The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-09-22


feeling, "Oh, l have heard that be-
fore" The truth is that the subject
presents so many aspects, social, moral,
scientific, economical, legal, political,
etc, etc, that there is not any imme-
diate prospect of the subject being ex--
hausted or worn out. 1t is only to
the most superficial and unre-
fleeing that the subject seems trite
and stale. The studious and capable
Investigator knows well that there
are many relations of the Temperance
question which are but imperfectly I'M
derstood by even those who have made
of them the most patient and careful
study; that it is only within recent
years that some of the grossest errors
respecting the value of alcohol as a
remedy in disease have been fairly ex-
posed, while even yet the most emf
nent physicians and scientists are in
conflict as to the food and remedial
value of alcoholic stimulants in GER
tain cases. Even as a beverage, some
eminent divines are found standing
side by side with winters and malt
sters, contending for the use of these
| lighter stimulants as both innocent and
| healthful. And as to its economic val
ue as taxable, remunerative indus
try, not to be suppressed but only duly
restricted and within these limits to
he fcstered, one has only to read the
daily political press to find out what d
middle and conflict of opinion there is
among politicians and fnanciers The
truth is, that while every body is be-
ing hurt by the rum traffic, only a
comparatively few know of it. and
those who do know are by no means
well agreed as to what is best TO oe
done to bring about the remedy.
Then, are there not constantly COM
ing, both from abroad and from among
ourselves, those to whom the subject is
new, and who need to be taught the first
principles of the doctrines, duties, ana
ways of Temperance?
in nothing are men slower to learn
and harder to be persuaded than in the
things that pertain to their appetites
and social customs. 1t is here that
they need Line upon line, precept
upon precept, here little and there
| little" Nor is there ordinarily any
evidence more strong that this work
has not yet been done for man than
the presence of disguised feeling that
it is only the threadbare, old Temper
ance story. 1t is certain he has not
even heard it, only heard of it. If he
has handled, he has not weighed it;
| if he has located, he has not bounded
it; looked over the surface, he may
have, but its depths he has not
sounded.
Moreover, as long as human hearts
are wrung by the evils of intemper-
| ance and the souls of men are destroyed
by it, so long will it have present
vital interest. Nothing is so old as hui
man sorrow, and yet nothing is so new.
1t is the Oldest story, it is the latest
| sensation. 1t is wonderful how fresh
and vivid is suicide, murder, when
it strikes our block or our home. l
have just come away from looking
upon the face of suicide. The case
bers of whose family attend my
church and Sunday-school. To me the
scene was sufficiently novel to be lin
teresting." 1t is true, my daily paper
| brings to me, daily, case upon case
of this kind. One becomes dreadful
| ly insensible to such repeated hOr-
rors. The rope, pistol, dagger become
awfully monotonous. But when the
sharp pistol-crack, as in this case,
breaks in on ones ears who has the
story to tell, it is the one unforgetable
story of lifetime.
Is not every story such an one to
somebody? Could we bring ourselves
in sound of every blow or stab or
/ plunge that sends shudder of despair
| through a clCsely-related circle, the
one all-inciting cause of these horrors
would not be without a fearful, per-
sonal interest to us all. The story
would be new enough, and the struggle
of him who labors TO put away the
cause of the evil would awaken our
sympathy and enlist our cooperation.
| repeat it, that the satiated, disguised
hearer of 1.-The old, WORKOUT, thread
bare temperance story" has not yet
heard the story at all. He has not
pondered it. He has not gotten close
enough to the uncounted procession of
1 broken-hearted mourners, who keep
up the endless march to the dishon-
ored, hopeless graves of drunkards, to
hear their signs and witness their
tears When, if ever, common fate
shall add him to the number, then
shall the story become frightfully new
Until then, let him that hath ears to
hear, hear what the Spirit, the voice OF
humanity and the call to duty saith to
every one. But whether old or new.
our story or some other ones, let us
hear and help until beyond this sigh
ing and crying we hear the harpers
with their harps and the new song"
joel Swartz, D. H., IN National Tenn
perdnce AdUOcdte.