The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-03-12
TEMPERANCE DEPARTMENT..
EDITED BY THE WOMEN S CHRISTIAN TEN
PERANCE UNION.

EDITED BY THE WOMEN S CHRISTIAN TEa-
PERANCE UNION.
OUR MOTTO: FOR GOD AND HOME AND
NATIVE LAND.
The Church's Relation to Intemper-
ance.
BYP. 4. ROSS.
'sFaith, virtue, knowledge, temperance,
patience. goodness, brotherlv kindness.
charity
So prominent and momentous is the
subject of Intemperance that no one can
he neutral in the matter. II yOuare not
assisting in the conversion Of the world to
temperance. your indifference and apathy
are aiding in it's condemnation. There is
no middle ground. You are either for
God or against Him for humanity or
against it for home OF against it. If you,
as YOU profess, desire National prosperity
and happiness, value uncorrupted firesides
ana honored posterity, your place is upon
the side of Temperance the advocacy
of morality and virtue, and the enthrone-
ment of peace and purity.
It is emphatically the Church's work to
grapple and battle with Intemperance be-
cause temperance as a TeiGtiUe and distinct
Temperance is as conspicuously and in
separately Incorporated into the foundation
of religion as any OF the other graces
which comprise holy life.
No professor OF religion is true to his
God his church or himself, who discards
this great theme-the most infamous ele-
ment ever invented for the destruction of
immortal souls. Ministers who claim it is
not the Church's work to condemn whis-
key selling and whiskey drinking, are false
to the religion they profess, recreant to
| their trusts, and faithess to the commu-
nifty in which they live. If it is not the
Church's work to lead the erring to repen-
lance, in the name of common-Sense why
was it instituted? If the poor, hayward,
| infatuated, heaven-cursed drunkard, es-
| pecially, does not need to be enlightened
and redeemed, what specific class of sin
/ ners did God demand the Church to assist
1 in saving? We also submit that the
| Church discipline should be so amended
or executed that it will debar the entrance
into it's sanctifed fold of every dealer in
liquor who conducts it as business for
gain. Because when man deliberately,
without force or necessity, engages in an
| occupation which spreads common evil,
he should not be admitted into the en-
| brace of any institution, the mere connec-
ton with which stamps him as a man bet
ter than the one whom he delights to
poison when, in fact, heis infinitely worse
inasmuch as he who sells liquor does it of
his own accord and for gain, while he who
drinks it, is forced to it by the insatiate
cravings of a morbid appetite.
Besides, is man who sells liquor from
early Monday morning till late Saturday
night fit subject to entera sanctuary and
partake of those emblems which proclaim
to all the world that he is a true follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ, endeayoring to
dedicate his life anew unto the service and
glory of God
Is a man fit to be called a Christian
who day after day stands behind the bar
and deals out that which he knows is COM
posed of the very drugs that are ruinous
to society, antagonistic to the system and
fatal to life? Had not the Church better
lose few of it's members than that it
! should be made cloak in which liquor
dealers can wrap themselves while they
continue to measure out that which runs
and damns ?
We make this brief and pointed refer
ence to the Church's Relation to Intern
perance because as general thing, church
members are inclined to treat this subject
with cold and stole uncOncern, and
where liquor dealers are included in the
membership of church, its pastor seems
to entertain a decided dread of mention
ing the evils born of liquor, and when
he is compelled to allade to them does
SO in very delicate and nicely meas
ured terms-almost apologies for having
made any reference to them at all.
BY thus treating lntemperance with so
much tender consideration, the very men
who claim to have received commission
to proclaim that gospel, a udta5 part Of
l rrix-
and aid to VOCATION, which, by virtue of
their position, it IS their plain and imper-
alive duty to unsparingly condemn.
We positively deny the right to john q
church to thosepersons whose daily actions
are in direct conflict with their alleged
professions, for God never intended that
His Church should be made "a house of
merchandise. nor used as a means to pro-
mote secular business interests. hi addi-
tioG to this, we insist that if protested fol-
lowers of Jesus are not consistent with
their church VOWS, that their perfidy
should be exposed and the church relieved
of stumbling blocks and heavy burdens.
Those who have one eye half-squinted
at heaven and the other intently fixed upon
earth, are not highly valuable acquis itions
to any religious institution-like those of
| whom it is written: they profess that
they know God i but in works they deny
him. y
Professors Of religion are not fulfilling
their sacred obligations to God and home
and native land,7 unless they diligently
use every effort within their power for the
determination Of the liquor traffic and the
salvation of the drunkard.
God having forever closed the pearly
gates of Heaven against the entrance of
|. an unconverted inebriate. it behooves all
, Christians to faithfully labor for the eter-
, nal welfare of their Incorporate fellow
J men, until vice, with all its clamoring
horde of lecherous votaries, shall have
given place to spotless virtue, and 1.-THE
earth be full of the knowledge of the Lord,
as the waters cover the sea.
Each mans individual happiness de-
ponds upon the interest he manifests for
others, since every man shall receive his
own reward, according to his own labour, =
and
Heavens gate is shut to him who comes alone
Save thou soul and it shall save thine own"
Gods express commandment, Ego We
into all the world and preach the gospel to
; every creature" is positive and simple
enough for any one to easily grasp and
fully understand leavesno room forShift-
ing OF qulbbling, neglect or Sinking, adj
dition or subtraction.
1t has been declared, ''if any man defile
the temple of God, him shall God de-
stroy - therefore, God will not hold him
guiltless who profanes His holy temple with
heartless service and Injuries the progress
of His Church by a total disregard of His
commissions-faill to preach the whole
gospel of Jesus Christ craving and court
ing the hollow plaudits of this world rather
than earnestly striving to redeem the sim
ner, upbuild His kingdom, and advance
His cause.
Ministers are not obeying divine injunc-
tons, when they encouragingly pat wicked
ness upon the back, wink at open trespass
and sin, and artfully contrive to
smooth down the stubborn text to ears polite,
And snugly keep damnation out of sight"
We ina CINE the walls of perdition will
tremble beneath the piercing wall, ''for
years we were in the Church but now we
are forever out of Heaven UTTERED by
those who are calmly sailing through this
life, ION fiowery beds of ease, " needless OF
Gods igid requirements-ca of the
obligatory duties of their profession -un-
mindful of the surging streams of poverty
and misery and gore flowing from the dark,
bubbling fountains of Intemperance.
Oh, God, awaken thy servants to a deep
sense of the great responsibility resting
upon them, and enable them to see Alright
the mighty work thou has assigned them