Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1868-01-07
Communicated,
The Good Templars of Grant County.

He has cause to be proud OF the com,
pliment yon pay him. His audience
was not large because he is better
known as literary man than as an
advocate of temperance, and you
know that many of his hearers are
among the best thinkers in the neigh
borhood. What they lacked in num-
bers they more than made up in app
preciative intelligence. The meeting
was for the benefit moral, not pecu>
niary,) of the Good Templars, and
there are individuals in all communi.
ties who would sacrifice an expected
literary effort. in order to with
hold support or countenance from
an association they do not like he.
sides there was a fee demanded at The
door, an unusual bar TO temperance
meeting, and the night was the storm.
lest of the season.
You suggest that it would be an ad-
vantage TO place the liquor traffic in
the hands of good men, and in places
OF respectable resort. Isnotin tempe
rance vice? Is it not the prolific
parent of vice? Is not the use of in.
toxicating drinks in health useless, ex-
pensive and dangerous? Do not the
drinking habits fill our poor hous-
es and prisons with victims? Is there
man in any community in our coun>
try who has not suffered, if no. in his
own person, in tho persons of friends
and acquaintance in consequence of
the drinking usages ? Do not these
usages load us with taxation, call us
fl nm our homes to sit as jurors in ca
ses of assault, Of arson, Of robbery, of
murder Do they not transform
wives into widows, children into or
phans, Taxpayers into paupers, good
citizens into criminals ? Do they not
make the hearse black shuttle which
vibrates between the family circle
and the graveyard, weaving the warp
of blasted hopes with the wool of de-
spair? Now sir, you have the repu-
tation Of being man ofgenerous im>
pulses; can you in view of these facts
commend the transfer of the rum traf.
tic to our most virtuous and trust
worthy citizens? DO you wish to
make such u dreadful trade hon ora
Bile? Will you bait the trap of the
devil with deacons and elders in the
easements ofour churches F.? Would it
soften the crime of arson, or theft or
slaughter, if committed with gloved
hand by man whose note was never
protested and whose pew was never
vacant on the Sabbath ? No you will
say with emphasis. If a bad thing
will be done, let it be done by bad
men, so that it may be repulsive as
possible. Take from it the sanction
of decency. Do not encircle it. with
honor. Do not attempt to hide it's
cloven hoof under the cloak of re-
spectability.
Permit me to trespass on your indul-
gence little further, and notice your
scripture argument. / like your
idea of the happy merriment at the
marriage in Canaan, but | cannot
agree with your inference that the
merriment depended upon the st'mu>
lation ofintozicating wine. The " inc
was made of water, and was used be-
fore time had been allowed for vi
nous fermentation. The miracle was
performed at the time of the passov-
err; it was law among the Jews that
they should not drink fermented
wine at the time of the Passover
Our Savior came not to break, but to
fulfill the law. Had He supplied them
with intoxicating wine it would have
been violation of the law He came
to keep and not to break. You say
"Jesus loved these gay and ANNA
ted spectacles, and drew from he like
some of His parallels. The self right
eous, (Pharisees we believe they were
called, we have some in our day.
condemned the conduct of Jesus as
scandalous; one day when the disci.
pies of John and some of the Phari>
sees were keeping fast, the Savior
drew nigh, when some Pharisee asked,
why do thy disciples eat and drink,
while ours fast and pray p Jesus
said, Suffer them: can we make the
groomsman fast while the bridegroom
is with them 2 Again, it is said,
John came neither eating nor drink,
ing, and ye say he hath devil. The
son Of man is come eating and drinks
ing, and ye say, behold a gluttonous
man and wine bibber, friend of
publicans and sinners ;"
These slanderers said John had a
devil, but he had not. They said Je>
sus was glutton and a wine bibber,
but he was not. There is no more ev-
idence that Jesus drank intoxicating
wine than there is that he ate glutto>
nously, or that John was possessed of
a devil. He undoubtedly performed
a miracle to exclude Intoxicating
wine from the feast. He would not
preside at a drunken festival. He
would not through the lips of his
prophets pronounce u woe against
the bottle, and then press the bottle
to the lips of his friends at wedding
feast. You cannot spare space for me
to argue the wine question, so drop
1t here. You ask
"Would it then be disorderly for
any true follower of Jesus to make
and drink wine, to go into the haunts
OF sinners and labor with them for
their good And what ifsuch haunts
were improved by putting them in
better keeping. changing them to bet.
ter places-even where praying men
do congregate, and where such may
60 and labor with those for whom
salvation was designed"
There is no follower of Jesus who
can perform miracle and turn wa ter
into wine. A true follower of esus
said if drinking wine caused his broth.
er to stumble, he would cease to
drink it. Drinking wine is the great
source ofofFense and stumbling, in the
church and out of it, therefore the fol,
lower of Jesus should sacrifice the
luxury, if such it is, of drinking wine
for the benefit ofthose who may not
be so we'll poised as he is. Who, pray,