Litchfield enquirer., 1880-01-29
Temperance, as Progressive Morality.

sin-a breach of civil rather than religious du- ty- grows out of desire to avoid those diff ferences of bible interpretation out of which have arisen most of the opposition within the church to that duty of Total Abstinence on which the modern Temperance movement is founded
 No sensible man, christian or heather, de- nies the duty of Temperance in the larger sense of moderate indulgence. But, seeing the possible evils that inevitably arise out of any indulgence whatever, from the practical impossibility there is of the stopping within any limit of moderate indulgence, the Tenn perance movement of our day calls upon all men, out of regard to the proved weakness of large proportion of their fellow men, to give up even that moderate indulgence which has till recently been considered permissible. Assuming, for instance, that in given con- munity, whose social habits are these of indul- gence, one fourth of the males become drunkards, we hold that Total Abstinence would be the plain duty of the three-fourths, in order to save the one-fourth from destruction. 'Is this a evil or christian duty? In one sense,' no doubt, it is both; but, as it strikes us, it is primarily a civil and only secondarily christian du- ty. Abstinence from wine holds, and should hold, as it seems to us, a very different place in christian ethics from abstinence from theft or abstinence from murder. The latter is obligatory upon every christian of whatever time or place; the former, which was consid- cred permissible by all the scripture writer's by Christ himself-seems only necessity of our own special social conditions. perhaps merely of our own climate. In other words, the christian church assumes chief authority over the domain of stationary morality; the state, over that of progressive morality.
 Nor, scanning the history of modern pro- gress, can we help noticing how frequently the christian church-at least it's conservative branches-has hindered civil and moral pro- gross. This has invariably happened from the theologian's habit of looking upon those moral conditions as made permanent by scripture precept and example which are in fact con- stantly changing in the progress of social de- velopment. So off en have these authoritative but most erroneous decisions of the priest been overthrown by the logic of events in our resent all pulpit criticism of it's doings as an-impertinence even at times when such in- reference has been most just and wholesome. A few instances will illustrate our position:
 One of the most notable blunders of tLat re- ligion which breaches moral fxity where it should preach moral progress-and most re- markable instance of the tenacity with which denominational christianity sticks to erroneous positions, once taken-is to be found in the adhesion of the English church to the doctrine of the christian duty of passive obedience" even to tyrants. The Pnritans took the oppo- site ground, and the difference became de- nominational as we'll ss political one. The political difference has. however, been long since settled, in Great Britain as we'll as ID the United States, both of whose existing gov ernments are based on revolution. Not even an English Tory would to-day make that ex- ploded theory the basis of any political action. Yet it survives in the Anglican church, and when the American branch of that denomina- tion met in convention during the war, it bas- ed it's support of the national authority on this very doctrine of passive obedience as one of the dogmas of their church! We refer to this, merely as proof of the rapider practical rate of civil tban of religious progress; if, in- deed, questions that have once become matters of denominational difference can be said to progress at all.
 The Anti-Slavery movement is notable instance ot the evil. tendency of the christian church to hold morality back when it ought to be marching on. The forlorn hope of this reform was led by a body of enthusiasts, many of whom society and the church soon persecuted into hatied of the Old Testament, and dstrust of the New. For long, the chnrch, North as we'll as South, planted its justification of slavery on the Bible. To the last, the Southern church held it little less than blasphemy that a system specially.per- mitted under the old dispensation, and not discountenanced by the new dispensation, should be attacked as sta by New England fanatics" in and out of the church. If we are not mistaken, slavery remains to-day un- condo mned in all the churches of the South, and in perhaps half the churches of the North.
 Total Abstinence has met, and is still meet ing. Its most dangerous opposition within the church. Had it been one of the original dog mas of the christian as it is of the Mahometan faith, no doubt all civilized christian countries would long since have engrafted it's practice on our everyday life. But Total Abstinence is not dogma of christianity. Just as the practice of Paul and the patriarchs was always adduced in justification of slavery, the exam pie of Christ himself has been adduced by the conservative churches, and the conservative in all churches, in opposition to Total Absti- hence. To this day, only minority of Amer jean, or even of New England Christians, practice Total Abstinence the majority still hold to the moderate indulgence of the Bible as permissible even in the New England of 1 today Some denominations, indeed, like the Congregationalsts-w marched in the vanguard of the old Abolition army, next be- hind the ''infidels" Methodsts, and other more progressive sects, press sharply forward to the safe ground of Total Abstinence; but the conservative denominations who held to moderate indulgence in 1S4O, hold to moder- ate indul gence to-day. Forty years of tenn I perance campaigns and crusades have no, moved them and, till they are moved, total abstiaenes can never claim to be tenet of the christian faith, nor can it receive that support of the popular majority which would fairly entitle it to force it's practice on what would then have become a criminal minority.
 How then can conservative christianity be reached2 To convince them that total absti hence is A christian dutv has nrnved ,mnossi