The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1884-02-08
GLEANINGs AND EXPERIENCES.
BY NEPFLIED.
From Pulpit and Rostrum


WINE Is A MocKER.-Mr. John Hall is re-
ported to have said in his sermon just before
the new year, that g Wine is nothing in itself
and there are men who can take it without
injury 1t has neither moral good nor evil"
He made an eloquent appeal for social prohi-
bition on New Years day-so far, SO good. All
poisons are nothing in themselves-all lntox-
icants are alike harmless when let alone.
g Wine is not essential to hospitality" so
said Mr.. Beecher in sermon of the same
date. He advised the young men to admins
ter gentle rebuke to the friends who offered
them wine on New Years day by declining
it. If the young men and the middle-aged
men that visit, will wave it aside with or
without word, think the moral effect in a
year or two will be such that nobody will
thing it necessary to spread the temptation
before the unwary. DR.. Vandyke says in
paper read before the Ministerial Association
of New York, lately: That drinkers, as well
as vendors, need something more potent than
linguistic persuasion. Some of them are not
likely to be permanently reformed till the
places of temptation are closed. They may
determine to discontinue drinking but with
legalized vendors coming money from broken
VOWS, it is impossible that a majority of
drinkers should conquer the appetite. Will
power is too feeble. The hope of future
good is obscured by the desire for present
qualification. Nor is it worth ones while to
onceal the fact that the cause of temperance
seriously weakened by coneeding that
moral suasion is the only agency at our COM
mand. We thereby give currency to the
opinion that mountaineering is not wrong,
though it is a little inexpedient. Please
desist. Those who regard this as the only
legitimate agency would do well to repeal all
laws against crime, and organize society into
q coaxing fraternity. When man finds him.
self emptied of government bonds by neigh
Dor, let him set to work and coax the thief
not to appropriate his bland dollars also.
If ON returning from his business, he dis
covers his wife murdered by the coachman,
let him cry over, pray with him, sing for
him, and implore him to spare the helpless
children. Nor viii religion, unaided by law,
effect the needed remedy. The only hope of
the drunkard, it may be, is genuine CONVEX
sion. Is this any reason why society should
go on manufacturing drunkards? Have we,
as citizens, right to go on making inebriates,
and then as christians, implore God to undo
the work of our hands?
-
At the recent Baptist Missionary Confer
ence in India, it was resolved that all mission
airy agents and all members of the churches
all intoxicants. Only three dissentionists
voted against the resolution. Ten years ago,
says the Indian Baptist, probably half the
members would have voted against it. But
the total abstinence tide is rising among chris
tian men in India as it is at home.
-.
The Hon. VIM. M. Evarts, the eminent
lawyer, in a speech at late New England
1afI fr,lo
three living questions of the day Polyg-
amy, the Bible in schools, and liquor in
politics" all grandly handled, but we give
the item on temperance only: I'VE come
to question about the cardinal social virtues
of temperance, industry, honesty. Do these
need confirmation? The possession of the
power of labor, and of instruction in the first
elements of education and protection and the
stimulus of all the hardy exercises of these
primary virtues of humanity, were always
insisted upon as an memorable condition, of
the progress and prosperity of the people.
Now, the great problem is, whether from
these small beginnings and this great expan-
sion, this firm and secure edifce for justice
and liberty can be preserved if we allow any
selfish or sordid interest, however vehement,
to encroach upon our demands that the body
of this people shall be kept industrious and
temperate and strong. do not like to see
the power of margins dominating over the
masses. / do not like to see the suffrage
used constantly against the power of the
great mass of the people without regard to
political parties, by combinations of a selfish
kind that are to hold rod over the aspira-
tons of the public men of the country. /
have seen-what / never expected to see in
country like this-a new band of Ii. DIS
League of Liquor Dealers laughter and
applause that are going to determine what
shall be the law and what the methods, as
between temperance and intemperance, in
this country. This is not matter of party;
it is matter of common pride and manhood
of the American people. Now, gentlemen,
while we have all the great glories, all the
splendors, all the pride which have so Justly
been built around the great repute of our
fathers, let us understand that the American
people will never have a heart for all the
glories of this feast if they find missing
from it the bread and water of spiritual life
and health" Applause. And yet another
voice from the rostrum, and that woman's
SO On the tests of all religions who dared
to stand up in Chickering hall and declare
that as woman she did not think the
Bible was the word of God and while she
admitted that there was a good deal of beauty
and wisdom in it, it was not founded on
reason and truth Beware of all such teach
ers and public speakers whether men or
womenl In Col Ingersolrs introduction of
Miss Gardner, he said: Some women were
free, and the woman he was about to intro
duce to them was of that type. The Lord
deliver us from such freedom!