The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1905-05-19
The Temperance Question and the
Individual.
Sermon by Rev. w. l.. Seabrook.
(Text I Cor. S:I3.)


sponse to the request Of many. the
following abstract Of the sermon de-
livered on last Sunday morning at the
Lutheran Church of the Redeemer
this city. by the pastor, is printed.
Mr.. Seabrook told the old story of the
Minotaur, to whom was given to be
devoured annually seven fair maidens
and seven young men Of Athens. and
said The Minotaur of Grecian story
is myth. The Minotaur of this age
is reality. more terrible than the
monster whose annual demand
brought misery to Athenian homes.
The estimate that the drink monster
claims in this country alone sixty
thousand victims annually is proba-
bly, an under estimate. Read one
days record in the daily papers OF any
city. Remember that the story is
duplicated in every city, and that
there are three hundred and sixty
five days in the year. From year to
year the Athenians dll not know
whose children might be sent to Crete
the following year The people of
this country do not know whose
children may fall victims to the more
terrible monster. Each one knows
some Of the men who fell in Newber-
~ during the past ten years. Each
one knows some who are in danger
OF falling during the next year, the
next ten years. None can tell who
will be the drunkards, the drunkards
wives twenty years hence. Some OF
them are among the happy children,
the boys and girls in your homes
M. Seabrook very briefly spoke Of
the horrors Of the curse of strong
drink. and Of the various laws that
have been passed by the states, recog-
niZing the evil, for the restriction of
the liquor traffic. and said that all
restrictive laws were good laws and
to be commended, except the SO
called restrictive legislation by
which a state deliberately debauches
her own sons for gain. party to the
destruction of its own citizens, not
only legalizing but seeking to make
respectable the liquor traffic. He
then declared that no more legal en-
actment would stop the sale. and said
that it is time that we stopped talk
ing so much about method and neg
lect the great question of personal
temperance. He said Il wish today
dispassionately, sympathetically but
earnestly to enforce the truth of in
dividual. personal responsibility.
The personal question lies back of
all Others" He then spoke briefly of
the responsibility of the officers of
the law charged with it's enforcement
and added unless the individual, non
official citizen lives up to the full
measure Of his responsibility, howev
er stringent the laws, temperance can
make little progress toward complete
triumph. And as to that responsible
ity l propose to take highest ground,
even though | may be charged with
fanaticism. Ny assertion is that the
measure OF responsibility of the in
dividual does not fall short Of total
abstinence. The real evil in the COM
munity is not so much the fact that
men sell intoxicants as that men
drink. Drinking is the evil that ov-
ershadows tne sale. However strong
the words that may be used to de-
scribe the evils OF the traffic; howev-
er abhorrent. however dangerous the
sale NAV be; tell you my friends
that it is drink that debases man.
hood, that casts its wasting blight
over happy homes. that drives the
color from the cheek and breaks the
hearts of women. 1t is drink that is
the shadow on the home and a peril
to the state. The sale of liquor goes
on because men drink Efforts to
suppress the sale are futile simply
because men drink. The whole Ii