Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-01-08
The ADVANTAGES AND MOTIVES
OF GOOD TEMPLARY.

/ lCOhllnuth
The mission of the lodge in uplifting
manhood and womanhood and making
the world purer and better is so near
akin to the work of the church that the
question is often raised by the Director,
OF what use is the society; why not the
church do this work? With all rever-
ence to that God-ordained body, of
which | am member, and with thought
full respect for that vast number who are.
themselves safer from the deadly in
fluence that surrounds them, say that
no organization, the church included, is
so well able to cope with the adversary, to
protect its membership, to seek out and
bring those astray into the temperance
fold as is the order of Good Templars-
why? do you ask. Because there is
more hand to hand and less arm s-length
work, more specific and less general
oversight; we watch over our member
ship; if brother or sister falls. we suf-
fer them not to lie in their miserable.
condition; we not only help them up.
but oblge them to be restored, assuring
them that if they are one with us thew
must be one OF us.
Now do not misunderstood me. am
speaking of the church only in relation
to the temperance work. There is no
antagonism, there is no rivalry between
Good Templary and the church. AS
Good Templars we would hail the dav
when all were safe within the fold and
we would have nothing to do but to
rest in the embrace of the church In all
its perfection.
History reveals the fact that from the
S,OOO,OOO who have been and are Good
Templars 100000 were confirmed drunk
ards, one-half of whom have remained
true to their pledge and become honored
and respected citizens. Can any other
organization point with pride to such a
record?
Are there not, can you not see menu
bers of Gods glorious body who have
no regard for the temperance reforms
whatever and whose greater sin might
be less if it stopped with cider drinking,
and yet the church suffers its members
with their influence to 60 unmolested.
Shall the church say because all are not
saved through and through, that God
accounts our work as naught? VIII II
not rather welcome the cleansing of the.
sin of drunkenness? Oh, yes: we are
working together, each in our way, for
the same end until the dawn of the per-
feet day.
| remark again, another advantage of
Good Iempary is its pledge of total abb
stinence.
(a 1t is lifelong.
(J) 1t is ironclad.
Earnest in its nature, imperative in
its requirements and lifelong in its dura-
ton. \ principle that is once right is
always right. TO the Good Templar the
pledge never loses its binding force: to
break 1t never releases the promise.
make my obligation TO pay on certain
day certain sum. | fail to pay. NV
pledge is broken, but my obligation to
pay is still binding. Thus is Good
Templar's vow "lifelong in its DURATION;
death is the only release.
comparative in its requirements" 1t
puts forever in the background that
question which so often dlsturbs and
NNHhNho AhC VI SOlue So
cieties. As to when a man NAV and
may not be Incorporate who INDUCES in
the lighter drinks; we are not society
who mop up the slop; we cut the tap,
we make the bung hole of the cider
barrel as unrespectable as the tap-hole
of the liquor-cask, and the man who
hampers with his sweet cider pitcher, or
hands it to his brother, rs guilty of a
breach of his obligation as the one who
drinks from the cup.
To be Concluded.