Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1894-04-10
MANS WORDS
REV. THOMAS DIXON SPEAKS ON THE
RUM QUESTION.

Speech That Should BE Read In Every
Home In the Nation-Words of Truth
and soberness That Sink Deep Into Every
Heart.
The following brilliant and scathing
address was delivered by the we'll known
preacher, Thomas Dixon of New York
city:
The cause of temperance has made
wonderful advances within 40 years
since an assembly of Baptist ministers
in Pennsylvania, holding till late hour,
could not close with prayer because
the brethren had imbibed so much that
no man was willing to take the risk
of kneeling down; since a Methodist
Episcopal conference rejected resolu-
tion declaring it to be inconsistent for
minister Of the gospel to be engaged in
the selling of liquor. These two denom-
nations now stand well up to the front
in the temperance movement.
The period of sentimentalism, of dog
gerel poetry and of emotional moonshine
has gone by, and the period of action,
concerted, remorseless, aggressive ac-
ton, has come. The question is, Which
shall survive for the next quarter of a
century, the liquor traffic or our civili-
zation? Our duty is:
x*s
First-To act along religious lines. The
movement is profoundly religious. Some
say religion should have nothing to do
with it. But IL such an evil can grow up
in our midst, Staying the weak and help
less and laying its impious hand ON all
that is benefcent in our civilization, and
the church can have nothing to do with
it, in Gods name what are we here for?
(Applause.]
Some good men are rather behind in
the procession ON account of some crotch
et They have taken up some idea of
the best way of working and they won't
read or hear anything to the contrary,
especially if they have little leaven of
stubbornness which belongs to human
nature-and ministers are human. But
l agree with good North Carolina
brother, "Old Franks" they called him.
One Sunday morning, after he got into
the pulpit, he had discovered that he had
put on his stockings wrong side out. He
began pulling off his shoes and changing
them. One of the deacons stepped up
and said, Brother Franks, l wouldn't
change right here before the whole con-
gregation." "Yes, Iwill!" he answered,
when l find that l am wrong, will
change then and there" [Applause.]
-.
Second-To act along the line of So
cial movements. In particular the edu-
cational forces must be trained in this
work. The time has gone by for mere
apologetics. We have reached the time
of eternal axioms. Intemperance is not
a jolly weakness. 1t is not a disease to
be doctored, but crime. Gods word
pronounces it a crime. ''NO drunkard
shall inherit the kingdom of God" Med
ical science pronounces it a crime against
the body. All the inebriate asylums that
have undertaken to treat intemperance
merely as a physical disease are con-
spicuous for only one thing, and that is
failure. The law treats it as crime.
1t grants divorce for it, on the ground
that it is a crime. It refuses to accept
drunkenness as an apology for any crime
a man may commit while intoxicated,
on the ground that You cannot plead one
crime as an apology for committing an
other. 1t is time for US to translate this
law into the vernacular of society and
enforce it there.
Woman should use her vast influence
to press and urge this idea along social
hnes-in the kitchen, in the parlor and
at the marriage altar. l asked a young
lady, Would you marry criminal?'
Certainly not" "Would you marry a
drunkard?" "Well, if he was pretty
good looking, I'd marry him to reform
him." Climax of idiocy! Here is man
who has been kicked out of dry goods
store, kicked out of railroad office
the conductor has even put him off the
horse cars, and some woman says,
"Come to my arms, my own stricken
dearw And he always comes. He leads
her along life of misery and heart
break till they drop into the grave.
Third-We must teach the dangers of
appetite, the curse of the drink habit.
But one point must be guarded here.
We must not overemphasize this point,
so that men will make the plea of an ir-
resistible appetite an excuse, as many do
when they only drink to drown their
own utter worthlessness. The appetite
for liquor never comes to healthy man
from the first drink. 1t is the criminal
repetition that creates the appetite and
forms the habit. There may be such
thing as an inherited appetite, but per-
son with that is not a healthy but dis
eased man.
The first drink does not create an ap-
petite, but the whole system rises to re-
pei it. Itried it once, years ago, my first
and last drink. was out on pretty
rough sea and was wrestling with the
consequences in my stateroom. Afriend
came to me and told me what wanted
was to go down to the bar and get cock
tail. l told him no, wanted nothing of
that kind, but he was so urgent and so
positive it would cure me that consent
ed. walked up to the bar with all the
dignity could muster and asked the bar
keeper for cocktail. Said he, "Gin or
whisky?" and didn't know which. FL
nally I decided ON gin as the shorter
word, and perhaps not quite SO vulgar.
The barkeeper fixed it up and drank
it, and it seemed to me that had swal-
lowed dose of molten cast iron and