Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-05-16
A Shot at the Deeanter.
BY REV. THEODORE L. cUTLER.

By REV. THEODORE L. cUILER.
There is q current strory that Quaker
I discovered thief in his house, and tax
ing down his grandfather's old fowling
piece, he said; Friend, thee had better
get out of the way, for 1 intend to fire
right lohere thee stands" With the same
considerate spirit we warn certain gooC
people that they had better take the de
canter off their tables, for we intend tC
aim Bible truth right where that decan
ter stands. 1t is in the wrong place. II
has no more business to be there at al
all than the thief had to be in the honest
Quaker's house. We sre not surprised
to find decanter of alcoholic poison on
the counter of dran-shop, whose keep
er is licensed to sell death by measure
but we are surprised to find it on the
table or the sideboard of one who pro
feses to be guided by the spirit and the
teaching of Gods Word. That bottle
stands right in the range of the follow,
ing ispired utterance of st. Paul: 'It Is
good neither to eat flesh, nor TO drink
sUine, nor anything ,0hereby Lhy 5rotECr stun.
bLeth." This text must either 90 out Of
the Christians Bible, or the bottle 90 of
the Christians table. The text will not
move, and the bottle must.
/ The passage itself is SO clear that il
can hardly admit of a cavil or doubt.
1t teaches the lofty and benevolent prin-
ciple that abstinence from things that
are naturally hurtful to others is Chris
tlan expediency that has the grip of a
moral duty.
This sounds at first like very radical
doctrine, but so conservative an expound-
er as Prof Hodge, of Princeton, has de-
fined the text as teaching that things
which are not always wrong per Sc are to
be given up for the sake of others. He
says that the legal liberty of good man
is never to be exercised where a moral
evil will evitably flow from it. We are
never to put stumbling blocks in the way
of others. Good men are bound to sacri-
fee anything and everything that is coun-
ter to the glory of God and destructive of
the best interest of humanity.
It would be easy to prove unanswerably
that alcoholic beverages are injurious to
those who use them. The famous ath-
lete, Tom Sayers, was once asked by a
gentleman, "Well, Thomas, / suppose
that when you are training, you use plen-
ty of besfsteaks, and London porter, and
pale ale?" The boxer replied, ''In my
time have drank more than was good
for me; but when have business to do,
there's nothing like water and the dumb
bells" After retiring from business
he took to drink and died like sot.-
Cold water made him Sampson; alcohol
laid him in his grave. AS matter of
personal health and long life, sit is good
not to drink wine;" as an example to
others, total abstinence is a Christian
virtue. jE@
The inherent wrong of using intoxica-
ting drinks is two-fold. First, 1t exposes
to danger the man who tampers with it;
for no man was ever positively assured by
his Creator that he could play with the
''adder" that lies in a wine-cup without
being stung by it. Second, 1t puts q
stumbling block in the way of him whom
we are commanded to love as ourselves.
Now, on the same principle-not of
self-preservation merely, but of avoiding
what is dangerous to others-what right
have to sustain those fountain-heads of
death from which the drink-poison is
sold? What right have to advo-
cate their license, to patronize the
traffic, or even in any way to abet the
whole system of drinking alcoholic slim
ulants at home or abroad? If glass of
wine on my table will entrap some young
man, or some one who is inclined to slim
ulants, into dissipation, then l am
thoughtlessly setting a trap for his life.
l am his tempter. l gave the usage my
sanction, and to him the direct induce
ment to partake of the bottled demon
that sparkles so seductively before him.
If the contents of that sparkling glass
make my brother to stumble, he stumbles
over me. If he goes away from my table
and commits some outrage under the ef-
fects of that stimulant, l am, to a certain
degree, guilty of that outrage. 1 have
partnership in every blow he strikes, or
bitter wound he may inflict on the hearts
of those he loves, while under the spell
of my glass of "Cognac" or Burgundy" :"
l give him the incentive to do what 9TH
erwise he might have left undone. The
man who put the bottle to his neighbor's
lips is accountable for what comes from
those lips under the influence of the
dram, and is accountable, too, for every
outrage that the maddened victim of the
cup may perpetrate during his temper
ary insanity.
In this view of the question, is it too
much to ask of every professed Christian,
and every lover of his kind, that they
will wholly abstain from everything that
can intoxicate? For the sake of your
children, do it. For the sake of a bro
ther, a husband, a friend. For the sake
of those who will plead your example
for the sake of the frail tempted ones
who can not say, No! for your fellow-trav-
eler's sake to Gods bar, and TO the eter-
nal word, touch not the bottled devil, un-
der whose shining scales damnation hides
its adder-stingl
1t is old-fashioned total abstinence that
we are pleading for. We ask it as Paul
did, for the sake of those who stumble"
Oh, those stumblersl those stumblers
We dare not speak of them. 1t would
touch many of US too tenderly. 1t would
reveal too many wreks-Wreks that
angels Wept over. 1t would open tombs |
whose charitable green turf hides out of
sight what many survivor would love to
have forgotten. 1t would recall to me
many college friend who went down at |
midday into blackness of darkness.
And to-day see this social curse COM
ing back into our houses, into our streets.
into our daily usages of life, with re.
doubled power. Would that every pa
rent were ''prohibitory law" to his fam
ily! Would that every pulpit and every
platform would thunder forth the old |
warning cry. "Look not on the wine
when it is red, when it giveth its color in
the cup, for at last it biteth like a SER
pent and stingeth like an ander." At
the last! at the LAsTl But, o! who can
tell when that ''last" shall ever end p
When will the victims last groan be
heard? When will the last horror seize
upon his wretched soul