The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1877-12-19
The 9ailg Argns,
RocK IsLAND.. 60. .1n1rno1s
(Concluded from second pape. ]

ments have been engaged in legislating 10
this direction. The emedial efficacy of
the calaboose, the felons cell, the whip.
ping post. the ducking pond, the stocks,
and tread mills. have all been resorted to
and have alike proved futile. There was
no balm in these Gileads-there was no
physicians there.
More recently, physicians. scientists, and
philanthropists have been seriously investi
eating this question In all its peculiar bear
ings, aud one practical result of their de-
alterations is the establishment of Homes
and Institutions for the treatment If
drunkenness as a disease. Here men
With morbid appetites are invited to enter,
or are placed there by the action OF tae
courts for the purpose of restraint, while
medical aid and reformatory measures are
called into requisition. To be sure, the
work has been slow. for it is no easy task
to repair the breaches that strong liquor
has made, but in many instances the happy
results bave been sure and certain.
With due respect to the religious views
of all classes of men, especially those who
believe that drunkard by being converted
to God, as the phrase is, will be saved by
divine grace and overcome the seeds of a
diseased appetite In his mortal body, the
following extract is seriously commended
to their attention:
THE MIRACLE WORKERS.
No sooner have these remedial institu-
tons been placed on a firm working basis
and commended themselves to the intelli-
gence of the earnest, thinking classes of
the community, than a new proposition is
sprung upon US, or, rather, very anti
quated religious notion has been once
again revived. The necessity of institu-
tons for the treatment of inebriety and all
other efforts in that direction are uncere
moniouslv set aside with a single breath,
and the instantaneous cure of the drunk
ards diseased appetite is proclaimed by
supernatural agency. According to this
new order of teachers, 1.-The days of miracles
must have come back to US, and, by a
special dispensation, the natural laws are
to be suspended in favor of every topper
who has inflicted upon himself diseased
appetite for alcohol. Relying on the sure
and certain teachings of divine writ, con-
hrmed by our experience and observations,
we had come to the conclusion that in the
physical world there is no forgiveness Of
sins, or as the inspired writer states it,
Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he
also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption; but be
that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit
reap life everlasting"
Even in the days of miracles we have NJ
evidence on record that those supernatura
manifestations ever extended to the re-
moval Of carnal besetments. While tn
Ipeople were healed of all manner of dis
eases, no miracle was ever performed +
eradicate the lusts of the flesh Mel
acquire inordinate appetites by reason Of
their excuses, and these grow up into be-
setting sins. The voluptuary, the forni
Gator, men of vile affections, and tippler:
cultivate these carnal passions until the
d become inbred. and it is not N the orde
OF the economy of grace to remove theI
by miraculous interposition.
-, This idea OF spiritual renovation Of th
I heart, while the head is habitually too il
] toxcated to apprehend moral obligation
is almost beyond rational belief 1t is diff
ne cult to conceive that any man, in such
I'd state OF voluntarily induced in bccility, K
RS drunk to hold intelligent converse wit
nn men, can be competent to transact busine
r. with God, to receive and answer tho
n calls from the Holy Spirit that decide Il
~ eternal destiUies OF the soal.
i@s 1t it were ordained that the drunk ard
! diseased appetite should be cured
N' miraculous interposition, as many so pc
Eistently insist upon, then We invite the
M to visit our inebriate asylums and try t
result on the class of patients we have d
m. scribed, for If this miraculous grace aboun
8 to all drunkards, it surely will much mo
on abound where the curse is most felt.