Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1874-05-15
Special Correspondence of the journal.
The Crusade in Massachusetts.
SoMERvILLE, MASS, May 5, IA.

Special Correspondence of the journal.
The Crusade in Massachusetts.
SoMERv1nLE, MASS, May 5, IA.
Editors Journal:
The Temperance revival has at
last reached the Old Bay State and
friends of Total Abstinence are prose-
cutting the work of reform with vigor
and earnestness that cannot fail to ex-
ert mighty influence on the minds OF
all who are Indifferent or opposed to
the cause. The people are fast becom-
ing aroused to sense of duty and al
though that aniuersality of enthusi-
asm which characterized the move
ment at the West, is not felt here, it is
hoped that public sentiment will be
strong enough to arrest the traffic to
considerable extent. In Boston, so
engrossed are the people with what
they consider questions of greater I'M
portance, that little interest has been
excited, but in smaller cities and towns
in the environs, the movement is daily
gaining ground. Somerville, cursed
with 70 grog shops, was among the
foremost to agitate the necessity of q
publication, and series of Union
Temperance meetings were organized
by those having the best interests of
the reform at heart. At the first Uni
versalist Church, the Rev. Mr.. Vilbert,
a gentleman whose reputation as tenn
perance speaker is well known in New
England, was the first to issue call for
battle, and he has nobly retained his
place in the front ranks, working with
untiring zeal for the amelioration of
debased humanity. In his labors he
is assisted by his wife, woman of
talent and energy, in whom the rum
traffic finds an indomitable opponent.
Rev. J. Benson Hamilton, the young
and popular Pastor of the Broadway
NJ e. Church, delivered sermon on
the "Woman's Crusade" on the first
Sunday evening in May, to an immense
congregation. "Oh, Woman, great is
thy faith +; be it even as thou wilt, u
made most appropriate text, and the
discourse was marked from beginning
to end by an eloquence and earnest
ness which proved that the heart OF
the speaker was in his subject. He
spoke of the position the Church had
assumed in this struggle with the rum
demon, and said if the clergy Of Mass
achusetts would unite in the
work, every liquor shop in the
State would close in less than q
year. One half of the success of the
Tempera nee war in Ohio was owing to
the harmony and goodwill that exist
ed between people of different creeds
and nationalities. There Catholic and
Protestant joined hands and remem-
bered only the great end they were
working to attain. Perhaps it was a
husband, driven by strong drink to @
forgetfulness of the vows made at the
altar, perhaps it was son, whose
downward course had filed the moth
er's heart with an agony and despair
that could find relief only when in
close communion with the God who
does not willingly affiict nor distress
the children of men,
In Massachusetts, yes, and I regret
to say, in Somerville, the movement is
retarded because the different rehai.
ous denominations refuse to cooper
ate Evangelical ministers keep sill
ent because they fear to blend their
voice with unitarians. God has prom
ised that when two or three are gath
cred together in His name, He will
grant their requests and He will do it,
whether the congregation be Baptist
or Universalist, Orthodox or Catholic.
God is in this temperance movement
and the clergy that oppose it, fight
against the Maker and Preserver of all
things. both visible and invisible, and
sometime they will find out their mis-
take.
In Massachusetts Prohibitory Law
has been thoroughly tested and found
ineffective. 1t was passed to quiet the
cries Of the runl-demon's victims and
never, but partially, enforced. The
woman whose happiness is at stake
because of a fathers or a husband s
sin, IL the son will not help her, is
justified in taking the matter into he r
own hands. hIen argue that "a dram
shop is no place for womans pray
ers. If it is the place for the husband
to drink away his manhood; if it is the
place for the child to go night after
night to guide the uncertain steps of
the degraded father to his miserable
home, it is certainly the place for the
wife to plead with the proprietor that
he will open his eyes to behold her
and her neighbors, sorrows. Oh, Mas
sachusetts, of what avail is the boosted
culture and intelligence of your peo-
pie, if you are indifferent to the stings
of the viper that lies concealed in your
bosom North and South, East and
West, join hands and labor heart to
heart to eradicate this evil. Men and
women, the happiness of your homes,
the prosperity of your country and of
the world depends on the result of this
struggle.
WANDERING MINSTREL.