The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-02-04

tiousness and crime flourish.
Now, had all protesting Christians
been true to their church vows, and
never faltered in their allegiance to
Christ, would we have this revolving
picture to look upon Would dark and
ominous shadows drift everywhere ?
Is it not true, do we not feel it to be
true, that if every man who has given
himself to Christ in baptism, or has
eaten and drunken with him at his ia
BILE, had stood for him on all days and
in all places, had always champiOned
the right and warred against the wrong,
had carried theseligion he professed
into the market-place, the shop, the of
fee, the caucus, the election hall, the
assembly chamber, the judges seat, as
well as the church and the prayer
meeting the public heart would be
purer, the public conscience more ten
der, and we would rejoice in the abound
ing of righteousness that exalts and
saves community or nation
Who doubts, who can doubt, that the
liquor traffic becomes so proud, arrO-
CANT, insolent, dominating parties, die
tating terms to candidates for Office,
bribing courts, corrupting juries, and
unblushingly demanding the right TO
increase its ravages, already more terri
BILE than those of war, pestilence and
famine; who doubts that this traffic is
what we have described it, does what we
have asserted, because cOuntenanced,
licensed, perpetuated by the silence, in
difference, votes, if not the speech and
patronage of protesting Christians !?
Who doubts that if the members Of our
American churches all stood forth on
the side of their Lord, and were of one
mind and heart in the expression of
their loyalty to his service, not decade
of years would pass before this traffic
would be swept clean off the land, and
the places it has made very dark be full
of light j.? How plain, therefore, that
many of these members, instead of
putting their baptismal vows, their COW
enant pledges, into practical forms,
into living deeds, content themselves
with only the mockery of Christian
profession and instead of adhering
unflinchingly to principle, and so living
and doing as that healing and helping
grace goes out from them, they turn
away from Christ to shake hands with
the devil, if he come in any fair guise,
and to make party or money, or popu-
ular favor a god TO be worshiped!
| We know a village of fifteen hundred
inhabitants, in which there are five
churches - Presbyterian, Methodist,
Baptist, Universalist, and Catholic
with an aggregate membership of not
far from seven hundred; leaving out
the Catholic, a membership in the four
Protestant churches of about six hun
dred. Say that of these only four hun
dred reside in the village, but as many
more are within near range of their in
fluence. Leaving these out of the count,
a majority of the adult population are
! Christian professors, or members of
churches-as voters they are a maj iority.
And yet the place has three saloons,
with their concomitant evils, because
members of the five churches voted to
have them, and influenced the votes of
others to this end. Yes, while women
pleaded with them to act the Christian
part and pronounce against license
with a decisive nay; and while men
who had been well-nigh ruined by the
saloon, and whose homes it had desc
lated, were arraying what manhood
they had left against it, these Christian
professors cast principle to the winds,
and on the ground that the saloon
would bring trade, joined the liquor
men in voting the setting up of the
abomination of desolatiOn > in their
midst, thus making themselves respon-
sible partners in a business which the
Bible pronOunces accursed.
We are not to suppose that this viii
lage is very different from most other
villages, or that its churches contain
more unfaithful and disloyal professors
than are found in churches elsewhere.
And a lack of adherence to principle on
the part of professed Christians, is in
stanced only as showing, that while
such lack leads often to the enthToning
of wrong and the Endorsement of in
famies, were. all of whatever name,
sect or creed to unite in the recognition
of Christ as the highest standard of
action, and to earnestly set about max
ing their inner life like his, "a divine
fountain of principle" the vital ques-
tions which now disturb and plague
would be easily solved, and the gigantic
evils which appall would soon disappear.
| The word of the Lord would then have
free course-it would come home to the
business and bosOms of men-it would
be lived out in all practical ways, in
every sort of well-dOing- and cOmmun-
tiles would receive their highest possi-
BILE elevation in all that is great and
good. In the growth of individual
souls, the increased spiritual stature of