Litchfield enquirer., 1878-02-28
How may the Total Abst thence Movement be Strengthened
 and Extended?
BY HENRY c. POTTER, D. D.


 The company gathered here this evening is, presume, oT one mind, and has assembled un- der the Impulse Of a common motive. They are the friends of Total Abstinence movement and the friends of Temperance, only as that term stands for Total Abstinence.
 If this be so, it will be hardly worth while to dwell much or nlinutey upon the evils of lntemperance. In this company clear and profound conviction as to those evils may safe ly be taken for granted. And if it were other wise, the papers and addresses which have been delivered here or at more public gather lngs, under the auspices of the Association of which our host is the head, furnish an artillery of weapons of which the friends uf Total Ab- l stiuencc certainly need not to be ashamed and which cover every aspect and every detail of the general subject.
 But there remains another department of the general subject which, So far as I know. has not been generally discussed, and which is, at any rate, open toss debate. Given an earnest conviction that the Total Abstinence movement IS the true Temperance movement, and that the safety of the individual and the welfare of the land demand that this movement shall be steadfastly maintained and carried on. the question still remains, what are the best means of multiplying it's friends and enlargng their Influence shall undertake, in the few mo- "lilCii JO lO dUSWcf these questions.
 In public assembly, not long ago, speak CT of singular reserve of temperament and precision o1 language, used these words: ''The sin ot the Temperance movement in America has been untruthfulness. Its blemish has been tanatlclsm. The fanaticism has grown out of the untruthfulness, because the moment that men find that their position can not be defend ed on the ground of right reason, they naturally begin to grow WOmanish and screamv. The untruthfuiness of Temperance movement has lain here, in affirming positions that can not be l reasonably or truthfuly maintained: in saving for instance, that Temperance and Total Ab- stinence are one and the same thieg, which they are not; and in saying that Holy Scrip ture teaches us that any use of stimulants is sin, which Holy Scripture does not teach"
 With the positions taken ill these words, I have, at present, no concern. Whether what is said about the distinction between Temper ance and Total Abstinence and about the teaching of Holy Scripture be true oI false, is question which, just now, I do not propose to discuss It ought to be said, however, to prevent misapprehension which is not al- ways born of that charity which thinketh no evil that the speaker from whom quote was himself, both by precept and in practice, To- l tai Abstinence man-and that am
 But have quoted these words because they | open to us the whole question of methods in connection with the Total Abstinence move i ment There are some of us who just now are watching with something of sympathy and Wltn something more ot apprehension, move ment going on in this community in the drec 1 tIon of restricted license and fewer grog- shops There IS no one of us, 1 presume who does not believe that the city of New York will be better oil for every corner-grocery that is clos ed and for every unlicensed dealer who is es topped from the illicit selling of Equor But There IS no one of us, l imagine who does not l recognize the fact that such a method of deal ing with the evil of intemperance is not essen- tally curative; and has in it no feature which IS genuinely preventive. It is restrictive. but in the social gamut it is mainly restrictive at the wrong end of the scale. Every club-man, every lounger in fashionable hotel may have what he wants, but the man whose only club Is the gin-shop, and whose only hotel is the nearest groggery, must often go without what he wants. Such movement lacks in it, there fore. whatever may be it's merits (and have no mind to ignore of belittle them), one ele- ment which is fundamental to success, and that IS this: It does not appeal to the popular sym- pathy. It is in the interests, after all, of the spirit of caste, of a privileged class or set, and it comedies to those who are in all respects as the world estimates such things, most favored, privileges which it withholds from those who are least favored
 This aspect of the matter has a lesson for us who are here. Whatever may be the appeals which we make to those who now stand aloof from us, they must be appeals which speak to something ill the human heart which is respon- sive. If we would win others to cooperation in the movement for Total Abstinence, we must do so by means which shall speak to that in them which is susceptible to such appeals.
 And if this ia-qO yUn will not bo oarar +o ,,r,o what may call the scriptural or the scientific arguments. l know that there are many good men who insist that there is no proof that Christ ever made wine. as we understand the term, or used it. Perhaps not. If there is learning on the one side, there is undoubtedly learning on the other. And though I may think that any student with knowledge of the two tongues in which the Testaments are written, ought to concede the question of the use ot Wlne-ln the customary and accepted sense of that term, by Christ and His disciples as matter beyond dispute, there are others who do not think so
 But what, after all, does it matter which of these views is right? What have the habits ot the pastoral communities of tropical coun- tres two thousand years ago, to do with the habits of people in our northern attitudes, in this nineteenth century of the Christian era Dr. Bowditch, of the State Board of Health of MassachVsetts, has lately called the atten- tlonto what, with happy generalization, he calls the cosmic law of Temperance In other words, he has shown that ''the tendency of drunkenness increases as we go from the eaua tor toward the pole, the incorporate countries being the northern countries. The explanation of this was found in the effect of climate. which intensties in cold regions the instinct to stimu- latlon." Now, then, if this be so, and any one who has travelled from Naples to Stockholm, or from Seville to St. Petersburgh, must needs recall an overcoming demonstration of it, as striking as It Is consistent; then we who live in these northern regions have no warrant for making any Biblical custom our custom be- cause it is Biblical custom. In Egypt one sees young girls with single garment, having ln 1t little more warmth than a gauge veil. and babies of all ages and sizes without any gar- ments at all. But the customs of dress in that tropical land are no rational law for the streets of New York or the winters of New England And it is as irrational to decree what a man shall take inside of him, from what obtained under other skies and amid other temperatures. and, above all, under the conditions of an es- sentially different civilization. thousand wears ago, as 1t would be to decree from such prem ises what he shall wear outside of him. And thus we see that common-senSe if there were no other warrant for doing so, rules the appeal to scriptual customs of wine-drinking substantially out of the issue Let scholars prove to us as conclusively as they please that | Christ made wine-wine of such a sort that it could rightly be denominatsd an intoxicant- that He himself drank it and they who were His chosen associate, the fact furnishes no war rant for similar custom with us. We are not in Palestine, but in New York, and a rational usage in Judea may easily be rash and per ilous indiscretion in America Christ lived and slept in the open air. Shall you and be wise in attempting to initiate Him in this particu- lar, with the thermometer as week ago, standing at 10o below zero? If the Biblical argument from Christ's customs, and the like against any use of wine, goes, as some affirm, but little way, it is at any rate, equally ob- vious that the argument from the Bible for drinking wine, goes but little way also. Is it worth while, then, to spend our strength up- on dispute concerning which it must be own ed that the Christian world is in nowise' substantially nearer agreement than it was fif- ty yeass ago?
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