and admi ration and imitation, and the more we thus know of him the more we want to know of him. lie grows upon us. We never tire of him. He fills every want of our being; he suits us in time; he becomes our “all in all” in the way of future expectation, as well as of present realization. For this world and the next there is none who so bounds and perfects the Chris tian life as the Christ of the Bible, of history, and of futurity.—Prcsbj te rian Observer. The prttty girl is a universal factor in modern life. She possesses llio advantage not only of ornament, but of utility. She has been utilized in an endless variety of ways. She has become a howling success in the operatic ballet, and is as conspicuous and as original in front of a typewri ter or behind a counter as she is on dress parade in a big easy chair. But it has remained for an enterpris ing Connecticut minister of the gos pel to introduce the pretty girl in a new sphere as a church usher.— Gainesville Eagle. Well Said. So long as the street is the only playground for the children, the evil spirits among their number—those who rule in these hells—must exer cise a powerful influence on compan ions who, if they were granted better surroundings, would escape contami nation. lam prepared to say that our chief work to-day should by done among the children. Our strength and our time are limited; w e want to plant our blows where they will tell most, to sow’ our seed where they will have the best chance to grow'. A man or a woman who has pursued an evil course from childhood is almost past help at twenty-five, speaking gener ally; but the children can be saved. They cannot, however, be saved by public schools, nor y.t by Sunday schools. They are not being saved; they arc passing from bad to worse, and nothing can rescue them but an awakened Christian sentiment, that will not pause till their surroundings are such as will give the divinity within them some chance to grow.— Itev. W. S. Rainsford in Forum.