The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. NationNation, Carry Amelia
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The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation
Nation, Carry Amelia
Nation, Carry Amelia, 1846-1911; Social reformers -- United States -- Biography; Temperance -- United States
God is truly the author of law. The theocratic form of government
was perfect and the only perfect government that ever existed, we need
no other statutes than those that God gave. He said: "We must not
kill a bird sitting on her young; must not see our enemy's beast fall under
his burden and not help him rise." And the refinement of mercy was
taught in the statute that said: "You must not kill the mother and lamb
in one day; must not seethe a kid in its mother's milk; must not muzzle
the ox that treadeth out the corn." The use, and the only use, of law is
to prevent and punish for sin. All law has a penalty for those who violate
it. Governments that are the greatest blessing to its citizens are those
who can prohibit, or abolish the most sin or crime. Crime is not prevented
by toleration, but by prohibition. Nine of the ten commandments
are prohibitive and begin with: "Thou shalt not."
The success of life, the formation of character, is in proportion to
the courage one has to say to one's ownself: "Thou shalt not." It is
not the man or woman who has no temptation to sin, who has the strong
character, but the man or woman who has the desire but will not yield
to sin. Some people ask: "Why did God make the Devil?" The Devil
is God's fire. Like an alchemist God is purifying souls. The Devil is
an agent in salvation. "Every Devil in hell is harnessed up to push every
saint into heaven."
Those who are counted worthy to enter into the delights of that
heavenly land are those who have had their "fiery trials," tried and made
white. Man would have no credit and could not hear: "Good and faithful
servant;" if he had no temptations to do otherwise, man would be
but a mere machine.
God has never used for his work, any but those who prohibit evil.
The pilgrim fathers were forced from the mother country because this
principle of prohibition burned in their hearts. When England would
oppose the colonies, it was prohibition that smashed the tea, over in Boston
harbor. George Washington was put at the head of the colonial
armies that prohibited, by much bloodshed and suffering, the oppression
from the mother country. Our Civil War was the result of the principle
to abolish or prohibit the slavery of the colored race. Now we have a
worse slavery than England threatened us with or the poor blacks suffered
at the hands of their taskmasters. This slavery of soul and body,
is one that leads to eternal death. The forces of God are with the abolition,
or prohibition of wrong. The forces of darkness and death are with
those who are willing to be led captive by the Devil at his will, and to
lead others under this grievous yoke of those who are trying to perpetuate
the cause of evil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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