The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1891-11-20
nEwrows, FRIDAY. NOVEMBER 80, 1891.
Christ and the Temperance Question.

LYMAN ABBOTT, SUCCESSOR OF REV
HENRY WARD BEECHER In PLYMOUTH
CHURCH, BROOKLYN, WAS READ IN
TRINITY CHURCH, SUNDAY MORNING,
BY REV MR. LINsLEY. HE STATED THAT
HE HAD DECIDED TO READ THIS, IN
STEAD OF ANY SERMON OF HIS OWN
COMPOSITION, FOR THREE REASONS:
FIRST, BECAUSE THE SCRIPTURAL
BASIS OF TEMPERANCE is HERE CLEAR
LY AND FoRCIBLY SET FORTH; SECOND
LY, BECAUSE THIS DISCOURSE HAS THE
SANCTION AND APPROVAL OF THE
CHURCH TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, AND,
THIRDLY, BECAUSE 1T MEETS WITH HIS
PERSONAL APPROVAL.
In this discourse, 1 assume that the
life and teaching of Jesus Christ consti-
tute divine standard for all his follow
ers; that he has come into the world to
save mankind from sin; that he knows
better than we know how to meet and
vanquish every temptation; that intem-
perance is sin, and that, in studying
the problem how to redeem the COM
munity from its guilt and curse, his ex-
ample and precepts afford a better guide
than any general considerations or
theoretical arguments. In other words,
I write as loyal disciple of Jesus
Christ, assuming that my hearers are
also loyal disciples of Jesus Christ. 1t
is, indeed, not always easy to interpret
Alright the teaching of Christ, and it is
often difficult to apply the principles OF
his life to our different circumstances.
Christ is not to be blindly, but intelli-
gently, followed. And he who under
takes to interpret the teaching of Christ
and his example, and apply the lessons
to the life of the nineteenth century,
must beware how he confounds the
teaching of the Master and that of the
Interpreter, and not suffer himself to
imagine that his Interpretation is au-
thoritative because the life and teaching
are so. Nevertheless, he who recalls
the spirit in which little child accepts
the teaching of his mother, and remem-
bers that he is In like spirit to accept
the teachings of Christ, will not make
up his mind beforehand what is right in
practise and true in doctrine, and then
go to the New Testament to prove that
Christ acted and taught accordingly;
he will go as an inquirer, and will seek
to conform his own life and his own
teaching to the principles inculcated
and exemplified by him whom he de-
lights to call Master. 1t is in this
spirit | ask the student to accompany me
in this inquiry into the teaching and ex-
ample of Christ respecting the use of
wine. The evils produced by intemper-
ance in the use of alcoholic liquors are
probably greater than those produced
by any other single social vice. How to
redeem the community from that vice
and relieve 1t from those evils is the as
yet unsolved problem of our modern
life. Do the teaching and example of
Christ throw any light on this problem
The problem is, in one of its aspects,
wholly modern. At the time of Christ
the art of distillation was not practiced.
BY this art, the alcohol is separated
from the juices in which nature produces
it, and is furnished for use IN form
and a strength wholly unnatural. Dis
titled liquors were unknown until long
after the first century; the wines of the
Holy Land were mild beverage,
wholly unlike the fiery wines Of modern
commerce. They resembled the native
wines which one may find to-day In
private homes along the banks of the
Hudson, the southern shore of Lake
Erie, in the wine growing districts OF
w. ID, 81, I'd ~
Germany, Italy and Spain, before they
have been doctored for a sea voyage.
Adulteration was comparatively rare.
The manufacture of villainous COM
pounds, that never knew the fragrance
of vineyard or the bright light OF
heaven-compounds born of fraud, and
veritable works of darkness-had not
then begun. In applying the principles
on which Christ acted to the temperance
problem of our day, the changed condi-
tion Of society must not be forgotten.
With the character of drink, the
character of drunkenness has also under
gone a great change. Drunkenness is
as old as the human race; at least, it
dates from the days when the sons of
Noah covered the shame of their fathers
drunkenness. But delirium tremens is a
modern disease. The kind Of drunken
ness which drives men crazy, which
simultaneously discrowns the reason
and sets loose the Infatuated passions,
Is the product of the still. Drunkenness
was always the parent of sensuality
but not until the invention of distilla-
ton did 1t become also the parent OF
crime. But neither drinking nor drunk
enness was unknown in Bible times and
Bible lands. The Bible itself contains
some graphic descriptions Of drunken
orgies, and of the evil results Of drunk.
enness. The self indulgence of the first
century was far worse than any in the
nineteenth. Wine feasts lasted in
Greece and Rome for days. Men emu.
lated each other in feats Of drinking, re-
sorted to emetics to relieve an over
gorged stomach and began to eat and
drink again. 1t was not allowed each
guest to stop at will; he was compelled
to drink whatever the ruler of the feast
might direct. Drinking to one another's
health was practised; it was not I'M
common to empty four-pint cup OF
wine with one draught. These drinking
bouts sometimes were connected with
feasts, sometimes were independent Of
them; and though mad drunkenness was
unknown, inebriation was by no means
uncommon. Music, dances, games, not
always Of the purest description, were
the accomplishments of these drinking
bouts. Pagan religion offered no oppo-