The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1876-10-21
WOMANS TEMPERANCE COL
UMN.
Woman and Temperance
Work,

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with young woman into rum shop.
The saloon keeper looked up at them and
said "What have you women como up
here for 2" and an old lady Of four score
years looked up and said, gently III will
tell thee what l came here for. Thee
knows l had FIVE sons and many grand.
sons; thee knows here, at thy counter,
more than one Of my boys tasted his first
J glass thee knows that more than one Of
them has gone to the drunkard's grave,
and one by the suicides knife and can't
thee let his mother lay her bible down on
thy counter, where her boy took that
glass, and read to thee these words Of
God, Woe unto him who putteth the bot.
tic to his neighbor's lips p - That ia
what we have hero in America in the
rum shops, something that devastates the
places we care most for, ruins tho desti.
MES of those you love best have borne
most for, and would shield with most Of
tenderness. And we want to say Just
this Wo believe that we can do some.
thing about it. believe that you and |
you, young lady, you, young man, you.
young child, you man and woman iu mid.
die life, in the strength of your years,
have something to do about it and as [
stand hero looking over this quiet,
thoughtful, kindly audience. they are re.
sponsible for the temperance cause. You
know more about it than you did week
ego. You have heard more about it than
you did week ago; you have thought
more and believed more about it than
you did week ago, aud you may 20 to
your homes and do more about it than
you could week ago.
What are you going to DO ? | wanted,
II there had been time, that we might
have had the parable read about the Cos
pei feast, and special emphasis laid on
these words, "Go out into the highways
and hedges and compel them to come in"
That one thing We are going to do about
1T; we are going to carry tho Gospel 10
the drinking class, the class that is most
beyond the pulpifs influence Of any class.
1t we make an advance all along the line,
upon body so numerous, VIC must call
ont the reserve force Of the Church;
must We not? and you know that two
thirds OF the Church members are wo.
mer, and we must call them out they
have had the most in jeopardy they
have suffered the most and will nut forth
the most earnest efforts in this work.
Then another thing, women, as a class,
and The women Of the wealthior class and
those Of the middle class, arc not worn
out and tugged out all their lives with
care and anxiety rs men. That is some-
thing that will bear demonstration.
Women of America moro and more are
growing to be, in certain lines OF our life,
tho comparatively leisure class, aud il
they will take from the time they spend
for many a thing not half as worthy Of
their thought, they will still be the leisure
class, and show the beniguaut life We
have been talking about.
Do VIC not see this, that, If in our life
there is necessity for one thing more
than all others, it is to get the heart mel.
low toward God through faith in Christ,
through the blessed application of His
Spirit, and then go out trying to get his
heart, her heart mellow, too? That is
the first business before honor, before
riches, before fame, before education
even-all of these things falling into line
in their proper place. We must think Of
the things that last longest. You aud |
are learning that not in the acquisition
OF language. not in tho mastery of a
piano keyboard lies the supreme good,
but In teaching the tender feet never to
stray from the sure path, and in going
out to seek him who is "away on the
mountains bleak and bare, away from the
tender Shepherds care" There it lies
moro than anywhere else on earth. and
We are going to believe il. Those who
have been on tours Of philanthropy, these
Christian women, are getting moro of an
idea of making it a business. We have
tasted OF the sweetness Of benignan.
life. The truest, most nutritious food
God has given us We find in well-doing.
l think sometimes what fine thing it Is
to know language, aud many of US will
never know any but our mother tongue
but yet there is none here but can learn
and teach the words Of life, the language
OF Canaan. We may not be able to Oh.
tain the highest proficiency in mathemat
los ; but you and | can help many tar-
gled, wicked lifo into plain solution.
1t is tender thing to be sculptor, and
to chisel marble into beautiful shapes and
forms; but it is sweeter to mould
in the clay Of a child's character.
1t is noble thing to bo an architect and
build grand cathedrals; but grander far
to teach somebody who had not fonnd it
out, that the body and the soul we're
made on purpose to be the temple Of the
Holy Ghost, in which shall dwell nothing
that is not pure, and white, aud clean. Ii
is a grand thing, surely, to be able to
trace upon the canvas features of beauty,
but ah to restore the image Of God to
the face that is really the face that smiles
back into your own, to restore there the
image of God, which was lost-that is
a better office, and to sweep the harps
@olian, to strike the keys that tune with
Gods will and Gods purpose in creation,
that is a nobler kind of music than any
ever learned from Beethoven, or Mozart.
That is for you, for me, and for every
one of US. Blessed be Gods name.
Dear friends, l want to speak in these
last hours, l want to speak words of
hope, only words of hope. Tho night
was long and dreary when tho woman SAT
and listened for the footsteps Of him who
had promised to shelter and protect her.
The night was long in which the mother
went out in the murky air to find her
son in which sons and dauohtars syant