Saved as by Fire! CHAPTER 20.
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How long has this been going on?" I asked of Mr. Granger as we walked away.
"For months," he replied.
"Are the meetings held daily?"
"Yes."
"And always crowded like this?"
"Always."
"And as full of interest?"
"The interest never flags. You see how entirely in earnest these women are, and how completely they have thrown themselves into this work, which has still another side."
"Another side?"
"Yes. Their faith in prayer is unbounded. Some of them take the Bible promises so literally, that they truly believe a mountain could be removed and cast into the sea — if prayer and faith were strong enough. 'Spiritual forces are higher and more subtle than natural forces, and spiritual laws above and superior to natural laws,' I once heard one of them say, while speaking of the power of prayer, 'and can suspend or set them aside altogether, as in miracles; and it is because our faith is so weak, and we ask so often amiss, asking selfishly, that marvels are not wrought by prayer which would astonish the world.' She held that if the Christian people of this city would unite in one strong and persistent prayer to God, He would set agencies in motion that would close every liquor-saloon in our midst, and cause wickedness to cease.
"But there are those among them who keep nearer to the earth, and who have faith in other saving means, beside that of prayer. Who believe in feeding the hungry, and clothing the naked, and building up and sustaining the natural degree of life, so that the spiritual degree which has just been vivified with grace from above, may have an orderly foundation upon which to rest. The other side of this work to which I have referred, has relation to the lower degree of life which rests on the earth, and which must be in some degree of health and order, before it is possible for spiritual life to have sustenance and growth."
"Women have a very practical side, and are quick in their perception of needs and means," I remarked.
"Yes; and what is more, they are quick to act. When they see that a thing ought to be done, they go about doing it; and often while we are thinking and debating — their will has found the way. You remember how it was at the beginning of the war. Soldiers from the North who were landed from the ferryboats at the foot of Washington Avenue to await farther transportation, were found hungry and exhausted, sitting on curb-stones and door-steps, or lying asleep on the pavement — no provision having been made for feeding them on the way. What happened? While the men stood looking on, and blaming the Government for neglect of provision at this point, the women had their coffee-pots on the fire, and out from the houses all along the line of the street, came quickly smoking cups and pitchers, and plates of bread and meat, and baskets of refreshing fruit. You remember how this thing stirred your heart at the time, and the hearts of all to whom it was told the land over; and how, from this good beginning, the refreshment-rooms were started, giving such abundance of good cheer to the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who afterwards went through our city — the new recruits pressing forward to the battle-fields, and the sick, and war-wasted, and wounded returning home to recover their strength or die."
"Yes, yes. I remember well. And the thought of it after so many years, gives my heart a quicker motion."
"Now, as then, the action of the women is direct and practical. They do not stand looking on sorrowfully, and with folded hands, waiting for organized agencies. There are no strong appeals to the public for help, and pauses for response. But instead, an immediate taking hold of and use of whatever means lie close at hand. Food and clothing are gathered and distributed, and cases of destitution and homelessness met and ministered to. If not to the full extent of the need, yet always to the extent of ability."
"That is well," said I. "Prayers are good, but they never take the place of potatoes. A hungry man is a poor subject for religion; and a dirty and ragged one scarcely any better."
"Yes, we all understand this. And it is just here that the great work of reform now going on in our city, finds one of its chief impediments," Mr. Granger answered. "What these devoted Christian women are doing, is as the first spontaneous efforts which were made by loyal women to feed the hungry soldiers who were passing through our city. There was a great blessing in it, but the blessing was limited for lack of the larger supplies and more perfect organization which came afterwards. So now, much is being done with imperfect means; but, as the work goes on, and its results become more widely known, as interest deepens and sympathy grows broader — I look for that liberal and substantial cooperation which is so essential to its success."
"The ardor that now attends this work," said I, "will it not die out? There is a waste of energy, in enthusiasm. Of all excitements, none spend themselves more quickly thanreligious excitements, because they are so intense. The more permanent forces are quiet and almost unobtrusive. In a few weeks the heat of summer will be upon us, and Mr. Murphy will go away. There will be no more crowded halls, no more Sunday morning breakfasts, nor stirring appeals and moving invitations. What, then, is to become of these weak, and tempted, and almost friendless ones who have just been lifted from the slough? It troubles me to think of it. Is the entire cessation of these religious temperance meetings for two or three months, a well-considered thing? To retire from the field and leave the enemy in full possession after such a series of victories as you have had, can hardly be considered good leadership."
"There is going to be no abandonment of the field," Granger replied.
"I understood differently."
"Do you suppose, for a single moment, that the women who are in this battle are going to throw down their weapons, or leave the field for any cause? 'How often will you hold your meetings?' I asked of Mrs. West — and she answered quietly, "Three hundred and sixty-five days in the year.' 'No intermission this summer?' 'None,' she replied. 'How could we leave these hundreds of precious souls, just rescued from the slavery of drunkenness, some of them without homes, or friends, or work — in the very midst of temptation? If any were lost through our neglect, or ease-seeking — would not the stain of their blood be upon our garments? Truly do we believe that God has called us to this work of saving men who, because of their utter degradation through alcoholism, have been rejected by society, and abandoned by the churches. Helpless, hopeless, lost but for the agencies now raised up in the Divine Providence for their rescue — shall we, to whom has been committed the great responsibility of using and directing these agencies, fold our hands and seek for rest and recreation, while so many feet are only on the unsteady margin of the pit out of which they have been dragged, and so many hands clinging to our garments, lest, if their hold be loosed, they fall again? No, no! There is too much at stake.'"
"Brave, true women!" I responded, with ardor. "In all works of Christian charity, they are ever in the advance. But will nothing be done by the men whose efforts have been crowned by such wonderful results as we have seen? Will they wholly abandon the work until their summer vacation is over? The enemy will surely be diligent in his work ofsowing tares in their field while they rest."
