The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1892-01-01
of the bar shut out from Heaven by eter-

Temperance speaks with thousand
tongues, from thousand homes. Hear,
oh voters, and have the courage of your
nobler self when the question is put to
test. Despoil not the royal purple
of your blood bought heritage, but, Ii
cense or no license, saloon or temper
ance coming before your tribunal, pass
upon it with the wisdom of a Solomon,
with the charity but steel-like penetra-
tion of the Man of Nazareth.
This leads us naturally to the immuta-
BILE foundations of eternal truth and JUS
tice on which Local Option rests. Two
forces are at perpetual war in our uni
verse. Love and Hate. Two words
voice the battle cry, "Don't," Come"
'Thou shalt not was the prohibtory
policy that echoed in the ears of the He
brew from the Old Testament. "Come"
is the watchword that reverberates in
our ears from the New Testament. When
frowning Sinai found satisfaction at CAL
vary, the Jew gave place to the Chris
tian, force gave place to love, the law
was fulfilled and the foundation of hu-
man liberty, corner stone of all Local
Option, was laid. Men are not to be
driven, to-day, into righteousness, which
is as immutable under grace as under
law. Men are to be won by self denying,
patient industry, that finds its inspiration
in a Master who is imaged in the lamb,
gentlest of all animals. That Master
gives us the key to the evils that exist,
in his last hours with his disciples: II
pray not that thou shouldest take them
out of the world, but that thou wouIdest
keep them from the evil.' Character is
not developed by feeling, but by testing.
1t is not a mushroom that grows in a
night to wither by day. 1t is the oak
that braves the blasts of temptation,
gathering strength and majesty from
even the fury of its besetment. We too
often think that if our pet enemy was
displaced, be it an appetite,a saloon or a
brothel, that Paradise would be regain
ed. The root of the situation lies in the
evil heart. Think you that, if every
saloon were abolished tomorrow (Ieav-
en- speed the day., there would be no
intemperance? Shut off from drink, the
drunkard would be equally Incorporate,
without a change in heart, as a glutton,
libertine or sot of some kind.
He who who said that Man was not
made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath
for Man, might doubt if his gracious
"Come" was echoed as often from the
church that opens its doors but once a
week as is the cry of the saloon that is
ostensibly open six days in the week,
though counting the seventh day its best
revenue. Nothing is too sacred to far
Their the ends of true righteousness and
peace and the church is recognizing this
in parish houses, halls and winsome
means of touching Mans social life. No
one has right to forbid an evil who
does not offer virtue to take its place.
Nature abhors vacuum, in morals as
elsewhere.
Our civilization says "Don't" from a
thousand stony jails, from the gallows
and by its Gordon of police. This is al
prohibitory, Jewish, antique. Love shall
yet seek to reform instead of Furnishing
to soften the heart and influence charac-
ter. 1t shall seek to uplift the erring
brother, the weak sister. 1t shall echo
its Masters, go and sin no more in
stead of branding its culprts for deeper
infamy and crime.
Rut in cfrif Of T I,to
the victory is no less certain because
Love wins and Hate busters. All pow
erful forces in Nature that work out the
Almighty purpose of the Good, True and
Beautiful are silent forces. How gently
the sunshine and showers fall upon the
responsive earth. How gently wifely,
motherly love ministers to the objects of
its affection at its best estate. On the
other hand, how harsh and cruel the
clamor of strife and war. How repulsive
the brawl of the saloon, the bestial drunk
ard. But because we must tolerate an
evil that We cannot dispossess, we need
not fall its victim, nor can we hope to
drive it out by frenzied words that drown
It's own lupDuD. LiSleil Will El!1du at
Horeb, as the lghtnings aud earthquake
pass by; but God is in the STILL small
voice. Elijah was discouraged at the
evils of his day, but God was not and
foretold their downfall.
Love and Hate, Light and Darkness
war in deadly conflict to-day and shall
war for ages yet. A thousand years with
the Almighty are as one day. Could the
generation that has seen Slavery prac-
tically wiped from the earth expect to
see another as great advance 10 its day?
Should it despair of the final outcome of
any good cause after such an object les
son to faith? 1t is because the Saloon
ministers to Hate, infiaming the evil pas
sions of human nature, that its 'Mene,
Meme, Tekel, Upharsin,' is certainly
written upon its walls.
Let us first ofall be entrenched in Love
ourselves, with charity as wide as an
erring world, but with a devotion to
principle that knows not faltering nor
doubt and then, winning neighbor by
neighbor through Local Option, let our
faces be set toward that Frightening
dawn when the Earth is the Lords and
the fullness thereof.-[R. Fl. Smiths pa
per at Town Hall Symposium.
A Maine Missionary.