St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-12-06
'Glte TaIedonia1t.
WOMAN IN THE TEMPERANCE
REFORM.
J.E. Rankin. d. D., in Chicago Advqnce.

strong, woman is weak. And God
says, eve that are strong ought to
bear the infirmities of the weak, and
not to please ourselves" But instead
# of that, in this matter the weak bear
the infirmities of the strong. The bur-
dens which come upon woman from
intemperance, come through man; man
with the strong muscles, the great
brain and the body of an OK.
1t is man who makes the law which
legalizes the liquor traffic; it is man
who keeps the liquor saloon; it is man
who drinks the liquor; it is man who
shows his utter Incompetence to deal
with this great evil. | speak as a man.
Think of the obligations which the
# Gospel puts upon man as a husband:
"Husbands, love your wives, even as
M Christ also loved the church, and gave
b Himself for it, There is the standard:
The dying Christ Think, now, of the
man who drinks up his daily earnings,
who makes his wife and children poor,
Ne who houses and feeds them worse than
IA Though they were paupers or cOnvicts,
Nj whose advent into the household circle
creates terror and dismay. And do
III you wonder that Christian women rise
# PIP in behalf of their oppressed sister
womenf A man stands up with the
M woman of his choice, and takes upon
& FlIim the vows of Christian marriage,
VT and asks the minister of the Gospel to
N give him Gods benedictiOn, and then
sets himself 1T work to desecrate home
and make it the abode of sorrow and
ri want; to make that benedictiOn mock
ery
This is wOman's work for woman;
but II Is also wOman's work for man.
H. 81. l.
bear the burden of the strong. | want
RI to make this especially emphatic: WO-
man does not originate the evils of in
III Temperance; she has 10 hand in max
n ing laws or enforcing laws. The max
WI ers of law and the executive officers of
law are men. She is regarded as disa-
bled by her very sex from sitting in
Legislative halls and approaching the
IA ballOt-bOx; though she is infinitely bet
Nj ter fitted for these functions than many
# a man who is allowed to undertake
Ne them. In the main, all the entrench
ments of the liquOr-traf1ic, all its digni-
81 ty-if it deserves such title-all its
"a support, comes from man. And, in the
main, all the desOlatiOn and woe rests
IA upOn woman. And SO this worm wO-
# man, whom man treads upon, turns to
N God for deIiverance. This is the secret
VI of the WOman's Christian Temperance
e Union.
But, woman is in this work because
q she Is more like her Master than is
man. The law of sympathy, rs be-
tween woman and woman, impels her.
N The law of self-sacrifice also. We
read of the Son of God that "though he
was rich, for our sake he became poor,
# that we through his poverty might be
made rich" This is the law of ex-
Fl change in Christian work. What we
III give up for others we can impart to
them; nothing more. Christ gave up
Fl heaven; this il why he has heaven to
q give to yOu and me. The women who
are engaged in this Christian temper
ance work are among the best women |
Il ever knew, the purest, the most chival-
Vi rOus, the most heroic, the most Christ
III like. There was the wife of DIR. Mason
Noble of Washington, who almost lit
orally laid down her life in this cause
of the best parentage, the highest
culture, beautiful, dignified, queen
among women. And she is Il represen
tative of these Christian women, as
II have known them. | can mention
name after name of them, whom any
y American man might he proud to call
4 his Christian sister, whose fervor and
4 the work of reform. | have heard
Sumner aud Everett and Wilson and
Il Garfield and Blaine, and do not hest
Il tate To say that there are women on
H the platform of this cause who, as CO.
gent reaSOnerS, are every way their
j equal; and their eloquence comes not
from far, it is in the cause.
These women are not engaged in
this work because they are ignorant or
Il over Jealous, or carried into it by some
side issue that appeals to their ambi
ton. They are in it because, before
Il God, they cannot do otherwise A.; be-
Il cause a woe is on them if they preach
A not this Gospel, if they pluck not these
II brands from the burning. All many
ii of them have made vow to- God, in
Il the presence of some dead victim of
the traffic, very dear 20 their souls.
Judge no man. | only say this ::
A that IN generation where liquor
n drinking has wrought such woes, it
N becomes every Christian man and wo-
n man to lay even their liberty in the
q Lord ut the foot of the Cross. For, if
we have this liberty, it is to be used
i'm harmony with the Savior's errand
here Our Elder Brother had this
liberty, tn remain in his Fathers house,
the Father before the world was. His
coming here was his own act: His
life, his death. This is the manner in
which lac used his liberty.
Woman is in the cause of Temper
n ance IN this spirit. | know it by the
n prayers she offers, the burdens she
takes up, the sacrifices she makes.
She leaves her own home to- build up
the broken down affairs in the homes
II of other women. She does this for her
Masters sake she walks in his steps,
signed with his sign, sealed with his
seal. Single handed and alone, she
81 encounters the chief devil of them
all; the kind that goes not out but by
prayer and fasting. And no Christian
man can afford to lie Indifferent, or a
mere spectator in this struggle. To
take this attitude must benumb all his
tender senSIbilities ; must tempt him
to be untrue to the Lord who has
bought him with his own blood. Can
any man who is the blood purchase of
the Savior's love, live upon kind OF
Mount Of TRANSPORTATION, happy in
himself, happy in his home, happy in
his security, when he is aware that AT
the foot of this mount some other man
or some other mans son, or some other
mans brother, is in the gulf of the
great temptation, is so possessed oi
this devil that he is sometimes cast i'll
to the fire and sometimes into the
water and sometimes turns the hand oil
his Infatuated strength against the wife
whom he has sworn to cherish, or the
children whom he has begOtten and