Chapter 12

CONCLUSION.

To every child of God there comes a time, sooner or later, when a light from heaven having shone round about him, and seeing the great need of the world, he stands. Paul-like, before God, and asks: "Lord, what wilt Thou have _me_ to do?" As the answer came in the olden time, "I will shew him what things he must _suffer,"_ so the answer comes in these later days, and many of God's dear children have come to this Christian temperance work through suffering.

As Christian women, we have come down from the mount of consecration, where we have talked with Jesus, and at its base, have been met by the demon of Intemperance in every form. Friends have brought their loved ones to us, beseeching us to cast out the evil spirit, or, it may be, the monster has come into our homes, and household treasures here and there lie prostrate and helpless in the dust before God. With sad, shrinking hearts we look for a moment, then, with a twofold incentive, we take up our work. For the sake of our dear Saviour who did so much for us, whose face, sometimes, in our holiest hours, by faith we see, and whose voice we still hear, "Lo! I am with you always," and for the sake of the loved and the lost, or, more happily, the loved and reclaimed, we come to our work.

This work is intensely practical, and brings into requisition all the forces which go to make up Christian character. It means patient, persevering, persistent, self-denying labor; it means an intelligent consecration of time, money and ability which God may have given us, to be used in the carrying out of the good at which we aim; it means entering into fellowship with Christ, (in a very feeble sense, it is true,) in His broad sympathy with humanity, in His sacrificing love; it means, many times, to have our names cast out as evil, to brave the sneer and ridicule of fashionable society, to be willing to be misunderstood by those nearest and dearest to us; to some it means all this and more; still, with a firm conviction of duty, of being called of God, we come to this work. It _may_ extend no further than our own homes, our own circle of friends; but if each build over against his own house, how strong the walls would be, how quickly they would rise!

We look out into the night and see here and there a star glimmering in the darkness, and we say, "How dark the night is; how few stars are to be seen!" We wait and watch, and soon the clouds are rolled away; we see the stars one by one coming out from the blackness, until the blue vault above us is covered with heavenly diamond dust, and we rejoice in its brilliancy.

So in our work. We see here and there a star coming out of the darkness; only a few to be seen after all the working and watching. By-and-by, God, in answer to our prayers, and giving the reward to faithful toil, shall roll away the clouds and mists that gather so thickly about our work here. We shall see not only here and there a star glimmering, but a host of shining ones, that God hath brought out of the darkness and covered over with an arch of His promises, where He has written, "They shall be mine in that day when I make up my jewels.' In that day, when we shall be permitted to see the polished gems in the keeping of the Holy One, we shall realize that no work for the Master has been done in vain. Here we toil amid the damp and fog and darkness, often underground, with no lamp save the promise of God, which is "a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path;" there we shall be with Him and behold His glory. Here, the sadness, the weariness, the discouragement, the "Why, Lord?" and "How?" there, the "Well done!" "Enter thou!" questions answered, longings satisfied, eternal rest and peace.

Shall we not, for this joy set before us, consecrate ourselves anew to this Christian work, that, at the last, as Paul stood in his later days, we may stand and say, "I have finished my course?" and, following closely in the footsteps of Jesus, our great Teacher, giving all the praise and all the glory to Him who is our strength and our righteousness, we may be able to say, reverently and with deep humility, "I have finished the work Thou gavest me to do."

CONSTITUTION, BY-LAWS

AND

ORDER OF BUSINESS OF A

WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION.

(LOCAL.)

ARTICLE I.--NAME.

This Association shall be known as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of ----, auxiliary to the W.C.T.U. of the Province of ----.

ARTICLE II.--OBJECTS.

The objects of the Union shall be to meet together for prayer and conference, to educate public sentiment up to the standard of total abstinence, train the young, save the inebriate, and secure the legal prohibition and complete banishment of the liquor traffic.

ARTICLE III.

Any woman may become a member of this Association by signing the Pledge and Constitution, and by the payment of fifty cents per year into the Treasury.

Any woman, practically a total abstainer, but having an objection to signing the Pledge, may become an "associate member" of this Association, by the payment of the regular fee.

Gentlemen may become honorary members of this Association by signing the pledge and by the payment of the regular fee.

Honorary and Associate members are entitled to all the privileges of members, except the vote.

PLEDGE.

I hereby promise, God helping me, to abstain from all distilled, fermented and malt liquors, including wine and cider, as a beverage, and to employ all proper means to discourage the use of and traffic in the same.

ARTICLE, IV.--OFFICERS

The officers of this Association shall be a President, Vice- Presidents, one from each church, when practicable, a Corresponding Secretary, Recording Secretary, Treasurer, and Auditor. These officers (excepting the Auditor), with the Superintendents of the different departments, shall constitute the Executive Committee.

