Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-04-19
The Enomy that Oppresses Us.

This enemy Expresses us intellectually aud
educationally. Strong drink acts upon the
brain, and so attacks the very seat Of reason.
Of all enemies it is the most dangerous and
the most pernicious worse than any ordi.
nary poison, because ordinary posons SIM
ply kill the body, but this poison attacks
the nervous organism through which, in the
present life, the mind acts. Alcohol renders
immense masses unfit for any kind of intel
ectual exercise or educational progress. II
also prevents great numbers having the
proper education they ought to have and
otherwise would have need not say that
in our own day, especially, if children are
found without education, it is to be traced
almost entirely to the effects of strong drink
upon those about them. Again, too much OF
the education that is received is lost, blotted
out, through the same cause. Alas how
much Of the intellectual life of the nation is
lowered beyond all computation Qor we can
not compute the loss of intellect in fgures)
by the constant action OF this narcotic acrid
poison. The wisdom of the wise is turned
into folly by strong drink, and the noblest
Of intelects have been bowed in the dust by
its malignant influence. Then come all forms
of insanity, dipsomania and delirium ire
mems, decisions, lunacy, idiocy, and every
is that this enemy Expresses us morally and
reigiously. The mind is the glory of the
man, and the soul is the glory Of the mind.
The moral faculties of man are those which
distinguish him most surely from all other
things about him, and even from the brute
creation. His power of recognizing right
from wrong, his conscience, his moral atfec-
ton, these make him the being he is, and
constitute him the child of the Eternal. But
what does strong drink do for us morally
| and religiously2 First of all, it generates
| a new vice. Are we not enough disposed to
| evil naturally Tendencies to evil exist in
| every human heart, and we do not want any
| thing added TO them. Surely it is master
stroke of the devil to create among men
| new vice, and that is done by strong drink.
| But for it we could not have the vice of
| drunkenness, that peculiar and subtle NAL
ady of the nervous system due TO the inf1u-
ence of narcotics and among our people
chiefly due TO the influence of alcohol. In
the next place, this same particular agent
aggravates and intensifes every other kind
of evil except, perhaps, covetousness. 1t
adds fresh fuel-and, indeed fire-to every
animal passion and every disposition to vice
and crime; and this is done to so great an
extent that of all our social evils the larger
part is traceable to this very source. Intem-
perance is still fearfully common; and its
effect in the production of pauperism is such
that out of four paupers we should have only
one but for strong drink So it is in re-
gard to other vices. That hideous cancer
the prostitution Of our land, the degradation
of womanhood-is to a very large extent
due to this enemy. This, then, is
the enemy that Expresses us and | chal-
lenge any one to point me out another enemy
like it. Where was there an enemy that
ever was comparable to this | know of
nothing recorded in history equal to the raw
ages continuously inflicted by strong drink,
and to the oppression constantly exercised
by it. Excepting the horrid but temporary
deeds of Attila and Genghis Khan, the world
might be searched in vain for results COM
parable in vileness to those which this enemy
is increasingly producing in our very midst
Rev. Dawson Burns, London.