Lent, Wine, and Formalism
By Editor
In a recent address before the Young Women's Christian Temperance Union in Oakland, Rev. Dr. Horton stated that he had been credibly informed that during this Lenten season there were many families which gave their children wine in the place of meat, and said that teachers in certain schools complained that those children became utterly unmanageable in consequence. Was there ever a worse exhibition of straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel? We believe Lent is a period of time devoted to the mortification of the flesh! "The church" forbids the use of meat during that time, so that the body may be kept under; and these people, who would think it almost a mortal sin to disobey the church in this regard, give their children (and undoubtedly themselves also) wine, which is ten times worse than meat could be. This is a fair sample of the working of a religion that is fixed by law. Formalism at the expense of piety always results.