The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1892-06-09
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
A TERRIBLE POWER.

/ 11u1 IAf1lNIL WI I0.
4 TERRIBLE POWER.
rho Ruin Being Wrought In the Dark
Continent by Drink.
Among the students of Lincoln uni
versity is native African, Mr.. George
B. Peabody, of the Bassa tribe, who is
being educated by the Presbyterian
church for mission work among his
own people in Africa. In q recent paper
read before the Inter-Seminary Mission
ary alliance at Gettysburg, Pa, on
1.-THE Liquor Traffic in Africa" he
writes:
Wherever the steamship has gone,
carrying for its cargo the missionary of
Christ and the fabric Of civilization,
thence King Alcohol has gone with
these, to destroy. to undo and defeat
whatever good would otherwise result
for the comfort, happiness and saliva
ton of humanity. He is present
wherever the bugle of Christ is being
sounded by the heralds of the cross.
He goes, like Satan with Job, to the
house of God, seeking occasions where-
by he may fill the body with sores and
boils and deepen the miseries of man.
kind. He makes the trader, politician
and voter bow to his behest. He runs
the polls on election day, elects his
men to make laws upon the authority
of which he may sap the life-blood of
the sons and daughters of liberty and
flood and drown benigbted Africa.
All travellers to tho west coast
of Africa have witnessed the appalling
scene of the liquor traffic there. Some
African tribes call it fire water" MY
own tribe-the Bassas-call it ''crazy
water.' 1t is only the scarcity of rum,
or missionaries would not be able
to maintain their work. 1t is hard
enough to try to civilize the savage
African; but when filed with rum, who
can manage him? The missionaries
cannot creditably maintain their work
alongside of the liquor traffic. Those
engaged in the traffic know its diaboli-
cal effects upon the natives. The demi-
johns, the quart and pint bottles in
which these poisons are conveyed to
Africa, are hailed by these simple
minded Africans as omens of happy
IAuAOSs L AC SGCd"CE NdS SOuuOcU VIC
signal gun, the rowboats containing
these cabbage-shaped demijohns and
blue and red boxes of gin bottles are
nearing the shores. The semi-nude
Africans, unsolicited, wade in the water
to bring them to shore, with shouts and
jubilant songs. They come, returning
from the boats with boxes and demi-
johns upon their heads. They would,
perhaps, laugh to scorn a needy mis-
sionary asking for help. But gin and
rum are their masters. Their savage
minds have been poisoned, ruined by
the white mans rum. The god Gin
they serve. Bacchus is welding scep-
ter seemingly mightier than that WELD
ed by the prince of the tribe of Judah.
The childlike heather accepts
almost with equal mind the Bible and
the liquor from the white man; assum-
ing that he is the source of all relative
good to him. But the Bible points his
soul upwards and to God; the liquor leads
the soul into perdition. Hence some
observers of Africa evangelization are
parading the system of 1s'am as the
best for Africa. Christianity has liquor;
Islamism, total abstinence. If the
powers of ell are greater than that of
Christianity, then she must always be
cOntented to be subordinate to the
greater powers, and allow the work of
grace to be extinSuished by the flood
ing liquid of alcohol.
See the African king who has spent
a day ut one of these trading dram
shops, and has bought liquor with other
goods, and has returned home. That
night is the night of Belshazzar in his
home. He drinks: his court, wives, and
subjects drink. The chief begins to
boast of his power. Recounting his
dealings with other chiefs, he notes his
offenders and gives threatenings. He
swears, under the influence of liquor,
to burn their towns. His flattcrers,
tempting him, call him liar and
coward. They will say: "You are
afraid of your offenders; you are their
subject" Being irritated, he AYERS to
burn his neighbOrs' towns the next day.
This oath is sealed with the devil-law
The next day he becomes sober, but he
has sworn, and he cannot retract. He
must make war with the offenders I'M
less they retract. Thus the white
mans rum kindles the strife and his
guns and powder put it out.
1t is enough, says one, that this ac-
cursed evil blights all hope of the pres
ent generation; that even those who
had begun to gather about them the
comforts of civilization have gone back
to barbarism; that women who had
learned something of modesty had
again discarded clothing, that all their
resources may expended for drink.
But this evil is not confined to the pres
ent. 1t incapacitates the people for
future commerce aud thrift. 1t casts
blight upon those hopes which had
been formed of central, eastern and
western Africa as great fields of COM
merce and of bright prospects for souls
for the masters kingdom.-National
Temperance Advocate
THE HABIT OF TREATING.