Personal Experience of a Physician Part 5

CHAPTER IX.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE CONTINUED--AND EFFORTS.

Soon after I commenced reading the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, while residing in Detroit, I was invited to attend a social gathering at the residence of one of the members of the congregation of believers in his writings in that city. During the evening, to my astonishment, fermented wine was pa.s.sed around to the guests, of which quite a number partook. As already stated in the preceding pages, while a young man, through the efficient teachings of Baptist and Congregational clergymen and prominent members of the churches, and the results of drinking which I witnessed, I was providentially enabled to see that to use drinks which endangered health, reason, and life was wrong, and consequently a sin; and with many others I signed a pledge never to drink intoxicating drinks during health.

The reader can imagine how I was shocked to see intoxicating wine presented and partaken of among gentlemen and ladies who professed to be receivers and believers in a new revelation of Divine truth from G.o.d to man. I immediately saw the clergyman of the society, and asked him if Swedenborg teaches that it is right and proper to drink an intoxicating wine. He replied that he did.

He and members of his society were holding Sunday afternoon meetings for the purpose of reading the writings and discussing such questions as might arise, which meetings I attended. I said to the reverend gentleman that I would like to have this wine question discussed at our next meeting, to which he a.s.sented. At that meeting, I brought up the medical and scientific aspects of the question, and endeavored to show that fermented wine was a dangerous poison, it having destroyed vast mult.i.tudes of the human race, and that it performed no use when taken into the stomach of healthy men and women; and, consequently, that it is wrong to drink a wine which does so much harm. The clergyman tried to justify its use by quoting certain comparisons which Swedenborg had made between the apparent combat which takes place during fermentation and the combat which ensues during the regeneration of man, and the clearness of resulting wine after fermentation and that of truth in the mind after regeneration, and also of the purity of alcohol after it has been through certain processes, which he named, compared with pure truth.

But we know that pure alcohol cannot be used as a beverage, and therefore it is certain that these comparisons were simply as to the clearness of fermented wine after fermentation, and the purity of alcohol after being purified; and that they have nothing to do with the inherent quality of these fluids, or their ability to affect man when he drinks them. We had an earnest discussion of the question from our different standpoints, but neither of us was satisfied with the result; and, consequently, we adjourned the discussion of the subject until the next Sabbath afternoon.

In the meantime, the clergyman prepared a discourse, which he delivered on Sunday morning, in which he endeavored to show that fermentation was caused by an influx of angels from the highest heaven into the juice of the grape, stirring it up and cleansing it from "inherent impurities." Providentially, during the week, I had obtained a copy of Swedenborg's work on the "Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and Wisdom," in which he teaches that all poisonous substances which do harm and kill man derive their life from or through h.e.l.l. When we came together in the afternoon to discuss the question, we were about as far apart as it was possible to be, as the reader can readily see. He took the ground that fermentation was caused by influx from the highest heaven, and I took the ground that it was caused by influx from the lowest h.e.l.l, and we had an earnest discussion; but he certainly did not satisfy me nor many of his audience, if any, that his position was true. How could he? for there is no doubt but that fermented wine has harmed and killed more of the human race in ages past than any other poison. As a result of that discussion, within my knowledge, fermented wine was never again used at the sociables of that society during my residence in Detroit.

Within perhaps a year after that discussion, I was baptized and united with the Detroit Society of the New Church. When I came to understand, from the writings of Swedenborg, the true signification of water and the ordinance of baptism--that water signified natural truth and that baptism introduced one into the Church, and signified that man is to be regenerated or purified by living a life according to the truth, and that the head represented the man--I did not regard immersion as so important as I had previously, consequently I was baptized by the application of water to the head. There is, I think, no serious objection to any one being baptized by immersion who prefers it. Children should, I think, be baptized into the Church, and be brought up to feel that they belong to the Church, and are expected to live the life of the Church. More and more have I seen the importance of bringing children up under the influence of the Church, where they should be instructed and entertained and thus kept away from bad company.

WHY A SEPARATE NEW-CHURCH ORGANIZATION.

