The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-02-11


ever knew, in evasions of law, dishonest
returns, wicked authorizations, and spurious
supplies to the infamous trade of corrup-
ton and DEATH
"God setteth the solitary in families -
Intemperancs 00erturps and dem0ralizes all
tue consecrated relations Of the family
There are fifty thousand domestic circles
in the United States yearly impaired and
ruptured by this foul blot on our national
escutcheon. Here there are no affairs of
prayer, and the afflicted victims are pre-
pared subjects for unhappiness and desper-
ate misery. Shall the Church falter in an
adequate apprehension of her relation to
temperance SO far as these suffering fami-
lies are concerned?
/ Atcohol IS mainly brain poison. The
experiments of DR.. Percy, and many other
eminent Psychologists of Europe, have con-
clusively demonstrated this point. 1t has
! been actually distilled from the brain of
the man or animal who has died or been
killed Immediately after swallowing it, when
! it could not be detected in any other part
of the body. Not essentially on the brain,
or an the interstices of the brain, but CON-
blned with the substratum of the BRAIN
! We know the brain to be the seat of the
mind, and whatever affects the one equally
influences the other. But alcohol does not
act uniformly through the brain-it affects
particular portions thereof and hence in
different ways attacks the several faculties
of the mind. 1t enervates and subverts
the will, obscures and distorts the intellec-
tual powers, impairs and reduces conscicn-
tiousness, cautiousness, and other moral
sentiments, while at the same time it inten-
SITES the imagination and the several
aesthetic faculties, and go1ds the mere ami
NAL propensicns TO dominion over the entire
realm of manhood. 1t has thus made in
the United States, within few years past,
two hundred thousand maniacs. We be-
lieve this to be a low estimate. The sta
tistics of lunatic asylums exhibit twenty,
thirty, and in some instances even fifty per
cent of all cases recorded, as chargeable
directly to the use of alcoholic liquors.
DR.. Howe, of Boston, shows one hundred
and forty five out of three hundred cases
of idOcy traceable to drunkenness. In
Liverpool out of four hund red and ninety
| five patients admitted in four years, the
number from the use of alcohol was two
hundred and fifty-seven. Lord Shaftes-
bury repeatedly affirmed his belief, as a
commissioner of lunacy, that sx-tenths of
the insanity of the country would not have
all existence but for Intoxicating liquors.
Never did the disconsolate Niobe have
greater occasion for grief from the fatal
arrows of Apollo and Diana, than has the
warm heart Of christian sympathy to
mourn over the helpless ruin wrought in
these temples of God, by the relentless
hand of this licensed Destroyer.
Intemperance constantly entails on the
''ord an incur"dly discussed army Of human
creatures, only to be shame and burthen
to civil and social society, from the defec-
tive seed sown in what some are pleased to
denominate Moderate Drinking" If it
were not per Sc sin to moderately indulge
in the case of alcoholic drinks, this fearful
view of the subject is sufficiently alarming
to deter wise men from transmitting such
awful consequences down to the third and
fourth generations. There are ample sta
tistics to prove the direful effects of 90 harm
less moderate drinking" upon the succeed
! ing generation. The spirit duty was re-
moved in Norway in 1895. In the next
generation the terrible increase in insanity
was above fifty per cent advance on the
previous proportion the increase of con-
genital idiocy one hundred and fifty per
cent. In Sweden in the same time, Magnus
Huss testifies that g for this cause the whole
physique of the people is degenerating !;
insanity, suicide and crime are frightfully
on the increase; new and aggravated dis
eases have invaded all classes of society,
and congenital imbecility and idocy are in
fearful proportion to the numbers born"
Moderate drinking" says an eminent
authority, on diseases of the brain, some
times produces in one or more of the chill
dren of the person thus indulgng, only a
neurophy, or a viscious and defective organ
ization, but these, when due to such an
origin, are capable of giving rise in the
next or third generation to affections of
the mind Of the gravest possible signifi-
canoe" Not all the fires of Prometheus
could refine the dross of souls thus stepped
i'll nameless pollution, and resting under
unmittigated condemnation.
There are many other and equally potent
considerations showing that Paul reasoned
well, when, of righteousness and "judg-
ment to come,' he made Temperance
the keystone of the mighty arch, on which
wounded world could rest, and be secure;
but these are enough for our present pur-
pose.
OF all the calamities Pandora poured on
this marred sphere, from her jar of evils,
none are comparable to ignorance, idleness,
brutality, family discord, insanity, and con-
genital imbecility. They are the great
prime promoters of practical infdelity and
crime. They are the mailed knights of
| Sill tlldG SldIu ct!cClly lHe TOdu Ill
which the panopiied hosts of Christ march
| to the promised Canaan of milenial RICH
teousness and peace. We must cut our
way right through these serried battalions
of Apollyon ere we can grasp the laurel
wreath held out beyond.
''Die we may-die we must
| But, oh, where can dust to dust
Be consigned SO well?'
| Our time and our toll are worse than
wasted in futile efforts to counteract the
/ vile effects of intemperance, when by judi
/ cous and Jealous labor we could throw up
the granite bikes Of prevention that would
largely, if not effectualy,
"Shut out the turbulent tides
The Church Of Christ is the parent of
every true moral reform. Every precept
of morality that proposes to correct and
destroy human sinfulness should be taught
by the Church. If wholesome example is
needed to lead men to the Fountain of
Salvation, the Church should practice it..