Year: 1877

The following is an extract from Mr..
Coughs lecture on Temperance, deliv-
cred on the 2lst of April, in the Taber-
nacle built for Mr.. Moody's service, in
Boston. The extract, we hope will be
read generally by our readers


Now the drunkard is the victim of
the custom of society. What is drunk
enness, | ask you tonight, in our ac-
ceptation of the term, am not speak
ing of Gods view of it, we will come
to that presently. In our acceptation
of the term, What is drunkenness! The
inability of man to stand drink. You
cannot Judge of mans drunkenness by
the quantity be drinks, but by the effect
that quantity has on his nervous system.
A man once said to me, 81 hate excess;
a man that drinks TO excess is s beast
l said, "Then l hope you are with us.
He said, "No; l hate Total abstainers.
The total abstainer is cowardly and the
man who drinks to excess is beastly. /
stand on the manly principle of moder-
alton, self-denial, self-control, and l say
to young men, Follow my example, and
by the exercise of these qualities you
will show your manliness; exercise your
self-denial and self-control, use liquor in
moderation and don't make fool of
yourself" That we hear everywhere,
only coming to us sometimes in differ
ent shapes. say to such man, what
is excess! drinking too much" What
is drinking too muchi drinking to ex-
cess i know it is, but will ask you
a plain question: Would six tumblerfuls
of toddy IN day be excess for you !
for me? Six? In day? Well, no. l
think / could stand it. There is the
point. Now, according to that mans
theory, if a man drinks as much as he
can hold, and stands it, that man is de-
veloping isn't he Uaughter.) If he
drinks two quarts of whiskey in a day
and stands it, there is a sign OF self-le-
NAL, and self-control, and selfgovern-
ment in the moderate use of intoxicat-
ing liquor; if he drinks glass and does
not stand it that must be sign of the
utter want of self-denial and self-control
in the excessive use of it. What is
moderation and what is excess7 In our
estimation of it, because our estimation
of drunkenness, when we come 10 look
at what God says about it, is very low
estimation of its inlquity, we do not
think much Of people who get intoxica-
ted-once in while. Did you ever
hear man say, Don't call me thief
Il will knock any man down that calls
me thief-1 know / steal occasionally,
but l am not a theft" Did you ever
hear a man say, Don't call me liar
| know / lie once in while, but | am
not liar?" Then man Gays, 81 am no
drunkard; get tight once in while; |
have been tight at musters and at mill
tary suppers but l am no drunkard." "
Now if man lies once, he is a liar if
he steals once, he is thief; and you do
not call man a drunkard till he gets
drunk about two-thirds OF his time


Simple intoxication is so common that
we almost make sport Of it. / heard
some ladies once in car talking very
loudly, and one of them said, "Oh, it
was perfectly splendid; | never laughed
SO much in my life. We went to sleigh
ride, and were going to have a dance
and supper at the hotel, and some Of
those young men went to the bar, and
never saw them get so drunk, and i
laughed so, he, hel When we were
ready to dance, some of those yonng
men were i'll such a state that they
could not dance with their partners,
and they were in such state! What do
you think When we were all ready to
go home and the sleigh drove up, the
landlord put some of those young men
to bed, and | laughed SO The next
morning it was perfectly splendid, |
never laughed so much in all my life. )"
Now here were number of young men
so drunk that they could not go homo
and could not dance with their partners
and it is matter of laughter and is
such fun.


In certain town in Connecticut a
man came into his house drunk. He
had little boy 8 1-2 or years of age,
and he came forward to meet him with
both Of his arms extended. Had the
father been sober the boy would have
been nesting in his fathers bosom, but
he was drunk; he seized that boy by the
shoulder, lifted him over bis head and
dashed him right through the second
story window. Sash and glass and all
went out on the paving among the
mire and bits of broken glass lay a child
with both thighs fractured. That IL an
other phase of the fact that you laugh
at, and that is, that when a man is
drunk he don't know what he is about,
and whether man laughs or cries,
shudders or chuckles, whether a man
holds his sides with merriment or the
marrow i'll his bones stands stone cold,
drunkenness is debasing, degrading,
imbruting, blasting and scathing to
everything that is bright and noble aud
manly and God-like in a human being
whether you laugh or cry. (Applause)


Now great many people say that a
man who would throw his child Cut of
the window is brute. Ab, my friends,
it is very easy to call men brutes. /
have worked for 35 years among the
drunkards, among criminals, aud never
found brute among them yet, never.
Dickens has said somewhere in one Of
his works, "Mrs. Toggers was hard
woman, yet in her heart away up
great many pairs of stairs, in remote