When Mr. World and Miss Church-Member walked about the college grounds, and saw more closely the magnitude and beauty of the edifices, they were so overawed that their tongues offered no comment.
They mingled a while with the merry multitude, and then at one corner of the group entered the gigantic building devoted to the subject of Temperance and the Bible. They hoped thereby to get the consensus of opinion on one of the complex questions of the day.
At the bureau of information the two companions were directed to the Public Hall of Debate, which was reached by the aid of one of the numerous electric elevators. The Great Hall had an auditorium of one hundred feet in height and a seating capacity fully capable of accommodating the visiting multitudes. The acoustics were so perfect that one, at the farther end of the room, could easily hear the speaker on the stage. When Mr. World and his friend had entered the hall they were surprised to learn that many of the auditors were members of the more radical churches along the King’s Highway.
The corps of high titled professors who occupied the stage spoke at intervals, or answered questions which were propounded by persons in the audience.
Over the stage I saw in illuminated letters: TEMPERANCE AND THE BIBLE.
An aged man was speaking when the two comrades took seats near the center of the room.
“We are not here,” explained the venerable man, “to prove that the Bible is either false or true. We leave that question for other schools to decide. It is our province to show what the Bible teaches on this important theme. Temperance is a word so misused and so abused that it becomes people of sound judgment to go to the rock bottom of the question as viewed in the light of Scripture.”
Then, adjusting his green spectacles, the speaker opened the Bible and offered to explain, or to have explained, any part of it that bore on the subject of “Temperance from a Bible Standpoint.”
A breathless silence followed until a moderate-drinking church-member arose with Bible in hand. “Did Christians, during the life of Christ, drink wine?” he asked, in a self-righteous manner.
The speaker called upon Mr. Wine Expert who quickly stepped forward from his chair on the stage.