The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-07-16
who il my Neighbour

who is my Neighbour
READ BEFORE THE RUTLAND COUNTY GOOD
TEMpLARs UNION, ny THE LATE CHARLES
ROOT.
sincerely wish that every member Of
our noble order would take it upon them
selves to answer this question to their con
sciences perfect tsfacti0n--answcring it
only so far as it bears upon their duty as
temperance men and women-to them
selves, TO the community in which they live
and to their God. Who is my neighbor?
1t is very hard to make many proicssed
christians-and, in my humble opinion, to
be a christian is to be a temperance man
see that their duty calls upon them to seek
ont the erring ones. They seem TO have
got hold of the mistaken idea that the poor
sinner, if he wants to be saved, must needs
seek them out, to inquire the way, or else
to work his own salvation out by inquirers
and searchings after truth among those as
low as himself in the scale of sin and hui
man degradation. They seem to think
that the touch of the unregeneratcd is con-
Eliminating to their immaculate robes and
many go farther, and maintain a certain
degree of reserve toward the humble pen
itent, even after he has become one of their
number in Christ. The sober, the respect
able, and the virtuous are the persons
whose excrtions for the reformation of the
vicious will be most successful. The aban.
doned and the vile cannot be expected to
labor for ther own reformation, or for the
reformation of others. If Il soul is to be
saved, drunkard exclaimed, it must be
through the agency of the protested chris
tan and some good Samaritan in the guisc
of temperance worker.
In conversation with young man, Il
member of one of our religious organiza-
tions-he remarked that there were Il great
many connected with the order Of Good
Templars with whom a protested christian
would not wish to associate; and he seem
ed to carry the idea that it was wrong for
us to admit any one to our order until they
had first connected themselves with some
religious denomination, and thus put them
danger of their communicating the morals
of this immaculate and original reformer.
And not only is this true in our churches
this exclusiveness-thi mistaken aris-
tocracy of feeling-but it shows itself in
almost every social, political OF temper
ance organization known, and am afraid
is too apt to manifest itself in our own
Lodge rooms, where it is a worker of in
calculable mischief, and a stumbling block
in the path of many a poor inebriatc striy-
ing to break loose from the CALLING letters
of the demon drink, and whose only hope
is the cheering word, the kindly smile, and
the extended hand Of the Good Samaritan.
The answer of Topsey the wicked to Eva
in ''Unce Toms cabin is case in point,
and shows how many of our protested tenn
perance men and women regard the drunk
ard. Eva is pleading with Topsey, who
has been detected in stealing, and asks her
why she will persist in doing such naughty
things. "Specks its cause Use so wicked, ."
says Topsey, with grin "Miss Phelia
says SOL
Now Miss Ophelia a Vermonter and
rank Aboitionst, - has undertaken the
moral and physical training of this imp of
darkness and wickedness.
But" says Eva, "Miss Ophela loves
you, Topsey."
clubs mel" exclaims Topsey: "Why,
Miss Phela can't bar me. She'd as Ibis
hab toad touch her any time, as me- And
thus it is with the poor miserable victim of
rum; you can never hope to reclaim him
while that feeling of repugnance remains
in the heart. And you may mask it and
hide it as best you may, but trust him to
find its presence there.
And the wrong does not end here We
allow ourselves to be known to the world
as temperance men and women, we be-
long to an organization one of whose os-
tensibe objects is to save the fallen, and
if we sit down contcntedly, and fold our
hands, waiting for some one else to do the
work that belongs to ourselves to do, is it n
wonder that outsiders point to us as hypo.
critics, and our order as a failure? If, by
our example ana influence, we contribute
to lead those around us to regard us in this
light, we are far from being innocent, al
though we ourselves may be free from any
particular vice. In any cause in which
philanthropy and religion (and temperance
embraces both,) urge us to exert our en-
orgies, indifference and heartless neglect is
crime. Every member of our noble or
der is bound to remember that they are not
isolated beings. They stand not alone in
the world. Their example, their influence,
their doing, or not doing, all produce an
effect. And if it is our duty to do good to
all men as we have opportunity, it must be
no less our duty to reclaim the drunl1ard
than to instruct the ignorant or to relieve
the distressed.
But" says some drone in the hive of
temperance, 81 am not to blame because
the man drinks | don't furnish him with
the means wherewith to become drunken. "
Softly, my mistaken friend. A man sees
a fellow man struggling in the water. lie
knows he can never deliver himself; and
he knows, too, that very little assistance,
such as he can render will be sufficient to
rescue him from a watery grave. He looks
on, sees his dying struggles, and passes by.
True he did not thrust the man into the
water. He had no agency in doing it. But