The Portland daily press., 1881-02-08
PRICE 3 CENTS.

shut out from society the drinking usages
which lead to excess, and reduce by license
| law the liquor shops to not over one to every
| thousand inhabitants, which would make con-
yletion of the law-hreaker easy, and the pun
ishment imprisonment as we'll as fine. On
such system the union of all good men could
De secured in an effort to stop drunkenness and
Its attendant crimes and misery-a union
which can never be accomplished on the prin-
cples OF the total abstinence propaganda.
We are glad that some one has been found
bold enough to deliver such an address in
fremont Temple, for it will compel men to
think, and the chief hindrance to the temper
ance cause is want of clear thinking. There
has been superabundance of impetuous, pas
sionate, hasty action, but very little calm,
thoughtful, impartial thought Some Of Dr.
Crosbys assertions are too positive. 1t Is still
an open question in science-in spite of DR..
Ainsties positive Neutrality-suspicious. alco-
hol ever properly serves the purpose of food in
the human body; it is tolerably certain that in
any form 1t is injurious to men under middle
life, when health demands rapid disinte grafton
and reconstruction of the tissues, which alco-
hol delays. The example of Christ is not con-
elusive on the question of personal use of wine.
Because in the warm climate and sluggish
civilization of Palestine Christ drank mild
wine mixed with water it does not follow that
1t is wise for hot-blooded Americans, in the
cold climate and intense civilization of the
Northern States, to drinks fiery wines mixed
with alcohol. But the main premises of the
address need some better refutation than that
OF the Mr.: Phillips philippe or Mr.. Mallelieus
prayer. temperance is not synonymous with
total abstinence; total abstainer may be q
most incorporate man, and good many of
them are. The Bible commends the use Of
wine; Christ lived in an age when drunken
ness was more excessive than in our own time,
when total abstinence SO aeties existed and
pledges we're prescribed, and he never Joined
the one or recommended the other; he made
vine by miracle, used it socially, and dying
recommended it to his followers in memorial
service appointed to keep his name
in loving remembrance among his followers
In the face of these facts, to denonnce all wine
drinking as q sin Is to denounce Christ, and 81
enforce total abstinence as the sole remedy for
lntemperance is to renounce his example. To
avoid this conclusion by inventing two kinds
OF wines, one fermented, the other unferment-
cd, IS to violate intellectual honesty for the
sake OF securing Biblical sanction to an ethical
hobby. The cost is too eat for the benefits.
There is not single living independent Bible
scholar in England, America or Germany
who can be cited in support of this weak and
untenable invention. There is clear and un-
questionable distinction between distilled and
fermented liquors, in the process of their pro-
duction, their essential nature and their inevi-
table effects on the system. DR.. Willard Park
or, the foremost authority on temperance prob
lens in this country has recently in our col
umns demonstrated this difference so clearly
that no reply to the demonstration has even
been attempted. Any method of reform that
ignores or denies these principles sets itself
against truth; and though in short battles pas
slonate invective sometimes vanquishes truth,
IN long campaigns truth always eonquers. The
permanent and final temperance reform must
recognize these truI his and reconcile itself to
them.
We wish that DR.. Crosby, in his proposed
method OF temperance reform, had placed
greater emphasis on the trut b that there Is no
specific for intemperance; that the only true
remedy is reform OF the whole nature.
Temperance is plant of slow growth;
it cannot be forced. Intemperance is
the mastery of the animal over the in
tellectual and the SPIRITUAL temperance is the
mastery of the intellectual and the spiritual
over the animal. Prohibition puts the tiger in
cage and denies him the use OF blood; the
pledge is his promise to turn vegetarian;
Christianity takes his bloodthirsty disposition
out of him. Prohibitory laws end personal
pledges may sometimes serve useful tempo
rary purpose; but nothing less than Chris
tlan Iife makes radical and permanent reform.
genuine revival of religion is the best
temperance movement a genuine Christian
church is the best temperance society; and
genuine Christian preacher who puts temper
ance where Panl put it, between righteousness
and Judgment to come, is the best Of all tenn
parance lecturers.