ter of iniquity and drove it out of
the stronghold it has occupied so long.

"I wish you could have gone with me this past week and witnessed some of
the sights I have seen. No! I retract that statement. I would not wish
that any father or mother had had the heartache that I have felt as I
contemplated the ruins of young lives crumbling into the decay of
premature debility, mocking the manhood that God gave them, in the
intoxicating curse of debauchery. What have I seen? Oh ye fathers! O ye
mothers! Do you know what is going on in this place of sixty saloons
licensed by your own act and made legal by your own will? You, madam,
and you, sir, who have covenanted together in the fellowship and
discipleship of the purest institution of God on earth, who have sat
here in front of this pulpit and partaken of the emblems which remind
you of your Redeemer, where are your sons, your brothers, your lovers,
your friends? They are not here this morning. The Church does not have
any hold on them. They are growing up to disregard the duties of good
citizenship. They are walking down the broad avenue of destruction, and
what is this town doing to prevent it? I have seen young men from what
are called the best homes in this town reel in and out of gilded temples
of evil, oaths on their lips and passion in their looks, and the cry of
my soul has gone up to Almighty God that the Church and the Home might
combine their mighty force to drive the whisky demon out of our
municipal life so that we might feel the curse of it again nevermore.

"I speak to you to-day in the name of my Lord and Master. It is
impossible for me to believe that if that Christ of God were standing
here this morning he would advise the licensing of this corruption as
the most feasible or expedient method of dealing with it. I cannot
imagine him using the argument that the saloon must be licensed for the
revenue that may be gained from it to support the school system. I
cannot imagine Christ taking any other position before the whisky power
than that of uncompromising condemnation. He would say it was evil and
only evil, and therefore to be opposed by every legal and moral
restriction that society could rear against it. In his name, speaking
as I believe he would speak if he were here this moment, I solemnly
declare the necessity on the part of every disciple of Christ in every
church in Milton of placing himself decidedly and persistently and at
once in open battle a