The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1909-04-30
A SHOT AT THE DECANTER.

Flrst Tract Published by the Ma
tional Temperance Society in 1865,
by Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D.
There is current story that a
Quaker once discovered thief in his
house; and taking down his grand
fathers old fowling-piece he quietly
said, "Friend, thee had better get
out Of the way, for I intend to fire
this gun right where thee stands. -
| With the same eonsiderate spirit we
warn certain good people that they
had better take the decanter off
their table, for We intend to aim a
Bible truth where that decanter
stands. It is in the wrong place. It
has no more business to be there at
all than the thief had to be in the
; honest Quaker's house We are not
surprised to find deeanter Of al
coholic poison on the counter of a
dram-shop whose keeper is eli
eensed" to sell death by measure.
But We are surprised to find it on
the table or sideboard of one who
processes to be guided by the spirit
and the teachings of Gods Word.
! That bottle stands right in the range
of the following inspired utterance
Of St. Paul: cit is good neither to
eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any
thing whereby the brother stum-
bleth.' This text must either go out
of the Christians Bible, or the bot
tie 60 off the Christians table. The
text will not move; the bottle must.
The passage itself is so clear that
it can hardly admit Of eavil Or a
doubt. It teaches the lofty and be-
nevolent principle that abstinence
| from things that are necessarily hurt
full to others, is Christian expedi-
ency that has the grip of a moral
duty. y
This sounds, at first, like very
radical doctrine; but so conservative
an expounder as Prof. Hodge, of
Princeton, has defined the text as
| teaching that things which are not
always wrong per So are to, be given
up for the saks Of others. He says
that the legal liberty of good man
| is never to be exercised where a
moral evil will inevitably flow from
it. We are never to put stumbling
blocks in the way of others. Good
men are bound to sacrifice anything
and everything that is counter to the
glory Of God, and destructive of the
best interests of humanity.
It would be easy to prove unan-
swerably that alcoholic beverages are
injurious to those who use them. The
famous athlete, Tom Sayers, was once
asked by gentleman, "Well,
Thomas, T suppose. that when you are
training, you use plenty of beefsteaks
and London porter, and pale ale?'
The boxer replied, "In my time I
have drunk more than was good for
me; but when I have business TO do,
there's nothing like water and dumb
bells.' After retiring from "busi-
ness" he took to drink and died a
| sot. Cold water made him a Samson; !;
alcohol laid him in his grave. As a
matter of personal health and long
life, cit is good not to drink wine;'
as an example to others, total abstl-
nence is a Christian virtue.
The inherent wrong Of using in
to1eating drinks is two fold. 1. 1t
exposes to danger the man who tam
pers with it; for no man was ever
| positively assured by his Creator that
he could play with the "adder' that
! lies coiled in a wine-eup without be-
ing stung by it. 2. It puts a Stun
bling block in the way of him whom
We are commanded to love as our
selves.
We lay down, then, the proposition
that no man has moral right to do
,nythiny ;oc influence Of which !:
certainly ard me! e!:tably nurtful t.
his neighbor. I have 4 cal right to
do many things which as Christian
I can not do. I have a legal right to
take arsenic or swallow strychnine:
but I have no moral right 10 commit
this destruction. I have legal right
to attend the theatre. No policeman
stands at the door to exclude me, or
dares to eject me while my conduct is
orderly and becoming. But have no
moral right to go there; not merely
because may see and hear much that