The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-29
NON-P0LITTCAL TEMPERANCE.
An Address Before the WOmanS Christian
Temperance Union, by Rev. I. A. Goodwin.

tan TEMPERANCE Union met Yesterday at Moores-
Vile Morgan county. By invitation Rev Thomas
A Goodwin delivered an address upon the pres
ent phase of the temperance work. The ad
dress is given in full:
Since the morning Of that first day of the
week which witnessed a small company of de
voted women IN great sadness preparing specs
for embalming the body of departed friend.
the stars in their courses have seldom looked
down upon sublimer spectacle than has been
seen to-day in the deliberations of these brave
women who, true to their purpose as the needle
to the pole have been considering what step the
exigeneies of this hour require them to take
But they have not been preparing spices for en-
baIming the dead. Quite the contrary. Their
friend is not dead nor even asleep, but only pre-
pairing to start afresh in the vigor of young man
. hood passing from fields already famous for vic
tory to push on the battle to certain triumph;
and these women have bee consulting to-
day as to the best means for promoting
the cause and Fastening this triumph. On that
loug-ago morning the men had all weakened
Even Peter, the noisiest of all, who, only few
days before, had most solemnly asseverated that
he would rather die than play the coward. and
who had displayed his valor by cutting OF the
ear of an unarmed servant, had demonstrated
his constancy by following his captured Master
at great distance and then frightened by
little girl, declaring that he never had been one
of them, anyhow. and confirming his falsehood
by some amateur cursing and swearing. just
now the average temperance man has taken TO
the woods, while a few that a little Drawer
follow their cause hut it is far in the rear, while
not . few deny that they were ever temperance
men at all, and they are not slow to enforce this
denial by some irstclaSs swearing and some
very bitter cursng. Not so these women. Hav-
ing prlt their hands TO the temperance plow. they
never intend to abandon the work until the
whole field is not only upturned but sub solled,
and the earth shall bud and blossom as a rose,
and golden harvests of universal sobriety and
home joys shall abound where now are found
nothing but the thorns and thistles, and squalld
poverty which drunkenness always produces.
Impetuous and noisy Peter had thought all along
that he was following an embryo king, and that
therefore he would not shrink from little brush
with an enemy that was sure to be routed. II ne
and his brother should each receive a tiPst-clasS
cabinet appointment under the new adminiStra-
tion but those women. having no such amir
tons. had followed the Master because they
loved him. They were within speaking dis
lance at the supreme moment and now
they were ready to do all that womans love and
woman's consistency could suggest though most
of their hopes had persisted. Few OF the men
were near in the hour of final conflict, and by
that morning they were already discussing the
propfiety, if not the necessity, of returning to
their respective fishing nets and toll gates; for
they had not bargained for a life Of incessant
labor and patient waiting, and no pay. The
present is a crisis of much Importance in the
temperance work. 1t is alarming to many.
The young, land that class of enthusiastic workers
who contracted for o Short, sharp and decisive
campaign which should terminate IN an early
and complete victory without anybody being
hurt but the enemy, are ready, like poor, COW
ardly Peter, to give 1t all up and swear that
they never took much stock in temperance any
way. And this, by the way, they can
well do without being indicted for perjury But
not so with these women. They are welded to
the cause, because tits right and because it
promises good to the world, hence. with woman
1y devotion and constancy they know nothing of
defeat. 1t may be said of than as of the poets
brook: " a-.
Men may come and may go,
But they flow on forever
by the way; the flowing is notan inapt
Illustration of the temperance movement. No
streamlet ever found its way from the springs
Of the mountain to its home in the sea without
many an adverse experience which 1t little fore
saw at the beginning Starting from its birth
place OF the mountain side it imagines that it
has nothing to do but to go laughing and pratt
ting along, until it shall nestle in the bosom of
the great deep. Now it leaps a cataract and now
it gurgles along shallow ripple, imagining
that it is almost home; but soon it hardly
moves at all, so deep and sullen and sluggish is
the current, while anon it is sent whrlng and
tossing in an eddy caused by sharp turn in
the channel. suggesting, for the moment,
that probably no quiet sea can ever be reached.
1t mas been thus from the beginning with our
temperance work. and very often thus with our
holy religion itself For time have fire.
quently gone merrily along, now leaping this
cataract, now laughinely shooting these rapids.
imagining that the millennium of sober world
was almost in sight, but soon came deep, sui
len, sluggish movement, which seemed to be
death itself, when suddenly the whole temper
anee. tide took new departure. sharply turning
some abrupt angle, causing much of our reputed
force to forsake the current and whirl giddily
for a season in the hewildeTing eddy which such
turn always makes in the moral as well as in
the physical world All, these eddysl The
driftwood that gets caught in them is always
thousahd-fold more noisy and self-consequen-
tia for little while than the mighty mass that
hardly misses the few that have turned back by
the whirl, as it goes proudly and defantly to
E.ap4rrv o+s1,r Sow q fO,.
the driftwood Itself, after few whirls and
pIunges, finding that they have been mistaken an
eddy for the channel, they bound out into the
midst of the stream ard, though little belated.
hasten along with the current, heartily ashamed
of their momentarv retrogresslonS
1T may beinstruetive, as stand on the brink
of the latest eddy, to note some of these that
lave marked our history few of entered
upon this work half century ago. We did
the best we knew. We took a pledge to abstain
from the use of spirituous liquors. except in case
of sickness To our short vision this promised a
sober world, almost Immediately; but though we
very generally kept our pledge, many of US kept
about as drunk as ever An investigation re-
vealed that while some of US were always sick
and needed whisky for our stomachs sake,
others often got drunk wine they
could on whisky. This suggested an
amended pledge which should interdiet
wine also. All who in earnest readily
signed this pledge and kept it, but hundreds
who claimed to be model temperance men, hav-
ing the good cause in their special care, refused
1t will surprise the present generation to learn
that chief among these wine bibbers were many
eminent preachers and leading religious papers
The Christian Advocate t New York, then ed
tied by the eminent DR.. Bond, and Bishop Soule
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, were each
conspicuous in denouncing the wine clause as
an attack on the Christian religion and fatal to
the cause of temperance, which was dear to
them; and they hesitated not to say that if not
fatal it had set the cause back twenty years.
This was the first well-defned eddy that we en-
countered and it caught large quantities Of
temperance driftwood, much of which, after a
short period of whrling and tossing in the back
ward current, joined their brethren and
proved true co-laborers, though many
persisted of their wine and stronger drinks.
q, Lot 1rinff nj and