Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-07-22
Woman's Duty in Temperance
Work.
IBy Mrs. A. B. Owen, Barton. Published by re-
quest of the w. G. L. U. Convention at
Derby. Vermont

Derby, Vermont.
Mrs. President, Ladies and Gen,
Hemen,-The youngest Union in the
county sends greetings to this con
vention. We are very ignorant OF
what is expected of US, and unaccus-
toned to your methods of work, some
of us were quite unwilling to assume
any responsibility; yet we are glad
to be numbered with you to-day, and
quite proud of the sisterhood from
whom we claim recognition. We
hope by patient perseverance and
open declaration of our principles to
win a worthy place in your ranks
and accomplish some good.
1t is the life work of some to scat
ter broadcast the seed; some to nur-
ture and tend the maturing grain
others sing the joyous harvest song
and garner the golden sheaves some
may serve the reapers or mingle
among the cleaners, while others in
life's great bivouac, can only stand
and wait and pray! Who shall re-
ceive the greater reward, for each
did what she could? No one who
fully understands the claims that
christianity has upon every individu-
al member of Christ's kingdom can
ignore the great need of temperance
work, or place any obstacles in the
way of any who are doing it. Every
this giant monster can be throttled,
our free institutions are in danger,
and christian effort is not accomplish
ing what it ought.
The pulpit, maintained at great ex-
pense, can not reach all the classes
for which it is especially designed.
The Sunday School can not rescue
all the needy ones, for the parent
has an influence to prevent it. Our
public schools are insufficient to coun-
teract all the bad influences of homes
where only sin and vice are witness
ed; where our youth are trained (if
trained at ally only to lives of vice
and crime. Therefore to strike the
root of these great social evils, and
prevent their rank growth, there needs
to be the combined effort of the good
in all moral and religious lines of
work.
Christianity is system of morals
devised and planned by Him who
knows every human need. Its code
of laws is the basis of all human law
and the bar by which their justice is
determined. 1t is the training school
of the world, and those nations and
individuals who embody most of its
principles in their lives and practices
are the most prosperous and happy.
The most marvellous effect of chris
tianity among the nations of the earth
is the elevation of woman. The first
step, wherever introduced,i is to break
the chains of bondage that have bound
her for centuries, and teach her that
she, too, has an immortal soul, for
whose care and training she is alike
responsible with men. 1t teaches her
that she has an intellect to be cult
waited and capable of great expan-
sion; that she has a heart, whose
best affections can not be rightfully
trampled upon.
In short, it has raised her from a
slave to an equal, and enthroned her
beside man as a companion and tru-
est friend and counsellor. In the
light of these facts, what is woman's
duty? Is it not to help in every great
and needed reform? Christianity ele
Yates men physically, Intellectually,
morally, spiritually; therefore one is
dramatically opposed to the other.
This woman's christian temperance
work had its conception and birth
among the consecrated women of the
churches, who, when they began to
understand what Christ had done for
them. in the outbursting gratitude of
their hearts, sought to devise means
to send this marvellous light to the
millions of their downtrodden sisters
in heather lands, who had never heard
so much as there be a Christ to save
such as they. In this work they
were not opposed by men. They
said, "let women work among and for
women, for this is their legitimate
sphere" and the germ of their plant
ing has now become a tree, whose
leaves are for the healing of the ma
lions. But when these devoted wo-
men stood before crowded confer
ences in public halls, and pleaded
with an eloquence and pathos before
unknown, for oppressed women, those
who had opposed said humbly: "Let
them be our teachers" Woman, with
her newly awakened strength, was
not slow to enter the swiftly opening
doors. She felt the need of the Christ |
less millions in foreign lands, and |
soon her awakened sympathies and
womanhood reached out
for the millions of freedmen and poor
whites in our own land. Then her
helping hand was extended, and her
warm heart embraced the thousands
of neglected ones who are annually |
crowding our shores, seeking for |
homes in this country, (which they can
not find in their own. So the woman's |
societies were organized |
alongside the foreign-wheel within
harmonious union.