M U;CII I. 1!)1; 



A. I. Root 



OUM HOME 



Editor 



By their fruits ye shall know them. — Matt. 7:20. 

 There is no other name under heaven. — Acts 



Since giving place to the letter from 

 tiieiid Boone on p. 958, Dec. 1, I have 

 leceived several letters of like tenor, some 

 of them severely censuring church members, 

 ministers, and the Christian religion gener- 

 ally. I cannot give space to these letters, 

 for J try hard to have not only every page 

 of my dejtartment but every line contain 

 some thought that will benefit some one; and 

 1 feel sure no one will be helped by giving 

 space to talk that was common in years 

 liast, but which, since the gi'eat strides of 

 present Christianity, are now mostly drop- 

 ped and forgotten. I replied to one brother 

 (who sent me quite a long letter) on a 

 postal card, and quoted our text above, and 

 asked him if he was keeping track of the 

 great work now being done by " Billy Sun- 

 day." For fear there are others of our 

 readers who are also not keeping posted I 

 have made some clippings from the Sunday 

 School Times of Jan. 24.* Of course the 

 brewers and distillers are fighting Sunday 

 with money unstinted, and every thing else; 

 and it seems they have been telling of the 

 $4S,000 that the city of Seranton, Pa., ex- 

 pended in the Sunday crusade. A business 

 man made an extensive summing-up of 

 expenses, and also of benefits, and gives the 

 whole in the Times, and then asks, " Did it 

 pay?" 



Below are a few of the points he makes. 

 I know the figures are staggering; but while 

 I irrite the work is being more than dupli- 

 cated in the great city of Philadelphia. 



Superintendent Hopper, of the Lackawanna Coun- 

 ty Sunday-school Association, reports the county 

 membership increased from 35,000 to 47,000, and 

 the most significant fact of the 12,000 gain in mem- 

 bers is that ninety per cent of them were men — men 

 who could qualify in organized adult Bible classes. 



That Billy Sunday reached men is evidenced by 

 another fact. At the last meeting in the tabernacle 

 for men, Sunday, April 19, at 2 p. M., Mr. Rode- 

 heaver requested that all men who had stopped " hit- 

 ting the booze " since Mr. Sunday came to the city 

 raise the right hand, and immediately hands " shot 

 up " — men vied with each other in trying to raise 

 their hands higher. How many were there? From 

 where the writer sat, on the steps of the platform, it 

 seemed as if almost every man in that audience of 

 10,000 men had his hand up. From competent judges 

 it was estimated that no less than 5000, and prob- 

 ably 6000, had become total abstainers. Here was 

 visible evidence, and our hearts still glow at its 

 remembrance. A conservative estimate places the 

 number of total abstainers in this valley as the resaU' 



* I hope every friend of temperance and righteous- 

 ness, if he doesn't subscribe for the Sunday School 

 Timex. will at least send for the issues of Jan. 24 

 and .Tl, the latter being the temperance number. 



of the Sunday campaign at not less than 10,000 

 men, saying nothing about the women. 



Some people say that the Sunday campaign was a 

 failure. Who say this? Brewers and saloon-keepers. 

 Can we refute their statements? The report of the 

 internjil-revenue collector for this district is of value. 

 He reports for the tirst si.x months of this calendar 

 year 17,000 gallons less of whisky consumed than 

 in the preceding six months; 25,000 barrels of beer 

 loss tliau for the same period last year, and a corre- 

 spondinij; decrease in tobacco. 



If the 10,000 booze-quitting men spent an average 

 of $2.00 per man each week for fifty weeks in the 

 year for intoxicants (we have numerous personal 

 testimonies of booze-bills that range from $20 to 

 $150 per month), then for an investment of $48,000 

 we have diverted $1,000,000 per year from the hotel 

 and saloons into honorable and legitimate business 

 channels, and into the churches. You say these 

 figures are too high. They are not too high. Well, 

 cut the ainouut in two; was it worth $48,000 to di- 

 vert $500,000 into legitimate business channels and 

 into the churches? 



The other day the writer asked an executive audi- 

 tor of one of our largest corporations what eflfect 

 the Sunday campaign had on their employees. 



" Our employees have been transformed," he re- 

 plied. " It was the greatest institute for efficiency 

 that we have ever known. In efficiency the company 

 has gained in one month several times the cost of the 

 tabernacle, and in actual cash from loss of time, 

 leave of absence (intoxication), sickness (dissipa- 

 tion), in any one month an amount equal to the 

 entire cost of the tabernacle." 



If you are reading the gi-eat city dailies 

 you are probably aware that intemperance, 

 crime, destitution, and suffering are increas- 

 ing at an alarming rate. In the city of 

 Cleveland, Ohio, they are calling for more 

 policemen (because " hold-ups " are getting 

 so common even in daylight, etc.), and the 

 city replies there isn't any more money to 

 pay for additional police. With wars and 

 increasing intemperance what is the whole 

 wide world going to do? 



This is not only what they are going to 

 do, but are doing. They are going to wake 

 up, and listen to God's appointed prophets, 

 and repent, and reform. 



Now then! Will these friends (these few 

 friends) who ridicule my faith in prayer, 

 make sport of the Bible, call "deacons" and 

 "preachers" hypocrites, etc.? Will these 

 friends give us an account of what infidelity 

 has done since the world began, in the way 

 of reform? Are they not in about the same 

 predicament as the friend I have mentioned 

 (who was going to convince me by argu- 

 ment that there was no such thing as a 

 queen in a beehive), when I opened a mov- 

 able-comb hive and showed the queen de- 

 positing her eggs? 



Our blessed Bible tells us of the time 

 when the dear Savior spoke to the boister- 

 ous winds and waves; and at his word, 

 •'Peace! be still," "there was a gieat calm." 



