Do not misunderstand me.
I say nothing against temperance societies. They have done and are
still doing much good, and I honor the men who organize and work
through them. Their beneficent power is seen in a changed and
changing public sentiment, in efforts to reach the sources of a
great and destructive evil, and especially in their conservative and
restraining influence. But when a man is overcome of the terrible
vice against which they stand in battle array, when he is struck
down by the enemy and taken prisoner, a stronger hand than theirs is
needed to rescue him, even the hand of God; and this is why I hold
that, except in the Church, there is little or no hope for the
drunkard."
"But we cannot bring these poor fallen creatures into the Church,"
answered Mrs. Birtwell. "They shun its doors. They stand afar off."
"The Church must go to them," said Mr. Elliott--"go as Christ, the
great Head of the Church, himself went to the lowest and the vilest,
and lift them up, and not only lift them up, but encompass them
round with its saving influences."
"How is this to be done?" asked Mrs. Birtwell.
"That has been our great and difficult problem; but, thank God! it
is, I verily believe, now being solved."
"How? Where?" eagerly asked Mrs. Birtwell. "What Church has
undertaken the work?"
"A Church not organized for worship and spiritual culture, but with
a single purpose to go into the wilderness and desert places in
search of lost sheep, and bring them, if possible, back to the fold
of God.
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