Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1910-07-15
OtaI Ab stin enCe.

In these days of popular education
and of widespread agitation for civic
betterment and the uplift of the low
er classes, it is not surprising that
the Temperance Question should
have assumed a prominence never
before reached in the United States.
1t is now generally recognized that
the liquor traffic is responsible for
a very large percentage of the crimes,
taxation, poverty and misery that af-
flict society This being the case,
it becomes the duty of all good citi-
zens to promote temperance. Especi-
ally is it the duty of the Christian,
by his own self-denial, to give an
example of temperance to others.
Anachonis. the philosopher, who
lived in an age when intemperance
afflicted Greece, was asked by what
means a man might best guard
against the vice of drunkenness.
by bearing constantly in his view
the loathsome, vicious behavior of
the Incorporate, was the reply. And
lack for object-lessons when we look
around US and see thousands of
promising careers wrecked by drink,
courts busted in the trial of crimes
inspired by drink, and jails crowded
with criminals chiefly the victims of
drink
John Wesley's infleXible attitude
toward the drink habit was well
known. A friend of his related that
on one occasion at dinner Mr.. IVES
ley saw him take a small portion of
brandy. The great divine in surprise
asked the reason and was told that
it was for digestion. All" observed
Wesley, you take a tablespoonful
now; that will soon lose its effect
and then you viii take two; from
two you will go to a glass and then
to two glasses and so on, till in the
end you may become a drunkard."
He pleaded with him to stop it alto
gether, and the friend wisely needed
the plea.
An old man died not long ago in
New England who was esteemed as
a good citizen. But he had early
contracted a fondness for ardent
spirits, and drank temperately and
daily for the greater part Of his life.
He gave a little to his children as
they grouped around him; and they
thought what their father loved must
be harmless. But with their grow
ing years a fondness for the stimulus
increased, and this aged man lived
to mourn the death Of half his sons
and forty descendants, who went
down to the grave drunkards.
1t has been said tersely that the
cup kills more than the cannon
Drinks death-roll of victims in the
United States is estimated at 100,-
600 year, All the wars Of all the
ages could hardly equal the cumula-
tive slaughter by this mOnstrOus vice.
The late DR.. Talmage emphasized
very strongly the duty Of parents in
preaching total abstinence in the
home. Let your children grow up
with an utter aversion to drink" he
wrote. Make it utterly nauseOus.
Teach them, as faithfully as you do
the truths of the Bible, that rum is
a fiend. Take them to the aims
house. and show them the wreck and
ruin it works. Walk with them into
the homes that have been scourged
by it. II a drunkard hath fallen into
a ditch, take them right up where
they can see his face, bruised, saw
age, and swollen, and say, Look, my
son. Rum did thati' Looking out
of your window at some one who, in
tOXicated to madness, goes through
the street, brandishing his fist, bias
pheming God; a bowling, defying,
shouting, Keeling, raVing, and foam
ing maniac, say to your son, Look;
that man was once a child like you
AS you so by the grog-shop let them
know that that is the place where
men are slain and their wives made
paupers and their children slaves.
Hold out to your children all warn
ings, all rewards, all counsels, lest
in after-days they break your heart"