The Monitor-register., 1897-09-10

IVY E-S@
equAi''y 10 all respects as fully lcog-
nizsd.
IL was q saying of George Fox, the
eminent founo7r of the Socity of
Friends, that one good man woull shake
a neigbborhood fte ten miles around.
We must remember that in tb earlier
times the words good and eanest were
practically Synonymous, and ttat a good
man in those days was always understood
20 be an earnest man. 1 aprehend the
reason that n mau or woman or ten do
not shake their respective Asighborhoods
SO often now is because thy are not as
earnest as they were then.
We must have that e.rnestness that
will necessarily incur m,re or less re-
proach and censure from conservative
people and even the chary, Of ianaticism,
for, let me ask, have lot all effective
leaders in moral reform cen 80 regarded
and characterized at sne time during
their labors? Can we Expect otherwise
than that We shall receivl our share of it
II we do our duty via the zeal and
earnestness of the truly good man and
woman? According to Scripture, we
must be Jealous in good works, ferUent in
spirit serving the Lord. And blessed are
ye when men shall revib you and psrse-
out! you and shall say al manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake, for so
prosecuted they the prophets which were
before me.
1t is with pardonable pride, l trust,
that l refer to the fact hat my maternal
grandfather was the firstfarmer In Mont
gomery county, Pennsylvania, to gather
his harvest without furnishing strong
drink to thel aoorers in his fields at that
time. The older citizens of this and
other communities recollect we'll when
the universal idea was that alcoholic liq
doris were indispensable at harvest time
They have lived, however, to see the Cut.
tom almost universally lone aw a with
Some one had to commence this reform.
Those who did were regarded as imprae
tical aud foolish.
My grand father has often related to M,
his experience in this respect. How he
was told by his ~neiehbors and friends
that he was crazy to shink of undertak-
ing such a thing. That he would lose
his crops of hay and gram; that he never
could get the help to gather them if he
did not furnish the accustomed liquor.
and that it would serve hun right to lose
them if he per sisted in his course. But
nay grandfather was a gooG man of the
old school; the question VITA him was
not, Will it pay Is it e~xpedient? Will
l be unpopular? Will people ridicule me ?
but that other question born in the heart
of every sincerely good and earnest man
and wOman-ls it right? And with this
question answered he peIssvered and
trusted in the Lord while he did his duty.
lie shook his neighborLood for more than
ten miles around. Ths stand he had
taken was discussed far and near, but he
succeeded admirably in his course. After
3 while others tried it with like success
and the new order finally prevailed
throughout his own and adjoining neigh.
borhoods,
Many reforms of which we are with
good reason proud to-day were accom-.
plished by our ancestors through much
tribulation. They made great sacrifices
for the right. were vilified in their day for
their earnest devotion to DUTY in settling
the great moral and religious questions OF
their time, and we see now that they
were wise beyond their generation, and
now all honor and glorify them.for what
they did.
Most of us are content 10 be as good as
the age in which we live, Il we are that,
The earnestly good mans standard is no,
measured by his surroundings and tht
popular thought, but by his conviction.
of abstract right. 1t is because of thu
first standard that so many ministers ana
church members pray temperance ard
vote rum. 1t is not unpopular at the
present time for the so calied good man
to do this. 1t is unpopular for a man O
standing in the community socially, and
politically in the dominant political par.
ties, to talk and act what may be prop.
erly termed Uoting temperance. Asthat
lightning which is unacoompanied by
thunder has never been known to be de,
structive, 30 the liquor traffic will never
be destroyed by a temperance work mac
companied by the ballot.
l mentioned the name of Lucretil Mott
and | have thought that if the wallis Of
this the most venerable house of WORSHIP
in our town, hallowed by the associations
clustering around 30 ancient a place OF
worship, could speak they would set your
hearts aglow with q fervor Which 1 can
only hint at, as they told you o.
the feelings aroused by Lucreta Mott OF
this very spot, when it was in the mindl
of some members of the Quarterly Meet
ing assembled in this house to 20 to hel
in this gallery as she was speaking in he
quiet way, but with an eloquencs of fire,
upon the subject of Anne rica1 Slavery
and carry her from the building on ac
count of her radical u~tterances forgetting
in their zeal for expediency the command
of Scripture. that the minister of thu
gospel should seek to undo the heavy
burdens and let the oppressed 90 frse.'
Nor was this feeling of oppression con
ined to the body of the meeting. There
were instances of it here in the gallery
for after this occurrence an emirbnt min
lister of the Society of Friends speaking
in this same house, referred 70 the dis
course of the great woman lealer which
had raised such a oommotion and sale
that her expressions on that OCCASION hai
polluted these walls. The slavery ques
tion, so formidable then, has been settled
Lucretia Mott lived to witness tie down
fall of the acc cursed system, 70 see re
proach and abuse give place to ionor ant
praise, and to know that her name wal
enrolled with the great Mans in on
country's history.
The great moral question which con
fronts us aud especially the chuDh is this
temperance issue. A few weels ago thu
leading temperance organ of ,ur State
said: "The black rot of alcoholhas eater
into the fibre of American manhood. L
has blighted and blasted the farest lives
by the poison of it's unhallowsd touch
Its Shiny tail has wound its wsy through
the halls of justice. the marts of trade
and even made its way into the house Of
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