The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1898-03-18
Town TOPICS.
''The Mysterious Love and
Rum.
g W R. A SUGGESTIVE WRITER

quest Ons he touches. 1t seems as though
he might be saying to himself. at is
80, and you can't help it, and really it is
none of my business anyway" There
philosophy. suspect however that the
secret of this habit may be found in his
theology. "God is love, he saya, sgain
and again. 1t is a grand weird! But
love of what? Surely not the love of
everything without any distinctions.
The divine love is not maudlin feeling
which looks upon ain as joke, and crime
as mere difference Of opinion among
men. God is good and not evil, true and
not false, pure and not unclean. He
loves righteousness and hates iniquity.
There is nothing SO pure, so true, so
good and so perfect as the love of God :;
and for that reason there is nothing so
exscting, severe and terrible as the wrath
and hatred of God against sin and al
evil.
The more like God man is the more
surely and the more strongly he will
hate lying, stealing, murder, adultery
and all the catalogue of sins and crimes
and evil conditions of fallen and degrad-
ed humanity.
1t Is a sad mistake for any one to
think that God is so good that He will
not punish sin, and that he does not hate
! iniquity. Because God loves US He will
most surely punish US for our sins and
He will make no excuse and take none
for our evil doings.
Love then in the divine sense of the
word is the highest, purest, truest mani
festation of life. Love is pure and spir-
itual. Lust is Of the flesh and Is impure,
sensual and deviish. Our little Eng
lish word is much abused being not only
applied to the natural affections and the
spiritual aspirations, but to the selfish
desires of the soul and the appetites Of
the body. There is the love of God, the
love of the truth, the love of the beauti-
full, and then the love of money, the love
of power, the love of rum, and so on.
The true love of the sexes like the
pure love of God is born of the soul and
spirit and Is not a mere matter of appe.
lite and animal attraction. Love is the
life of the heart and mind in all our re-
latiors to God, to each other and to the
natural world, and is the great divine
principle of our created nature. But
true love carries all with it, body, soul
and spirit, completing the being and
character of both the lover and the be-
loved. Men and women should there
fore love and marry not as mere animals
impelled by the appetites and desires of
the flesh, but as immortal children of
God bound for the realms of eternal
life.
Perhaps this is what my friend G. W.
B. meant. but he did not follow up the
suggestion which he has made more than
once.
A word more about the drink question.
It makes me sad to have Noah, that
great, brave preacher of righteousness
brought into this discussion, because /
think he was innocent and did not mean
to get drunk, and probably did not know
that the fermented juice of the grape
would have any such effect. There is no
evidence that know of that he ever did
so again. His previous good reputation
should save him from any such suspic.
ion.
And then that advice Of st Paul to
Timothy Take little wine for thy
stomach's sake and thine often infirmi.
ties" A little wine taken as a medicine
has no necessary connection with the
drink habit. There is no excuse or Piles
whatever In it for drunkenness, or TO
the habitual use of Intoxicating liquors
II no one In this town drank more thar
that there would not be enough of thu
drink business to support q single bar
A little home made wine wonld be al
that would be used. My friend fails tx
make the most important distinction o
all:--drinking ga little for the SAX
OF health, which ID normal, temperate
and private, and drinking for pleasure
excess and intoxlcation are two very dill
terent things. The one is normal ami
respectable, the other is immoral and de
!, grading, the world oyer.
Yes, greaG men have been drunken
All the more shame But how mucl
greater and better they might have bee
but for that sinl Daniel Webster wa
: great but not altogether success. Gi
did not enoble his character nor max
him immortal.
Byron was considered moral NOR
ster in his day. southey, poet laureat