The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-02-22
THE FREE PARLIAMENT.
Is the Church Responsible?

the taSnlOn among certain tefnpefduce dRl-
tators to not only bitterly arraign the Re-
Christian Church as responsible for the
continuance of the saloon curse. / have
done great deal of hard work in the tenn
perance field through twenty-five years of
public life. IL has been my set purpose to
ever do and say much against the saloon.
Ny record will do me credit in that line II
in no other. But men and women who
have no record, or had little, in any real
work to end the domination of the saloon,
have aricon, whose staple of talk, private
and public, is wholesale condemnation
OF Christians and the church.
Among other statements have heard
in temperance speakers (most of them
given in churches, too in the past five
wears are the following: I'VE hand the
Bible to the heathen with one hand and
the rum bottle with the other;" "the
saloon exists by the liberation of the
church," 1.-The liquor traffic is the product
OF Christian legislation" 1t has come TO
pass that with the very spirit of the ac-
cuser of the brethren. iflanguage indicates
anything, thousands of self-styled temper
ance advocates launch more bitter invec-
tives against the church than they do
against the saloon. A woman by the
name of Gleason for several years past has
been giving lectures in churches aud Y.
NJ. G.. A. halls all over New England on
''Who is Responsible" i heard il IA year
or two since, and in that lecture she states
in substance, that the church is response
BILE for the saloon evil. With play Of
words on the text, Curse ye Meroz be-
cause she came not up TO the help of the
Lord against the mighty" she made out
such case against the church as left you
with the impression that saloon keepers
were less obnoxious to God than Chris
tians. Said 81 e. God did not curse the
Canaanites, but he did curse Meroz "
Then, with sarcasm and ridicule and
excoriation, she assailed the church, and
maintained that the church was response
BILE for the use and sale of strong drink.
Strange to say she was applauded-and
i'm the house of God at that-to the very echo
and stranger still she is yet giving that
lecture; only this week gave it in Provi-
dence. She takes pay of church members
To defame the church.
This makes me think OF the pamphlet
saw in early childhood with the title The
Church the Bulwark of Slavery" On one
or two isolated facts, the author of that
pamphlet predicated universal afiirma-
tive as libelous and defamatory as the
statements of the aforesaid person and
thousands of others, male and female, Just
like her.
Now, the church is a human institution
and Christianity alone is divine. The
church being human is imperfect, and l
do not claim for il anything impeaceable
or infallible But If IL be responsible for
the use and sale of strong drink" il it
does give the Bible to the heather with
one hand and the rum bottle with the
other;" if 1.-The liquor traffic is the product
of Christian civilization" then IL is an in
stitution TO be denounced unsparingly. 1t
fosters, coddles, promotes the gigantic
crime of crimes" Ii is in league with the
DEVILS best ally. In short, the church is
anti Christ. 1t is foul with corruption 1t
10 of nh Lot FRA
ducers stand by the logic of their promises.
Let them cease to eat the bread and but
ter of the church. Let them no longer be
seen in its gatherings and conventions and
conferences; sharing its feasts, partaking
its honors and fattening on its stores.
Can they not hear the voice: Come
out of her, nv people Did l believe
half of what | hear them assert / would
feel compelled to withdraw from church
membership at once. Some OF them eX-
claim against that. Why not leave the
church the same as they do a political
party if the church, of which we may eX-
pect better things, is Shiny and stenchful
with such iniquity as they charge it is ?
Where is their consistency, j ask
They have need to grind their grist finer.
If they know of any individual case of
completely with this overshadowing evil
of our land and the world let them pursue
the course prescribed by the Great
fault between him and thee alone" II
that fails then use the farther steps and
withdraw from church fellowship with
the man and proceed TO expulsion OF the
man from the church. IL he drinks or
sells or votes To give license TO sell. there
ought to be church law that will result In
his reformation or expulsion, and in our
great protestant body of Christians (the
Methodist Episcopal church, there is such
law. But even in case of failure to eject
such persons, even though there he a con
siderable number of such persons in the
various denominations, IL is "a high impu-
tation and an unjust one, to say THE
church is responsible for the eXistauce and
continuance of the saloon among us. D."
For over twenty-five years have studied
the liquor problem and wrought in the
temperance field, using both moral and
legal methods principally the moral Il. e.
Christian) because / never expected ultl-
mate deliverance from the drink abomina-
tiou except by the use OF moral suasion,
aided by prohibitory law adequately en-
forced. by the law is the knowledge of
SIM not the cure; the cure comes only by
the gospel. THE law is "a terror to the
evil-doer;" but will not absolutely prevent
his evil-doing. / rejoice In law SO enforced
that 10 becomes a terror TO wrong -doers,
but il can only make il hard for them to.do
wrong, not impossible. Only the gospel
will change the evil-doer into right
doer: doing right because his regenerated
heart prompts only To that The police
mans club has not yet proven magic
wand TO exercise the demands of passion
and vice from the souls of men and never
can. Law, courts and prison cells are not
reforming institutions, though they an
swer SO great need in restraining men
aud protecting society from the pcrils of
criminals at large
IL is an absolute fact that gospel tenn
perance work" as we used TO call IL, has
delivered i'm the past decade. A great
deal, yes, most Of the means and energies