Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1866-06-02
A suor AT THE DEoANTER.
BY REV. rnropoRs l.: cuYLER.

discovered thief In his house, and taking
down bis grandfather's old fowling piece
- he said Friend thee had better get oul
Of the way, for intend TO Gre rigM wher,
thee stands. With the same consideratt
spirit we warn certain good people that
| they had better take the decsuter off their
tables, Tor we intend to aim Bible-trutt
right where that decapter stands. 1t il
in the wrong place. 1t has no more busi-
ness to be there at all than the thief had to
be in the honest Quaker's house We are
not surprised to fOd decanter of alcoholic
poHon on the counter of q dram-shop
whose keeper is licensed to sell death by
measure but we are surprised to find il
Gu the table or the sdeboard of one who
4 processes to be guided by the spirit and
the teaching of Gods Word. That bottle
stands right in the range of the following
inspired u.!teraDce of st. Paul II is
good neither TO eat flesh, nor to drink toine,
nor anything schereby My brother stamJleth.
This text must either 60 out OF the Chris
tian's Bible, or the bottle go of the Chris.
tlqalr's table: The text will not move, and
the. bottle must. .a...trl ~ a..,.ri
The passage itself is so clear that IL can
hardly admit Of. cavi or doubt. II
teaches the lofty aud benevolent principle
thai, abstinence from things that are natu-
rally hurtful to others is a Christian expedi.
ency shat has the grip of moral duty.
'r This sounds at first like q very radical
doctrine, but so conservative on expounder
as Professor Hodge,. of Prince ton. has
defined 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
willineyitably flow from it,. We are never
to put stumbling blocks 10 the way OF
Others. Good men are bound to sacfiU
fee anything and everything that is conn
ter to the glory Of God aud destructive of
the best interest of humanity. -.
1t would be easy to prove unanswerably
that alcoholic beverages are injurious to
those who use them. The famous athlete,
Tom Sayerss|%as once asked by gentle
man, Well, Thomas, l suppose that when
You sre training, you nse plenty Of beef
steaks, ard London porter and pale ale p
TIE b xer replied, 10 my time I have
drank more than was good for me but
when | have business to do, there's MOTH
ing like wate and the dumb bells. After
retiring from business, be took to, drink
and died like sot, Cold water made him
a Sampson alcohol laid him in his grave.
AS matter Of personal health and long
life, it is good not to drink wine as an
example TO Others, total abstinence is q
Christian virtue. r'.f eo--... '.fill-h
The inherent wrong Of using intoxica-
ting drinks is two-fold. First, 1t exposes
10 danger the man who hampers with it !;
for no man was ever positively assured By
1 bis C'eator that be could play with the
adder that lies in wine'cup without bling
stung by it. Second, 1t puts a stumbling
| block in tie way of him whom we are com
manded 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
10 sustain those fountain heads of death
fom which the drink poison is sold p
What right have to advocate their license,
to patronize the traffic, or 10 any way to
abet the whole system Of drinking alcoholic
tstimnIants q home or abroad 7 III a glass
of wine on my table will entrap some
Iyoubg man, or some one who is inclined to
slimulauts, into dissipation, then | am
thonghtlessly setting trap for his ife.-
i am his tempter. l gave the usage nay
sanction. and to him the direct inducemept
to partake of the bottled demon that spar.
kles so seductively before him. If the con.
tents of that sparkling glass make my
brother to stumble be stumbles over me.
Ii he goes away from my table and com.
mits some outrage under the effect OF that
stimulant, am, to a certain degree, guilty
Of that outrage. I have partnership in
every blow be strikes, or 10 every oath he
may utter, or in every bitter wound be
may iuaicl on the hearts OF those be loves,
while under The spell of my glass of Coguac
or Burgundy, give him the incentive to
do what otherwise he might have left un-
done. The man who puts the bottle to his
neighbours lips is accountable for what
comes from those lips under the Influence Of
the dram, and is accountable, too, for
every outage that the maddened victim of
the cup .Gay perpetrate during his tempo.
rary insanity. .ra,.
In this view Of the question is 1t too
much 10 ask OF every professed Christian,
and every lover of bis kind, that they will
wholly abstain from everything that can
ntoxicate ? For the sake of your children,
do it, For the sake OF brother, hus--
band, friend. For the sake of those who
will plead your example for the sake Of
the trail tempted ones who con not say,
No! for your felow.traveler's sake to
Gods bar, and 10 the eternal word, touch.
not the bottled devil, under whose shining
scales dsmnation hides its adder-sting
| 1t is oldfashioned total abstinence that
we are pleading for. We ask it as Paul
did, for the sake of those who stumble
Oh, those stumblers those stumblers l.
We dare not speak Of them. 1t would
touch many Of us too tenderly. 1t would
reveal too many wrecks-wrecks that an.
gels -wept over. 1t would open tombs
whose green turf hides out of sight what
many q survivor would'love to have forgot.
ten. 1t would recall to me many a college
friend who went down q. midday into
blackness of darkness. p .qi,s 49, es,t I
Aud to day see this social curse com.
ing back into our houses, into our daily
peaoaa NJ hfa NTH radanhlad None.