Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-02-18

TEMPERANCE MEETING.-The meeting
Sunday evening was attended by full
house. H. A. Huse presided and Mr.. II.
c. Lull offered prayer. The chairman
then introduced as the speaker of the even
ing DR.. P. D. Bradford of Northfield.
DR.. Bradford stated in beginning that
we must not expect " temperance lee
ture" from him in the ordinary acceptation
of the term The moral and religious side
of the question he left for those in other
walks to deal with, and while he consider
ed legislative enactments necessary to
secure the fullest results from agitation of
the question. he proposed to consider only
the scientific side of the use of intoXicants.
While the use of wine and of malt liquors
perhaps antedate history, that of distilled
liquors goes back only three or four hum
tlred wears, and their abundant use only
century and half. Living in an age of
high pressure . it is not strange that
men seek that which will enable them to
live fast and Wear out fast. There is no
building up power in alcoholic drinks for
the human system but their work is the
creation of chronic disease. We find that
tendencies to consumption are transmitted
! from one generation to another; we find
also that the ills with which intoxicants
afflict those who indulge in them are like
! f,fh To no
sound mind in a sound body-cannot be had
where the individual or his ancestors have
INDUCED in these stimulants.
Man was made in the image of God and
is the only animal who stands erect before
his maker. The physician, the conserva-
tor of public health, finds him not obeying
the laws of his being but often wallowine
in the filth of the gutter. The folly and
wickedness of such a condition is brought
home TO no other man as to the physician
The violator of statute law may escape the
penalty by cunning or by flight or some
times by open defiance. The violator o
moral law may. we hope, by repentance
receive from the bounties of infinite mercy
a remission of the penalties affixed. Blu
he who goes counter to these laws of hi:
physical being must take the consequences
there is in that department no remission
of sins. There is absolute certainty tina
the penalty will follow the transgression
The shaking hand, the deranged system
and the weakened mind are necessary re
suits of the use of intoxicating drinks
Flight, nor repentance nor beseechin:
prayer, will drive away the demons ant
horrible shapes from the victim of deliri
um tremens. Once summoned by til
!; potent spell they will come.
The user of that which steals his tim
and mind violates Gods law as directly a
the most open defer of the decalogut
The command is as imperative to labC
six days rs it is to rest on the sew entl
The sin of ltziness which enables the dev
to steal upon the unoccupied mind and us
it to his own purpose, has nothing to II
cruit its ranks equal to the habit of drinl
, inc. Honest work ab lnd0ne |, men lik
some animals get their living by fraud {
violence, and our jails and prisons al
filled and our taxes increased directly an
indirectly, by this wasteful and useless il
diligence.
God gave as necessary to the sustenan(
10 of man air, drink and food. BY the
proper Use we preserve health. BY the ere;
ton of false forms of either we get diseas
and misery ana death; and of all the cv
forms pllmel off on man there is nor
that bears more ills in its train than that
alcoholic drinks.
The Lecture was clear exposition
the evils of drinking, ana the whole arg
= ment clelr AMI convincing. The questiC
=. was treate from point of view infinite
above the reach Of the missiles thrown |
J. those who under one pretext or anoth
Justify or excuse the use, as 4 beverage,
- such liquors as contain alcohol We a
:. sure our citizens would again gladly he
Dr. Bradford, when he might have mo
. time to enlarge on pu'ticnlar phases of til
~ question that he had no opportunity
touching upon Sunday evening,