The Press., 1893-06-01
w. C. T. U. DEPARTMENT.
Katherine Lente Stevenson, in Union Signal. What is the Relation of the w. 0. T. U. to
 the Church? .-

I
 A short time ago one of our most val uable Massachusetts workers was asked by clergyman why she did not "give to God" the time she was giving to the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Upon her quiet suggestion that she con- sidered she was doing just that in giving time to the W. c. T. U., the answer came -"Impossible: there is no avenue for growth in grace except through the church."
 This somewhat high churchly sentiment, though uttered by follower of John Wesley, and not, as might be supposed, by an archbishop, coupled with the re- mark we not infrequently hear from cler- ical lips when pressing the claims of our organization, .there are so many socie- ties; they take all the time, strength and money of my people; they have nothing left for church work" has caused me to wonder, whether in reality or in seeming, the work of the Woman's Christian Tenn perance Union stands asopposed to church work. If it does so in reality it is most serious charge against our organization, and an argument not easily met why it should no longer exist. For, whatever may be our individual opinion as to the mauner in which the church has fulfilled it's mission in the past, or is fulfilling it to-day, there can be no question that to the church belongs the highest and holiest of missions; therefore, whatever flinders her in it's performance, whether by inter- posing direct obstacles, or weakening her force, should meet with reproduction rath- CT than encouragement and support from all true friends of the church of Christ. But, if this opposition exists in seeming only, then it is time the apparent antag- onism was removed, and the real relation between the church and the w. c. T. U. made manifest.
 It is undoubtedly true that the multipli- cation of societies is a thing to be depre- cated. It is undoubtedly true that there are many societies which hinder the church in it's highest workings-societies organized for an obviously trivial end,- but it is also true that there are societies l which prove the most powerful of allies to the church in all it's aggressive movements, without the cooperation of which the church of to-day feels that 1t cannot do its best and highest work. In proof of this assertion witness the cordial welcome the | church is according to missionary socie- ties, to the Y. P. s. G.. E., the Epworth League, Kings Daughters, etc.
 | But is the Woman's Christian Temper ance Union such an ally? Most heartily do we of the white-ribbon army believe that it is. So far from it's existence in any community ieopardizing the work of the church, we believe that is necessary factor to the highest efficiency of any church. So far from being something apart from the church, opposed to the church, it is the vital principal of the church itself, brought to it's highest po- tentiality. . l And this brings us to two questions: | 1. What is the work of the church? 3. What is the work of the Woman's l Christian Temperance Union?
 What is ''church work ?" The Master, the great founder of the church, said to l His disciples: "The works that do shall ye do also." What vera those works i? The angel who foretold His birth declared
 'Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins" When He began His public ministry and declared in that synagogue of Nazareth [:
 To-day hath this scripture been fulfilled | in your ears," what were the words to which he referred? What, indeed, but those clarion-like utterances of Isaiah 1? "The spirit of the Lord is upon me. be- cause he has annointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliv- erence to the oaptives and recovering of sight to, the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord"
 Did ever the founder of a new regime set before himself a more comprehensive program, or one that involved more abso- lute destruction of existing forms, before he could hope to compass the construction of new ?-opening of prison doors to the captive; giving of sight to the blind and liberty to the bruised bearing good tidings to the poor, and, if we turn back to Isaiah for the full text, we find it carries with it also the binding up of the broken hearted the comfOr ting of all who mourn, the giv- ing of ''beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."
 We, in this age of the world, looking at this declaration, see how absolutely i'm possible it would be for us to carry such a program into full effect without striking at the very foundations of many of the most cherished structures of our social and political life. How must it have seemed in society eighteen hundred years ago, where not a ray of the Christ principle had as yet shone? How it seem- ed let the priests and the phariSees, by their treatment of him, answer. They knew that the program of His kingdom ! Y1Q SnhunrSinn nf hni own, and therefore they hate Him. Not because He claimed to be king of the Jews l-they would have focked to king like Cesar who should have borne the Jewish lstandard-but because he was such king 1 in such kingdoms kingdom whose ab- solute righteousness could mean only the overthrow of their own unrighteousness. | And yet men tell us to-day that Jesus Christ was Saviour and not reform err" and, in the calm repetition of this statement, they seem to consider that they have effectually settled the claims of all reform work. A Saviour and not re- former! Can the terms, in their truest meaning, be divorced? What made Him a Saviour? Because He saved. From
 what? "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins" How? By two-fold operation ; | OhAOu&A PNtoAA6 @ AOW 1AAO PAAuSAPAO AAtO the heart, and then causing that life prin- ciple to work out through the destruction
 of all the old death-dealing systems.
 A Saviour and not reformer One must blot out from the record of Christ's life all mention of that visit to the temple
 when, with a whip of small cords: he
 drove out the buyers and sellers; one
 must forget the many times when, face to
 face with the pharisees and priests, He
 denounced their rself-righteousness and hy- pocrisy, calling them 'whited sepulchers'
 and "blind leaders of the blind;" one
 must forget the heroic zeal with which he
 overthrow their own petty interpretations
 of the divine word and the divine purpose
 one must forget the blow he struck at
 that most cherished Jewish institution
 when He declared: .'The Son of Man is
 Lord, even of the Sabbath day; aye, and