River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1883-04-26

shalt thou do with thine oxen and thy sheep,
seven days u shall be with her dam, on the
eighth day thou shalt give ii me.
Here we see direct command OF God to
bring alcohol as an Offering to Him. How are
we to understand the conduct of these teach
ers of political christians claiming to teach
the Bible, like Bishop Ireland, when they
use such language a. he used in ilis lecture
at Minneapolis setting forth his license plan,
the most vicious have ever seen, not as
honest as prohibition? He starts out by
stating truth to sugar-coat great deal Of
wrong principle and ialsehood- He uses
the following language: "Man left to himself
is creature Of his passions. It is only I'M
der Gods guidance that he can live prop
erlyn From this language we would infer
that he is in favor OF Gods plan; but look
further along where he says, "Law of itself
never creates virtue. it helps sustain and
foster it. Can law crush alcohol? no more
than it can crush all other crimes and er-
rors. " Now God being the maker OF al
things and without Him we are told nothing
was made that was made, now when men get
so drunk with passion to govern their fellow
man that they attack God in this way and
charge him with being the author of crime
and error, it is time for them TO stop talking
about his guidance. Man could no more
create the alcohol that God commanded him
to fetch as an Offering to him than he could
create the lamb, and there was just as much
crime and error III one as the other. There
could be no crime in either. But the cumming
OF these men that are drunk with passion to
govern, is in trying to defeat Gods plan OF
iree-agency given to man. under which, with
His guidance man can learn to govern him.
self and be free and happy IN this world, by
transferring this free-agency from man to
something that can't be an agent and can't
commit q crime If they beat God they will
then be able to govern man as we do brute
Ireland speaks of law and virtue. What
kind of virtue is it that can be fostered by
law9 If the human being happens to get
where there is none OF this fostering law then
good-by virtue. Now there is but one way
that we can account for these different reme-
dies for intelnperance There is no issue on
the evils of intemperance that the friends OF
prohibition talk SO much abou. to rouse up
and blind the ignorant to make them take
their remedy, and the ignorant cannot see
beyond their remedy We are creatures OF
education and can see no further than our
education goes We are all equally honest.
Now the first step from barbarism is mon
archy, the same as a child under parent
being ignorant of these great principles
that Blackstone speaks of he will want pro-
hibition as his remedy. The man who has
taken the second step from barbarism taris-
tocracyl will want license--freedom. This
man is governed by two Of the strongest pas
sions of the human heart and the worst when
not controlled by that higher knowledge OF
our nature. The frs. man was under the
control of the passion to govern his fellow
man, the second is under the same and the
love for money. Here is where Bishop Ire
land stands. He does not appear to have
glimmerlng Of those higher principles. al
though he slaps God in the face as the author
OF crime. He viii sell that crime for money
enough, to the rich, thus corrupting the
rich that they may rob the poor for their
reformation and good He no doubt under
stood the workings of his plan as Ireland has
been kept poor and ignorant, and governed
on that plan by inst such men as Bishop Ire
land for centuries, and must be highly re-
formed and immensely good.
(To BE coNTINUED.)