[Grappling with the Monster by T. S. Arthur]@TWC D-Link bookGrappling with the Monster CHAPTER XIII 8/15
of the constitution gives the qualification for membership: "All male persons of the age of eighteen or upwards, who have been in the habit of using intoxicating liquor to a greater or less extent, are eligible to membership in this club." After organizing a club of persons who have been addicted to drink, Dr.Reynolds appeals to the Christian women of the locality to throw around them the shield of their care and sympathy, and urges upon the people at large the necessity of upholding and encouraging them in every possible way. The meetings of the clubs are held at least once during the week, in the evenings; and on Sunday afternoons or evenings, the clubs, with the Woman's Christian Temperance Unions, hold public religious temperance meetings, which are often crowded to overflowing.
The order of exercises at these public meetings consist of prayer, reading of Scripture and brief addresses by reformed men, interspersed with the singing of such hymns as "Rock of Ages," "Hold the Fort," "I Need Thee Every Hour," etc. Brief addresses are the rule, and a hymn is usually sung between each address. The badge worn by members of these reformed clubs is a red ribbon.
Their motto is "Dare to do Right." One of the first fruits of the establishment of a reform club in any locality, is an increase in church attendance, and a decrease in the tax rate.
In many towns where they exist, liquor-selling has become unprofitable, and liquor-drinking a custom that hurts a man's social standing. From the East, Dr.Reynolds extended his labors into the West, where his work has been chiefly confined to the State of Michigan.
In a letter to the _Union_, the organ of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, under date of July, 1877, the aspect and results of Dr.Reynolds's work in that State are thus referred to by a correspondent from Evanston: "His plan is to take a State and settle down in it 'to stay' until it capitulates to the red-ribbon pledge.
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