St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-05-07
Annual National Reform Con
VentiOn.

wall Oubu COHl DduIOH.
Annual National Reform Con-
vention.
The annual meeting of the National
Reform association was held on the
2Ist and % ult., in Pittsburg, the Hon.
Felix r. Brunot, presiding. Mr.. Bru-
nOt's opening address was a defence of
the Bible in the common schools, as
justified by the history and actual char
acter of the nation.
The report of the executive COM
mittee showed that four district secre-
taries had been in the field during the
year.
The report of the corresponding sec
rotary outlined work which had been
done in defence of the Bible in the
schools, and for the suppression of
sabbath Dissertation.
The financial reports showed a total
of s., 15l.85 received during the past
eleven months.
Addresses were delivered before the
convention by prominent men from va
riOus parts of the country, including
Rev. S. w. Dixie of Vt.
A touching incident of the cOnven-
ton occurred in connection with the
address of Prof. McAllister. Among
other perniciOus results of the theory
which regards civil society as mere
arrangement of men, and in no sense
divine institution, the speaker showed
that this view strikes at the roots of
patriotism. NO one perils his life for
il railroad corporation. Who would
make such sacrifices for banking as
sOciatiOn as the state continually asks
of her citizens The whole nation to-
day watches in prayerful sympathy by
the bedside of one who led her armies
in the struggle for the life and the
unity of the nation. Others make
even greater sacrifices in espOusing
some unpopular cause, and labOring
through reproach and opposition to lay
broad and deep the moral foundations
of the nations permanence and well
fare. Can forbear to allude to the
record of some whose voices we have
been wont to hear on this platform,
and may never hear again, and whose
lives have been one long and sublime
illustration of this truth 2" At the
conclusion of his address the presi-
dent asked DR.. McAllister to lead the
convention in prayer for the dying he
he had alluded.
The Rev. Mr.. Dixie, in addressin g
the convention noted the existence of
this Association as one of the note
worthy signs of the times. The effort
of modern society heretofore has been
largely in the development of the
rights and interests of the individual.
Now we are constrained, by the pres
sure of various moral questions, to
study the rights and obligations of so
ciety. As to the necessity of reform in
the divorce laws of the country, he
presented a startling and instructive
array of statistics, showing the rapid
increase of divorces in proportion to
marriages, the increase of crimes
against chastity, and the lax and con-
t1icting legislation of the several states.
The remedy, he thought, was not to be
found in national divorce law, which
would indeed relieve the conflict now
existing between the laws of the states,
but would not, probably, raise the
average standard of legislation. 1t
seems wiser to seek the enactment of
better laws on the part of the states
themselves.
Much attention was given to the
question of the national mail service
and the sabbath. Facts and figures
laid before the association showed that
this form of Sabbath Dissertation is
rapidly increasing, the number of
towns at which mail is delivered and
the pOst-office is kept open on the sab
bath is much greater every year, and
the post-office is increasingly resOrted
to, even by Christian people, on the
Lords day. Some hundreds of thou
sands of officials and employees are
constrained by the regulations of the
postal service to labor on the Sabbath
1t was resolved to direct the efforts of
the association very largely in future
to the discOntinuance of the mail ser
vice on the Lords day. The creation
of department for the suppression of
Sabbath Dissertation, by the WOman's
Christian temperance union, as well as
their work for temperance, was hailed
with profound satisfaction, and their
cooperation was invoked in the work
referred to.
The Constitution of the society was
amended so as to recognize existing
efforts 'to corrupt the family" and
''the legal sanction of the liquor traf-
tic" among the evils which it is organ
lied to oppose, and needed reforms
in the action of the government touch
ing the Sabbath, the institution of the
family, the religious element in educa-
ton, the oath and public morality as
affected by the liquor traffic and other
kindred evils" among the specific OBJ
jects which it seeks to promote.
The Hon. Felix r. Brunot was re-
elected president, with list of two
hundred vice presidents from nearly
every religious organization and near
ly every State and territory in the
Union.