The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-10-04 00:00:00

CARDINAL XANNING on:MODER ATION
IN DRINKING.

Under the auspices of the Dewsbury Catholic Total
Abstinence League of the Cross, Cardinal Manning
has delivered addresses on the subject of total absti-
nence. His Eminence first spoke to about 400 chil-
dren in the Catholic schools, in Huddersfield-road,
Westtown. The juvenile members of the league pre-
sented the cardinal with an address, telling him of
the progress they had made in the temperance move-
ment, and offering him a hearty welcome to Dewsbury.
Cardinal Manning said that he did not plead that
it was obligatory upon every one to abstain from
stimulants. They were all as free AS the air to use
all the creatures of God. There was nothing intrin-
sically evil in anything which God had made, or in
any combination of the creatures of God which man
might put together. In pleading for temperance
he would not be unreasonable, or excessive, or
extravagant. He thought there were some people
who, by the long habit of their lives, or from some other
cause, were in such a condition of health that stimu-
lants might be necessary. He had known cases in
which a man's constitutional health was so impaired
that he ought to use a stimulant. Some people had
inherited a constitution or a condition of bodily health
which was not normal, or natural, or perfect. Their
condition was quite exceptional, and should be regarded
as such. He believed many persons were in a condi-
tion which from time to time required exceptional
treatment. He did not wish to impose upon anyone
who had reasonable grounds for using his liberty any
obligation, nor to suggest that in using stimulants
under the circumstances he had mentioned he was
doing anything unlawful. He was not speaking to
these exceptional people when he advocated total
abstinence. He was speaking to the million 3 who
were born into the world in a natural and normal
state of health. And by a normal condition of
health he meant that condition in which a man's
system was wound up evenly by the laws of nature.
He was speaking to the healthy, and to them
alone. Seeing how very much misery was
wrought by drink, was it not wise that
they should offer some of their liberty to their
Divine Master from motives of gratitude and gene-
rosity ? There were many reasons why they should
abstain from stimulants. They would be running one
risk the less. A stmng, healthy man might think
that he was not running much risk ; but none of them
could say what might befall them were they not kept
by the Providence of Cod. In giving up intoxicants
a man had one need less. The most contented people
in the world were those who had the fewest needs.
"Plain living and high thinking" was a motto which
they might all with advantage cultivate as a habit of
mind. Some people were slaves to their comfort, to
their palates, to their dress, and to all manner of
things which they could perfeetly well do without.
He could imagine a man being in bondage to his
library, or his horses, or his garden, or to other things
which bespoke a more or less refined taste; but to be
in boncbigo to a taste for wine was anything but
ennobling. If a man aspired to anything really high
he could surely give up such a luxury were it right
that he should do so. All this he had spoken more
particularly to men who lived in the world, and
had work to do and temptations to face. Women lived
among the more refining influences of domestic life.
They had more delicacy of perception, they had a
sense of sovereignty over their homes which depended
to a large extent on the finer qualities which they pos-
sessed. All that he had said to men he would repeat
with double emphasis to women. Total abstinence
would be one item of cost less. Let a man or a
woman think how much a year the use of stimulants
involved. What proportion did it bear to the amount
they spent in charity? The motives he had men-
tioned thus far related directly to men and women
who used stimulants. But was there not an additional
reason why they should forego stimulants in the
wreck and ruin, and misery and desolation, and heart-
breaking crime, and insanity and death? Should they
not try to do something to counteract . all these evils
in
exam? The
was
state tewohficthhinsghsouwilidicihndpurce-
v e
tbhyaeilwmeday to try to take Satan by violence as it were.