1042 



CLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



A. I. 



OUM MOME 



Editor 



THE WAR^ AND ITS EFFECTS ON INTEMPER- 

 ANCE, 



The sei'mon below was preached by Rev. 

 H. S. Fiitsch, for his eongi-egation here in 

 Medina, on Sunday evening, Oct. 10. Of 

 course I was present, and, on account of 

 my deafness, I sat close to the speaker. 

 You may be sure I gave two or three 

 hearty araens. As j^ou go along you can 

 imagine, each of you individually, where 

 mj' araens occurred. 



May God help us to learn speedily the 

 lesson he is striving to teach us, and that 

 peace and good will may take the place of 

 death and devastation. 



SOME LESSONS THAT THE EUUOPEAN WAR IS TEACH- 

 ING THK WORLD. 



Surely tlie wiaih of man shall praise thee. — 

 Psalm 72:10. 



The most significant event of modern times is the 

 war now being waged in Europe. It is the duty of 

 the Christian pulpit to interpret the movements and 

 happenings of the daj' in their relation to the Chris- 

 tian religion. 



In our boyhood days, when we were guilty of 

 some particular piece of folly our elders used to 

 philosophize for us and say, " Let it be a lesson to 

 you! " If we climbed up on the woodshed in order 

 from that lofty height to survey the wide (-xpanse 

 of the world, and lost our equilibrium, and rolled 

 gracefully and disgracefully down the shed's sloping 

 roof, landing upon the woodpile below with various 

 and sundry bumps and bruises, our elders would 

 say, "Now let this be a lesson to you! " If we 

 banqueted in the shade of the old apple-tree, follow- 

 ing the example of our illustrious first forefather who 

 tasted the forbidden fruit, and then came into the 

 presL-nce of our elders contorted out of all semblance 

 of boyish shape, impluring for a copious draught of 

 Dr. Perry Davis' Pain Killer, we were told, " Now 

 let this be a lesson to you I " If within our breast 

 we felt surging and seething an impulse to devote 

 ourselves to the great cause of humanity, and, fol- 

 lowing our Napoleonic and Alexandrian impulses 

 for conquest we sallied and sailed forth to reduce 

 the barbarians to civilization, and returned to our 

 parental home with blackened eye and gory nose, 

 we were told, " Now let this be a lesson to ycul " 



Nations, like boys, learn by experience. Nations, 

 like boys, too, perpetrate their follies. The perpetra- 

 tdon of a folly is not so reprehensible; it is the per- 

 petuation of a folly that is criminal and suicidal. 

 Nations, like boys, decline and degenerate when they 

 do not permit their follies to teach them salubrious 

 lessons. Nations, like boys, progress and advance 

 when they do permit their follies to become lessons. 



To every unprejudiced mind the European War 

 appep.rs a colossal and consummate piece of folly. 

 Never before in (he history of the world have the 

 nations raged and the kings of the earth set them- 

 Belves in battle array without knowing what they 

 were raging over or wliy they are setting themselves 

 in array! Were it not so tragic, one might say, as 

 the Yiddishers do. "It is to laugh!" "He that 

 sitteth in the hea\'ens shall laugh!" A colossal, a 

 consummate human folly is this modern war! The 

 nations climbed the woodshed of arrogant material- 

 ism, and have tumbled disgracefully down! They 

 gorged themselves with the forbidden fruit of land 

 and sea grabbing, and have become contorted by 



painful convulsions! They adopted political pro- 

 grams of militarisms and navalism, and have be- 

 come bruised and broken and battered and beaten 

 at their own game! Folly of follies! And over 

 against the war-racked aud war-wrecked nations 

 stands parental Christian Civilization and says, 

 " Now let this be a lesson to you! " 



V/hat the ultimate and supreme lesson of this war 

 will be, we have no way of knowing until it has 

 been fought out to the bilter end. But tihere are 

 already several lessons which stand out, and it is 

 these of which I wish to speak tonight. 



I. I think that, above everything, the present war 

 is teaching the world the lesson of the folly of if 

 t''nip('>'ance. Today in practically all of the great 

 belligerent countries is a literal fulfilment of the 

 prophecy of .Joel, chapter 1, verses 5 and C : 



Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and wail, all ye 

 drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it 

 _is cut off from your mouth. For a nation is come 

 up upon my land, strong, and without number; his 

 teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the jaw- 

 teeth of a lioness. 



" Not Germany," recently said a great English 

 statesman, " not Germany, but alcohol, is England's 

 greatest enemy." Russia put the ban on vodka. 

 The kai.ser of German} took his stand against lager 

 beer, and all of the other belligerent nations to a 

 greater or lesser degree are following the footsteps 

 of these three illustrious examples. 



It has been brought home to the world with a 

 terrific and tremendous emphasis that intemperance 

 is a threefold liability to a nation at war. 



1. Intemperance is a physical liability. 



The time was when athletes believed that alcohol 

 constituted a physical asset. The prize-fighter took a 

 number of drinks before he entered the ring, because 

 he believed that the stimulant would increase his 

 chances for success. The baseball player believed 

 that whisky was a faithful ally in the winning of 

 the game. In races, whether by foot or boat or 

 bicycle, it was believed that a couple of drinks 

 increased the chances for success. But the athletic 

 world has learned its folly, and alcohol is taboo. 



So, also, it used to be thought that alcohol was " 

 an asset in war. Perhaps this was true to some 

 extent in the old regime. It may have been in the 

 day when men fought shoulder to shoulder with 

 sword or bayonet, that whisky created a certain 

 frenzy of abandonment which may have had its 

 value. But today warfare is largely conducted by 

 machinery, and requires skill and precision. The 

 man who operates the modern engines of war needs 

 clearness of mind and accuracy of eye and steadiness 

 of muscle; and it has been discovered that alcoluil 

 is tremendously treacherous in these respects. 



The talk of our nation today is military prepared- 

 ness. I shall have something to say concerning this 

 a little later, but just here beg to say that I fear 

 our statesmen are beginning wrong end to. The 

 very best move that our nation could make in the 

 way of national preparedness would be to close up 

 e\ery saloon in the country! 



2. Alcohol has proven to be a financial liabilltij 

 in war. 



War costs money. It is a drain upon the property 

 and prosperity of the people. Intemperance produces 

 poverty. An impoverished nation finds it hard to 

 secure credit. " The nation that is drunken shall 

 come to poverty,"' and a poverty-stricken nation 

 stands no show in warfare. 



3. Intemperance is an economic liability in war. 

 Let me illustrate what I mean by citing Germany 



and England as examples. Both of these nations 

 liave far more people upon their soil than the prod- 



