Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-02-05

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ment of their religion. 1t forbids those
whose minds God has been pleased to enlight-
en-, from retiring into cloisters, deserts, or
any secret recesses, or from bringing them
selves in obscurity, ahd enjoins on all to Gil
up their stations in families, in societies, and
in the Church, so as to "glorify God in the
sight of men," And as Christians are, in
this sense-which we take to be the true
spirit of the text-on the authority of no less
parsonage than the Rev. DR. Scott; We say
as Christians are in this sense the light of
the religious world, in the same sense the
Sons of Temperance may be termed the
light of the moral world. Our light shines
transcendently clear before men, Our Con.
stitution; BY. Law principles, doctrines,
motives; actions, wordsand works, are known,
and read of men, and are open to the scruti-
ny of gainsaying world We are, perhaps,
more Jealous in the cause we advocate and
more ready to explain its objects and fea-
lures, than any others; still we are stigmati-
zed with lighting our candle and putting itun-
der bushel. If men were as strict to OBJ
serve all the doctrines and teachings of the
Bible as they seem to be in observing this,
we would then have much better world.
The Bible says Love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, strength and mind, and thy
neighbor as thyself'-don't, covet, don't lie,
don't swear, and don't drink liquor; yet
men have no scruples in doing many Of these
things. -.-.
We believe that all the secrecy that at
taches to the Order is justifable, from the
fact that its design is for good and not evil.
The only thing that can render secrecy per-
nicious is that it is employed for pernicious
purposes. We believe, also, that there is
propriety in it, since it renders the associa-
tion more attractive by throwing charm of
enticing suspence around it-securing it
from the ridicule and imposition of the world,
and thereby rendering it more permanent.
Why was it that the Washingtonian and
other Temperance Societies were so short in
their duration, and why was their influence
not extended so widely and felt so sensibly
as that of the Sons of Temperance? 1t was
no doubt, in great measure, from the want
of system, beauty, and attractiveness in their
mode of operation. The "modus operandi"
of the Sons Of Temperance is a perfect syme-
try, beautifully harmonizing in all its parts,
and we venture the assertion that it has done
more good than all the Temperance Socie-
ties that ever existed. It has gone forth
since the year 1912, the year which gave it
birth, into almost every nook and corner of
a whole hemisphere, and has excited an in
.erest on the subject of Temperance in Eu-
rope, and especially in England, that was
never felt there before. The English Parlia-
ment has once and again within the last
few years, profered the hospitalites and ur-
ged them on the acceptance of some of our
distinguished lecturers, to go there and lee
ture throughout the kingdom on this mo-
mentous subject. None can be ignorant of
the fact, that, in our own land and country,
it has exerted wonderfully beneficial effect:
politically, socially, morally, and religiously.
Observation and experience fasten the con-
viction upon all, that various pernicious hab-
its have gone into disuse, and that whole
some customs have been established in their
stead, since the foundation of this Society.
Why then oppose it any longer? Every
one, even the degraded debauchee, who is
welded to this false jade, Alcohol, readily
admits that iutemperance is.one Of the great
est evils that exist in the land. Among all
the avenues of vice, none, perhaps, opens so
wide path as intemperance. Kings and
Emperors of every age, have drank the wine
of debauch, and as subtle conspirator with
the devil, it acts on every rank of man, from
the most degraded to the most exalted, and
ever exerts demoralzing influence. This
influence, too, is felt not only by the individ-
ual upon whom it Immediately acts, but also
by those who are drawn by its example. 1t
is slowly corrupting, arraying vice in its
most dazzling colors, and Turing step by step,
into the dark mazes Of that dismal night, in
which the soul finally loses the sense of its
own high destiny. AS the love of money is
the root of all evil, SO the love Of alcohol is
the root of every vice.
But while the one confers many advanta-
ges, the other is attended with none. While
the love of money is often followed by bless
ings, the love of alcohol is ever whitening
curse. Where money circulates freely, tits
sign Of prosperity, life and business; but
where alcohol circulates freely, it is sign of
adversely, death, and stagnation of the gen
eral pulse. While the one procures the tenn
poral blessings of temporal home, the
other purchases the curses of heaven and an
eternal inheritance for ruined soul And
can the good and wise behold it every where,
the right hand tool ofvice, carving its lines of
moral death upon the soul as legibly as the
chisel traces its epitaph upon the tomb; an
elixer, that fires every nerve and vain of the
human frame into open rebellion against the
warnings of the spirit, can they see all
this and yet remain its advocates, or even
lukewarm opponents, or yet fail to raise the
hand and voice against the deadly peril ? If
the vrulent matter of merely bodily disease
and corruption could be bottled up and dis
tributed among numerous depots throughout
every city, town and village in the country,
and there uncorked to send forth its poison
Gus effluvia to infect the pure air of heaven,
or in some pleasing mixture be sold as