Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-08-07

and decent citizen with such clan! "Be moi
among wine-bibbers" is divine command
How comes it that the objector is among
them? Your sentiments and action some
how place you there. Account for the fact
if you can, why you and they should so pc.
culiarly coalesce in sentiment and conduct
on this particular subject, and agree most
probably on not single other moral ques.
tion within the whole range of ethical phi,
losophy. Mistrust the principle and reason.
ing, which leads you to such aid, counsel,
and fellowship. Can you doubt in other ca,
ses, when you behold God and Mammon
cheek by jowl? "What fellowship hath
righteousness with unrighteousness? What
concord hath Christ with Belief ?" Are you
not persuaded, 'ye cannot drink the cup Of
the Lord, and the cup of devils" The cnr
Of opposition is, by nature, by principle, by
taste, and by interest, peculiarly thei.s.-
Whether from your position you ere to be
regarded as drinking the dregs of that cup
with them, is for you to decide
In the language of Israe's great lawgiver,
we say "Come thou with us, and we will do
thee good: for the Lord has spoken good
concerning" us as well as "Israel." We
have good spoken by God himself of total
abstinence society, established 900 years be.
fore the birth of Christ. Although dwellers
in Israel, its members were not Of Israel
yet they were preferred before the house Of
Israel itself Jehovah employs their obedient
conduct, (obe"1iencc to temperance or rather
to totai aJstinence,) to convict his chosen
people of ingratitude and rebellion. The
Rechabites had existed for three hundred
years when these words were spoken :-"And
I set before the sons of the house of thc
Recbabites pots full of wine, and cups and
I said unto them, Drink ye wine.
But they said, We will drink no wine: for
Jouadab the son Of Rechab: our father, com
manded US, saying, Yc shall drink no wine,
neither ye nor your sons forever *
And Jeremiah said unto the house of the
Rechabites, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, The
God of Israel, Because ye have obeyed the
commandment Of Jonadab your father, and
kept all his precepts, and done according
unto all that he hath commanded you;
Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, Jonadab the son of Re-
chab shall not want man to stand before me
forever"
Scott, the commentator, remarks "Tt was
doubtless we'll known that they (the Rechab-
ites) had rules Of conduct peculiar to them,
selves !; 3 ) they were never incorporated
with the Jews ]' * q they were worshipers
of the true God, though they were not cir,
cumcised i ): and it was proper that God
should avow his readiness to reward every
degree of good, when he determined to pun.
ish his apostate people. Accordingly he
promised, that the family of the Rechabtes
should be very durably continued, and up.
held in the practice of picty and righteous,
ness before him, as his accepted worshipers'
even when the Jews were cast out of his sight
The obiector will have to erase from the vol
umc of the Word the 35th chapter of Jere
miah, before he can deny that total abstinence
has peculiarly the approving sanction of the
Lord of the earth. Will you come, and &C
with us?
The notion, that man is relieved from
this duty which we urge, because he is 4
member # Christ's visible church, we regard
falacons and unsouud, and unsustaned by
any christian precept or deduction of fail
reason. The benevolent institutions of the
country, sustained by the Church itself, arc
a standing rcfutation of the position. 1t is
the philosophy Of monks, and Of an age en-
veloped in cimnlerian darkness. 1t vanish
es in the blaze of gospel light. Noman can
relieve himself from the obligations Of So
ciety. The. .christian dare not do it. Glove
thy ncighbor as thyself' ''to do good
and to communicate, forget not" are as i'm
perative and binding, as Glove thy God."-
To obey one command does not justify dis
regard of any other equally explicit. In
christianity there is no place for the practice
Of decent selishness. Every man is in u
measure his ''brother's keeper" Absolute
inability and want alone would prevent you
from aiding Bible society Your name,
your money, your counsel, your influence,
your example, all the means with which you
are entrusted by your Creator would be given
in hearty cooperation. Why not aid by like
means to suppress the particular evil and
blighting sin of intempeHncc ? "There is
indeed, says Smith, in his Theory of Moral
Sentiments, no surer mark of a false and hol,
low heart, than disposition thus to quibbc
away the clear injunctions of duty and con.
science" We accuse no one specially OF
such conducive feel free however to de.
clare the truth as we find it, and would ell
dcavor to excite reflection. He,. who admits
his obligations to his fellow-man, and would
restrict the exercise of benevolence to the
domain Of the Church, is forced to approve
and sanction the desecration of the pulpit
and ministerial functions how every where
prevalent in the Eastern States of this Union.
This is the inevitable result of the principle.
1t leads the minister and church to the po-
litical hustings. 1t transforms them into
stump orators.
Civil government should ever be made to
conform to the dictates of Christianity To
this every christian assents. When govern
ment transgrcsses, or falls short of this re-
quirement, political action is necessary to