Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1886-10-23
DR.. M'ANALLY ON TEMPERANCE.
[Christiau Advocate. |

The temperance friends i'll Missouri
are working earnestly to have the
question of prohibition submitted to a
vote of the people with view and
hope of obtaining such all opportunity
II ON the next legislature, and then
voting directly Oh the question. All
this il well enough in free country,
but we can give them an unpatented, q,
uncopyrighted plan for obtaining pro-
hibition right at once-it is for every
self and keep it. Then the work is
done. "They will not do it." Then il
a majority attempt to control minori-
ly las the doctrine is in this country, they
must deal fairly and Justly, and as kind
ly as possible.
There are hundreds of men who if
they drink at all, drink great deal
more than they otherwise would, SIM
ply because the temperance people
abuse them 80. They want to show
what they call Independence, and drink
i'll lure spirit of contradiction. There
| is spirit in man that inclines him TO do
almost anything that some one else say 5
he shall not do. Hence temperance
| advocates should learn to hate sin, but
regard with the love of pity the sinner;
remembering that though sinner, he
Is fellOwniaII, creature OF God, suS-
tained and provided for by the same
almighty hand that suStains them.
There is reason to believe the blessed
Savior hated sin, that it was repulsive
to every principle and feeling Of his
pure and holy nature, yet lie lived and
died to save sinners; we temperance
people should try TO be like Him. The
plural prOnOun is here used designedly.
rhe present writer is Il temperance
man, has been such from boyhood, has
written and spoke and preached and
prayed for the success of the temperance
cause in all of its legitimate bearings,
and does still; but he never expects TO
see the cause succeed by mere de-
nunciation, defamation, and abuse,
and it never will. Anti-temperance
men must be approached as men, ad-
dressed and reasoned with as men, and
in every respect treated as men. Hard
words break no bones, but they often
make people mad and prompt them 10
act differently from what they other
wise would. Those who go at people
with clubs, are apt to be met by clubs;
and those who go at them in respect
ful, kind and gentle manner, are apt,
as general thing, to be met in like
manner. Moral reforms are not to be
effected by denunclations, vitupera-
tions and seedlings. "Pcace Oh earth
and good will to man," must be the
motto of all who succeed in such re-
forms. Separate the sin from the sin-
ner, denOunce and show the evil of the
first but defender, respectful and piteous
to the second. One of the most serious
impediments in the way of the success
of the temperance cause has been, and
to large extent still Is, the Incorporate
zeal and mistakes of many of its ad-
vOcates. The bitter denunciation of
the churches and of persons who hap
pen not to fall in exactly with their
views and practices; the sweeping and
wholesale declarations made, a number
of which could not be sustained, the
balderdash that characterizes many of
the addresses, together with the fact
that not few known TO be unworthy
and un reliable men have been put forth
as prominent leaders III the cause has all
tended to drive hundreds of sober,
steady and unreliable men of the coun-
tryinto quiet silence or open opposi-
ton.