The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-05-02

ltLLeT IEOM the 1lDGL htN. ALI4DASuOP VI SAAlAA
C1ScrSNAr1, Ohio, March 18th, 1874.
Archbishop Purcell, Of this city, publishes the
following letter to-day in answer to numerous
written and personal applications by OHIO women
for sympathy and assistance in the whisky crusade:
uSTExPERATE TEMPERANCE AGITAToRs-
ST. Paul in his instructions TO the Romans and
through them to all Christians, advises them " not
to be more wise than it behooveth to be wise but
10 be wise unto sobriety." Romans, xii, 30.
The undersigned takes this occasion 10 answer the
numerous applications made 20 him for sympathy
and cooperation in the crusade against lntemper-
ance. lie does not now for the FIRST time express
publicly his sympathy with the object, if not with
the means adopted by the crusaders, or his readi-
ness to cooperate with every legitimate and
wise effort for the suppression Of intemperance.
Scarcely has he ever had the spiritual care of a
congregation, as priest or bishop, without warn
ing those who heard him of the temporal and
eternal evils resulting from excess, in sermons
and pastoral letters. lie has insisted on the
necessity and EXPORTED to the observance of holy
temperance, going so far in one of these letters
many years ago, as to express the wish that not
one of his flock were a low disreputable saloon
keeper. For ten years he practiccd total absti-
nence, hoping by example to induce those whom
his words did not reach to shun the vice that
leads TO every other vice. He is even now totally
abstinent. This he considers pretty good but
he cannot go to the excess suggested by some of
the lady league. He cannot instruct or preach
that it is a sin for q day laborer, who has to carry
the bod on a boiling hot day in July or August,
up a steep ladder to the third or fourth story Of a
building, TO restore his exhausted strength by n
glass or two of beer. This he would consider
cruel. If the toiler has the physical endurance
and the will to do without the beverage, in the
name of God, let him do it, and if he can't take
this refreshment without drinking to excess, let
him abstain altogether or quit the hard work, or
die, for 1t is better so than TO be n drunkard.
Again, the Archbishop can't ask a clergyman to
blaspheme the Divine Author of our religion by
asking Him why he made wine at Cana, in
Galilee, to recreate guests at a wedding why He
instituted the Eucharist, the Lords Supper, partly
in wine, of which He commanded the Apostles to
drink why Jehovah's holy spirit teaches us in
the Bible that God made " wine to cheer the
heart of man y (Psalms, CHI, l3). And the
vine to ask why it should desert its 90 wine that
cheereth God and men" (Judges, tx, l3)? Why
did the dying patriarch, under the influence Of
Divine inspiration, wish his son g abundance of
wine?" Why, again, does the Holy Ghost tell
US that it is hurtful always to drink water or
wine, but that to mix them is pleasant, or some
times to drink one and sometimes the other, in
the last verse of the Old Testament? But God,
they object, did not make the wine. We have
shown that He did make it. Neither did He
make the bread, except in the miracle of the
loayes in the desert but He made the grape and
the wheat, from which wine and bread are made
viz N"C ~ " lAONNoo hOb bbCu cilnpICI lluI
the other.
Catholics then go to the Bible and they under
stand It, and, with the blessed book before them.
we cannot, with bell, book and candle, with
praying and psalm-singing in the mud, excom-
municate those who drink or those who dispense
the liquid which God has made to be used with
moderation and thanksgiving. This, then. is the
edict of the Word of God, Use, but do not
abuse - and if you can't use without abusing
use not at all.
Soma faw ,,ost fbroo 90 C,,- D....L--.
clergymen called on the Archbishop to ask his
cooperation in an attempt to abate the nuisance
of the grogshops he told them that when there
was the question of the licensing or absolute
prohibiting of the sale of inebriating liquors, he
earnestly recommended the imposing Of as heavy
n fine or license on the vendors of such liquids as
they could bear, inexorably to close, by all the
where had Tionor :" is sh so IdT 70 th mf5o1 gilH d haT1trsaRas
men or women, who are now the pests of the
community, a disgrace to their families, and
teaching by word and example the broad way to
perdition. This, he conceived, would be the
most %efectual check to the evil we deplore. 1t
would diminish, perhaps, by 1000 the 5000
spirGcuLa ditiS those craters of hell by which our
city is in perils Of combustion, and it would paw
the city much, if not all, the expenses of the
wOrkhouse and other institutions, which honest
sober citizens are now shamefully taxed to sup
port. All which is respectfully submitted to all
whom 1T may concern. j. b. PURCELL,
Archbishop of Cincinnati.
In commenting on the above letter the Herald
The temperance angels of Ohio have been
trying to induce the good Archbishop Purcell to
join the praying band and curse with bell, book
and candle all wine bibbers, beer swillers and
such other ungodly persons as drink beverages
other than water. But the Christian shepherd is
not to be wheedled even by angels, though clothed
in muslin as a disguise, and he has dexterously
up the intruders with his pastoral staff,
Justifying himself with many a holy text. We
print the Bishops letter in another column, and
it will probably tickle saints and sinners alike.
1t is q Christian letter, full of kindly feeling for
the poor and wretched and such as are sore op-
pressed, and has more of the spirit of the Sermon
on the Mount than could be squeezed out of any
amount of psalm-singiDg crusading. There is a
pity for the sufferings of the poor as well as for
their failings such as the Master showed, and
virtue becomes attractive because it is human.
But the Bishop, like Jacob, can wrestle even with
an angel, and is not to be terrified by a legion of
them. There is something irresistibly comic in
the home thrust of the pastoral staff when the
Bishop tells the crusaders to be wise unto So
briefly He evidently thinks that other forms of
intemperance may be as offensive as wine-bibbing,
md, with the bluntness of a good Christian, he
brings down his staff with a thwack on the pates
Of the crusaders in a way which would be trying
even for martyrs. What answer will the tenn
perance prophet Dio give when confronted with
the words of Jehovah - God made wine to
cheer the heart of man?' Christian authority is
altogether against the extreme temperance fanat-
les who would pronounce wine accursed because
men drink it TO excess. The followers of Die
Lewis will do well to read carefully Archbishop
Purcell's letter and ponder upon its contents, for
even angelic beings may sometimes with advantage
be sWayed by common sense