The American. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1857, 1857-07-31
80, never drink enough to hurt me. !,

20, yes, | drink every day of my life-but /
do not drink enough to hart me" said man, few
days since, to another whom he had invited to
take drink with him, but who declined the honor,
at the same time stating that he believed the prac-
tice injurious physically, mentally, and morally
81 knoac it is,," he went on to saw. q and i is
those who fancy they do not drink enough to hurt
them, who are running themselves, and, by nduc-
ing others to do as they do under the belief that
they, too, can drink with impunity, are running
thousands, who, but for their example and infu.
ence, would be sober, industrious, and useful mem,
bers Of society"
swell, | have drank liquor every day for many
years, and it has not hurt me yet. feel as well
to-day as l ever felt in my life"
Would you feel as well, you TO-DAY were to
abstain from drinkngg"
81 do not know. have never tried the exper-
iment"
Suppose you try it to-day"
"Why should I?'
Simply to convince yourself that you would
not feel as well. To convince yourself that YOU
cannot do without your accustomed stimule. and
to prove TO You that when the time comes when
you must do without it--when disease invades
your system, and sickness prostrates you and lays
you helpless npon your bed, that then, deprived
of this stimulus, you will dic-that's alln
You say | cannot do without it-why, then.
should try? What benefit will it be to me, save
to know that must continue to drink -
" This much. 1t will convince y0n that if YOU
would tire year or t,co longer you must begin
Immediately to reform-while you are in apparenf
health. You MAY recoyer--it is possible-but if
you go on drinking, the first sickness that over
takes you-you aciH der
Then you think,i by beginning nom, might
do without liquor!"
1t is your only chance"
Bless your heart, Ineper drink enough to hart
me- l don't, indeed. If / thought so, would
quit the practice at once"
:" So thought and said young Mccormick. He
did not drink enough to hurt him-he thought
40, perhaps, but he was mistaken, as YOU man be.
He died suddenly rfully--and his sudden and
terrible death was cansed y--whiskey--yet he did
mol drink enough 10 hstrf him. tell you that
THIRTY THOUSAND people die, yearly, in this
country, because they imagine they do not drink
enough to hurt them. They do not find ont that
drinking hurts them until they are about to die
many do not find it ont until they stand face TO
face with the Judge of quick and dead Thou
sands die by their own hands during the horrors
of defiri,7n trenens. Thousands are brought to
their graves by the most simple forms Of disease
which sober man might have laughed at and de-
6ed-but which proyc fatal to the man who never
drinks enough TO hurt hm--whyf because his
system is shattered and weakened and palsied hy
not sufficient strength to rally from the attack"
81 expect to die some of these days--hut / am
in no hurry about il. III thought was fastening
the event by drinking, would stop right away" !"
do not believe you can stop!"
=" Tut, tut | am not so far gone as that comes
to. tell you can stop, and 'ciH stop"
"Wben?n
Immodiately-this lnstant--there---I have
stopped"
" If you stick to your resolution, you may vet
know what true happiness IL; you may yet be a
happy and useful man. II is your only chance.
You will have bard struggle-it will be- strug.
gle for life Should 'you yield to temptation and
to appetite and go back to your cups--n icere bet
ter for you that you had neper been bor,,--you piH
die the dru,ikdrds death, and receiue TIE drunk
ards DOOM
:" am not a drunkard, exactly, my friend"
" You are worse than drunkardl''
"Iworse than a drunkard-hoS so?o
:" will tell you. No body will initiate tho
dr10lkdrdi No man wishes to become drunk.
ardl Every body despses the drunkardl The
drunkard's example is beneficial, rathsr than iniu-
rious 10 society Il is not so with the man who
never drinks enough to hurt him. He cncour.
ages and incites others to initiate him both by OK.
ample and precept--"
g By example, not precept.r
"By both. Did you not syVite me to rink with
you Well, sir, thus incpient and 20 called tenn
perate drinkers are made, from whom have come
all the drunkards now living, or that have lived
and died since the process by which alcohol is
made, was discovered. Were there no temperate
drinkers there would be no drunkards- yo,a,
| who never drink enough TO hurt you, yet are al
way drinking, are morse than druahaydm
+" Are not you member Of some Order Of TEN.
peranceSN
~ am proud TO say, an, a Rechabite ~
"Would to God ] was good Rechabitelr
",There is nothing easier than to become a
| Recbabite"
| How shall | become firm and consistent
Rechabites Tell mo, and I win make the effort,
though die"
"To join the Order Is a simple and beautiful
process. To remain faithful to the pledge is often
difficult and with some, impossiyle There is one
way, however, which never fsslp
aWhat is that wsyS"
Depend not upon your own strengthin
con whom should dependS"
con GoD who is your Father--in Heaveplr