The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1858-09-02

WIN winch Tie ReCIdDlLcS OF lnaC early
day carried out the principle Of total alb
stinence from all intoxicating drinks, are
we not admonished to preserve similar
frmness amidst every species of tempta-
ton, and all allurements, however they
may be surrounded by the Establishments
of power, or cloth1d with sacerdotal ap-
proval. So shall we initiate the benefi
cent father Rechab. With sagacity that
was truly wonderful, he penetrated the
evils produced by alcoholic stimuli, and
by an emphatic injunction, formed his
descendants into an eternal temperance
society. This wise measure was then
without precedent throughout the entire
circuit Of the globe. Wine was regard
ed as a friend and blessing to men in
stead OF a ruthless scourge and a deadly
enemy.
But the illustrious Rechab, during an
age of physiological and medical dark
ness, surpassed all his contemporaries in
an adequate perception of the deplorable
consequences resulting from spirtuous
drinks. He formed the first total absti-
nence society ever instituted in the world.
AS the high mountain top catches the
rays of the rising sun long before the H.
Elimination reaches the valley below, so
this primeval apostle of temperance was
centuries and centuries ahead of his
compeers and successors. To him is due
the great honor of being the first to dis
eountenance the use OF alcoholic liquors,
both by precept and example. In COM
parlson to this effort of intellect and be-
nevolence, how do the tented fields of the
warrior, the plots of the statesman, and
the blazonry of arstocracy, sink into in
significance, dwindle, fade and die. The
mighty conqueror, subduing kingdoms,
and overturning empires, looses his glare
of lurid brightness when placed beside
the quiet, humble originator of total alb
stinence. The one desolated the earth !;
the other conferred on it the greatest of
sublunary blessings. Rechab planted a
tiny seed, which, though at first neglect
ed. and almost absolutely unnoticed,
sleeping for a succession of ages, was
destined at length to spring up, to be-
come great and mighty, and as we hope,
one day to encircle the earth Dark and
gloomy AS has frequently been the pros
poets of this philanthropic and benehcent
cause, there has never, from the era of
Rechab to this hour, been moment
when it had not some follower. Gradu-
ally it has been asserting aud obtaining
Its proper dominion, and now the small
twinkling of light, formerly faint and
dim, like the rays from far distant neb-
ula, scarcely discernable by the power
of the strongest telescope, has increased
in effulgeuce and brightness till it shines
aloft in the tirmament central sun i'm
heat, in light, in radiance When Por-
tia says of the light seen at a distance in
her own ancestral hall
How far that little candle throws his beam
So shines good deed in naughty world"
she describes the enduring and perma-
nent influence which ever attends noble
and virtuous act. 1t may not, at first,
seem to be needed it may, on the other
hand. seem to be crushed and extinguish-
ed /; but courage i'm time the fruit will
appear, and the effort will be shown not
to have been lost. So has it been with
the cause of temperance. Sharing the
adyersities of the Jews, as existing
among the Rechabites, down trodden,
unnoticed. disregarded and condemned,
1t has never been obliterated, and the
name of its illustrious founder has al
ways stood as the guiding star to the low
ers of temperance. In the most profit
gate and debauched reign which ever
disgraced Great Britain-in the DAYS of
the res tored and infamous Charles the
Second, we find from Dryden's AJsa-
Tom and 4AchitopAel, recognition of tenn
perance and Rechabism being synony-
nous. When describing a character,
Dryden says
:" Ii any leisure time he had from power,
Because tbs sin to msemploy an hour,)
His business was, by writing to persuade
That Kings acre useless, and clog to trade:
And that his noble style he might refine.
No REoHABIrE more shun' d the fumes of wine:
Chaste Were his cellars, and his shrieval board
The grossness of city feast abhorred."
From this it would seem that in those
days, as ought always to be the case,
and republcanism went hand
in hand. Temperance, cramped and re-
stricted as it was, did not perish in the
Old World, and when the three rickety,
unsafe caravels of the great Genoese nav
igator, carried European science and
civilization to the New World. he opened
the way also for the inroads of new dis
eases, new vices, and above all for the
accursed fire-water destined to be SO de-
structive to the aborigines Of America.
He also, however, opened route to the
home of civil and religious liberty, where
was to flourish the enemy of bloated and
degraded intemperance. Here in this
Western World Temperance at length es-
tablished her dwelling, till at length, in
the United States, her disciples may be
by hundreds of thousands
1t is to be hoped that the grain of mus
tard seed will SO grow and extend its
branches as to become the giant Of the
forest, and afford shelter and protection
to the whole nation.
Our age is distinguished by its numer-
GUS benevolent and philanthropic socie-
ties, but among them all there is not one
of more vital Importance than that which
relates to the banishment of alcoholic