Sword and shield., 1885-10-24


fact-a vltllizing agency in a mans
life-till he has tested it by expert
ment. If he wants to know whether
flowing liquid water may become
solid, he believes it only when he
sees it turn to ice, and has ifathomed
the reason why. If woman wants
to know if milk may become butter,
she churns it and sees, then that
fact is no longer speculation to her
mind, but an active, practical truth
-perpetuating itself in her daily
life, and in the life of others, be-
cause it is a living truth-in the in
finite pounds of butter eaten on all
our tables. So with moral truth.
Emerson says, "What truth you have,
live it, and SO have more" AS with
the individual, so with the ages.
Only that much of any truth is true
to any age as it is able to apprehend
it, to weigh, to measure, to appropri-
ate-therefore, to live. If truth is
lived it is living therefore growing.
Not that the Interchangeable fact is
growing, but that as the yitalizing
principle, its assimilation by our
selves is making US larger, so as to
hold more of it. And so each age
of the world ought to know and live
more of all that IS true in science,
in morals, in religion. And our age
is learning great truth to-day, as
it has never known it before-is
evolving it out Of the experiment of
the past-and this is that the church
of Christ ON earth is, not a .Theolog-
ical School, but our Fathers house,
where we look into his face, and
learn to read His will when we sit
beside our Elder Brother-Christ-
so close. that his heart beats for the
humanity He so believed in that He
died to save it, have at least been
heard by us. And we have grasped
the truth that our fellow-man, in the
church and out of it, mus be re-
claimed from the curse of intemper-
ance; that this lettering, this en-
slavement of the individual and
national soul by intoxicating drinks,
IS blot on our civilization-a hu-
initiating woe upon our Christianity.
Another great truth this age is
learning, is that God has called us
women to the accomplishment Of this
reform. What the Liquor Crusade
was Of 1874, we who know it only
through the papers, are perhaps un-
able to judge correctly. Certainly
| it was mighty emotion that led re-
fined women from their homes, to
kneel in the ice and the snow of the
streets, to pray for the closing of the
slntrodden saloons, until men some
times by persuasion, sometimes by
force 0flaw, sometimes by conviction
closed them by the hundreds. Nc
doubt much that was unwise, much
that was fanatical was done-as is
always the case where imperfect hu
manity aggregates itself for action
But if it had been Of man, as of old
it would have come to naught. AnC
the fact that out of it has grown
well-organized, systematic, noble
work, which at more thana decade
distance of time, is still growing and
enlarging, proves that God was il
it. Over 100000 White Ribbor
Women'of America are daily inereas
| ing their members, and across the
seas, Great Britain, Germany
France, and the far isles of mid-ocear
record their G. z. U. women, il
columns that balance our own
The century that has silently watch
ed the growth of Temperance prin
ciples, has also seen the evolution 0
another of Gods thoughts in tht
:. heart Of the world the broadeneC
education, the enlarged sphere o
woman-until we see ourselves to
day called Of God and man to leat
in this great reform. Everywher,
men concede that to woman belong
the moral reforms Of the world; tha
+ as men are the body and soul Of it
: tangible turpitude, we must look t
/. these who have no money to max
E or lose, no selfish interest to furthe
D in those reformatlons which hav
: their roots in the gospel, "Be y
t perfect as your Father which is j
g Heaven is perfect" On all sides W
see the most conservative Of me
t withdrawing, their opposition to see
e ing women come forward publicly i
!, our work, and those vino once object
f ed, now are linking hands with u
It and bidding us ''gGod speed.''
e | find more holding back anon
# us women, and | think I heard ou
g President say the same. l can syn
It pathize with you in a shrinking frol
J! coming forward. tits hard for Soutl
e ern women to lay aside the prejudi,
% .es of custom, and education. 1t VIZ
q like making me over new to make n
% even think ]. could try to work pul
iicly; and even after | accepted tt
T. position. of Superintendent of Ten
n perance Education for our State,
e kept me awake at night with distre
/! because my name appeared to.
# newspaper article. But there is OF
v thing we cannot lose sight Of, and
o is that all over our land is the mo
ing of a Spirit of Truth over Il
,e great deep Of the human soul, brin
IS ing us back nearer to the apostol
It vision and life for the Christian ths
1t we have ever been before. Wi
IL gentle INSTANCE, it has wroug
le upon the heart Of woman, till :
s. over her0wn land and Great Britai
!" she has risen In a might that com