"Only this great public demonstration will cease," Mr. Granger replied. "But you may be sure of one thing, the enemy is not going to have it all his own way. Faithful guards, and sentinels, and reserve forces will be left — and he will be held to the lines back upon which he has been driven. When the fall campaign opens, we shall have a more thorough organization, and larger means. So far, it has only been as a skirmish along the lines, compared to the battles which must be fought. We do not make light of our enemy. He is not to be vanquished by a single fierce onslaught, nor by a single desperate battle. All Hell is on his side; and among men he draws his myriads of recruits from the young and the old who have inordinate desires and evil passions, and selfish ends to serve and gratify. Prejudice, and interest, and sensual desire are on his side. He is intrenched behind law, custom, fallacy and appetite. His friends and emissaries are to be found everywhere. In the halls of legislation, in courts of justice, in executive and municipal offices, and, sad to say, often even in the pulpit; though, thanks to the growth of a higher Christianity, his representatives are fast disappearing from the sacred desk."
"No slight enemy, with which to engage in battle," said I.
"As to the ultimate victory, that is very far off. It will hardly be seen in your day or mine. The battle with Hell has been raging for thousands of years, and, for all we can see, will continue for thousands of years longer; and if all Hell is on the side of the liquor traffic and alcoholism — then all Hell must be conquered before they will cease. From this survey of the field, the outlook is not, I confess, a very hopeful one."
"It is as full of hope as Christianity," returned Mr. Granger. "As that gains in strength and vital power — temperance will have an equal gain, for the very life of Christianity is to reject evil as sin against God. An intemperate man cannot be a Christian man, in any true sense, because he is selfishly indulging a depraved appetite which not only hurts his body, but weakens and degrades his mind, and so unfits him for that service of God and his neighbor which constitutes true religion."
"Taking this view, alcoholism becomes a sin."
"Is it the service of God — or the service of self?" Granger asked. "The holding of appetite subject to reason and the laws of health — or the giving of lower and destructive things power over the higher and conservative? Is alcoholism a good, or an evil? If evil, then it is sin."
"What of moderate drinking — the temperate use, as it is called, of wine and other stimulants? Is there sin in this?"
"Sin is the voluntary doing of anything that we know to be hurtful to the neighbor, or contrary to the law of God," Granger replied.
"Then I may drink wine or beer moderately, and be innocent. There is no law of God which says, 'You shall not drink wine or beer.' And it cannot hurt my neighbor. If anyone is hurt, it is myself alone."
"Can you hurt yourself — without hurting your neighbor?"
"Not if my neighbor has any claim which this hurting of myself prevents me from meeting."
"Has the body no claim on the hand or foot? Can either of them say, I may hurt myself if I choose — that is my own affair? Depend upon it, Mr. Lyon, there is no man in human society, no matter how weak, or obscure, or lowly he may be — who has not a service to perform, in default of which some other human being — it may be many human beings — must suffer. Society is an organic unity, in which we all have our places and functions; and society is sick, and lame, and covered with cancerous sores — only because it has so many idle, useless, self-hurting and wicked members and organs in its great social body. Under this view, no one who selfishly indulges in any practice which diminishes his power to serve those who have claims upon him, can be free from sin."
"I see your broader view and your broader confidence," I returned. "Whatever is gained for Christianity — is gained for temperance."
"Amy true gain to Christianity — is a gain to temperance; for to be a Christian man means to be a temperate man," he said. "There is no such a thing as a Christian alcoholic, though there may be an alcoholic professor; for in so far as a man drinks, moderately or immoderately, he is not a Christian — not a free spiritual man, but in bondage to the flesh."
"There are many who would consider such a declaration as uncharitable and unwarranted," I remarked.
"Do you?" he asked.
"My ideal of a Christian man is very high," I returned.
"You would not have him a slave to any bodily lust or appetite?"
"He could not be; for in so far as one is not lifted above these, he is not a Christian. Religion can scarcely be worth anything — if it does not save a man from the dominion of his animal nature. It must reform and regenerate the external, as well as the internal. His very feet, the lowest and most ultimate things of his life, must be washed and made clean."
"I could not express my own views more exactly," Granger replied. As we were parting, he said: "A few friends are to be at my house this evening. I wish you would come round."
"Who are they?" I inquired.
"Dr. Gilbert, from New York, will be there."
"I shall be glad to meet him."
"And Judge Arbuckle and his wife, from Columbus. The judge and I were in the same class at college, and warmly attached friends. It is nearly twenty years since our last meeting. He is a man of fine qualities, both as to head and heart, with decided opinions and considerable force of character. You will enjoy an evening in his company, I am sure; and none the less, I think, from the fact that there is likely to be an earnest encounter between him and Dr. Gilbert."
"Indeed! On what subject?"
"The judge, I am sorry to say, is not a temperance man. He has always taken alcohol, and believes their moderate employment to be useful."
"Ha? he ever given the subject a careful investigation?"
"I presume not. Law and politics have claimed his closer attention."
"A discussion between him and Dr. Gilbert, if it should happen to arise, is likely to be a warm one."
"It will be earnest, but fair and courteous, for both are gentlemen," said Mr. Granger. "I am glad of the opportunity to bring these men together, for after their meeting, my old friend Arbuckle will, I think, be in possession of facts that must set him thinking in a new direction. As for himself, I do not greatly fear the serious encroachments of alcohol; for he is an exceptionally well-balanced man, with a cool, clear head, and finely-strung nerves; and is known for his moderation and conservative force of character. But his example andinfluence cannot fail to be exceedingly hurtful, especially with young men."
I promised to make one of his guests that evening, and we parted.
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