The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1876-11-04
Courage in the Pulpit.

What is specially needed now to give
an impulse to the temperance cause ?
We answer, moral courage in the pulpit.
A hall century ago and more, there might
have existed some excuse for timidity in
pleading cause that had just begun to
claim public attention. Yet there were
many heroes in the pulpits of our land
then who did not hesitate to beard the lion
in his den. Most of those ancient war
riors have passed to their reward. One,
however, still survives, whose glorious
mantle must soon drop; it may fall upon
the hundreds Of youthful preachers Just
putting on the gospel armor, to make them
brave and powerful. refer to DR.. VIM.
Patton, of New Haven. Ffyefve years
ago he preached a temperance sermon to
his people in New York city. He had
observed with painful anxiety the inroads
Of intemperance upon the families of his
flock, imbruting fathers and sons, and
even mothers and daughters, spating nei.
ther age nor profession, until he could bo
silent no longer. So on Sunday, Septem-
Der II, 1920, he discourscd from Romans
XII. q "Be not confirmed to this world"
etc. He made directly for the evils Of
the drlnk-customs, and every sentence
told. Tha. the sermon was faithful and
radical one may be inferred from one
statement, as follows: Whilst the drunk
ard is guilty person, the retail seller is
more guilty, the wholesale dealer still
more guilty, and the distiler who con.
verts the staff Of life, the benevolent gift
of God, into the arrows of death, is thc
most guilty And he closed with
strong appeal to the professors of religion
before him who were engaged in the
traffic, to abandon it as infamous.
A thunderbolt from heaven, hurled
through that house of worship on that
clear September Sabbath, would scarcely
have startled the congregation more than
that sermon did. All the classes of sin.
ners he denounced were before him in
respectable numbers, and this bold act OF
their preacher was bombshell in their
midst. To say that wholesalers as well
as retailers and drinkers were mad. falls
short of the truth. Some of them threat.
ened; some Of them uttered the worst
words in the English language few Of
them behaved very piously under tue cas-.
tigation. All were determined that the
act shold not be repeated; they would
muzzlc the pulpit. But they counted
without their host. A Christian warfi.
or was in the pulpit, and he wore the
panoply Of God He had uusheathed the
sword Of the Spirit, and he would not
return it to its scabbard until its work
was done.
During the week merchant found one
Of his clerks in haunt of vice, and he
addressed card through the papers to
his fellow merchants, asking them to look,
into Walnut street, Corlear Hook, if they
would know where their clerks spent
Saturday night. This was the voice Of
God to the young minister, and on Satur.
day night, September %, 1920, in com.
pany with several Christian men, he ex.
plored that den OF iniquity. From ten to
twelve O'Clock they walked over "this
burning snare of hell" They found thirty
houses of i'll fame on one side of Walnut
street. all Of them were drinking houses.
They counted two hundred and nine'y
abandoned girls, from fourteen to forty
years of age and the men far outrum.
bered the women. All of them were
more or less intoxicated, and some of
them fearfully drunk, behaving like in.
mates of Bedlam. Here was material
enough for another faithful sermon. So,
on the next evening, Sunday, September
"a, 1920. having given notice of his sub.
ject in the morning, he preached another
temperance sermon from the words:
"Cry aloud and spare not; lift up thy
voice like trumpet" etc. And he did
"cry aloud" and the rumsellers aud
drinkers thought he "spared not" lie
showed ], The duty of ministers to attack
prevailing evils. ?, That the two great
sins Of the day were drunkenness and
Sabbath desecration. with their accesso.
ries- 3. That the Scriptures denounced
these sins in emphatic terms. His people
concluded that the threats could not al.
lence their pulpit. They scolded less,
but thought the more. And thus the
heroic preacher went on cutting his way
through opposing ranks, as David and
his companions did when they fought
their way to tho we'll of Bethlehem.
Oh for such fearless discharge Of duty
in the pulpits of our land! Alas, that a
pulpit should ever bo afraid of n neUf