Litchfield enquirer., 1874-04-02

done their duty, and the leaders of State
 and National politics had done theirs,
 there would not be dram shop to day
 between Canada and the Gulf The whole
 business has thus been left to God and
 the women; and the latter are praying in
 churches and in the street, and pushing
 on their divine and peaceful crusade, be-
 cause the men of America have failed to
 do their duty. Shall Christian man, in
 high station or low, lift his voice against
 them? Rather let him hide his head in
 shame and self-contempt.
 You say that the Archbishop sscannot
 instruct or preach that it is 8 sin for day
 loborer who has to carry the hod on a
 broiling hot day in July or August, up
 steep ladder, to the third or fourth story
 of building, to restore his exhausted
 strength by glass or two of beer" Have
 you not unwittingly avoided or changed
 the issue? Did the ''lady league def-
 nitely ask you to declare snch an act
 sin? If they did, they were unwise, I
 think. Do you suppose this crusade
 would have been begun if nothing worse
 were drunk than beer? That is bad
 enough, without doubt, and an unmitiga-
 ted curse to all who drink it habitually,
 whether they drink to excess or not; but
 the women know that where beer is there | IS something worse; and all their observa-
 tion has taught them that that worse thing
 cannot be got rid of unless the beer goes
 with it. Besides, they know, what you
 do not seem to admit, that ga glass or
 two of beer" restores the wasted strength
 of no man. A stimulus ''restores" noth- | ing. Alcohol excites the nervous system,
 and all artificial excitement is followed by reaction and exhaustion. Alcohol in no form adds to the vital forces; 1t subtracts | from them. In sickness 1t may stimulate for the time the processes of digestion, or 1 rally temporarily the vital forces to throw off disease, but the best modern physiol- oglsts recognize no nutritious element in
 that much abused agent. If there is a l nutritlve element in beer, 1t is so insig- l nifcant as to deserve no consideration | whatever. After all, it is the company 1 that the beer keeps which condemns it; and after all, too, it Is the fact that beer l always Is abused, wherever 1t Is kept or sold, which makes it objectionable to the women.
 But this is small matter, comparative ly, and hasten to what seems to me to
 be the most important part of your circu- lar-that in which you quote, chapter and verse, your Divine authority for the use of | wine. It Is easy to quote Scripture, and when no account is taken of the circumstan- ces under which each separate quotation
 was written 1t is easy to sustain almost any proposition by it. 1t is easy, for in- stance, to turn to Proverbs and quote ''Wlne IS mOcker, strong drink is rag | ing; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." We can turn to the book of Daniel, and show how the men who would not defle themselves with the wine of l Nebuchadne9zar, but ate pulse and drank water, proved themselves in the space of ten days fairer and latter than all who were around them. We can turn to the Proverbs of the wisest man again and write the words: ''Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his | color III the cup, when it moveth itself aright; at the last 1t blteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder" A Divine statute recorded in Leviticus has special application to the priesthood Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die; it shall be statute forever through out your generations.a
 1t IS easy to quote Scripture, I repeat. and those portions which have present. ed are at least as good as yours They prove, first, that wine is seductive, de- captive, and dangerous drlnk; second, that on fair trial men are better without 1t than with 1t, and third, that. there are circumstances and conditions under which God commanded it should not be drunk at all. That Is all wish to prove from Scripture in this direct connection, for am quite ready to admit that the Jews, l alike the Old Testament and the New, drank wine, and that the Savior and his disciples drank it. We may be sure, how ever, that the circumstances Of the coun- try rendered tue practice either desirable or permissible. It was probably true that under the circumstances wine-drink- ing did more good than harm. Does any one suppose that if, in that country, and In those times, wine drinking did more harm than good, it would have received in any way the sanction of the Savior? Such supposition would impugn alike his candor and his benevolence
 We live other where and ill other times. Wine has become associated with baser liquors. It is manufactured from baser livuors in untold quantities. The poor people of America could not get pure wine if they wanted it, and the rich do not know whether they get it or not. The great practical fact, however, which stares us in the face to-day is that wine, bran dy, whiskey, gin, and beer are tied to- gether in a sisterhood of ungoverrable furies, and that one of them cannot be dealt with, without dealing Wita all the rest. If the rich man drinks his wine, the poor nan will have his whiskey The total abstinence people are not responsi- ble for this state of things; they are total abstinence people iE consequence of this state of things. They can find no middle ground. You, yourself, profess to have practiced total ab- stinence for years, for the sake of set ting Q good example. You have thus given practical recognition of ths fact that no man can do any thing for temper ance who is not 8 total abstinence man, and have set an example to the clergy of this country worthy of all imitation-an example, too which must be universally initiated before the Christian Church can do the work which Christianity demands of it.
 Unhappily your precept nullifes your practice. You say that you. or those for whom you speak, cannot sswith bell, book and candle, with praying and psalm-sing- ing in the mud, excommunicate those who dispense the liquid which God has made to be used with. moderation and thanks 6AsAAE. WAao 10 tAAS A4ulu! IS 1I W1u0. That is the liquid you talk about; that is the liquid the drinking of which you find justified in the Bible But whiskey is not wine. Whiskey is the liquid that burns up stomach, brains, morality, in- dustry, prosperity, life, Whiskey fills a hundred thousand homes with misery, and is poisoning the blood of the genera tiops: Whiskey fills the poor houses and hospitals and prisons. Whiskey is asso- ciated with nearly every crime committed in our community. It is the grand, fiery fountain of the national woe and crime. This is what the women of Ohio are seek ing to banish, and they know that with it must go that which all the national expe- rience has proved will be used as cover for the baser liquid.
 And now let us go to the Bible again for the rule which, for us, in this, matter, must cover all rules and examples: 'It is good neither te eat flesh. nor to drink wina nnr onvfhiprr fbu hrofhnr