ARTICLE V.--AUXILIARYSHIP.

Each Local Union shall pay to the funds of Provincial Union a sum equal to six and a quarter cents per member, quarterly, this amount to be taken from the fifty cents membership fee.

ARTICLE VI.--ANNUAL MEETING.

An Annual Meeting shall be held in the month of September of each year, at which reports of Secretary and Treasurer shall be presented, which, if possible, shall be published afterwards in the daily newspapers. At this meeting, officers and committees and superintendents shall be elected for the ensuing year, and such services held as may tend to promote the objects of the Association.

BY-LAWS.

ARTICLE I.--DUTIES OF OFFICERS.

Section 1. President.--It shall be the duty of the President to preside at meetings of the organization, and supervise its general interests, and she may with any three members of the Union call special meetings, due notice being given to the members.

Section 2. Vice-Presidents.--It shall be the duty of each Vice- President to preside in her turn in the absence of the President, and to enlist women of her own church in the work.

Section 3.--It shall be the duty of the Corresponding Secretary to conduct the correspondence of the Union, and report to the Corresponding Secretary of the Provincial Union quarterly, on receipt of blank forms (having first submitted her report to the local Union), giving such items of general interest as will enable said Secretary to judge correctly of the condition of the Union. She shall also prepare the report for the Annual Meeting of the local Union.

The Corresponding Secretary shall also prepare a short report for the Provincial Convention in October (first submitting it to the local Union), and sending it with the delegate to the Annual Meeting, or forwarding it to the Provincial Secretary two weeks before the date of meeting.

Section 4.--It shall be the duty of the Recording Secretary to keep a record of the proceedings of the Union, and notify members and the public of its meetings.

Section 5.--It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to collect all membership dues, and to devise ways and means to increase the funds of the Association. She shall receive and hold all money collected for the use of the Union, keeping an exact book account and making a monthly report of the same. She shall pay no bills, except on an order signed by the President and Recording Secretary. She shall forward regularly the quarterly fee to the Treasurer of Provincial Union.

ARTICLE II.--ELECTION OF OFFICERS.

The officers shall be elected by nomination and ballot. Nominations may be made either by a committee appointed for that purpose, or on motion of any member.

If there be more than one person nominated for any office, a ballot shall be taken, tellers having been appointed for that purpose. The one having a full majority of all the ballots cast shall be declared elected.

[If there be more than two persons balloted for, and the one having the highest number of votes, has not a majority of all the votes given, then the one having the lowest number of votes shall be struck off before proceeding to the next ballot. More than one name may be struck off, provided that the sum of all the vote--so struck off is not equal to, or greater than, the number of votes given to the lowest remaining one.]

ARTICLE III.--DEPARTMENTS OF WORK.

If the demands of the work justify it there shall be the following departments of work: Juvenile Work, Temperance Literature, Influencing the Press, Evangelistic Work, Parlor Meetings, Heredity and Hygiene, Scientific Temperance Instruction, Kitchen Garden, Flower Mission, Unfermented Wine, Inducing Physicians not to Prescribe Alcoholic Stimulants, Relation of Intemperance to Capital and Labor, Prison and Gaol Work, Young Woman's Work, Work among Railroad Employees, Work among Soldiers and Sailors, Legislation and Petitions and such others as the needs of the locality seem to call for and recommended by the Provincial Union.

ARTICLE IV.--MEETINGS.

The regular meeting of the Union shall be held weekly, fortnightly or monthly, as the Union may decide. The first meeting in the month shall be a devotional meeting. If possible, mass meetings shall be held quarterly.

The Executive and other Committees shall meet as often as may be deemed advisable.

ARTICLE V.--QUORUM.

A quorum shall consist of such members as shall be present at a regular or special meeting, due notice of such meeting being given to the members.

ARTICLE VI.--DELEGATES TO THE PROVINCIAL UNION.

Delegates to the Provincial Union are received on the following basis: Two for each Union, and one additional delegate for every ten paying members of each Union. The expenses of general officers for postage, stationery, etc., shall be borne by the Union. Travelling expenses of delegates to Annual Convention, shall, where at all practicable, be borne by the Union sending those delegates.

ORDER OF BUSINESS.

Devotional Exercises.

Reading Minutes of Last Meeting.

Treasurer's Report.

Unfinished Business.

Reception of Communications.

Reports of Committees.

Reading of Paper on Temperance Question

Discussion.

Regular Course of Reading.

Discussion.

Miscellaneous Business.

Adjournment.

[Transcriber's Note: The spelling "philanthrophy" occurs in the original. Also, in the list of numbered items in chapter 6, the numbering skips from 3 to 5, but no content seems to be missing. We have left these as they were in our print copy.]