The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1874-04-28

The Presbytery Of Carlisle, at its ses-
sion in the First Presbyterian church at
Carlisle, April 14th and 10th, passed unan-
imously the following paper on the subject
Of intemperance, and directed it to be pub
lished widely in the religious and secular
journals of the day, and to be read from
the pulpits Of the churches under its care.
The Presbytery is composed of some A
ministers and AZ churches in the counties
of Dauplhn, Cumberland, Adams, Franklin,
Fulton and Perry.)
Called, in the Providence of God, To meet at
time ofgeneral and deep interest on the sub
iect of intemperance, the Presbytery of Car
Isle, true to the past history of our church,
would again express its earnest convictions
upon this important matter.
I. We regard with devout gratitude and
praise to God that Divine quickening of public
sentiment and conscience, through the agency
of Christian women, which has been manifest
cd in so large a part of our country. We re-
joice in that spirit of love and tenderness and
Christian zeal with which they have carried on
their work; in their evident dependence, through
prayer, upon the Spirit of God and the power
of kindness and persuasion; on the large and
uneXampled success which has already at
ly diminished sale of ardent spirits, the closing
of thousands of saloons and drinking places,
the rescue of many fallen men, the enforce
ment of law by q strong and increasing public
sentiment, and the promotion of religion, of
which temperance is special fruit.
II. Recognizing the fact, that while the
State has suffered, and society has suffered, ,and
the Church of Christ has greatly suffered for
many generations past from this fearful vice of
drunkenness, and crime of misunderstanding
woman in the quiet sphere of home has been
chief and silent suffer, we hail with gladness
such efforts as she, guided by the spirit of love
and the Spirit of God, may put forth to abate
and utterly suppress the vast evil of intemper-
ance and we earnestly call upon all the men,
bers of our churches and congregations to
deeply and prayerfully consider their duty to
Help these women by an open and active
sympathy and cooperation with them"
III. Deeply deploring the apathy manifested
by many protesting Christians towards this
worthy and divinely sanctioned cause of tenn
perance, we most earnestly commend to all the
members of the churches under our care, that
they be found the fast and unfllnching and ac-
tive friends of temperance; that they abstain
from all customs and fashions that would
countenance to any extent the sin of intemper-
ance; that they avoid even the appearance of
evil that they disentangle themselves from all
implications with the traffic, use and manu-
facture of ardent spirits that they present in
their whole lives, by total abstinence from
everything that will intoxcate, standing ex-
emplication of the noble spirit of Paul who
said, "It is good neither to eat flesh nor to
drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother
stumbleth, or is offended or made weak"
". Believing that intemperance is not only
bitter curse to man, and foe to his dearest
interests In this life and in the life to come, but
great sin against God, and mighty OBJ
struction TO the progress Of the Gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ in the world, we earnestly
invoke all our ministers and elders and church
members to bring the whole weight of their
influence against 1t, in the regulation of their
own family customs in sedulous care for the
purity of the church from all completely with
the evil in the careful instruction of our youth
in the Sabbath schools and by such public eff
forts throughout their communities as shall at
once and forever give to our religion its true
position of irreconcilable opposition to vice
and sin SO enormous in its mischlefs and so
dlsgraceful to the Christian name.