t. His word and example are conclusive,
and we may safely preach what we find there. Do we find any such principle
of repression as the church has preached for years past? No; we find abuse
condemned, and use allowed and approved. The Savior is at the hilarious
merry-making of the marriage, contributing to the festivity. His own
parable is on record, bidding men put the gospel into all the forms and
developments of life, to refine and fit them for human enjoyment. The long
list of exceptions with which men are forbidden to bring the gospel leaven
into contact has been added by men, not by Christ. He was condemned for
the very same reason for which hundreds condemn a so called liberal
Christian to-day; because he used the world which other men used, and
thought it not necessary to abstain from use because others abused. These
teachings are there if anything is there. They are for all time. The
conditions of no age can justify Christians in refusing to preach and to
apply them just as they stand. Nine-tenths of the really sinful indulgence
over which the church is mourning to-day, is simply because of the failure
to do this faithfully. Because good men have been startled by the
magnitude and power of evil, and have been too timid to meet it with
methods which seemed so slow, and which even gave room for the charge of
compromise. In being wiser than her Lord, the church has drawn the reins
too tightly, and the results speak for themselves. Much is said about
expediency; and Paul's words about meat offending his brother, have been
saddled with more burdens than any ten other passages of scripture; but
after all, the result proves simply this, that it is always most expedient
to follow Christ implicitly.

I would, moreover, that the church in dealing with this question, would
consent to meddle less with its details, and leave them more where they
properly belong, with the individual conscience. No one man can decide
these things for another. No man has a right to insist that his standard
of expediency shall be his brother's. Where God's law is explicit, both
are bound alike. When it throws a decision upon conscience, neither has a
right to complain if the paths diverge. Both paths may not be right, but
to his own Master shall each traveler stand or fall.

The church, indeed, can do better than to busy herself with such details,
or, to speak more correctly, she can deal with them much more successfully
by shifting her point o