North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1867-03-27
TEMPERANCE ADDRESS.
BY A. p. RICHARDSON.

.
Prompted by wish to subserve tho in
| terests OF those whom misfortune compels
| to ask for relief, l consented to write a
Lecture for this evening, the proceeds, if
any, to be appropriated to the poor Of our
city through the praiseworthy agency of
the Relief Association. 1t is we'll known
that l am not lecturer: q residence Of
many years among you has not, until now,
developed any desire on my part to appear
before the public except in the columns of
newspaper. In accepting the tender Of
Lecture from me the Association took
the chances on its tenor, tone or drift,
and hence it will have the shape which
candor and regard for public good las
understand it) may dictate. In choosing
the subject Of TEMPERANCE l confess an
intention to awaken curiosity-not for the
purpose Of notoriety in personal way
but to draw larger amount of funds for
| the benefit of the destitute ones who ap-
peal to US in language stronger than words.
| The idea that RICHARDSON, of the TINES,
would speak or write on temperance, after
he has been written down so repeatedly as
an opponent of it, both theoretically and
practically, was calculated to excite the
special wonder of many people. The sub
ject is a delicate one admit. 1t is hack.
| neyed. Almost everybody has ridden it
until there is hardly possibility of get
ting anything new out Of it. / approach
it without desiring to follow the track of
formality. Willing to take up subject
supposed by some to be a very strange
one to me, allow me to ask your indul-
gance while l treat of Temperance
Treating people is something to which
am not unused, but confess that the sub
ject l introduce to you is not one which
am particularly notorious for treatinq.-
Perhaps those who are we'll acquainted
with me and who have no motives of in
terest to influence them will net regard
my present position SO much out Of
order as to be q matter of burlesque.
certainly do not so intend it, and if the au-
dience will be patient and forbearing
hope, before concluding, that no offense will
be given by any word of mine to the most
exacting. l am not intending to make
this stand forum whence to vindicate
personal character, and hence farther re-
marks in the way of preface are waived.
| In all ages, some exciting substance has
been used to induce forgetfulness of the
present. The habit began with the book
of Genesis. Some sort of delirious inf1u-
ence must have been administered to Eve
by the Devil, else she would not have per-
mitted his Satanic Majesty to induce a de-
sertion of her MAKER and a consequent
expulsion from the beautiful. Garden which
DEITY had assigned our first parents. I'm
derstand me not as caricaturing the scrip
tural account of our origin, the fall of Ad-
am and Of that Sin which
| brought death into tho world
And all our VICE.
| am not talking about Theology, be-
cause, first, it is not my subject, and because,
twice. know but little about it. En- pa
renthesis, would remark that firm be-
liefin future state-no matter how absurd
that beliefs better food for the mind
than no belief at all. The hope of a
pleasant tomorrow cheers us through the
labors of to-day we experience this every
day we live. Why is not the hope of a
glorious hereafter strong incentive to
good motives and an inducement to good
actions here? Persons without Hope die.
| if means can be reached to end life that
has become tastcless. The poet Campbell
beautifully apostrophises HorE:
| "Eternal Hope! When yonder spheres sublime
Pealed their first notes to sound the march of Time
Thy joyous youth began-but, not to fade:
When all the sister planets have decayed,
When wrapt in flames, the realms of ether glow,
And Heavens last thunder shakes the world below,
THOU, undismayed, shalt DER the ruins smile
And light thy torch at Natures funeral pile!"
Suicides are the result of a want of
hope. l have had the unhappiness to
know among personal friends several cases
Of sel-destruction and insanity-all of
them because Hope had fled. A person
| whose visions, if you choose to call them
such, continue to disclose lovely scenes in
life, and whose painter, FAITH, remains
| MS departure for THAT bourne whence no
traveller returns" most certainly is more
fortunate than one who has no artist of
Love and PROMISE to bid him Adieu! /
am skeptical and regret it. l confess it,
not in affectation. Like Burns, the poet of
Nature, l think the result too good to be
deserved by mortals. Will the audience
pardon Inc for saying that the lowliness of
our situation, the unworthiness of our
acts, the general selfishness of our ma.
lures, contrasted with the exalted charac-
ter Of the Immaculate One who suffered on
the cross, renders me fearful of the bless
ed promise. DO not condemn me, if YOU
please. We all know the frequency of
the prayer. sob, Lord, increase our faith -
This sentence, spoken in the strongest
Christian sincerity and fervor, is not only
an admission Of doubt, but a confession Of
our unwOrthiness to receive the blessings
which are promised us. This switch-off
from what purports to be the main track
OF this discourse may be thou ht out of
order, but the audience will bear in mind
that prosy, journalistic addresses, detailing
the evils Of Intemperance and the benefits
OF abstinence are so common as to be
scarcely hear-able. Let US, then, weave
other matters in, and endeavor to saw
something else besides the simple words
4" Down with whiskey and up with cold
water" Whatever the singularities of
Bible History, the wraugles of church
men as to its meaning, its variously con-
strued points of doctrine, it is the best ac-
count OF creation on record, and he who
practically follows the teachings of the
Great Nazercne, whom Josephus Hebrew
as he was) called The Christ" can look
the world in the face without fear of re-
proach.
l was saying that the use of stimulants
commenced in early history. Noah. the
first sea captain we read of, behaved badly
on one occasion: his son Ham behaved
worse: the consequence was that Ham
and his descendants were condemned to
be servants of Shem and Japhet and their
posterity. Whether Noah's indulgence in
drink or Hams unseemly ridicule of his
tight" old father caused the late rebel
lion and the consequent submerging of
our country under load of financial and
political embarrassment, I am not able to
say but, if, as some insist, slavery began
with Ham, it is inferentially true that the
inebriacy Of his father was the actual orr
gin of the war. One thing is sure: If
there had been no desire for stimulants
Noah would not have been drunk; Lot
would have behaved himself; Belshazzar
would not have allowed Cyrus to take
Babylon: David probably would MT have