Swedenborg made no attempt to organize the believers in the revelations made by the Lord through his instrumentality into a separate church organization, and nowhere in his writings does he express the opinion that such a separate organization would ever be needed or desirable. And he apparently expected that the prevailing false doctrines of the churches would, in the increasing light of the New Jerusalem, be seen to be false by the clergy of existing church organizations; and that through them the laity would be enabled to see that they are false, and thus they would be put away, as is manifest in pa.s.sages which I have quoted elsewhere; also see T. C. R. 784.

When individual men or churches put away false doctrines, they are prepared, if in the good of life, to see and receive the truth; consequently Swedenborg says that although the First Christian Church has come to its end through false doctrines and evils of life, yet it is to revive again through the instrumentality of the newly revealed science of correspondences; consequently it is not to utterly perish, for there is a remnant within its borders.

Then the reader will inquire, "Why was an external New-Church organization ever formed?" We have not to look far to find the reason. First, there was a vast mult.i.tude of intelligent men and women who did not belong to any church organization, and when some of them came to see and believe the new doctrines, they naturally desired to be baptized and to join a church organization; but seeing clearly in the light of the new revelations that, according to the Sacred Scriptures, G.o.d is one in essence and in person, and that that one G.o.d was manifested to man in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that He made that human form Divine and is henceforth to be wors.h.i.+ped as one G.o.d in His Divine Humanity, and that a life according to His sayings and the commandments is essential to salvation, they could not join the prevailing churches, for they could not a.s.sent to their creeds.

Second. When, as soon occurred, both clergymen and laymen, belonging to various church organizations, began to read the writings, and to see that the Lord is in very deed now coming in the clouds of heaven, and desired to let the new light s.h.i.+ne among their brethren, they found that they were often not free to do so without giving offense; and in not a few instances clergymen found that they were silenced as preachers, and sometimes both clergymen and laymen were expelled, for believing the Heavenly Doctrines instead of the creeds; consequently the receivers of the doctrines of the New Dispensation had no choice but to form a new church organization. But at this day there is a vast change, and I trust that from but a very few if any church organizations would a lay member be expelled for believing in the Supreme Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that the Sacred Scriptures are Divine and plenarily inspired, and that a life according to the Lord's sayings and His Commandments is essential to salvation.

Consequently there are thousands of earnest receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem scattered throughout the various churches, gradually leavening, as I trust, the whole lump; and there are clergymen not a few who are gradually beholding, with more or less fullness, the light of this New Day; and as they receive it, large numbers of them are not slow to let the light s.h.i.+ne among their fellow-men, as they are prepared to receive it.

The Lord has given to men freedom and reason, and they are responsible for their acts. To whom do a clergyman and members of a church organization owe fealty, to the Lord and His Word and the members of the congregations where they wors.h.i.+p, or to a creed and church or a church organization formulated and organized during darker ages of the world and Church? Should men or should they not, when they behold the glorious light of the Lord's Second Coming in the clouds of heaven, stand in their place and proclaim the glad tidings to all who are willing to hear?

Swedenborg, in giving the spiritual sense of the second chapter of the Apocalypse, in No. 69 of the _Apocalypse Revealed_, says:--

"This and the following chapter treat of the seven churches, by which are described all those in the Christian Church who have any religion, and out of whom the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, can be formed; and this is formed by those who APPROACH THE LORD ONLY, AND AT THE SAME TIME PERFORM REPENTANCE FROM EVIL WORKS. The rest, who do not approach the Lord alone, from the confirmed negation of the divinity of His humanity, and who do not perform repentance from evil works, are indeed in the Church, but have nothing of the Church in them."

If all clergymen and members of our churches, the moment they begin to see that portions of their creeds are false and injurious in their tendency, instead of trying, by proclaiming the truth among their brethren, to have the false doctrines removed and true doctrines subst.i.tuted, were to immediately forsake the church organization in which, in the good providence of the Lord, they stand, what hope would there be for the perpetuation of existing churches as Christian organizations at all? The great danger at this day is that false doctrines will be seen faster than true doctrines will be seen to take their place, and thus our churches and members will be left desolate and return to a Gentile state. For instance, if our clergy and intelligent laymen begin to see, as many of them seem to be doing already, that the doctrine of a tri-personal G.o.d, instead of a trinity in unity, and the doctrine of the vicarious atonement are contrary to the teachings of the Sacred Scriptures, and unreasonable and inconsistent, and do not at the same time see clearly the scriptural doctrine that G.o.d is one in essence and in person, and that in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ that one G.o.d was manifested for the purpose of reconciling the world unto Himself, such individuals are almost sure sooner or later to deny the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that the Sacred Scriptures are divine and special revelations from G.o.d to man, and consequently plenarily inspired.

