Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1866-06-07

HOW TO OBTAIN CHARACTER.
That which next most concerns US is, how TO OBJ
tain character!
Let us remember that is to be obtained. This
high and mpe, ,shGb,c thing is the great prize for
which We may all run. We arr not born with il.
Our Great or has not provided it already to our
hands, any more than lie has provided with
clothing ready made, food ready cooked, fortune
already accumulated. or reputation already won -
lie has on given the abilit and opportunity to
achieve. He has equipped Us for the race, showed
US the prize and babe us run.
In answer to the question-fow shall character
be obtained7-I would mention 1smperance one
OF The grand means. do moi use the term in its
narrow, modern sense. Temperance, Of late, has
come to mean only moderation in the use of spr-
ituOus liquors would use it in the noble breadth
il once had, making i. cover the whole man. In
its original sense. il means StF-Mastery.
Let US 90 back nearly eighteen hundred wears
for an explanation Of it, Paul exhorts the Corin-
thians to earnestness in the Christian so
rum" he says, "that We may obtain," alluding TO
the Greci IN games where men for prizes
What was necessary to successful race7 Why,
Temperance. "Every man that striveth for the
mastery is temperate in aHfhings." "WOuld you"
says Epictetus, "be victor in the Olympic games
So in good truth wowld |. for il is glorious thing.
But pray consider what must 60 before ard what
may follow, and so proceed TO the attempt. You
D
TO constant exercise at the appointed hour In heat
and cold; you must abstain from wine and cold H.
quors in word, you must he as submissive to all
the directions Of your master as to those Of ply
sician." Yea, says Paul, al keep under my body,
and bring it into subjecton." Tie practices all the
selfrestrant ard discipline that is essential to the
attainment of an incorruptible crown" which the
Lord, the righteous Judge. had set before him.
Such is the Temperance niran-a seif.discip-
line, careful restraint in everything in which We
are liable to excess-a total prohibition of every
thing that is at en- nifty with character.
MEANS FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF CHARACTER.
Let US now make few practical applications,
that may see the proper use OF this grand means
to the attainment Of character.
TIE necessity Of a total prohibition Of spirtuons
liquors as a beverage. VIC, as Good Templars. n-
ready appreciate. need not enlarge upon the
fact that spirituous liquors al all kinds "a very
dangerous enemy to character. 1t is because YOU
are convinced of their fatal power that you are
here, pledged together in this solemn manner, to
set your faces as flint against them. You have
seen how they entce from smallest beginnings TO
greatest excess-how they fasten upon their victim
/ as the fabled serpsnts of the aysnging Minerva
fastened upon the priest OF Apollo and his sons,
enwrapping them in their resistess folds and dart
ing their fery venom into their lie's blood until
death ends the horrid agony. You need not be re-
minded how they destroy the bodily strength, steal
away the reason, imhrute the heart, betrsy the
honor wreck the hopes, starve the wife and child.
kin the SOUL Oh, "touch not. taste not. handle
aot" Forbid them in every form as you would
| the poisons OF the internal 6eud Keep away from
their precnts as you would from the mouth OF hell.
Total abstinence now Tomorrow and fox0ver. is
the only absolute security here.
TEMPERANCE IN EATING.
But this fatal enemy to character thoroughly ous
of the way. IS I sincerely trust he is out Of the
way of every Good Templar. We come TO aBoshsr
velngh a. fatal. though We have lar less warning
of the fact and less concern about il. mean eat.