A MODERN “TEMPERANCE” MEASURE.
THE question of the Sunday closing of saloons has recently been before the common council of San Jose, Cal. We quote a part of the report of that meeting from the California Prohibitionist, of August 10, published in that city:— "The meeting of the San Jose common council last Monday evening was the most interesting that had occurred for many months. The publication of the fact that the Sunday-closing ordinance would be up for amendment, brought out a full house, every seat being occupied long before the council was called to order. The Sunday closing advocates represented the very best element of the town, the Protestant and Catholic clergy, the business interests, the W. C. T. U., and the Salvation Army all having their representatives, together with every temperance organization. The entire quarterly conference of the First M. E., German M. E., and Centella M. E. Churches, adjourned their meetings to also attend the session in a body. The contest was striking, the closing element being represented by the very best men of the city, whose names alone lend strength to any movement they may indorse, led by the leading clergymen, and backed by a strong delegation of the W. C. T. U." This is called a temperance measure, but the reader will see by the men who led in the matter, and by the extent of the law itself, that it is a religious measure. Upon the Sunday law the Protestant and Catholic clergy, the W. C. T. U., and the Salvation Army unite. The preaching of the gospel and the works of religion are all laid aside, that these religious people may attend this political meeting, which some temperance people are led to believe is a temperance measure, but which is really a piece of local religious legislation. That it was not a temperance victory but a Sunday victory is very easily shown. If it were purely in the interests of temperance, it would not be confined to one day in the week; it would be for closing all the time. Everyone knows that no amount of agitation would induce the San Jose council to pass a Saturday-closing saloon ordinance. The saloons are closed in the interests of the Sunday. Sunday temperance principles are about as effectual as Sunday religion. A man who is religious only on Sundays impresses no one with his religious principles. He is set down as a hypocrite. The man who believes in Sunday temperance or prohibition places himself in about the same category. Licensing the traffic six days in the week and prohibiting it one day is to say to all that the traffic is worse on that one day than it is on others, whereas it is equally evil on all days. All this is making the liquor traffic respectable, and at the same time elevating the Sunday and paving the way for a union of Church and State in California. This is shown by the Prohibitionist, which says: "To the credit of the better element of the saloon keepers, not one was present to countenance the proceedings [against Sunday] by either presence or voice." But let an ordinance come before the council for a seven-day law and then see. The true temperance element would dwindle to a corporal's guard. It is Sunday, a so-called Christian, but in reality pago-papal, institution, which is becoming more and more the center of attraction to the forces of apostate Christianity. But Sunday as a religious institution is not of Christ; and if it were, the methods used to promote its observance are antichristian. The gospel of Christ "persuades," it does not compel. If the ministers of San Jose, the W. C. T. U., and Salvation Army were all united in Christ in preaching the gospel of Christ, it would tell a thousand times more for temperance and morality than all the legislation of municipalities or States for Sunday laws. It is sad that the true temperance people and "the business men" suffer themselves to be herded, "led," and driven or "backed" by the "leading" ministers and the W. C. T. U., which has become the Women's Political Union. It has largely ceased to be either temperance or Christian. All these efforts in various localities, of which the above is a sample, are omens of the fiercer persecution before, and of which God has given warning in his word. Man may claim such legislation to be beneficent; but God's word says that it is evil; and God's word is more than men. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Christ's Spirit in us will lead us to do what that same Spirit did in Christ eighteen hundred years ago. Christ cannot deny himself, hence his Spirit will always lead in the same direction and teach the same thing. The Spirit of Christ led him to go about doing good (Acts 10:38); it will lead us to do likewise. It led him to deny himself (Matt. 16:24) and to give up all for us; it will lead us to deny ourselves and give up all for him. It led Christ to obey the law of God and to delight therein (Ps. 40:7, 8); love in us—inborn of the Spirit—will be manifest in the same way. "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked." 1 John 2:6. Have you the Spirit of Christ? FAITH knows no bounds or limitations. It cannot be compassed by walls and bars and locks. It cannot be checked in its progress by the surge of old ocean's wave. Despotism and tyranny cannot quench it, the power of evil cannot rob it of its hopes. It rests on God, and where he leads, faith follows. It may be through the Red Sea, into the conflict of battle, to desert wilds or mountain fastnesses in search of the lost and straying, what matters to faith so long as God goes before and his presence directs. The power of faith is the power of God, and as such has naught to fear from the elements of nature or the power of evil. THAT which has the broadest and most solid base is the least likely to fall. That which is the most likely to fall is the top-heavy structures. True humility gives us the strong and secure base of God's mercy and power alone. Self-exaltation lifts us up and makes us top-heavy. If we would not fall, let us walk humbly with God.