The doctrines which are false in the prevailing church organizations must go--they are going--from the minds of their members if not from their creeds. Then are these organizations to become Gentile and stand like the remnants of the Ancient Church, which we behold in southern and eastern Asia? I think not; for we are told, as has been already stated in the revelations made by the Lord through Emanuel Swedenborg, that the science of correspondences was revealed that the Christian Church "may revive and again draw breath from the Lord through heaven." Gentiles received the Lord at His first coming with joy; and so I believe the Gentiles in and out of our church organizations will receive Him now as He comes in the clouds of heaven. In the light manifested in the Sacred Scriptures by the aid of the science of correspondences, every willing and obedient man and woman is able to see that G.o.d is one, and that the Lord Jesus Christ, or G.o.d in His Divine Humanity, is that one G.o.d and the only Being whom men should and whom angels do wors.h.i.+p. Then of what unspeakable importance it is that the attention of all clergymen and laymen be speedily called to the writings for the Church of the New Jerusalem which is now descending from G.o.d out of heaven!

After practicing medicine for ten or twelve years, and on accepting the chair of "Theory and Practice of Medicine" tendered by the Western h.o.m.oeopathic College at Cleveland, Ohio, I commenced, as it were, the study of the practical department of my profession anew, in order to prepare myself for filling the chair profitably to the students and creditably to myself. While preparing forgiving lectures, and especially in after years while away from my active medical practice at Detroit, giving a course of lectures at Cleveland every winter, I began to study and investigate in my leisure hours the causes of diseases. Step by step I pursued my investigations, until I became satisfied that most of the deformities, diseases, and insanity which exist have been caused by the violation of the physical and spiritual laws of our being which could have been avoided in the past, and which can and must be in the future, if our race is to be restored to a state of healthy, symmetrical, and n.o.ble manhood.

Consequently I came to the conclusion that it is far more important that men, women, and children should be taught the laws of health and to understand the causes of the prevailing deformities and diseases, and how to shun them, than it was for them and their children to get sick, deformed, and suffer, and often to pay their hard-earned money to doctors for the uncertain chance of being cured--in fact, that "an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure."

As a result of my investigations I wrote a series of articles for the _Detroit Tribune_ on the bad habits which cause diseases, insanity, and deformity; and, as opportunity offered, I gave lectures upon such subjects; and finally I wrote a work ent.i.tled the "Avoidable Causes of Disease," of 348 pages, of which I printed several editions, the first of which was in 1859, and furnished to different publishers, and advertised to a limited extent; after that it was published for several years by Messrs.

Mason Brothers, of New York; after which it came into my hands again. I also wrote a pamphlet of 48 pages on "Marriage and its Violations," which, for a time, was bound separately, but afterward was bound with the "Avoidable Causes of Disease." In all, eleven editions of the work have been printed; the last edition was printed by Messrs Boericke & Tafel, of Philadelphia, who will probably publish any future editions which may be demanded.

I soon found, what my publishers found after me, and other writers and their publishers have found, that it does not pay to advertise books which contain the greatest amount of practical and useful information which is calculated to benefit readers, especially if they call in question the bad habits and evils of life in which so many people indulge; consequently, feeling that a work treating of diseases and their cure, in which I could advertise my first work and call special attention to it, would sell more readily, I wrote a book of 404 pages, ent.i.tled "Family h.o.m.oeopathy," in which I took great pains to carefully describe in few words the various diseases, and gave as definite and positive instruction as was practicable to guide laymen, so that harmless h.o.m.oeopathic remedies might take the place of drastic drugs and injurious domestic remedies, which are so frequently used when it is thought not necessary to call a physician, or before his arrival when called. At the end of this volume I inserted a carefully prepared table of the contents of the "Avoidable Causes of Disease," occupying three pages, and referred not unfrequently to that work when treating of various diseases.

