REV. WM. BANCROFT KILL. 29 



advancing their cause ; and the people in general rejoice 

 over the improved condition of affairs. 



Of course it would be untrue to ascribe all of Norway's 

 advance in temperance simply to her system of liquor 

 traffic. There has been steady and earnest work for 

 temperance all the time that the system has been in 

 operation ; temperance societies and temperance agitators 

 have done their utmost to spread the princi] les of total 

 abstinence. It is owing to them that the system was 

 first adopted, and has been successfully carried on since. 

 No legislation, however severe, and no system of liquor 

 traffic, however excellent, can turn a drunken community 

 into a temperate one unless there be constant and faithful 

 labor by men and women whose hearts are given to the 

 temperance cause. The redemption of the world from 

 any sin is secured only by the self -sacrifice of those who 

 are not guilty of the sin. The Gothenburg system or 

 any other system cannot be a substitute for personal de- 

 votion and personal influence. All that can be claimed 

 for it is that it furnishes an instrument by which tem- 

 perance workers can control what they cannot yet ex- 

 terminate, and can force the saloon itself to work for the 

 cause of temperance. 



The Gothenburg system is not to be confounded with 

 the so-called " church saloon," of which we have heard 

 sometimes. That, as I understand it, is an attempt to 

 make the saloon respectable ; but the Gothenburg sys- 

 tem emphasizes its disreputability. The church saloon 

 system says, "Since men must drink, let us furnish 

 them a pleasant place, more attractive than other saloons, 

 and free from vicious surroundings, in which to do their 

 drinking" ; but the Gothenburg system says, "Since all 

 men cannot at once be stopped from drinking, let us 

 make the drinking places as unattractive as possible, let 

 us reduce their number, and limit their sales, that in this 



