The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-06-27

There have been published in St. Louis by re
quest OF many persons, two addresses ON Tenn
perance and Prohibition by the Rev. DIR. Eliot
OF that city. We cannot possibly do anything
better than to occupy our columns with ex-
tracts from them. We would like to see what
answer the drinking parsons can make to DR..
Elliot's arguments. The Doctor says; 81
speak with absolute confidence when say that
total abstinence is the only assured sourse of
safety for ourselves and our families 1 do not
care how strong we may be, or how confirmed
IN habits of moderation, or how fixed in relig-
ious or moral principle, We are not perfectly
safe while the use of intoxicating drinks COR
tinues."
81 have seen all safeguards, and barriers and
resolutions and bonds give way, time and time
and time again. can show you graves which
neither religion nor morality nor selt-respect
nor loss of kindred could prevent from being
the drunkard's resting place. can show you
this day, men of intelligence, of good sense, OF
extended influence, of wealth. living in homes
OF refinement, surrounded by loving and faith
full friends, in positions of trust and honor--on
the bench. at the bar, in the command of
armies, in the council chamber, at the mer-
chants desk, in the mechanics workshop, in
the Office of the leditor, in the pulpit itself,
whore Righteousness, temperance and iudg-
ment to come are preached, in the halls OF
Congress, in the National Cabinet and in the
Presidential Mansion-in all places of honor
and usefulness, handsome men walking with
unsteady steps, speaking with ill-considered
words, and with al the marks of unmanliness
that disgrace the foolish ones who put an
enemy in their mouths to steal away their
brains.'
And yet not one of them but could remember
quite able to control himself able to use
his liberty without abusing it, Alas there is
IN the Intoxicating cupa mysterious power
which overcomes all resolutions, and with
which no wise man willitrihe. Flee from it III
FROM the face OF a serpent, for if thou cometh
too near it, it will bite thee; the teeth thereof
are as the teeth of a lion, Staying the souls OF
man..
"Then consider the household, the family Of
which you may be at TIE head or directing in.
fluence. How shall the children escape? In
the households where intoxicants are used, IN
how great peril are they daily kept! Whether
1t is the faint of heredity, or what is almost the
same thing, of early parental example, how
common 1t is-not to say unusual-for the
growing boy to acquire taste for intoxicants
which grows with his growth and strengthens
with his strength, until 1t becomes abnormal,
and If not uncomfortable, is yet az constantly
recurring anddominant appetite, which nothing
but stimulants will satisfy. sHenceforth the
whole discipline of life is complicated and
made more difficult to him. He may, by Wig.
orous effort, come off victorious, but over anc
over and over again it is struggle for life, I'm
til he learns for himself the wisdom and nee.
essty of total abstinence, w hich he should have
been taught in the nursery and at the freside,
ever may be the law OF society, total abstin-
ance and prohibition should be the law of the
household, If not for our sake, for the sake OF
our children and all who depend upon u.s.