With but very slight efforts, and no advertising on my part, "Family h.o.m.oeopathy" sold very well--princ.i.p.ally through the different h.o.m.oeopathic pharmacies in our country; and this increased the sale of "The Avoidable Causes of Disease" very materially, as I expected it would.

Seventeen editions of "Family h.o.m.oeopathy" have been printed and sold, the last edition by Dr. E. R. Ellis, of Detroit, Michigan, who will continue to print and supply applicants as wanted.

SPIRITUAL CAUSES OF DISEASES.

As I continued my investigation into the causes of disease, and especially as I read the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, I began to see more and more clearly that diseases, to a large extent at least, have a spiritual origin, and that the great obstacles to the removal of their causes lie in the false doctrines of Christian churches. When selfish men who were leaders in the churches desired to exercise their love of rule in spiritual and natural things and to exercise despotic power, when they desired to reduce other men to slavery and to hold them as slaves, or when they desired to gratify other perverted pa.s.sions and sensual appet.i.tes, they all went to the Bible and strove to justify their conduct from its pages, with the expectation of reaching heaven at last; for this purpose it required the invention of special doctrines, and these they taught to their children, and thus the Word of G.o.d was made of no effect by the traditions and doctrines of men.

Unfortunately for the Protestant Church, early in its history, instead of "If ye would enter into life, keep the commandments," there was subst.i.tuted the doctrine of justification by faith alone; which led men, especially the young, to hope that by getting religion and having faith, they could at any time escape the legitimate penalties which are attached by the Lord to evil doing. No young man, religiously brought up, expects to go to h.e.l.l; but he intends to repent and be converted before he dies; he often thinks he will "sow his wild oats" first, instead of earnestly and faithfully striving to keep the Divine commandments from his youth up. Evil thinking and doing develop an infernal life within him, which often gradually gains strength until he is ruled by his perverted appet.i.tes and pa.s.sions; and day by day his ability to regain his freedom grows less.

When the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church began to teach men that the punishment which rightly inheres to the doing of evil can be escaped by confessing to the priest, doing penance, and receiving absolution, and that every Catholic priest has from the Lord the power to forgive sins and to grant indulgences, then the hope of escaping the penalties of sin by something short of keeping the Divine Law in everyday life was held out to the young of the Catholic laity, similar to that which the doctrine of faith alone offered to the young of the Protestant world; and the results have been similar. We know, however, that among religious teachers there are many to-day in all of the various sects of Christians who have put away, or are gradually putting away, or materially modifying, the perverted doctrines of the past. As an ill.u.s.tration of the changes which are taking place, I clip the following from an English paper, recently received:--

"The Rev. T. Vincent Tymms, the new Princ.i.p.al of Rawdon College, preaching to his late congregation at Clapham, said:--

"'From the first day I stood in this pulpit until now, I have desired to tear away from every heart that obscuring veil of pagan thought which first attributes a wrathful justice to the Father and a tender mercy to CHRIST, and then represents the Son as dying to soothe the anger and satisfy the relentless demands of the Father. Such unholy and revolting ideas are the leaven of heathenism, not the unleavened bread of Christian truth.'

"This is from the first of 'Three Farewell Sermons,' published by Messrs.

James Clarke & Co., Fleet Street, E. C."

More and more, as time progressed, I began to realize that there was very little chance for any radical improvement of our race until the false doctrines which have come down to us from the dark ages were put away; and knowing that in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg we have a new revelation from the Lord, even the truths of his Second Coming in the clouds of heaven, which are destined to make all things new by leading men back to a life of obedience to the Divine commandments; and, furthermore, believing the most important missionary field to-day in the world to be among the clergy of our country, I wrote an "Address to the Clergy" of 24 pages. This Address I sent to over 50,000 clergymen. A few years before I wrote that Address, the late Mr. L. C. Iungerich, of Philadelphia, through the book publis.h.i.+ng firm of J. B. Lippincott & Co., of that city, had offered to clergymen who would order and send the stamps to pay the postage, Swedenborg's "True Christian Religion," and afterward he added the "Apocalypse Revealed;" and the New Church Tract Society added to the above works "Heaven and h.e.l.l,"--all to be sent free to clergymen on receipt of postage. Several thousand copies of the above works had been sent when I wrote and sent out my Address. Upon the second page of the cover of my tract was a notice of the above-named gift books; and my aim was to hastily call the attention of clergymen to them, and to give them some idea of the claims of Swedenborg's writings to their attention, and to encourage them to send for and to read the books thus providentially within their reach.

