The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1865-05-26

and the more powerful the effects expert.
enced. Let the gospel be preached in any
community only once in three, six OF
twelve months, and it could by no posi-
bility Especial Divine agency left out Of
account do much for the Christianizine
Of the community. 1t is where the Cos
pei is preached steadily, Sabbath after
Sabbath, that its benign influences are
powerfully felt, and it is there alone Let
the subject of temperance be agitated once
In SIX months or year, and completely
ignored all the rest of the year, and not a
solitary drunkard will be convinced of his
folly and wickedness, hardly will one man
be prevented from that moderate use of
stlmulants which is the beginning Of the
drunkard's downward course. 1t is when
the duty OF temperance and the dangers
OF intemperance are kept continually be-
fore the public mind, that the deadly evil
Is held in check, and the cardinal virtue
promoted
Now it is serious defect in all societies
OF the old fashion, that their meetings are
too infreguent. | doubt if there are half
dozen temperance societies in the state
of Vermont that meet as often as once a
quarter Nine-tenths of them meet only
once a year, Gf they meet at all,) elect
officers, listen to an elaborate address. and
disperse, glad that they have done their
duty, and got the job off their hands for
another year: They might meet oftener
if they would. There is nothing to pre-
vent, neither is there anything in their
constitution to require. But the Good
Templars meet weekly. 1t is one of the
regulations of the order, and it is not neg
lected except under extraordinary circum-
stances. Temperance is talked, and sung,
and read the weak are strengthened. the
apathctic are reused, the doubtful are con-
tirmcd; and before the various good i'm
pressions that are made have time to be-
come obiterated, another meeting occurs,
at which they are deepened and rendered
more permanent. Temperance, instead of
being the subject of thought annually or
semi-annually, lis constantly before the
mind and has an abiding effect upon it,
a weekly meeting of Good Templars
can be maintained 1t is very doubtful
whether weekly meeting of a temper
ance society could be kept up year after
year. There is an indetinable charm
about Good Templars' meeting. which
draws to it, not for few times, but con-
tinually, the young and the impressible.
who have chief need to be guarded against
temptation and strengthened in good prin-
ciples. have known young men go
thrce or four miles. on cold winters eve
ming, to attend such a meeting, who, be-
fore they joined the Good Templars could
not have been persuaded to 90 single
mile to attend an ordinary temperance
meeting. An interest attaches to the ex
ercises and the ceremonies, and makes
them perpetual attraction.
,. The pledge of the Good Templars is
stricter and more comprehensive than that
of any other organization.
They are the tee-totallist of all tee-to-
tallers. They lay the axe of total absti-
nence at the very root of the tree OF self
indulgence. Not content with abjuring
distilled spirits, strong beer, hard cider,
and all the wines of commerce, they do
not tolerate domestic wines, or even cider
fresh from the press Not only all that
can intoxicate, but all that prepares the
way for intoXication, is forbidden by the
pledge They 60 to the extreme of self
denial, not in any Pharisaieal or ascctic
spirit, but in just the spirit Of Paul, when
he said, " If meat make my brother to
offend, will eat no flesh while the world
standeth." 1t would be rather difficult to
prove that cider fresh from the press is
Intoxicating, at least in any quantity
which an ordinary stomach will contain:
but it is not difficult to prove that he who
never drinks new cider will never, either
through inclination or mistake, drink hard
cider, nor be led on from that to strong
beer, nor from strong beer to whiskey, and
so on, to the rot-got which puts the finish
ing stroke to the drunkard's career Nor
will he who abstains from these mild and
comparatively innocent beverages lay HIM
self liable to the charge of Inconsistency
as temperance man, nor set an example
by which any one can justify in the use OF
| Il -,
pledge may justly claim to be the ne plus
ultra Of temperance pledges, and they who
abide by it to be temperance men par er-
cellence.
3. 1t keeps stricter watch over the
members, and exercises more rigid dis
cipline than any other temperance organ
izatiOn.
1t was a fatal defect in the old temper
ance organizations that they maintained
no,disciplines. How could they, when their
meetings were so few and far between
a member might violate his pledge score
, of times before there was an opportunity
to call him to account If he belongs tC
that contemplate class of temperance
men, whom Dr. Jewett characterizes as
/ "pigs at home and puppies abroad" who
leave their temperance principles behind
e them whenever they start on a journey, OF
60 to the city; he might be constant
: wine-drinker, and never, except by chance
: be detected. But the Good Tcmplars
S regimen etfectually guards against such Sc
e cret violations OF the pledge, and prevent:
: known violations from becoming frequen
. before thpv are corrected