Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1882-03-08
The Duty OF Christian Men with Regard
TO Prevailing immortality.

IHe Dul1 vi IuflStidn hcu WIN htXhTu
TO Prevailing immortality.
A SERMON PREACHED DY REV. @. Il. SAT-
FORD. ID D., IN THE COLLEGE ST. CHURCH,
FEBRUARY, ~, 1882.
Psalm 97:10. Ye that love the Lord,
hate evil.
Hatred is poss bic by the side of love
and more-hatred is often the demonstra.
ton and measure of love.
In the text men are called upon by the
sacredness of Gods claim on their love
and by the truthfulness of their religious
profession, to hate evil. And elsewhere
the voice of inspired Wisdom presents the
hatred Of evil as distinguished charac.
toristic of that fear of Goi. which is the
essence of true piety. The fear Of the
Lord is to hate evil"
With the principle here involved, at
least in its formal statement. we are al
ready familiar, and with sonc of its ap-
plications also We are familiar. With its
application, however, TO practical piety,
we do not seem to he ms familiar rs we
ought.
The Christian life of the present day is
conspicuously marked by the milder graces.
1t abounds in deeds of beneiicence. II
fosters numerous charities. 1t POUNDS in.
stitutions for the relief Of the needy. II
organizes and combines for more effective
usefulness the scattered energies of thou
sands, whose sole bond of acquaintance
even is their common spirit of Christian
benevolence. And this should be the
most conspicuous feature of our piety.
Words of kindness and deeds of charity
are more congcnial with Christian in
stincts than any utteranees Of an opposite
sort can ever be.
The time was when the implements Of
war were symbols of the most conspicuous
features of that piety that was professed
in the name of Jesus Christ That day
has passed-wo devoutly trust, not to
return. But that other day, that the piety
of this age seems trying to anticipate. has
not yet come. We may not yet delight
ourselves with tranquil meditation, and
engage our activities with deeds of charity,
forgetful of the wckedness that makes
war against God. We profess to love
God. And so long as we are placed in
contact with evil that defes God, our ha-
tired of that evil must be both tho test and
the measure Of the love that we profess
to God. If hatred be not the most con.
genial with Christian instinct, il is never
theless the most natural, and the only
natural, feeling Of the Christian man in
his contact with sin.
That is a shallow picty, if not wholly
fallacious. which is incapable OF hatred
against sin. And such pety il as worth.
less as it is shallow. Indignation is the
form that tho strongest piety takes in the
presence of wickedness. And indignation
is grace, that in these days greatly needs
cultivation. These reflections lead us to
inquire:
What is the duty of Christian men with
regard to prevailing immoraltyg
Let US see clearly at the outset that their
duty is something They have duty in the
premises. Men, who are themselves free
from vi'o, are not free from responsibility
respecting the vice that prevails among
others. As Christian men we have no
right to stand by silent, unmoved and In
active, looking upon vice around US. We
have no right to shut our eyes to it. We
ought not to regard it as thing beneath
our notice, nor as thing to be overlooked
because hateful, nor as thing different in
any respect from that sin which VIC con-
fess it our duty to oppose.
Vice is q sin in its most concentrated
form it is ungodliness in its most defiant
manifestation; it is such fragrant violation
of Gods commandment, and 1t wages
such fatal war upon the highest welfare of
humanity, that men have forbidden 1t by
their own enactments, they have made 1t
crime, and have,provide1 force to restrain
it and penalties TO correct it. 1t is sin
carried to such extreme tina. men them
selves sinners denounce it. Christian men
with their mouth full of protestations of
hatred of sin cannot afford-if 1t were only
for consistency's sake, they cannot afford
to tolerate vice.
1t is common to regard the church rs
commissioned TO war against sin; and
when sin takes on its largest proportions
and assumes its most defiant air, if then
other men are more faithful than Chris.
tians in the war against any such form of
sin, the dishonor that the church earns
is great indeed. Christian men are made
by God pre-eminently the conservators of
public and social morality. There is no
officer of human law who is under such
soem charge for the repression of vice, as
is the Christian man by the very meaning
of bis Christian profession. His eyes
should be the first to discover the advance
of vice; mis- voice should be first to de.
nounce II. his courage aud tortitude and
persistcncy greatest to fight against it.
For, let it be remembered, hatred of vice
hatred, that is the word-cannot be
cherished in secret. 1t must find vent; it
will. 1t proves its existence and its pow.
er by speech and by dcods,
If the Christian men in this city hated
vice as they ought, can any one doubt that
the public morality would reach far
higher standard than what suflices TO
measure it now?
The vice that paratles our streets and
fixes its residence and its shop among our
stores, gives challenge to every Chris.
tian, and loads him with reproach, if the
challenge be not promptly and rcsolutely
met | cannot doubt, brethren, that you
have sometimes felt personally humiliated
Gas | have) when brought Into the pres
ence Of vice, which we may know the
Christian III n IN this city have the power
to crush
We profess 10 lament tic prevalence Of
IA hhhShhSoo III thb VIZ nun W. huUW
that dozen men with sufficient active
hatred of it can drive it from our streets
into dark holes.
Thero arc thrust before our oyes some
times open volumes of wretchedness and
of crime We shudder for moment, and
turn away our eyes, like the priest and
the l4evitc in the parable. Vo forget the
painful picture; we stille our compassion
towards the suffering and our indignation
towards the crime. But In quick success
sion there como to the public car the reit-
Grated stories Of vicious misery. Under
our sufferance vice lives, dcbasing the
guilty and torturing the innocent. We
know all the time that there arc men of
noble natures thoroughly cnslaved by the
appetite for strong drink. We know that
when they are struggling for freedom to
tho utmost of their onfecbled strength,
they cannot walk tue streets on errands of
lawful business, but the dens in which
their tyrant watches, open upon them and
lure them into more dcbasinG bondage.
We know that mothers and wives, with
some of whom wo have acknowledged the
bonds OF Christian fellowship and helpful.
ness, spend days and nights in agony,
guiltless. helpless victims Of the inelnper.
ance ofo others.