As a result of receiving the Address, thousands of clergymen sent for and obtained one or more of the above books.

When I commenced sending the above-named Address to the clergy, I resolved to devote one-tenth of my income to the work of spreading a knowledge of the doctrines of the New Jerusalem and of an orderly life among my fellow-men. I can truly say, and will say for the encouragement of others, that as I have given I have received; for never had I prospered financially as I have since that resolution was made and lived up to. After having secured a competency for myself and family I did not stop at one-tenth of my income.

The result of sending the Address was so satisfactory that I wrote and compiled a work of 260 pages, ent.i.tled, "Skepticism and Divine Revelation,"

with the intention of sending it to the clergy. My aim was to present a hasty view of the application of the science of correspondences in the interpretation of the first chapters of Genesis, and some other parts of the Word, and to meet the arguments of skeptics, and thus to show that the Sacred Scriptures are Divine revelations from G.o.d to man, and plenarily inspired, consequently differing as much from the words of man as G.o.d's works do from the works of man. In that work the attention of the reader is called to the creation of the world, the creation of man and woman, Eve, the Garden of Eden, its trees and river, the fall of man, the serpent, Cain and Abel, the flood, Noah, Shem, Ham, and j.a.pheth, the flood of waters, the Ark, the Tower of Babel, Sun wors.h.i.+p and idolatry, spiritualism, the little reliance to be placed upon communications from spirits, and why. Next, the doctrines of the New Jerusalem--G.o.d, the Incarnation, the Divine Trinity, sacrificial wors.h.i.+p, the Cross, a true and heavenly life, the end of the world and Second Coming of the Lord, the resurrection, state of infants in the other life, the state and condition of the Heathen and Gentiles in another life, the New Jerusalem--the Church of the Future--the Crown of all Churches, the Divine promise to those who receive the New Jerusalem at the Lord's Second Coming as revealed through Emanuel Swedenborg.

Such were the subjects discussed in the light of the revelations made by the Lord's chosen servant. My aim was to produce the best work I could.

Consequently, when I found in the writings of others pa.s.sages, or even whole sections, in which the ideas that I desired to present were as well or better conveyed than I thought I could present them, I selected them, giving the writers credit for the same, and the sixteenth and twenty-third chapters were written at my request by the Rev. William B. Hayden, who a.s.sisted me materially in seeing the work through the press. About one-half of the matter in the volume was selected from other writers.

I commenced to send this work in editions of 10,000 to the clergy of our country, and when I had sent about 50,000, I had the "Address to the Clergy" printed and bound with it, and both were sent to the Catholic clergy, to whom the Address had not previously been sent. From that time both works have been printed and bound in one volume. About 65,000 of the above works, containing a notice of the gift books, named in preceding pages, on the second page of the cover, have been sent to the clergy of America, about 10,000 have been sent to physicians, and as many more have been circulated among laymen. The sending of this book to the clergy immensely increased the orders for the gift books.

The above works have been translated into the German language, and about 48,000 copies sent to German-speaking clergymen in Germany and other parts of Europe, and in our own country. They have been translated into the Swedish language, and about 6000 copies have been sent to the clergy of Sweden and Norway and circulated among the laity; and they have been translated into Italian, and 10,000 sent to and circulated in Italy. And more recently they have been translated into French, and 20,000 printed which are now being sent to the clergy of France and the French-speaking clergy of other European countries, and of our own country.

Then, I have aided materially in sending other works to the clergy of our country, either explaining or containing the doctrines of the New Jerusalem, upon the second page of the covers of which will be found a notice of the gift books offered to clergymen. I aided with money the Swedenborg Publis.h.i.+ng a.s.sociation in sending Rev. Mr. Ravlin's "Progressive Thoughts on Great Subjects" to all the clergy of our country whose names could be had; and, later, I have aided the American Swedenborg Printing and Publis.h.i.+ng Society in sending, first, "The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrines;" second, "The Doctrine of the Lord;" third, "The Doctrine of Life"--all three Swedenborg's own works--to all the clergy in our country whose names could be readily obtained; in all 82,500. So that almost every clergyman in our country has had an opportunity to acquire some knowledge of the doctrines and revelations made by the Lord through Emanuel Swedenborg for the benefit of men in this new age--doctrines very different from those formulated in the creeds of bygone centuries--and thousands of our clergy are beginning to realize, that we must return to the rational and plain doctrines taught in the Sacred Scriptures, and summed up by the Lord when on earth in the Two Great Commandments, Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy might and strength, and thy neighbor as thyself, and that we must commence the new life by repentance, or by being willing to see our evils and to shun them as sins against G.o.d.

