The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-03-16

is as 1mmedSuTdDle DIS t0e QeDL OF d InOlleT
to her child. owe, if the call come, even
life itself to the well-being of humanity.
He MafloyetA his netgh6oyh hath fnlflled
Tie ka7v. That is: Love prompts all the
active endeavors which the righteous law
imposes by external authority. The man
who really and unreservedly loves his fell
low-men can do 10 man real ill he will
do to every one all possible good. The
law to him will be needless because he will
anticipate its prohibitions and injuactions.
This is the application of Christian
ethics to the temperance cause: 1. AS
human being and child of God l owe
love and help to all my fellow human be-
ings, my fellow children of God; and am
imperatively forbidden, by the law of hui
manly and the law of God to work any i'll
to any human being. 2. To drink alco-
holic beverages, however moderately, is
by the influence of example to wrong my
own love of men; it is to work i'll to my
neighbors who have become, or are in
danger of becoming, victims of intemper-
ance; to sell alcoholic beverages would be
to selfshly seek personal good by work
ing inevitable harm to others. 3. There
fore will practice temperance and stand
always and everywhere for the temperance
cause.
2. The Christian should live in
the Light which the Gospel Radi-
ateS,-vs. II, IL.
Ind this, he says,-that is, you should
live righteously, -kn07Oine the season. The
season, Paul implies, is prophetic. There
has been long night of oppression and
sensualism. The common understanding
has been beguiled; the common conscience
has been asleep. But this order of things
is passing away. A quickening light is
being shed abroad in the Gospel
1T is high time tor y0N, says Paul, to
7Oake ont of sleep yfo' no70 is SALVATION
nearer to as than aOAen ne first 6elie0ed,
or than we have hitherto believed, tile
night is far spent, the day IS at hand
The moral of this prophecy is: Let us
therefore cast off tie avorks Of darkneSs,
and let as Put on tie a,-Uzoy Of light Let
us, in our inner experience, be as those who
in the morning, arousing from sleep, battle
and clothe themselves for life in the reveal
ing light. AS the Roman soldier in the
morning puts on his brass armor for battle,
so let us in the spiritual dawn now at hand,
put on our spiritual armor, the transparent
armor of light
is there now such moral crisis ap-
preaching? Is the drink-habit to be over
come? Some confident prophets tell us
the morning is already breaking, when men
will arouse themselves from their moral
lethargy, and drive the demon Alcohol out
of the world. Other prophets, while con-
hdent of the result, look for it only in the
far future. Our faith is that whether the
day of victory for temperance is near or
far, it is in Gods time sure to come.
But the lingering moral night is dread
full. More than billion of the hard-earned
money of America is every year offered to
the idol Alcohol. A hundred thousand
human lives yearly end in drunkards'
graves. Drink is destroying more homes,
more lives, blighting more hopes in Amer
lea than the Civil War caused in its fiercest
period.
Can we desire this state OF things to con-
tinue? We in Gods name prophesy the
coming day when the power of animalism
will be broken; we will do whatever we
may to hasten by ever so little its tardy
coming
3. The Christian Should ExaIt
the Spirit and not the Flesh,-vs.
IS, ID.
Let as z0ak honestly, as in tie day.
When one has in himself a consecrated
love of the Father and a consecrated love
of men, an inner light shines forth On all
things. One lives then in the foregleams
of the day of which he has seen the dawn.
He will love all good things. He will re-
joice in everything helpful to human wei.
fare. He will be found, as by instinct, on
the right side of great moral questions.
The whole moral realm will be spiritually
illuminated.
Conversely, the one who makes an idol
of his animal nature lives in deepening
moral night The procession of evils will
come into man in natural sequence. The
evil that overthrows his moral purpose will
be naturally followed by other evils, as the
deeper night follows the evening twilight.
1t is this alliance of evils that makes in
temperance parent of sin and crime.
Note the family of evils mentioned by
Paul. Ist. ReVelling and drunkenness.
Fix your eyes on those who become ad.
dicted to drink and spend their nights in
carousals and go staggering home after
midnight. I'd. ChaM6ering and 7Vant0n.
ness. AT this stage of intemperance the
sanctity of home love is lost. The woman
illness of woman is forgotten. The indie
scribable pagan obscenities, to which Paul
here alludes, are coveted. Unmentionable
crimes may now be expected. sd. Strife
and jealousy. The worst passions have
come to the front. Murder takes root in
this SOIL Jealousy, unreasoning, brutal,
will here thrive. Revenge will rise to
dominance. The revolver, the stiletto,
poison, suicide, are the natural outcome of
this moral insanity.
The first glass of intoxicating beverage
is an invitation to all this family of evils.
Bit pnf ye on HE Lord Jesus Christ,
and make not proOiston for tie flesh, to
.fnLfI tie laSkS thereof Put on the OK