Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1863-01-07

sue these things, as you have seen the
devil practice them, the god Of the rum
agent. the god of ale demons will be
with you
The author of salvation says emphat
ically, IF you forgive not men their
trespasses against you, neither will your
heavenly father forgive your trespasses
against him." Yet some who profess to
ba good men can spend their time in
plotting against the human race. and in
legal way to destroy and murder their
fellow beings who never trespassed
against them.
Now every human being who sustains
legal wrong is the author of every re-
suit that may follow, on the well founded
principle that a man is responsible for all
the results of his acts. Every man and
woman who aided. encouraged, adv oca-
ted, and lent, or who now aids, encoura-
ges, advocates, or lends countenance to
legal wrong of srch magnitude, shares
in the responsibility of every crime that
has sprung from that legal wrong, or may
spring from it. If our State did not au
thorize cities and towns to sell indulgen-
cies, there would not be any legal drunk
ards, murder and misery. that are daily
blackening our history. The laws of The
State should not authorize that which
produces drunkenness, murder, theft, or
any wrong to any being within her
bounds, and those who inaugurate them
are alone responsible. To these crimes
the chnrch has contributed with large,
willing, liberal and cheerful hands. Our
laws should be resposing in the might of
its mission of benificence to man, en-
couraging peace and good will among its
people, neither threatening nor doing
wrong to any one. Now hold it to be
a truth which no man can challenge,
that the supporters of the legal traffic in
rum, and the misery it causes, cannot
consistently reproach Judas. He was
once respectable; he kept good company;
he must have had n respectable charac-
ter when he was selected as one of tho
twelve; he behaved himself irrcproacha
bly, for three years; and he was entrusted
with the treasurership of as sacred a
trust as any man ever had committed to
his keeping. No word of complaint
was ever uttered against bis financial fl
deity; and that is more than can be
said of those who profess to be the salt
of the earth, and at the same timc be-
tray innocent women and children into
the hellsh jaws of their own agent. for
n price But these are chosen exemp'ars
of the legal traffic in poison. Mary of
Magdnleua, Joanna the wife of the stow
ard of Herod, Susanna, and other wo-
men, whose names will live and shine
with purity of light even after the burn
ing heavens are dissolved and the fam
ing clement, are melted away, were the
purveyors of the greatest cause even
given to mortals, aud they did not hest
tato to place in the bag of Judas that
portion of their substance with which
thew ministered to their Savior. This
trustwo thy treasurer listened to the voice
of the PRIEST and scribes, who wished
simply to purchase of Judas the knowl-
edge of the absence of the multitude
from attendance upon Jesus. He could
not have felt any apprehension from this
sale, for he hnd seen his master ganish
out of the sight of his enemies, and es-
cape from their hands repeatedly. He
reasonably felt that he was selling the
priests and scribes, because he had no
reason to fear any i'll to his master. No
power of augmentation, no force of
logic. no use of reason could have led
him to suspect that he was to bring by
his act unreasonable woes upon the hui
man race. Unless he rose above the in
telligsnce of his colleagues in the apostle
ship at that time, he must have thought,
as the worst consequence of his deed, if
he dreamed of any peril to his master,
that be was selling one man, and the
death of that being was promised to be
the source of inuumerable blessings and
of eternal JOY to man. Yet for this deed
the seal of condemnation and reproba-
ton of nearly nineteen centuries has
been placed upon Judas.
What mitigating circumstances can be
urged By those who favor a system of
appointing agents to sell that which bar
ters away health and plenty for crime
and misery, and causes more deaths an
nually than this wicked rebellion with all
its destructive implements of wars Can
their case, with the light that is before
them, be compared with those that be-
long to the case of Judas What kind
Of piety does a good man exhibit who
tavors the legal wholesale destruction of
his fellow men, and at the same time re-
Dukes Judas? Coon TEMpLAR.
Prescott. Jan. 6, 1862.
-(1anarai Putlsr has iseuod prnoIa