As a result of the efforts made by others and myself to make known to the clergy the offer of the gift books, 32,831 clergymen have sent for and obtained "The True Christian Religion," 30,887 have obtained "Heaven and h.e.l.l," and 25,522 have obtained "The Apocalypse Revealed," according to the report of the Trustees of the Iungerich fund (May, 1891).

COMMUNION WINE.

For several years after I joined the Church I paid little attention to the subject of communion wine. But at last an article appeared in a New-Church paper, in which the writer claimed that fermented wine was a good and useful article to be used as a beverage, and he tried to justify its use by the teachings of the Church. Such views were so contrary to what I regarded as true, that I immediately commenced a more careful and critical examination of the writings of Swedenborg, to ascertain what is taught therein as to wine. I soon found that he distinctly recognized two kinds of wine, as does the Bible: one kind unfermented, a good and nouris.h.i.+ng fluid to which he always gives a good signification when its use is not abused; and the other kind, known by its effects on man when he drinks it to be fermented, to which he has never given a good signification when it is clear from the context that reference is had to fermented wine. And I will here say that my opponents in the Church have done precisely what the advocates of slavery, intoxicating drinks, and skeptics have done in their appeals to the Bible to sustain their views. They find here and there a comparison and pa.s.sage which, by placing their own construction upon them, they think will justify their views, while they totally ignore a large number of pa.s.sages which most clearly and positively teach a totally different doctrine; and they ignore scientific facts, the well known effects of drinking fermented wine, and the testimony of ancient writers whenever such testimony does not accord with their own views. Thus they uphold the use of the drunkard's cup as a beverage and even as a sacramental wine; and within my knowledge more than one poor man in our Church who was struggling to reform his life has been led back by partaking of it to drunkenness.

A distinguished clergyman said in a letter to the writer:--

"I can never forget the experience already related to you when Mr. ----, my wife's brother-in-law, a gentleman of cla.s.sical education, had become a sober man through my efforts and received the heavenly doctrines ... Then came the Lord's Supper and we had fermented California wine. I handed him the cup, he drank, and after church he fled to some place where wine could be had, came home late in the evening drunk, and continued drinking for three months, until he died one evening after being brought home beastly drunk. Unfermented wine is no seducer, and had Mr. ---- been given such in the Sacrament, he might be living, a sober man, to-day. Your books on the 'Wine Question' deserve, therefore, all that you have done and expended under the Lord's guidance for their publication and circulation, and G.o.d only knows how much good they will yet have to do."

Another clergyman wrote:--

"I was called to officiate at the funeral of a child. The parents--who were non-professors of religion--became much interested in the New Church. I furnished them suitable reading matter and visited them occasionally.

Within a year they united with our Society. The man had formerly been a drinking man, but had ceased entirely. They were regular attendants on our church services. He was a mechanic. His well-behaved life restored public confidence in him, and he soon found constant employment at his trade.

After about two years he felt a desire to take the Lord's Supper. I did not dissuade him; for, as he had abstained so long and faithfully, I felt sure he would continue. He presented himself with the communicants. Upon receiving the cup he took a sip and moved to return the cup to me; but suddenly, the old appet.i.te being touched by the alcoholic spark, he returned the cup to his lips--it was about two-thirds full-and nearly drained it, as though urged on by demons. Poor man! Realizing what he had done, and evidently feeling disgraced, he at once arose and left the temple. From that time he returned to drink, and I have been unable to regain sufficient influence over him to effect his return to our services.

"Another man in my Society formerly drank to excess. I dare not encourage him to come to the communion. A majority of our members favor intoxicating wine for the Lord's Supper. How they can do so after witnessing its dreadful effects, I cannot understand. But the light is spreading, and may the Lord hasten the full day."