News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-03-23
Extract From a Sermon.

The following extract is from a
sermon by Rev. c. A. Huntington,
delivered in the NJ. f. church, at Eu-
reka, Cal, on Thanksgiving day ; four
congregations being present. Mr..
Huntington was formerly pastor of
the Cong'l church at Johnson:
The most fragrant and the most
formidable of all the wrongs that now
afflict society and cmbarrass civiliza-
ton is the whiskey power. This nigh
ty incarnation of the devil goes about
as a roaring lion, seeking whom it
may devour. 1t stands indicted and
convicted of every crime known to
law, both human and divine. 1t lays
its ruthless ak at the root of every
beautiful tree that religion and law,
that education and refinement, that
domestic love, parental solicitude and
filial affection plant along the pathway
of human life. 1t is the enemy Of
our peaceful homes. The assassin of
the manhood of our sons and of the
prosperity of fathers. 1t makes wives
worse than widows, land children worse
than orphans. 1t fattens on the groans
and sufferings, the sweat and tears OF
poverty. 1t fills prisons with felons
whose arm it has nerved for crime !;
asylums with lunatics whose reason it
has dethroned, and alms-houses with
paupers whose money it has stolen,
and lays in the grave 100000 OF Its
victims in the United States annually.
1t maintains all gambling hells and
houses of infamy, and furnishes the
sickening pabulum of all police ga
zettes. 1t levies upon society seven
Fights of all the burdens of its munic-
ipaA courts, and other defenses against
crime as well as for the support of its
alms-houses and asylums. 1t dictates
terms to all political parties, makes
and unmakes our rulers, cnthrones
presidents with bait, and dethrones
them with q bullet. 1t transforms
with its leprous touch the fruitage of
our vineyards and the cereals Of our
harvest into poison, while millions
starve for bread. 1t dictates values
in our markets, and intwines its in
sinuating and blighting power into all
the texture of our commerce. 1t de-
fies God, paralyzes conscience, makes
war on the church, and is in league
with hell to hedge up the way into the
kingdom of Heaven, and turn the feet
of the very elect into the downward
way to destruction. 1t stands con-
victed even at the tribunal of its own
conscience without plea or apology.
For God has put his law into the in
ward parts of every man, and written
in all hearts the fiat, that the whole
nefarious business is wrong. That it
is evil and only evil and that contin-
ually. And it no more needs the
ken of a prophet now respecting
the doom of the whisky power, than
1t did twenty-five years ago concern
ing that of the slave power.
We have now made more progress
against the whiskey power than we
were conscious Of having made TWEEN
ty-five years ago against the slave
power. The law written in the hearts
of the people has been transcribed
more or less distinctly to the statutes
of several of the states. Maine has
been enforcing that law for 80 years,
Vermont 20, and other states have en-
forced restrictions that operate more
or less in the same direction. And
Kansas, the old battle ground on
which was fought out the question of
slavery extension, has written the law
in ineffacable characters in her state
There is clear be-
ginning. Revolutions never go back
ward when God begins them by put
ting his law in the inward parts of the
people. The states are very much
like flock of sheep. When one
sheep leaps the wall, a second follows
and soon the whole flock vie with each
other to see which shall get over first.
Kansas has leaped the wall and cross
ed the chasm. Her action is sustain
ed by the highest courts, and there is
no power in earth or in hell that can
ever induce her TO retrace her steps.
Maine is sure to fall into line. YER
mont will soon follow, then a few
western states, Michigan, Wisconsin,
then all New England,
then Indiana and Ohio, then California,
whose Sunday law puts her long
step in the right direction, then the
south, for we are learning that some
good things come out of Nazareth,
one by one, will fall into line until the
of this great people will trans
fer the law that God has written in
their hearts, in the form of an am
mendment to the constitution of the
United States. Canada, too, will fall
into line, and if we are not on the
alert will get the start of US, for God
has put his law into their hearts as
well as ours. Then Mexico it may be
hoped will soon take on better hui
mainly and follow suit when the day
of jubilee will have come, and a con-
tinental thanksgiving be proclaimed
to Him who writes the law of right
eousness in the hearts Of the people.