The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1885-04-08
TEMPERANCE
MODERATE DRINKING.

outinc Facts.
The following extracts are from re
cent sermon by Rev. John II. Barrows,
d. d., Chicago:
The argument against moderate |
drinking is twofold, and is more and |
more appreciated by wise and benevo- |
lent minds. Il is, in the first place, an
appeal 10 wisdom, TO far-sceing pru-
dence. Is It safe to continue a habit
which confossedly does no good, exc
cept in few and those temporary cases,
and may make you slave and pOssi-
by at last a victim? In what are called
the best circles of Chicago arc hundreds
of men and women who are drunkards
occasional or well-cOnfrmed Stories
are told TO my ear that would soften
harder heart than Nero's. The lam
guAge Of Shakespearean tragedy is not
too strong and intense to describe the
sorrows which drunkenness has brought
into Christian homes i'm this city. Not
one Of these drunkards became such at
q bound. The deadly habit may have
been twenty years In fastening its fet-
ters on its victim, and at last unman-
ming him by paralyzng his will
friend of mine once said TO a temper
ate drinkcr: please tell me if YOU find
that YOU care to have your daily drinks
any more now than six months
ago" A man wrote me % letter last
year. in which he confessed that his
moderate tippliug had been increasing,
| gradually uniting him fo- clear think
| ing In mis- business. What multItudes
| do not question themselves as TO these
/ tendencies The evil of a dethrOned
| will, q diseased body, a ruined life, a
/ broken family, q lost soul, is such that
! wisdom SAYS "Do not begin walking
! in that way which leads in thousands of
/ cases to such dircful ends. II should
| be remembered that habits which are
comparatively safe in Europe are found
! not to be safe in the dry, exciting, elect
! trical air of America. But why should
! speak of the habits of the continent of
! Europe as in any measure safcP Has
! not the prophecy of the last French
| King that the vine would prove the
great curse of France been already real
| izedP Even the French Government
has become alarmed by the direiul in
crease of drunkenness. The light wines
have prepared the way for stronger
drinks, and there are few cities of the
world where these stronger drinks are
more generally used than in Paris. The
French have a way of covering drunk.
| enness and other vices from general
knowledge, but Government reports
tell us the awful facts.
Secondly, the argument against mod.
crate drinking is an appeal to beneyol
ence Is il becoming in you as one
well-dspOsed toward your fellows, to
continue a habit which strengthens the
drinking customs of society and thus
. indirectly binds the fetters of drunken
ness on weaker meuP IL should not be
} forgotten that there is q solidarity ir
human society, and that social customs
work downward, and indeed in all di
rectiOns. Do you not appreciate the
! Biblical, the Pauline teaching which
. while insisting on the right of each mar
to decide for himself plainly points ou
the Christian principle of renOuncing
what may be permissible to you for thu
! sake of not iniurng, as Paul says, tn
brother for whom Christ died? 1t ha
been the folly of some Of our Temper
n ance speaking that it has heaped male
z dictiOns upon the moderate drinkers
It instead of appealing steadily and lOv
70 ingly TO the nOblest instincts of humal
nature and asking them TO make n sac
a rifice of what they deem a liberty 70
o the sake of others, it may be member
n of their own families. / know of a riCl
e man in Providence whose only son ha'
been brought home TO him intoxicated
r and he remarked to him, saying; "
- have done everything for you. " 'Hes,
% said the son, land you taught me 4
= drink wine, " and he struck his fathe
to the earth.
Listen TO the appeal of Dr. job,
u Hall: "Fathers do without it for th
sake of your young sous. if for no othe
y reason. How can you tell but thg
their swift feet may trip to that de
Sc structiOn on this side of which you
s. slowerfeet have been able to halt?
The Christian principle should pei
Il suade you to leave off drinking for tn
u sake of the weakest and the lowlies
IT and certainly for the sake of those j
rs your own household. Let the youn
- men of your families do as yOU ma
think it right for you to do, and wha
m fearful probabilities loom up before yOJ
he Dr. Mott used to remark how thOs
,e young men who 1t college persisted
Y the use of Intoxicating drinks 500
he sank into obscurity and often int
III drunkard's graves.
1t is hazardous, then, to form habit
rs which are so frequently fatal, and it
lie becoming in all Christian and well-di
IN posed people to exercise by their exam
D. pie cOmmendable, salutary and n
Y. straining influence over men general,
a These are the principles which mad
Y the early temperance reformation
mighty These are the principles whiC
10 have swept the use of intoXicatir
If drinks out of three-fourths of the pro
a porous, respectable and intelligent fan
a lilies of America.
N To-day occasional or moderate drin
,d ing is a very great evil While literar
I political and business clubs exerci
their liberty Of drinking wine thD
help paralyze the efforts Of more ear
est men to crush out the wasteful al
y, deadly rum traffic. But very respeC
~ able and influential men will not
~ won into better ways by the puerile fa
~ lacies called arguments which v
III sometimes hear from Temperance pll
Lg forms, nor by hearing themse YES j
iy suited as worse men than the inebriat
ny who drink up their fortunes and star
ny their children and murder their wiyl
But such men are open TO reason al
TO facts. They are reached by appe,
TO benevOlence, The customs whi