Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1891 — FOSTER IS DEFIANT. [ARTICLE]

FOSTER IS DEFIANT.

AMAZEMENT AT A MINISTEREDITOR’S COURSE. He Prints Brewery Advertisements In Hli Paper and Freezlly DefVnds His Action— A Remarkable Article Which Wi 1 Be Read b.- Strait-Laced Christians with Ko Little Astonishment. Tho Rev. E. P. Foster has for several years been a prominent CongregationAlist minister in Cincinnati. Several months ago because of advanced ideas on labor questions' he resigned his pastorate,,.but not the ministry, and began the publication of a weekly paper. Two weeks ago he published a brewery adverti-ement. A great sensation was caused. This week lie printed two columns of such advertisements, and says among other things, in defending his conduct: “I advertise the breweries because I conscientiously think it is the right thing to do—a strict duty under the present circumstances. This paper is not a church paper, as some seem to have inferred from its title, nor is it advocating Sunday-school measures of reform. There are evils, many and great, in the liquor traffic, but when that is thrust forward as the chief of the devouriug monsters in modern society, then that assertion itself becomes a tremendous stumbling-blo k in the way of reform. The liquor business does not injure those who let it alone. The church has lost the resoect of the masses because it is built upon and is the advocate of the system that continually robs and defrauds the people. It is in tho pay of the oppressor of the masses, and tries to hush the people into submission by telling them of the dispensation of an overruling Providence, and that their wrongs will be righted in the world to come. The church pretends to be loyal to Christ, yet defiantly tramples upon His commands. “The dailies of Cincinnati all advertise breweries and business men of the highest church standing a lvertiso alongside the liquor advertisements, even in the the Sunday editions. Church members buy these papers and vote for the candidates supported by them. There is not a preacher in town that refuses to have his sermons reported by them, or who, when honored in this way, is ashamed to purchase such papers—saloon advertisements and all—and send them abroad to his friends. In the Cincinnati church of which I was pastor, when the deacons and their wives had neglected to prepare wine for the communion service, they sent the janitor out Sunday morning before church time to a saloon to buy a bott e of wine for tho sacramental service. “if a company of young men go to a saloon Sunday morning and drink a bottle of wine the shocked church calls that a frightful sin. But if the young men had joined the church, and instead of drinking in the saloon had waited until the deacon had sent the janitor out, without regard to the Sunday laws on the subject, and he had bought at the saloon that same bottle of wine and brought it to the church, ana tho young men had drank that same wine around the church altar, the act would then have been a religious rite, the holiest of sacraments.” The articles causes a profound sensation among the religious population of the city.