St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-04-08

= nance hear his terrible blasphemou
I expressions as they escape from his
i lips; gaze upon his rolling eve and be-
, hold his CONSERVATION as he imagines
bis room is filled with snakes and dew
ills. Notice all this, and then tell me
where the drunkard shall go.
Here rest my case. | trust we are
all agreed, that total abstinence from
all deceptive and deadly intoxicants is
safe, sound and scriptural. 1t is plain
to me that the law of God in our bod
les and in his word, that is, common
sense, science and the Bible, all tell
the same story, and bears the same
testimony, "Touch not, taste not han
die not that which intOxicates." Here
| stand. This is the doctrine preach
and practice. Thus | understand ma
ture and revelation, and here | mean
to take the stand of a Luther. Many
of you, if not all, stand on the same
platform | do, that of total abstinence
yet Luther at the Diet of Worms, stood
alone in taking his position in regard
to religious liberty. See him The
entire power of the papacy was COM
bined to crush the rising heresy in the
time of the reformation. The ecclesi
astical council of the empire was as
sembled. There was Charles ", the
most potent emperor of modern times,
with numerous princes and mobiles, and
the representatives of the pope. Now
the obstinate monk must retract, or
the fate of John Huss is before him.
He was allowed to speak at length in
his own defence. At the close the
spokesman of the Diet addressed Lu-
Their angrily saying, "YOu have not
given any answer to the inquiry put
to you. You are required to return Il
clear and distinct answer. Will you |
or will you not retract 2" There was
the brute force of an empire and a hi
erarchy attempting to crush the hon
not the opinion, then the man. Lu
hands. But he unhesitatingly replied,
"Since your most serene majesty and
your dignitaries require of me a sim
Pile, clear and direct answer, l will
give you one. | cannot submit my
If | am not convinced by proofs from
the Holy Scriptures or by cOgent rea
sOning, | neither can or will retract
any thing; for it cannot be right for IA
Christian to speak against his con-
|
no more. God help me !" Then and
there was laid the cornerstone of the
reformation.
We as Good Templars, and other
temperance workers and organizations,
in this and other lands, are engaged in
another reformation. We have under
taken, with the help of God, to reform
the drinking habits of society. We
protest against many of the social GUS
toms of modern society, as Luther pro-
tested against much that he saw in his
day that was wrong in the Christian
church. 1t devOlves upon US, and
others like us, to say what shall be the
future history of the temperance re-
We are to stand firm, and
occupy no doubtful position on the
great question before us. We are to
do all we can to keep the burning
waves of incompetence from sweeping
farther over the land. Let us try to
stay its onward work yea, to sweep
it from the land and world. | call up !
on you, in the name of our common
humanity, and | know | do not call iD
vain, to arise in all your vigOr and put
down this enemy of God and man, the
church and state. We need warm |
hearts and willing hands. The mon
ster with whom we have to contend, is
more powerful than kings and emper
DIS, and will not be defeated without a
struggle. [ am sure that the work in
which we are engaged will ultimately
succeed, and that intemperance will
De driven from the world. We may
5eil long against the evil, but victory,
am sure, will eventually crown our
abOrs for ours is the cause of God
md human happiness, and would re-
1ect glory upon the angels, were they
to engage in it with us. In
voking, then, the assistance of God let
is do our duty well, and then when
he course of human life is run with
Is, we shall look back upon our efforts
20 stay the tide of crime, and save our
with high and holy salts
action.