Connecticut western news., 1879-10-01


 many things which in years past appeared to me to be right, now appear to me to be wrong. Our world is world of change, or, in other words, it is a world of progress. So we have now come to believe that all true temperance work must be Christian work. All temper ance organizations should be Christian organ- izations, established and carried on by Chris tians We have no warrant of successful rec form only through divine truth. Now, as . rule, are temperance organizations Christian organizations? Are they used for Christian work, or for selfish ends? ? Are they managed by Christian people, or by politiciausf If you admit that these organizations are work. ed by unchristian people, then I ask, Can . Christian work of reformation be successfully performed by unchristian people2 See I. Cor inthians i) -~
 1, Calling an organization Christian temper lance union does not make it Christian. No
 organization has right to be called Christian
 lnless it is one with the laws of God The l act of mans pledging himself to temper
 nce does not make him Christian. Good Christian men may belong to organizations, out that does not make it Christian organ. kation. Drunkenness is a sin, but there are o.her sins. And temperance is Christian
 virtue, but it is but one virtue. And St. Paul tels us that every man is debtor to the
 whole law. And he tells us also that the works of the flesh are adultery, fornication,
 uncleanness, wrath, strife, sedtions, lascivious-
 ness idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance,
 emulations, heresies, envyings, murders,
 drunkenness, revelings and such like, V Nov, what can it amount to to undertake to reform
 man of drunkenness and leave him there
 James tells us "For He that said Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill"
 Now, if man is not drunkard, yet is guilty
 of adultery, he is just as low in sin and deere-
 dation as the drunkard is he just as much
 needs reforming Therefore, I say, the re-
 formation that we want is a reformation that
 goes to the bottom. We have no right to
 suppose that we, can doSany reforming of opr-
 selves, or any reforming af others, eacepf We do it as Christian work, under God and in
 accord with the word of: God. Our worR Tn Gods cause must be in the gospel, or 1t is no
 work of any account. I do not believe that such work as was done in this town, by \ Messrs. Love and Miller was either Christian work or reform, work. One year ago, last
 Spring Messrs Love and Miller came to this , town, and other towns about us, working up
 temperance reform, as it was called. They
 asked for their services $5 day each and ex.
 penses paid. They. succeeded in getting up quite juror here, and Christian tenn
 perance organization was formed. Hundreds
 of names of men, women and children , were obtained upon the temperance pfedge.'
  ments, giving Love and Miller glory and honF or for their successful labors in the temper l, ance reform, when, in fact, nineteen -twenti- eths of all that signed their pledges were
 strictly temperance people before and their names were on temperance pledges before therefore, to publish all these names as new , work of reform accomplished by Love and Miller was not the real truth; it was false it i was selfish, and it showed plainly that thSI work was not done in the right spirit and 3 that the Christian temperance organization.
 had no real Christianity in it; it had no real 2 reform principle; it was so selfish and so tenn 3 3 pered that in few months after the work , was done it wanted doing again just as much , as before, for there was not one to be found 3 of all of their hundreds of names who did not 8 need reforming again just as much as they did ? before. Another work of temperance organ . lzatons IS the license laws. I think that in 2 2 all States where they are cursed with liquor } license law it has been the direct work of 8 temperance organizations This, truly, is as- $ tonishing. Is the license law a reformatory workY Is there any moral principle in 1t 2 Is 5 there any good whatever in it? never saw ; any good in license law. These temperance : organizations have been in the habit of put 3 ting the liquor dealers in the same category l as criminal, a thief, the incendiary and the l l murderer. But late years they come to the NAHeSA NSoASac, ptoPooAhS o SOmpiOAAloO WAtn $ them, saying, "Give us a small interest in A your business of rum selling say from one S hundred dollars to five hundr ed dollars year. 8 and you may go on with it." Now, if 1t is q Q sin to sell rum does the paying of one hum I dred dollars (more or less) for the privilege of 3 selling rum make it any the less sinf Is l not the one hundred dollars (more or less) which goes into the town treasury for every 0 license granted just as much the price of the n | auffprinup pf mn oy,d oh; Ahh money that goes into the till of the rum sellerf i Licenseslaws are the fuit of temperance or-- 3 ganlzations; these temperance organizations q q now talk about reforming our nation ofdrunk- i enness. l do not see how any Christian 1 people can have courage or conscience to sup- 2 port any temperance organization other than a Christian organization. And what l call , Christian organization is an organization, Q every member of which has been transformed ' and renewed by the Spirit of God. These so. l called Christian temperance organizations are l continually selling themselves out to some, 2 political party, or to do some wickedness and i are not Christian. Show me their Christian 9 fruit if you can. They are also continually l petitioning legislatures for some license law Q or some restringent law or liquor selling. 2 Now if these organizations are truly Christian organizations, why is it that they see no other. i T sin but rum selling3 I wish they would turn 3 to the 9th chapter of Galatians and read what 9 St. Paul calls the works of the flesh, also see in the same chapter what are the fruits of O the Spirit. Now when see national Chris l tian temperance organizations, and Christians z generally, petitioning legislatures to make i stringent laws on the sin of adultery, and all that the Bible tells us is the fruits of the esh 3 or when I see them petitioning Divine power instead of human weakness, when see them forming alliances with prayer meetings in> } stead of political parties, when I see them ! taking the whole word of God as the Rnda- } mental law and foundation of all their hopes of success instead of license laws and prohi- bition parties, l say when see these things I shall then believe them to be honest, and ) entitled to be called Christian
 Now then, the reform that we want is we | want no temperance organizations, but Chris ) tan organizations; we want no license laws, we want no prohibition parties, we want nothing but honest Christian work, nothing
 but honest Christian work can ever save our l people or our nation. All of the peoples and , nations confusions perplexities and sorrows grow up in one way or another out of men'a
 transgressions of the laws of God, and there is but one true way of stopping these sorrows.
 All transgression brings sorrow to be repent
 ed of, and it matters not whether that trans-
 gression is the selling of rum or the drinking
 of rum, or the applying of false name to an
 organization, all are sins to be repented of
 Now if we take the word of God for our, counsel, and put the question, What ought to
 be done with all the transgressors, the an- swer would be, Christianize them. Now
 then, this is thee ereformE that we need, and this Christianizng is not to be done by organiza- tions called Christian, not by license laws - not by pledges, not by prohibition parties