The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-11-04
Sobrlety q Virtue.

One of the greatest difficulties the cause
of temperance has to contend with to-day
is the multitude of people who. are allied
against it.. Notice right here that it was
SO in the days of Moses. "The whole con.
gregation murmured' against Moses and
Aaron'-two fanatics against majority.
Strong arguments this majority used,
too; just as they do to-day. They began
by Blaming all their personal discomforts
on the enforced temperance that Moses,
acting, for God, had established for them;
Egypt of theirs, ignoring its troubles out
OF which they we're come, forgetting "a
naan, which had never seemed to weigh
materially with them.
The Ronging of souls rot given up to
God f6r that which they desire is un-
quenGhable except by God. The poor chill
dren) of Israel wished to be continually
feasting, for that was their idea Of happi-
ness. Of all that had been told them con-
Erasped dim idea of constant pleasure,
/and that it was to begin at once. No
more have We to-day true perceptions and
estimates of the heavenly Canaan. Prin-
ciples we may have when we start out
from our lands of Egypt, but how many OF
US abide by them when it comes to a mat
ter of personal indulgence? Some, indeed.
do, and thank God for the Moses and
Aaron in our midst who fret not for lux
God has set. feeling that God knows best
even about so small matter as diet. ~
There are several points of striking like.
ness between the murmuring children ot
Israel and the people who ought to be
earnest temperance workers and are not.
They ignore the evils of Egypt, the injus-
tice, the oppression, the cruel taskmasters,
for the sake of the feshpots, which, after
all, were but meagre, for the starving
creatures bowed beneath many burdens.
Our land is in slavery to rum, 9 curse
that is crushing cut the manhood of it's
!, people. Every year the chains grow
stronger, and yet for the saka Of o little
| personal indulgence, little so-called free
dom, 4spany remain in bondage. And sell
| fish lawnpakers, cruel as Egyptian task-
masters, Regulate and make respectable
tn, sale Of ssSs deadly enemy Of our fair All
One sells his Canaan for a daily morseI
of meat, and awaN down through the
| wine cup. tsgS
And so God gave that peosple what they
! asked. rained it down upon thAeIn as free
| ly as He had given plain mamma, Apd they
| took it greedily and never saw wha& they
were doing nor how they had abused taeir
loving Fathers graciousness. Because they
saw not His love and yielded not them
selves to His plans for them, their hungry
souls. unfed by the true nourishment God
| would have given, grew lean and starved. Z
! The poor souls who will not believe in
, the. dangers of alcoholic liquors, and who
will not give them No., grow lean in like
manner. They know that back of liquor
i turks danger, slavery. sin; still each thinks
i he can escape them and cries out for that
which will satisfy the craving of his heart
And he gets it if he goes after it. God
will not keep man from sin if he. il, de-
termined to haye it. The liquor clouds his
brain and keeps him from clear vision
of his God so that his soul is starved, It
may not be that all who touch, taste or
handle the accursed cup drop Immediately
into drunkards' graves, but just as surely.
! if more slowly, do they die from wilful
starvation because they would rather sat-
isfy the immediate cravings of appetite
than 50 to live with God forever in His
fair, new land.-Grace Livingston Hill, in
the New York Mail and Express.