Year: 1878

force aupplier that 1t acts essentially unlike

 in different doses so that it may be food ir

 moderation, and yet poison in excess that

 in disease it is often positively useful and fol

 dietesie purposes is not proven to act, when

 used in moderation, otherwise than healthfally

 and beneicially." .* + = <sa

 Said the other speaker to whom refer: T

 would not ungenerously throw back upon g

 sister profeSSion any taunt. But my subject

 compeis me to remind you the latest word o1

 the scsence of hygiene on this subject is uner

 quivocally and fatly in favor of total abstl-

 hence Iur those in health. I refer to the words

 of Dr. Richardson, the speaker whose paper

 before the recent Social Science~Gongress o1

 Great Britain commanded more attention and

 has enlis sd a more general interest than any

 paper eys read before that body. refer es

 pecially his last atterance on this subject, ir

 which hplants himself fairly and squarely

 upon tEs ground that Total Abstinence is

 Gods normal law for man" -st

 In quosing these antagonistic testimonies,

 am but reminding you of what you are all

 abundantly familiar with namely, that as yet

 the scientific. world as far from having reached

 anything like a general agreement or co1aseaa-

 sus on this point, and is farther still from be-

 ing prepared to range itself in regard to the

 broader question which lies behind upon one

 side or the other. AS a consequence, the Total Abstinence ar

 gument, 30 far as it has rested itself upon one or other of the grounds which have referred to- has produced much heat and very little con- viction. It is characteristic of all discussions relating to questions of science, that assertion is sweeping and dogmatic in precise propor- tien as it is unlearned. It is those who have looked most closely into the subject of the re- lation of alcohol to the human system who are

 wont to speak with most caution and reserve.

 And so also in relation to the scriptural ar gument. Ahi how these appeals to the letter (forgetful that the letter killeth and that the spirit alone giveth life) have rent and torn Christendom, and divided those who ought to have been brethren. The history of theology is a history of dissensions and there is some thing in human nature that makes our disputes concerning the meaning of text almost fer cer than any others. When, therefore, we un- dertake to make the. argument of Total Absti- hence question of exegesis or Biblical inter pretation, we are inviting a spirit whose end IS not always peace, nor whose aim always the truth. The result of such appeals has been too often to fill the air with disputation, in the midst of which strong drink pushes for ward it's conQuests, and ruined men and Wo- men go down to disgrace, disease, and death

 And yet all the while the Total Abstinence movement, though grounded exclusively nei- ther upon any scientific nor any texual basis does draw it's grandest and most persuasive ar gument from what we find in the Word of God; for, when we open that Word, we find there one supreme, central figure, who, what ever may have been the gifts and graces of pa triarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs, dwarfs and ovefshadows all the rest It is the figure of One who, looking forward amid the f l,; oly If CtrV toward the deeper darkness and treachery that gathered about it's close, said, with the simple majesty of divine self-forgetfulness, ''No man taketh my life from me. Jag t doecn of nayself" It is the figure of One to- wards whom the eyes of the aged apostle to the Gentiles are turned, as he writes in bis letter to the Galatians: 1.-The Son of God who gave himself for me" This is the figure that is central to the New Testament and to all hu- man history ever since. And what is the spell of this wonderful Being over the hearts and the homage of men, through all the chang ing customs down to this hour, but this-that, in the spirit of the words that have quoted, He lived among men, and finally died for them not in the assertion of personal rights and personal prerogative. but in utter and incom- parable self-abnegation. As He goes to and fro in the world, is not plotting and schem- ing how He may aggrandize Himself and build up personal party or establish visi- ble kingdom. He is simply longing and striv- ing to save men and to wln them from life of selfshness and sin to a life of purity and love-

 And this, as it is the spirit of His life and His Gospel, so is it the clew to the ministry of His foremost apostle. We hear him say, in words that to my mind are the strongest Total Abstinence argument that was ever written, ''lf meat make my brother to offend, will eat no meat while the world stands;" and we catch in them the echo of that spirit of utter self Expenditures that ennobled his whole life. 1 know that when we use those words to-day, we are told that they have no more to do with the question of Total Abstine nee than they have to do with problem in Euclid. We are told that the apostle is discussing the question of meat offered to idols, and is making a gen. erous concession to the unenlightened scruples of semi-pagan or semi-J udaized conscience. Undoubtedly he is; but the spirit which in- spires that concession in neither pagan nor Jewish, but supremely Christianity, Christ like. It is the very spirit of the Cross and venture to affirm that he who would win oth- CTS to come up upon the ground of Total Alp stinence must live it and illustrate it. Says the friend to whom you go, asking him to come out and take his place distinctly with those who abstain: "Why should Iabstain? have been drinking glass, or two or three glasses of wine, at my table or at other peoples ta- bles for ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty years of my life. Look at me |! is not my hand as lsteady as yours my eye as bright, my brain as clear my pulse as even?"

 ''Yes unquestionably."

 ''Very well, then, why should abstain ? Is my wife drunkard? Are my children tip piers ?"

 ''No, thank God, they are not"

 ''Well, then, produce me some argument from the Bible, from science from the testi- mony of the learned that shall inculcate To- tal Abstinence"

 ''No; will not do that But will pro- duce an argument from your personal exper- fence. Last week you accepted the hospitali- ties of neighbor whose house, for the evening" was thronged with guests. Among them was a youth accustomed to look to as an example. in you had attracted his admiration or enlisted his sympathies, or you were placed at some prominent post where your example came to be thing to be quoted. In accor- dance with the detestable custom of our mod ern society which sometimes permits men and youths to herd together in refreshment room after their mothers and sisters have departed, this youth fingered with others of his own age, who proposed to drink champagne by tumbler fuls in the corner of the room. This young friend of yours had manly and refined in- stincts, and he shrank instinctively from usage so boorish and vulgar. He had other reasons, too, for letting wine alone. He had a dishonored ancestry dragged down to ruin by intemperance. But in the moment of hesi- tation he caught your eye Oh, if there had only been in it one loving ray of tender, plead ing remonstrance but you were holding up glass of old Madeira to the light, and listening to your host as he remarked with whisper of bland complacency, 'Habeasham, vintage of 1S44.'

 One glance was enough for your young friend If you could drink Madeira out of 8 wine-glass, why should he not drink cham pagne out of a tumbler ? Well, he did. will not tell you the rest. But when you meet him next, with bloodshot eye and unstrung nerves, ask yourself whether your glass of wine was worth-not what it cost you, but what it cost your weaker brother''

 For this, as I conceive, is the gist of the whole matter. We can not separate our drink ing-customs, innocent as we may deem them, and as they may be in themselves, from their influence upon those about us. And if this be so, it is impossible to separate this question of Total Abstinence from the question of per