Religious and educational aspects of temperance / by various authors.

Date:
[1874?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Religious and educational aspects of temperance / by various authors. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    they may, for the general convenience, employ in their speeches. Moct heartily approving of a recommendation of this kind, and determined not in my own case to infringe upon it, I think that my wisest course would he to condense my thoughts and facts into a small compass of writing, and to read, if I might be permitted, my own personal experience, which will be like that grain of sand to which Canon Farrar has alluded, and of which a sufficient number built up forms a barrier that will be absolutely impregnable. I therefore will, with the per- mission of the chairman of this meeting, venture to read a very short paper ; and I especially desire the kind and impartial consideration of those sincere friends of Temperance who would not object to be called or to be considered moderate drinkers. There are scores of thousands of good men and women, rich and poor, who, if they could really believe that alcoholic liquors were absolute superfluities, and also dangerous as well as useless, would discontinue their use. I remember when I thought a glass of good sherry must necessarily help digestion, and that a glass of old port must pour strength into the veins. Happily for my- self, I was led to put the matter to the test of fair experiment; and it will be in accordance with the object of this meeting that I should tell the result. Wishing to save a man addicted to drink from impending ruin, and knowing that persuasion would be useless without example, I resolved to try total abstinence for a month. Finding myself just as well at the end of the month as at the beginning, I repeated the experi- ment for a second month, and with the same satisfactory result. It then occurred to me that it would be useful to know how long I could dis- Jense with strong liquor without affecting my health and strength. But had to wait a long time for the final conclusion of this experiment, and I have not yet arrived at it. (Cheers.) More than nine-and-thirty years have passed, and I declare that I have the same consciousness of sound health, though not of youthful elasticity, in the year 1877, that I had in the year 1837. (Loud applause.) I find that He who made the human frame made it so wisely that it does not need the stimulus of beverages which, when taken in excess, blind the reason, inflame the blood, sow the seeds of disease, and implant an unconquerable craving for the fatal poison. The kitchen and the dairy, with the cheering and fragrant drinks which we owe to China and the Indies, supply every want of animal life, and keep all its springs in motion. To the doctor it speaks volumes when I say that I never sit down to table without an appetite, and never rise from bed with a headache. When I hear total abstainers designated as ascetics, I smile at the ignorant blunder, because it has always been my firm conviction that I enjoy the pleasures of the palate much more than if I had taken wine of any kind or in any quantity ; and for this good reason, that the digestive organs are in a healthier state than they would have been with that indulgence. (Cheers.) If examined as to my mode of life, I may humbly and thankfully say that it has been one of no small activity, at first as a pretty close student, and afterwards having taken part in the public questions and contro- versies that have stirred one of the most exciting periods of our history. After many years of editorial and political work, I was called, at the age of fifty-nine, to enter Parliament ; where I spent fifteen years in charge