even
the teacher may fall from his high estate, and, forgetting his
immeasurable responsibility, yield to the temptation to estimate
his work by its pecuniary reward.

Let me turn for a moment from the profession and the occupation to the
calling. I am sure I shall not be accused of departing from the truth
when I say that even those who minister to our spiritual wants and, as
our religious leaders, help to fix our standards of morality, sometimes
prove unfaithful to their trust. They are human, and the frailties of
man obscure the light which shines from within, even when that light is
a reflection from the throne of God. The ministers have for years
considered the liquor question a moral question, and I would not
chide them for their activity; but I think too little emphasis has
been placed upon the importance of total abstinence. Whether a
Christian can drink in moderation without harm to himself is purely
a physical question, and some Christians have overestimated their
ability to confine their drinking within safe limits; but there is a
moral question which is much larger, namely, can a Christian afford to
indulge the appetite for drink if his example leads weaker men to ruin?

The great apostle said that, if eating meat made his brother to
offend, he would eat no meat. It is a part of the minister's work
to cultivate such a love of brother in the Christian heart that the
Christian will paraphrase the language of the apostle and say: If
drinking maketh my brother to offend, I shall not drink.

Then, too, we have not sufficiently considered man's social needs.
Man must have communion with his friends, and we have left the saloon
to furnish about the only meeting place in the cities and towns.
Rooms should be opened where men can meet with wholesome surroundings
and free from the temptations that are ever present where men meet in
a room provided by one who has a pecuniary interest in cultivating an
appetite for drink.

The ministers must deal with all questions that involve morals, and
every great question is in its final analysis a question of ethics.

We need more Elijahs in the pulpit to-day--more men who will dare to
upbraid an Ahab and defy a Jezebel. It is possible, ay, probable, that
even now, as of old, persecution would follow such boldness of speech,
but he who consecrates himself to religion must smite evil wherever he
finds it, altho in smiting it he may risk his salary and his social
position. It