New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-09-19

{" est fesh nor TO drink wine nor any h'Hg
whereby thy brother stumbleth. or is offended,
OF is made weak" I'VE quote from the Re-
cei7ed Version. because we have no other a.
hand; but we feel confident that neither the
Dousy nor any other differs essentially from this
The same sentiment is embodied in |. Corinthians,
viii. 10: " Wherefore, If meat make my brother
:. to offend, will eat no flesh while the world
standeth, lest make my brother to offend. 8"
If our opponent has hitherto lived in ignorance
OF these texts, we regret the circumstance;
but the whole spirit of the Gospel, the
lesson of Christ's life and death, seem
TO US intended to teach this very truth. And we
protest very squsrely against The Journals deli
cate suggestions of our probable lack of pro
b" ftssionai accuracy in Biblical matters, and its
advice that we "let hermeneutcs and St. Paul
"alone" The Bible is not to us book of mys-
teries, requiring professional - training to
understand it, but collect Of practical rules for
the government OF human conduct, which very
plain men can understand if they try. And we
stl insist that our citation was and is exactly ia
point
&. NOW de W use uuu aDhrc. Nt UNh
stand that the best things are abused, and that
the legitimate use Of an intrinsically good thing
is not to be rejected becaufe it is sometimss
abused. But we contend |. that any use Of Al.
coholic Liquors by persons in health as bever-
age or stimulant is an abuse being prejudicial to
the human constitution; and ,. that whenever
the abuse of an essentially good thing becomes
80 general and overshadowing that far more evil
than good results from its use as whole, then
good men should desist from aud discountenance
such use if they cannot otherwise arrest the
abuse. This is what we understand to be the
to which we have referred.
Now does any man doubt, will any seriously
deny, that the use of Alcoholic Liquors 10 bev.
erage produces far more of evil than good Con-
slider what oceans of squalid destituton, misery,
vice, crime, despair, exist all around us, which
would in good part be dried up by the disuse of
Alcoholic Beverages Especially among the
Catholic population of our City do we firmly be-
lieye that there are at this moment, and have
been during the last twenty years, ten times as
much abject poverty, fighting, depravty, vio-
lence and murder as there would be if Liquor
were kept away from them. Aud we do think
this consideration, even though it be really
less gigsntic than it seems to us, ought to
have weight with Catholic journalists and
the Catholic Clergy. So thinking, we have en-
deavored to arouse them to more determined
and effective hostility to the Liquor Traffic than
the great mass of them have hitherto seen it to
evince. Our grounds of opposition to that Traffic
are not precisely those which we presume will be
most influential with them but we shall be very
happy to secure their aid in Kidding the land of
prog.hops on any consideration which shall be
effective with them.
One word more as to Moral Law. We en-
deavor to bring all questions to practical tests.
Keeping grOgshOp either tends to make its
neighborhood and frequenters more yirtuous, up
right, peaceful, Thrifty, temperate, worthy, and
religious, or less so. Which way does it tend
There is no novelty in the premises-Do expert
ment to be tried. We. have ages and continents
of experience to Judge from. Does The Journal
contend that, as between aneghborkOOd wherein
liquor is sold and one wherein it is not, there can
be any doubt as to which, other things being
equal, is most fortunate and happy And if there
be, ss we contend no doubt 10 the premises, how
can it be reasonably contended that Liquor-sell-
ing, as commonly carried on among US, is not an
immoral business-one that good men and Chris
tians should keep out Of!
The Journal thinks our argument against the in
nocence, in aphysical and chemical aspect, of AL
coholic Beverages "palpably fallacious and bids
US consult Delluc, ard Millhau, and Adamson on
the subject. But We submit that this is a ques-
ton which we have probably studied with pro-
fessonal accuracy at least equal to that of our
opponent. We are familiar with the teachings
of Muzzy and Alcott, and Sylvester Graham, and
Carpenter, and Youmans, and Beaumont, each
of whom has probably given more attention to the
effects of Alcohol on the Human Constitution
than has either of our opponents Learned phar-
"maceutists, who we trust agree with them,
but whom we do not need to interrogite. Nei-
ther of these ever enjoyed such remarkable OPP
portunites for studying the physiology of diges-
ton and the influence Of Alcohol on the human
system as DR.. beaumont, whose testimony, given
with no reference to the Liquor contro-
very, is most emphatic and convincing. We ad-
nit that a rsry Hris Alcohol may be taken by a
person in health without great deal of injury;
but We. maintain that the only way for such to
avoid injury altogether is to take none at all.
And We are willing TO abide on this subject by
the testimony of " our first and best physicians,
provided they are not themselves slaves of the
vicious habit we are striving to eradicate. We
krow that many of our best physicians hold
views Identical with ours, and that every years
discussion adds largely to their number. We be-