“Every man that strivetb for the mastery is temperate in all things.”— Paul-.
“ Look not thou upon the wine when’it is red.”—Solomon.
“Cattle know when to go home from grazing ; but a foolish man never knows his stomachls measure.”—Scandinavian Proverb.
Tme temperance is the proper use of good things, and total abstinence from bad things.
“ He who knows what is good and chooses it, who knows what is bad and avoids it, is learned and temperate.”—Socrates,
It is a grave popular error that temperance is the moderate use of everything, irrespective of quality. Good things may become evil when used in excess, on account of quantity. The most wholesome food may cause serious diseases when thus abused. There is another class of substances which are intrinsically bad. They are evil, and only evil, in all proportions and quantities. They have no redeeming qualities. The slightest indulgence in these articles is intemperance. The glutton, the gormand, the epicure, is intemperate because he abuses, by excessive use, that which might nourish him if taken with moderation. The tippler or wine-bibber is intemperate, not i^ecause he uses wine or brandy in great quantities, but because he
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TRUE TEMPERANCE.
takes even the smallest portion of the poisons. The boy who robs an orchard is a petty thief. The official who puts his hand into the national treasury and abstracts the public money is a defaulter. Each individual is a thief. Both are criminals of the same class. They differ only in the degree of the crime committed. They stand, respectively, at the two ends of a long series of gradations which all incline in the same direction.
Intemperance presents two similar extremes. At one end is the man who takes his daily or occasional glass of wine or beer—just to make him “feel well,” or “for his stomach's sake”— and at the other is seen the confirmed inebriate reeling into a drunkards grave. Both individuals stand in the same line, their names belong in the same category. Moderate drinkers—as small tipplers term themselves—really differ from beer-guzzlers, topers, and “old soakers,” in only one particular. They have taken only a few degrees, only the initiatory, perhaps, while the latter are nearly ready to graduate in ignominy. The moderate drinker has only to continue his course in the same direction in order to bring up at last in the same slough with other wretched victims of intemperance.
The Sin of Intemperance.
Primarily, the crime of intemperance is a sin against the body. The moral evils which result are the natural consequences of injuries suffered by the physical organism. The act of drinking, itself, is not a sin, whether the liquor taken is beer, wine, or brandy, or be the individual a hod-carrier or a clergyman; no criminality can be attached to a mere mechanical act. The real sin
TEA, COFFEE, AND TOBACCO DRUNKARDS. 3
consists in subjecting the body to unnatural and harmful stimulation. Nature has given to each organ of the body its proper function. When allowed to act unrestrained, these functions are all properly performed, and harmony reigns in the vital domain. But so soon as any organ or set of organs is unduly excited, the harmony is destroyed, and discordant action results. A whole train of ills then follow as immediate consequences of the disturbed action. The mental and moral evils which result from the use of intoxicating liquors are the direct consequences of the first sin against the body, artificial stimulation.
Tea, Coffee, and Tobacco Drunkards.
Alcoholic liquors are not the only means by which artificial stimulation may be indulged. A large number of drugs and poisons possess properties which are capable of occasioning the same results. Tobacco, opium, hashish, tea, coffee, and absinthe are some of the more common of these. The effects of these several agents may be said to be essentially the same in kind, though some of them are doubtless productive of more injury than others. True temperance discards all of these poisons. They all go together. It is a question upon which there is considerable division of opinion, whether rum or tobacco is productive of the greatest amount of injury to the human family. We will not here discuss the relative importance of a reform in the two directions. Both are great evils. Both will stand or fall together.
Dr. Arlidge, of England, has recently called attention to the fact that tea drunkards are very common among the women of the laboring
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TRUE TEMPERANCE.
classes of that country, and every physician knows that similar cases are not uncommon in this country.
The only true platform upon which the cause of temperance will ever find a substantial basis is total abstinence, not only from alcoholic drinks, but from every other stimulant or narcotic. There is no room for compromise on this subject. Christian temperance is more radical still, and requires that the appetite must be held within the bounds pf moderation in eating as well as in drinking.
The following is a list of health works recently published at this Office.
They will be sent, post-paid, at the prices given. By freight or express, at
the buyer’s expense, they will be supplied at one-third discount, for cash.
Special terms to agents.
Hygienic Family Physician. Bound, 500 pp. $1.00.
The Bath. 15 cents.
Proper Diet for Man. 15 cents.
Treatment of Disease 35 cents.
The Evils of Fashionable Dress, and How to Dress Healthfully. 10 cents.
Alcoholic Poison, as a Beverage and as a Medicine. 20 cents.
Health and Diseases of Woman. 15 cents.
The Hygienic System. 15 cents.
Tobacco-Using. 15 cents.
Healthful Cookery: A Hand Book of Food and Diet. 25 cents.
Science of Human Life. Three lectures by Sylvester Graham. 30 cts.
Health Tracts. The following tracts are put up in a neat package, and aggregate, in all, 250 pp.: Dyspepsia, Healthful Clothing, Principles of Health Reform, Startling Facts about Tobacco, Twenty-five Arguments for Tobacco-Using Briefly Answered, Tea and Coffee, Pork. True Temperance, Alcohol; What is it? Alcoholic Poison, Moral aud Social Effects of Alcohol. Cause and Cure of Intemperance, The Drunkard’s Arguments Answered, Alcoholic Medication, Wine and the Bible. 25 cents per package.
These tracts will be furnished separately at the rate of 800 pages for $1.00. A liberal discount by the quantity.
T|ie Health Reformer, Monthly, $1.00 a year. Specimen copies sent free.
True Temperance Platform,
Address, 1IEAI/TH REFORMER, Battle Creek Mich,