The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-04
TEMPERANCE AND CITIZENSHIP.
Rev. Dr.. Marines Discourse Before the Wom-
ans Christian Temperance Union.

toward the Temperance Reform, at Central
avenue Church, on Sunday night, before the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union The
Journal publishes it by request of a vote of the
audience which heard it, After discussion of
the right of woman to the suffrage, Dr. Marine
spoke as follows upon the special topic for the
evening:
mo more effective organization has ever ex-
listed for the promotion of any reform in any
land or at any time than the Nomans Christian
Temperance Union. With God, home and native
land inscribed It's banners, and with total
abstinence and prohibition for its watchwords it
is doing more than all other organizations com
bined in the educational, moral and Christian
departments of this noble reform, to manufac-
ture public sentiment that shall, ere long. be
crystallized into a prohibitory law in this and
every State in the Union. But women cannot
vote hence we must turn attention to the
citizen, the Christian citizen, and there we may
ask 90 you vote as you pray!
Ouce to every and nation comes the moment to
decide,
In the strife Of truth and asehood for the good or evil
side.
Some great cause, Gods new Messiah offering each
the bloom or blight
Parts the goats upon the left hand and the sheep upon
the right,
And the choice by forever twxt that darkness
and that light.
Hast thou chosen 0 my people, in whose party thou
Ere the doom from his worn sandals shake the dust
against olfr land.
(Which side are you on? You are a component
part of this government, and your voice. vote and
influence form part of its administration. This
nation must live or die in some measure by your
decision You are a custodian OF power. Presi-
dents, cabinets, armies and nayleS are your ser
wants. Hence the Importance of your decision on
this great question. 1t reaches you.
You can not dodge it. It fastens upon you, and
you not shake it off. It is the question, the
live issue, that sends its tap roots to the very
foundations of domestic, social and political life
Ignorance of this issue is willful and therefore
culpable. Neutrality is cowardice; stupidity is
pitiable No intelligent man can open his ewes
to the attitude and his ears to the menace Of this
great organized whisky foe without being CON
WINGED that he is the greatest enemy of our
Christian civilization. l claim that he is anti
American. He strikes at Puritanism he
sneers at Christianity; he defes law and pub
lie sentiment; he would subvert the ends of our
government by substituting license for law and
libertinism for liberty under the specious plea
for personal liberty" He is, in my Judgment
to test our government as it has never been tried
before At this hour we confront foe that is
entrenched in every hamlet, town and city
of this republic a foe that marshals
to his support ignorance. prejudice pas
sion, lust immense peeuniary resources.
high social influence, and a great, if not at this
time, the dominant political party of the nation.
He is thoroughly organized and completely
drilled. He is naughty, insolent. defiant, and
satanic. Now in the face of this foe, what is
duty2 1t seems to me that this is no time to
sing paaans over our former victories. or to be
contending over the spoils Of our former con
quests. 1t occurs to me that the best way TO re
tain and keep our laurels bright is by graphing
as bravely and periodically with the foe of to-
day as we have with the foes of the past If
our splendid record on the battle field of the
past has been rewarded with political prestige
shall not be likely to keep our record pure
and our prestige untarnshed by any line of
policy that shall waver or falter on the battle
fields of the present; especially so Nhenthe great
patriotic end is in view, namely, the unity and
supremacy of our American ideas and Christian
civilization.
"If our long and costly conflict with armed
rebellion was for the supremacy OF these ideas,
then, under the providence of God, we We're veto
rious, but the results of our victories are meas
ured not only in the defeat and humiliation of
the foe, the emancipation of the slave and the
maintenance of the Union; but there must
come out of this late struggle and | believe
there does come out of our magnificent military
andscivic victories moral courage by which we
are to conquer more powerful and more sub
tie foe than ever traiied our flag on Southern
soil. And it is this moral courage that is now
rallying TO the standard of liberty under law;
and wherever it rallies there will be victory and
glory, and whoever rallies with it will be found
on the winning side. In the onset there may
be surprises and temporary defeats. But when
the dormant energies Of this Christian nation
are fully aroused King Alcohol will bite the
dust.
IAN irresponsible suffrage is possibly our mis-
fortune. A popular election gives to every Judg-
meut equal discretion and to every conscience
the presumption of equal innocence, but in fact,
many are good enough to vote who are not wise
enough and some are wise enough but perhaps
not good enough. Our constitutional fathers
doubted not the existence of good and wise citi-
zens, to whom the whole problem of self-govern-
ment might be committed. They were mistaken
only in this: that the men best qualified to vote
We're not as likely to do so at all times as the OPP
posite class. We believe that now there
10
all the interests of the cause if they would only
turn out and do their duty to God
and their country. When good men put
voting by. the side of praying, American
you know, that suffrage is child of Providence.
If so, it not only gives the good man an oppor-
t1nity to vote right, but it is also Gods
opportunity, through the agency of the
good man in casting his vote. An abiding
interest in voting cannot be main
tanned unless we eXalt this question to
the plane of Christianity. Every Christian cit
iZen should be a missionary at the polls. He
should feel that the responsibility of represent
ing Christ at the ballot box rests upon him.
But what are the political parties going to
do about this question: 1t remains to be seen.
What are the legal voters of the temperance cause
to do2 For one, l cannot vote with any party
that espouses the cause of the rum-seller. Mel
Their can vote for a man, in any party, that is
engaged in the business that is friendly to it.
As a Christian citizen will not be dictated to,
| directly or indirectly, as TO now L snail
vote, by the social, commercial political
interests of the rum power of this nation.
Furthermore, | stand committed to the cause of
prohibition and total abstinence. If this cause
goes down, for one am ready to go down with
it, If it goes up l shall rejoice with exceeding
great joy A religion that should omit to say its
best word and do its best work behalf of the
| temperance reform is, to say the least Of it.
| seriously defective No man can cast himself
into the Christian system, and profess to be a
Christian, and at the same time aid and abet this,
the most prolific source of all crime. The times
of such ignorance God winked at, but now he
eommandeth all men everywhere to repent
II would especially invite the serious and
thoughtful attention of young men, first voters,
to the consideration of this subject There was
time when the abolition of slavery called for
the courage and fidelity of true Christian men.