Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-18
DRINKING Is NO SIN,
1t Is as Right to Drink Wine as 1t
Is TO Eat Bread, but Excess
Is THE EVIL THAT MUST BE MET.
Weak Willed Men and Men Whose Ex-
ample Cause Others to Fall
HAVE NO RIGHT TO TOUCH LIQUOR
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPArcH.I


Psalms 104:5-Wine that maketh glad
the heart of man.
Proverbs 20:21-Wine is mocker, strong
drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived
thereby is not wise
Proverbs 81 e, 7-Give strong drink unto
him that is ready to perish, and wine unto
them that be of heavy hearts. Let him
drink and forget his poverty, and remember
his misery no more.
Isaiah 25:6-The Lord Of Hosts shall
make unto all people feast of fat things, a
feast of wines on the lees, OF fat things full
OF marrow, of wines on the lees we'll refined.
Col. 2:21-Touch not; taste not; handle
not.
Jer. 35:6-Drink no wine, neither ye nor
your sons, forever.
1 Tim. 5:23-Drink no longer water, but
use little wine for thy stomach's sake and
thine oft infrmities.
Matt. 11:19-The Son of Man came eating
and drinking, and they say, Behold a man
gluttonous and a wine-bibber, friend OF
publicans and sinners. But wisdom is
justified of her children.
Nobody will dispute the importance Of
the subject of temperance, nor the need of
is an evil to which busy, hurried, alert
and nervous people have peculiarly strong
temptations. And when these people live,
as we do, in wet climate, where rain falls
two or three days out of nearly every week,
lntemperance becomes a most vigorous and
enterprising and treacherous adversary. In
Europe, in the warmer countries of
the. continent, everybody drinks. The
dining table at every hotel is we'll
laden with wine glasses and bottles,
and the saloon keepers are the busiest of all
the citizens. But nobody gets drunk. In
those LANDS OF clear skies and warm sun and
leisurely living, they have not the need
which we have for temperance societies.
But in England, and still more in Scotland,
you see drunken men along the streets.
Two Allies of Intemperance.
A wet climate aud a nervous tempera-
ment,-the condition under which life in
this country is almost universally carried
on,-create a craving for strong drink Now,
the first evil which follows upon an inebri-
ate indulgence in strong drink IS that the
drinker is unified for his duties. He is
only the halt or the tenth part OF a man.
Everybody has duties in this world, and it
is everybody's business to attend to his
duties. That is what God has put US in
the world for. And a mans duty demands
a clear eve and a steady hand and reason
able mind. Whoever has an aching and
dizzy head, and cannot see straight out Of
his eyes, cannot do his work.
1t was set down as a rule for the priests of
the Jewish Church: "Do not drink wine nor
strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee,
when ye go into the tabernacle of the con-
gregation." The priests had two exceeding
ly important duties: They were to perform
a service of worship before Almighty Gud,
and they we're to teach the will of God SO
that the people might understand and follow
it. They needed for these duties eyery
faculty, every ability, every measure Of
strength and steadiness of hand, every de-
gree of clearness of brain they had. And
wine or strong drink might interfere.
Put it away. Drink no wine nor strong
drink, lest it take away your manhood, and
unfit you for your duty. That was good ad-
vice then and now.
Address to the Highest Glass.
One of the most lamentable evils of in
temperance is the ruin which it brings into
human life, and sometimes into the lives of
men who ought to stand as high among
their brethren as the priests of the ancient
church stood among the people of Israel. 1t
is significant that this warning is addressed
not to the law, and degraded, and ignorant.
and besotted, but to the intelligent, the re-
fined, the religious, the leaders. Such men
as those need that warning still. Who is
there that does not know some LAWYER. or
physician, or merchant. or perhaps even a
minister, who might be at the head Of his
profession, winning honorable fame, making
the world better, achieving all manner of
glorious ssuccesses-but upon whom this curse
has fallen, that he cannot-or will not
h frar drtr, ov,1
BILE and pitiful failure OF his life, putting
away all prosperous achievement and ali
decent happiness out of it, making his
name bv-word among all know him.
Who is there who does not know some
young man, the son of an honorable family.
the heir to goodly heritage of wealth and
high position and fair fame, who might be
such man among men that all the neigh
borhood and the city where he lives should
be proud of him-but he has taken TO strong
drink; he has abandoned all the fine posi-
bilites of his life, and unified himself for
its duties; and he has reputation which is
regret and a pity in all decent society, and
is going, as men say, to the devil. "Do
not drink wine nor strong drink" Iris
good advice.
Others Must Suffer.
And the second evil which attends fail.
ure to follow this advice is that the drinker
brings shame and pain upon his friends and
upon his family. Drunkenness is the most
detestable selfshness. 1t makes a white
man worse than an Indian. 1t is
characteristic of the most degraded saw
agery, that the men drink and the women
work. The man lies about the house
like q great unclean animal, while the
woman is working her hands off supporting
herself and him. Every clergyman, every
district visitor, everybody who knows any
thing of the life of the poor, is we'll aware
how this barbarism has its place in the
midst of our Christian civilization. would
not lay all the poverty at the door OF drink.
1 do not believe that drunkenness causes
poverty any more than poverty causes
The two great evils of our day are forever
intersecting and pounding down like two
trip hammers upon the life of whole regions
of our great cities. Out of miserable, empty,
dirty homes men go to the clean, glittering,
warm saloons. The saloon is the only decent
place which good many men have to 60 to.
1t is true that the homes might be Kept
cleaner; but that is pretty hard to do when
poverty sits in one che ir and disbursement