"Yes, and God grant that it may not be a vain hope!" he added, with
a prayer in his heart as well as upon his lips.
They sat down and the clergyman went on:
"I have had little or no faith in any of the efforts which have been
made to reform drunkenness, for none of them, in my view, went down
to the core of the matter. I know enough of human nature and its
depravity, of the power of sensual allurement and corporeal
appetite, to be very sure that pledges, and the work usually done
for inebriates in the asylums established for their benefit, cannot,
except in a few cases, be of any permanent good. No man who has once
been enslaved by any inordinate appetite can, in my view, ever get
beyond the danger of re-enslavement unless through a change wrought
in him by God, and this can only take place after a prayerful
submission of himself to God and obedience to his divine laws so far
as lies in his power. In other words, Mrs. Birtwell, the Church must
come to his aid. It is for this reason that I have never had much
faith in temperance societies as agents of personal reformation. To
lift up from any evil is the work of the Church, and in her lies the
only true power of salvation."
"But," said Mrs. Birtwell, "is not all work which has for its end
the saving of man from evil God's work? It is surely not the work of
an enemy."
"God forbid that I should say so. Every saving effort, no matter how
or when made, is work for God and humanity.
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