The bases of the temperance reform: an exposition and appeal./ With replies to numerous objections. By Rev. Dawson Burns.

136 Scriptir aind thle TeimipeIraice Ouestion.
not open to this reproach. A pledge of total abstinence
is an avowal of present conduct and a promise of futur
action; but there is nothing of bondage in this, and no
diminution of individual independence. The pledge doe
not create any obligation; it merely expresses a sense of
obligation already felt; and in what other shape could
this sense of obligation show itself, except a statement o
present fact and future intention? The real bondag
would consist in being prevented making or taking such
a pledge-the form of which is indifferent, but the sub
stance of which is inseparable from sincerity and cando
of mind. If I think abstinence advisable, shall I no
practise it? and if I practise it, shall I not avow the prac
tice? and, if I intend to continue the habit, so long a
I believe it right, shall I not say I intend to continue
it? So, instead of forfeiting independence and Christian
liberty by such a pledge, it is by means of it that I asser
and express my liberty and independence. That the
pledge can have any "binding" force, as distinct fron
personal conviction, or after conviction has changed, is
notion which never entered into any but an objector'
head. As to the supposed slight to baptismal vows
nothing can be more illusory. The temperance pledge i
not a vow unless the individual pleases to make it so, a
he may please to make any other resolution: and, b
"taking the pledge," nothing more is done than to asser
that abstinence is included under the general vows of
baptism by which the soul entered into the service of
goodness against evil-of God against Satan. It would
be absurd to charge a man with disloyalty because h
specified a certain act as one of allegiance, as to represen
the pledge as impugning or overriding baptismal vow
If (as the objector asserts), those vows comprehended al
possible good, then, says the abstainer, all that I do in
the pledge is to affirmr that one of the forms of good
adopt and intend to pursue is the practice of abstinence