The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1881-03-24
WHOLE NO. 1851.

/
sentimental and fastidious criticism of
the pledge worth answering. Every
active worker in the temperance cause
can recall hundreds Of instances where
it has been mans salvation.
In railway car once man about
sixty years old came to sit beside me.
He had heard me lecture the evening
before on temperance. 81 am master
of a Ship" said he, sailing out of
New York, and have just returned
from my fftieth voyage across the
Atlantic. About thirty years ago l
was sot. Shipped, while dead drunk,
as one Of a crew, and was carried on
board like a log. When | came to,
the captain sent for me. He asked
me: DO you remember your mother?'
| told him she died before l could re-
member anything. We'll, said he, L
am a Vermont man. When was
young, | was crazy to go to sea: At
last, my mother consented l should
seek my fortune in New York He
told me how she stood on one side the
garden-gate and he on the other,
when, with his bundle on his arm, he
was ready to walk to the next town.
She said to him: my boy, l don't
know anything about towns and L
never saw the sea; but they tell me
those great towns are sinks of wick
edness and make thousands Of drunk
ards. Now, promise me you'll never
drink a drop Of liquor He said: L
laid my hand in hers and promised, as
L 1aa1~aI h. 1o,. For. tho loSf
time. She died soon after. I've been
on every sea, seen the worst kinds OF
life and men. They laughed at me as
a milksop and wanted to know it |
was a coward; but when they offered
me liquor | saw my mother across the
gate, and | never drank drop. 1t has
been my sheet-anchor. | owe all to
that. Would you like to take that
pledge said he."
My companion took it, and he add
ed: 'It has saved me. have fine
ship, wife and children at home, and
have helped others"
How far that little candle threw its
beams! That earnest mother saved
two men to virtue and usefulness.
How many more He who sees all can
llone tell. But our agitation Of the
lrink question is 'bulldozing" and
intimidation" This is only an un-
manly whine.
What is the pulpit? Does it not
axe admitted truths and press them
lome on conscience? Or does it not
eek to prove principles the listener
oes not admit, and then urge him to
heir practice? Does it not criticise
nd affirm and denounce, seeking to
7aken the indifferent, convince the
and claim consistent action
f all? Does it wait until the sinner
cknowledges its principles before it
his action as sin? By no
leans. Is church discipline visited
My on those who see and confess
heir sins? Is it not used to rouse
lem to sense Of the principle they
i'll not acknowledge and hold them
. to the rebuke and take from them
le respect of their fellows? lie our
,mperance agitation is ''intimida-
on" then nine-tenths of the lands
ulpits are bulldozers and the other
nth is useless. What does the Bible
" of those who prophesy smooth
lings, and whose order was Nathan
,eying when he said "Thou art the
amp" eFf'
[ have known even a Greek profess
r, when speaking in downright earn
t, fling about the keenest and rough
t words in the dictionary in the most
ckless and biting manner; yet | nev-
dreamed Of charging him with seek
g to intimidate his opponents.
DR.. Crosby says it is false, our con-
ant assertion that moderate drink
g makes drunkards. Will he please
II US where, then, the drunkards
me from? Certainly teetotalers do
,t recruit these swelling ranks. Will
, please account for the million
mes-repeated story of the broken
,arted and despairing sot, or the re-
rmed man, that moderate drinking
lied them to false security until
e chain was too strong for them to
'eak?" Will he please explain that
,nfession forced from old Sam John
N, and repeated hundreds of times
nee by men Of seemingly strong re-
I've: II can abstain. | can't be mod
ate?"
Do not the Bible, the writers Of
ction, the master dramatists Of an
ent and modern times, the philoso-
ler, the moralist, the man OF affairs
do not all these bear witness how
sidiously the habits of sensual indul-
,nce creep on their victim, until he =
axes to find himself in chains of
on, his very will destroyed?
When Milton says II cannot praise
fugitive and cloistered virtue, unex-
cised and unbreathed, that never
lies out and sees her adversary"
+. Crosby, you suppose, interprets it
meaning that boys should frequent
hells and such resorts, in
der to prove their strength Of resist
ice. But, no; he does not mean any
ch thing. He only thinks they
.ould face the drink temptation;
me other. When you hear that the
ew York Central Railway sprohibits
e sale Of flash literature in its cars,
rhaps you expect to hear DIR. Crosby
nounce that corporation as emascu-
ting the virtues Of their travellers
id making them unmanly. Not at
|. He approves it. 1t is only drink
mptation that he considers good
aiming for heroic men.
You might suppose that DR.. Crosby
ould recommend to colleges to sub
itute, in their study of the literature
fiction, the works Of Eugene Sue,
umas, and Balzac, in the place of
Gorge Eliot, Walter Scott, and Jane
usten, since these last would afford
D proof Of the lads ability to with
and the harm of pernicious novels.