Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1858-07-22
For the Yorkville Enquirer.
wHYPR0FEssoRs OF RELIGION SHOULD PRAc
T1cF AND ADVOCATE TEMPERANCE.
no. III.

Lest you should become q drunkard yourself or
help TO make others such. For the ordinary use
of ardent spirits leads to intemperance. 1t is the
highway to drunkenness and the only way. 1t is
not then, necessary to specify the line which sep
crates the temperate from the Incorporate use OF
intoxicating drinks. There is no part of this road
which is safe. It is all wrong from A to q and
should be stunned. 1t is q maxim in morals that
no one becomes a william suddenly. 1t is by de-
grees. Time is required to complete the process.
A mechanic is not made in a day. He must learn.
1t is q process of repeated effort looking to one
end. Labor directed in a particular way establish
Is habit, and practice makes perfect. SO in this
case, men are not born drunkards-they are made
such. If they become "mighty to drink wine and
men Of strength to mingle strong drink they
must learn the art-serve an apprenticeship to the
trade. And what is the process tits simply to
drink-repeating the operation-continue in the
practice. Insensibly and gradually q thirst for
drink is created and as soon as this becomes stron'
ger than counteracting influences, you have drum
kenness in the worstform. Every habitual drink
er does not become q drunkard. Some make but
slow progress and die before the work is complete.
Others see the danger and pause or retrace their
steps. But all such are in the road to ~intemper
ance. And every step which they take brings
them nearer to the goal where responsibility, use
fulness and peace end, and where misery, despair
and death begin. ,''Thereis Q way which seemeth
right to man but the end thereof are the ways Of
DEATH" The difference then between moderate
drinking and drunkenness is not in kind but in
degree. Such as is between the child and the
mana difference which time and development
will obviate. Could q better process be devised
for making inebriates than the practice Of habit
ual drinking! 1 think not. We cans see an adap-
tation in the means to the end-which would lead
us to expect success. And the past proves it,
Efforts in this department were wonderfully sue
cessful. Drunkenness has no advocates, it has al
ways been denounced. But not SO the process by
which they were made. This is one OF the dis
~coveries of modern times; and although it has
conferred immense good upon the human family
yet it has not received that attention which it
merits. So soon as the relicts of vitiated appe-
tite and depraved selfshness can be banished from
society, then will the ordinary use Of Alcohol he
condemned as unanimously as intemperance is now.
This will be the end; and the friends of Reform
should be satisfied with nothing short of this.
Only our older citizens can appreciate the gain
to temperance already secured. They can see it
in the diminished amount Of means now used to
make inebristes. Thirty years back and many
labored as if the great end of life was to promote
intemperance. And they saw the work prosper.
A distillery was in almost every neighborhood-
tipplingin every store and shop. From ten to fifty
gallons of Spirits was laid in annually by every
family as a part Of their necessary subsistence
it was all drank, morning, noon and night, and by
many oil the day long-men, women, children
and servsuts-the year round and from year to
year! at home and abroad! Where it was not
used was the exception. And what wasthe effect?
What else could it be but the Astounding ofintem-
psrspesf To have been otherwise tho eqpDset9p