New-York tribune., 1871-10-20

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prosches this diAisuly not.only with the high
est Christian purpose. but with sound common
sense. The idle, needy, pious woman, ut
present loose thread in the body polite, 10
10 be woven into the web; given, first, an
honorable means of earning her own bread
and butter, afterward home, companions,
security for old age, and exercise in Ohrists
service for ell the skill or talent which
He has given her. She forms, too,
link, now very much wanted, between
the ready charity of the wealthy class
and the poor. We should be glad to find
other Protestant churches following the ex-
ample of the Episcopalians in this matter.
Women in religious bodies heretofore who
wished to devote themselves to work for Christ
have been sent (at their church's expense)
only on er-ands to the far-oR heathen OF, to
say the least, doubtful expediency or sue
cess. Any woman with the true missionary
spirit can find work for heather IN her own
kitchen or back alley, but the difficulty is that
it lacks the attraction which danger, novelty,
and picturesque scenery lend to japan or
India's coral strand. If our EpiscOpalan
brethren render this home work more at
tractiye to the romance loving sex, by COM
bining them in so-called sisterhoOds, they will
have founded their work not only on Christian
principle, but on o shrewd knowledge of the
demands of human nature
There ia another matter which we would
briefly suggest presents itself now to the con-
sideration of every religious body in the coun-
try more urgently than questions of hymnals
or rubrics, as it underlies the whole physical
and moral health of the nation. We mean
the more enlightened view which gains ground
among us but too slowly as to the treatment
and cure of intemperance While tWo-thrds
of the inmates of our prisons and victims OF
the gallows are sent there by liquor, ana one
half of the active diseases of the country arc
outgrowths from the same cause, we kno" Ii"
subject more worthy the careful and WISE con-
alteration of our best men. Inc dImculty III
the way of reform lies, as we believe, In tne
fact that Intemperance has hitherto been ap-
preached as o crime, and not dlseaSe'
Its prevention is to be found not IN frantic
appeals to the will and moral sense OF
the drunkard, when both are enfeebled
by physical means, but in the clear, intelligent
comprehension by the people, especially parents,
that the thirst for alcohol is an hereditary
disease, to be combated warded of, and cured
as scrofula or consumption would be. The
Episcopal Convention, body of men pre-
eminent for their moderation and love OF
truth stripped of fanaticism, can find no social
evil more terrible in its exigence than this;
no matter in which they can render their
church and the world more service by well
considered verdict Their sect is composed for
the most part of that cultured and influential
class, under the direction of their pastors to
an exceptional degree, whose every forward
movement in reform has weight. A few
simple authoritative words of warning on this
matter, or the endowment of all lnebriate
Asylum by the Convention, would be work
for humanity whose heathful effect cannot be
estimated in words.