Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1901-10-04

field Republican
Intomperanoc.
Intemperance does violence to all
parts of our nature. In the New Tes-
lament sense it is a want of self-con-
troll. When an engine becomes loose,
escaping from its proper creeks and
restraints, it makes often irreparablc
havoc, destroying all about it, and end
ing by destroying itself. When the
human life slips the leashes that hold
it, and gets beyond just control, it
causes injury and ruin in the same
way. 1t hurts our minds, our wills,
our bodies All of these feel and show
the effects of a loss of self-connol.
The reaction comes, If, indeed, the ex-
cess does not destroy the human mech
anism, and the poor life has to pay
for the unbridled expenditure of its
treasured store. A man flies into a
paroxysm of rage. The consequence is
that the orderly emotions, intended to
respond within right limits to what
God intended to awaken them, are
strained and exhausted. The inevita-
BILE reaction leaves those emotions
oyertaxed and weakened-a sense Of
insipidity greeting the return of things
that should normally awaken pleasure.
A man breaks out in unbridled wilful-
ness. His will suffers for it. 1t be-
comes arbitrary and fretful. All in
reference of this sort makes life I'M
comfortable and uneven, and alternate
ly overdrawn and uninteresting. 1t is
easy to see how the word "intemper-
ance" has come to mean intemperance
in the use of intoxicating drinks Pre-
eminently there it means a want of
self-control. Drink forces an abdica-
ton of sovereignty over himself on
the part of man. 1t takes away his
power of self-control, and becomes his
master; and we see in it's track all the
evil effects Of excess, unregulated over
| expenditure, and unreasoning waste of
| life's forces. The evil that intemper-
ance does, temperance will undo and
prevent. 1t will create homes where
| intemperance destroys them. Il drank
there" heard railroad engineer say,
| in a meeting, of his old days, "and |
had no home then that 1 was willing
to take man to. l was ashamed. But
now, thanks be to Jesus Christ's saw
ing power l drink no more, and T have
a home, as my wife up there in the gall
lery can testify" How justly repre-
sentative that testimony is! Drink
blasts thousands of homes every year.
Some men say that it is the wretched-
ness of the homes that forces men to
drink. That is not as true as to say
that it is drink that makes the wretch
homes, in the sense of families, too. A
real home is not house only. It is q
house with loving going on in it. And
liquor Stays love. The emotion OF love
may linger, but not its ministries
How can drunken father stand in
the place of the Father God to his lit
tie children? And intemperance wastes
wealth which temperance will save
The latter sends it into the savings
bank, the former into the saloon till
If a people would deliberately abolish
the liquor evil in their land, it would
be the best possible way to increase
their national wealth, their Industrial
capacity, their productive power. Ev.
cry community spends more on drink
than on all its charity, philanthropy
and education. And this is wicked. II
is the foulest form of selishness, ex.
cept vice. What right has father OF
husband, with wife and children de-
pendent upon him, to fling away In the
qualification of personal appetite
what they require for the very neces
would right the wrongs of the pool
against whom intemperance is wick
ed and selfish sin. How just and nat
ural and right that no drunkard ant
no drunkenness shall be admitted tt
the kingdom that is coming! There
men are to be pure and faithful TIL.
little children shall not suffer any NOR,
and weary women shall not listen fear
fully for the sound of the drunkard'!
steps. The glitter of the saloon, anc
it's enticements to lust; all the van
dals of crime and evil who Turk in it
the Keeling ribaldry of the poor foo
who has surrendered his sovereignt,
to a poison which his fellow-man SOLE
him for gain, shall not mar or defil.
that fair land and life. What will tn
men do in the world to come who hav
gone out of life knowing nothing bu
the liquor business? Where will the.
find employment there? That is
country for the men and women witt
have walked in freedom and faith
They need fear no judgment to com