The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-12-30
Tn FayOr of Total Abstinence.

IN Favor of Total Abstinence.
Many have supposed that total alb
s~tainers have become so because they
felt within them n terrible temptation to
drunkenness. Now, l do not believe
that one total abstaincr in q hundred has
adopted his practices for this particular
reason: and yet it is surely a great
thing that there is one temptation, at
any rate, from which we can be abso-
lutcly and forever exempt; and I, for
one, do not feel so entirely self satisfied
ofsecurity as to feel no pleasure in the
thought that I am exempt from the
temptation which the good Father
Mathew said in consequence of it he had
seen the stars of heaven fall and the
cedars of Lebanon laid low. These,
however, are not the reasons why most
of US have become total abstainers. We
have looked into the field of history, and
from the day when that disgraceful
scene took place in the tent of the patri-
arch down to the records of yesterday,
we see that drink has been to the world
a curse intolerable in its extent and in
tcrminable in its malignity. We
see hat aven ancient writers like
Lucretius have dwelt upon the dreadful
degradation OF drunkenness. We see
that ancient nations like the Spartans
have done their very utmost to save their
SON. from this terrible seduction. I
never could make out why it is that so
many persons try to represent total ab-
s~tainers as being for the most part pie
beian and ignorant persons. "If it be
so, so it is, you know; if it be 50, SC be
it," But at any rate we total abstainers
can appeal in support of our resolution
to the books of the most refined, to au.
thors the most fastidiously delicate, and
to statesmen who are least of all welded
to our particular convictions. I should
like to refer you for a moment to some
of the standard books in history which
prove, as decidedly as car possibly be
proved, how much the human race has
gained from the productions of those
who were not professedly temperance
men. Turn to the voyages and travels
of Charles James Fox; read there the
narrowing language in which he de-
scribes how drink affected the statesmen
and literary men of that day, which was
an age of govt. Turning from travels back
to Sir Henry Havelock, see how he pic
lures the difference between a siege
where soldiers had no access to drink,
and the siege Of Lucknow, where they
had. Turn, again, to Sir John Hayes
history of the Indian mutiny and see
how, on the very day after Our troops
had effected a Judgment at Delhi, Eng
land, in consequence of the universal
drunkenness of the victorious army, was
within an ace of absolutely losing her
Indian empire. Turn, again, to King
lakes "History OF the Crimea," and see
how he pauses in mis- history to point out
the fact that British troops were brave as
lions and gentle as Christians until, and
only until, they became once more liable
to the degradation that drink wrought
amongst them. Turn, again, to such a
book as Mr.. Leckey's ;'History Of
European Morals" and all of you will
see I am appealing not to books written
in behalf of the temperance cause, but to
literary works, and you will read that
Lcckey fixes upon the year 1921 us the
most prolific in calamity to the English
nation, because gin at that time had be-
gun to be introduced to our people, and
spread like an epidemic. Turn to
the ! testimony of Bishop Benson,
Bishop of Gloucester, the friend Of
White6eld, who was the most
eminent bishop of his day; he spoke
with clear and emphatic testimony to the
effect which these ardent liquors had
upon the people, making the English
people cruel and inhuman, and gradually
changing their very nature. Or, again,
take the speech of a man who was the
most polished gentleman Of his day, the
famous Lord Chesterfield. who. in speak.
ing of the gin acts, said they were acts
calculated for the propagation of disease,
for the suppression of industry, and Tor
the destruction of mankind. Why,
ladies and gentlemen, I could heap
together such testimonies from almost
all the great writer's in the whole range
of English history. Shall I 90 back
two hundred and fifty years and quote
once more what Shakespeare said: ooh,
thou invisible spirit of wine! if we have
no other name by which to call thee, let
US call the Devil" Need I quote the
authority of Milton in his magnificent
lin es:
"Bacchus, the first from out the purple grape
Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine,
After the Tuscan mariners transformed
ha Tvrrhpne shore as the wind listed