The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1877-06-28
Home Correspondence.
IFOr the News
The Philosophy of the Muir
ply Temperance Reform.

While disciplined thinkers always realize that
effects are due to adequate causes, it is less obvl
Gus what these causes are. Besides, it may require
a long experience, with some unusual OppOrtuni-
ties of observation, in various States and cities
and under varied circumstances, with leisure fOr
investigation and deep, lifelong interest, to en-
able any person TO reach a Just comprehension OF
original or first causes. 1t is time for reformers
to carefully avail themselves Of the lessons taught
us by so many terrible reverses and reactions.
The enemy is entrenched and comforted chiefly,
to-day by the belief that this great tide of Tenn
perance reform is only 81 smOdic, and will be
swiftly, inevitably followetis as in some former
cases, by sn increased dGiauchcry. II is not
strange that such a result is confidently antci-
pated, for It is logical reasonable, TO Judge the
future by the past. But we are not now defying
this law when we propose TO show that such an
evil result Is not in the least degree necessary.
has always lcgltimately followed the mistakes
made unwittingly by rcformers themselves. II is
not an essential part Of q true reform.
On the contrary, reforms, like revolutions,
never 90 backwards" But false principle, de-
feet or an error, woven in with the good and the
true, may nullify and defeat the whole. Reactions
set in from antngonistic elements enormously per-
mitted to pervert an otherwise benefiCent and re-
sistless movement.
We have had fanatical Temperance men, who
sorely lacked good sense, and who have attempted
to realize sObriety in ways most absurd. For in
stance they had the folly OF assailing certain crops
and raw material. The orchards were even cut down
at one time in a county in Vermont. that "hard
cider" might not be made Barley and rye were
not raised by many, lest brewers or distillers
should have raw material They seemed uncoD-
scious that the demand was the only part Of this
liquor traffic left to be regulated and controlled
and suppressed by man, but that the raw material
is divine; that all farnaceOus grain and all fruits
and the wealth of the vegetable kingdom, afford
inezhaustibie sources of supply Of material.
The enemy could securely laugh and eIult at an
onset so absurd and so suicidal. It uselesslY
aroused antagonisms, and pTejudiced large classes
of farmers or producers, and was idle as to try
to drain the ocean.
Man is to be reformed vOluntarily-nOt by force.
The sources Of supply will continue illimitable,
and man remain a free moral agent. We shall
never grow wiser than our An-Father. reform
of force would be no true reform; but in the law
Of love, by the aid Of human sympathy and trust
ing in divine help, all may reform, and 10 reac-
tion ever set in.
The reform inaugurated by Martin Luther is
still marching on - the reform started by John
Howard is still sweeping outward in widening cir
cles; the reform taught by Robert Raikes is thrill
ing the Christian world to-day, and yielding the
nOblest fruits; and the reform of Francis Murphy,
gathering rll Of these, springs at once to grander
victories and an immortal career, that like those,
shall write a new page Of progress for our race.
Not force, not despotism, but lOve-a nObler pril-
ciple Of action-has given to each of those move
ments power to conquer, power to bless, and an
endurance that no sweep Of time shall diminish.
The Murphy Temperance reform is the highest
type of practical charity our wayward race has
ever seen. It assails no one; it appeals to each
man TO 'take the beam out Of his own eye" and
to hold ''malice toward none" It does not wan
der out of its path to make war on the law of
supply, but it melts down the demand, just as the
sunbeam melts the iceberg. 1t has driven the
shaft Of reform down at last through all the strata
Of hate and error, to the subterranean stream Of
human love, that has been murmuring unknown
in its solitudes although the great Teacher told Of
its perennial, exhaustless and pervading exist
ence and power. And now the mighty stream
comes up rejoicing to its native level rejoicing in
the glow of the upper sunshine, and the desert Of
life renews the hue and the fragrance of Paradise,
with no flaming sword to guard its approach
against any son or daughter Of our race. O.P.