Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-02-22
Responsibility Of Christian Men.

Who holds the patent right for the manu-
facture Of public sentiment Is 1t the
chartered prerogative Of drunkards and de-
bauchees TO create a sentiment that shall be
higher than the law Far from IL. Chris
tian men in this land are the makers Of pop.
ular sentiment. This city has not 80 slipped
from under the power of Christian infu-
ences that its popular sentiment can fail to
follow even to the last letter the rule pre-
scribed by these churches in relation to pub
lie ard private morality. Christian men
have more power than all others combined
to establish the definitions and the rules of
morality and to prescribe the customs Of 80
ciety. Let Christian men hate evil as they
ought then we should have no need to dis
cuss the validity Of the argument TO which
| have referred the premises would be want
ing, there would be no argument left. Chris
tian sentiment is sovereign here in our
social life, if it will only take its scepter
and claim supremacy. Christian men can
establish social customs, under which not
wealth nor talent nor political power shall
be taken az bribes and passports of vice.
The doors of polite fellowship can be effec-
tually closed to men whose personal char
acter is notoriously corrupt Let society
regulated by Christian hatred of evil enact
as an inflexibe rule that nothing shall be
accepted as an equivalent for vrtuous char.
acter, then vice will lose much of its power.
To exclude men of scandalous life from the
gatherings for social entertainment, is not
the dictate of a pharisaic spirit; it is only
the law of Christian integrity. The sin Of
the Pharisees was not their outcry against
vices it was their participation in the vice'
which they only pretended to hate; it wa
the sin of hypocrisy added to the vice they
condemned. Christian fidelity in the hatred
of evil will moreover demand the suppression
Of vice by the law. There are crimina
whom nothing but law can restrain. Chris
tian men can have any laws that they desir,
against vice; legislation is so much unde
the control of Christian sentiment that i
will always yield its aid to the support o
social morality. But having secured tn
enactment of laws for the suppression o
vice, Christian men ought to secure tn
enforcement of the laws. The same divin
commission that calls men of Christian
character to suppress vice calls them to use
when needful, the instruments that the lay
furnishes for the purpose. They are charge,
with the duty of maintaining the law, an,
are placed under heavier bonds for the pei
formance of their duty than those which an
officer of human appointment confesses.
is common to accuse of treachery an office
to whom the state has entrusted the excel
tion of criminal law, if he evades his duty
But before Christian men give currency t
such an accusation, let them see if the
have not themselves first to blame. Thei
obligation is from higher source and unde
more sacred authority than his. 1t
their duty not only to assure him of thei
support in any of the difficult undertaking
of his fidelity, but also to assure him wit
equal positiveness of their uufaltering oppc
sition, if he makes his office the scree
rather than the terror Of vice.-Dr. Stafford
Sermon