Temperance Sermon.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3631, 16 August 1880, Page 2

Temperance Sermon.

Pbeached by the Rev. S. J. Neill, Pbesbytebian Chubch, Thames, August 15, 1880.

It has been, for some time, the custom of our Church to appoint a certain day in each year on which all ministers are expected to preach on the subject of Temperance. This is done, not with the view of restricting any minister to a single sermon devoted to this subject, but rather to remind all, so that none shall neglect to bring this momentous -question, at least once a year, before their hearers. Nor is the singling out of this subject a confession that intemperance is the only great, or even the greatest, evil against which we have to contend ;■—alas ! it is not. If it were then we might mere easily cope with it; but it is only one large link in that chain of spiritual bondage which fetters human effort, and deadens heavenly aspiration. Intemperance is, however, an evil which assumes a very palpable form— if I may so speak—it has become an incarnate evil, an evil in material form walking our streets, and entering our homes, and it is, perhaps, on this account that our Church, and all other Churches, I suppose, have lifted up their voices in a cry of alarm and fear against this crying sin. States, too, as well as Churches, are liting up their voices, for the truth is begining to dawn on both—that if the Church and the State do not put down this evil it will shortly put them down. Few, perhaps, say so v«ry plainly as yet, but that is the thought which is forcing itself on thinking men, and chilling their blood—as the first dim murmur of the distant cataract reaches the ear of the boatman on the river far above, and sends a shiver through his frame as his boat glides down the placid waters. For another mile he may glide safely onward and know but little change, but every downward furlong diminishes his chance of escape. So with regard to intemperance. Some may say, " Why disturb us with your note of warning ? We have seen little change in our time, aud we do not expect to see much for many a day." True; but just like the man in the boat gliding oward to the roaring rapids, the longer you delay the change the harder task do you bequeath to your children, or grandchildren to accomplish, if they and their world are not to rush down the steeps of destruction and perish. But you* say we are getting better instead of worse—there is less drunkenness now than was once, the consumption of spirits iv Great Britain during the last year was so many million pounds less than the previous year ; true, and is that of itself not a God sent ray of light to lighten us and cheer us, for it tells us that brave hands are grasping at the helm and laboring with stretched muscles, and strained but hope-filled eyes to direct the boat to the shore of safety. Or* to change the simile, we are in the midst of a tempest tossed sea, with dark waves of crime and disaster raging round us and threatening to swallow us. Let us call upon our nobler nature ; let us awake the voice of the living God within us, that it may rise and speak—speak clearly and distinctly, and louder than all the noise of selfinterest, ease and gain; speak so loudly and authentically that the heavens will echo and respond with shining legions, and then the wave crests shall fall, the : billows will be calm, and immediately we j shall reach the land. I

In preaching a sermon on Temperance, lam glad to think that most of you are as temperate as I could wish you, and it is not so much for the sake of converting you to better habits, though, of course, there is generally some room for improve* ment, as to keep the state of the case before you that you may not only be blessed yourselves, but also a means of blebsing others —of saving others by your words, as well as by your example, from

this deadening sin. And in preaching on this subject rliere is little need to tack on to our sermon any text from the Bible as a formula to conjure with, for the evils of intemperance are as manifest and certain as if written on every leaf of 1,000 Bibles ; and the heavenly ri&htness of temperance needs not to be blazoned in flaming letters on the sky, for it is written by tue finger of the Great God on the tablets of every conscience—of every being made after the imago of the Heavenly Father. Yet if we look into our own Bible or into the i sacred books of other nations we should ! easily find commands against strong drink, j In one of the sacred books of the East, j v.IOB we find—" Let a man take care of i hims.lf—a man who steals gold, who J drinks wine, who dishonours his Guru's I bed, who kills a Brahman, these four fall, and as a fifth he who associates with them." In another sacred book, the "Shu King," there is an account of the introduction or invention of strong drink somewhat similar to the ac ount which we find in our Bible of the eating of the forbidden fruit. The prophetic daughter of Ti, about 2300 8.C., said after the introduction of kill or intoxicating liquor— " In future ages there are sure to be these who by kiu will loose their State." If we examine the Koran we shall find, V chap., "God declareth unto you by signs that ye may give thanks. O true believers surely wine, and games of chance, aid images, and divining arrows are an abomination —the work of Satan, therefore avoid them that ye may prosper. By these Satan seeketh to sow dissection among you and to divert you from remembering God and from prayer." And Mohammed's command regarding intoxicating drink has been followed more closely by the Mussulman than the commands of the Bible have been followed by very many professed Christians—for, if I mistake not the Mussulmen are a race of teetotallers almost. But we need not the word of printed pages to enlighten us on this matter. There is a most sure word, or voice, of prophecy for God, which speaks—now and then at least, however faintly, in every human breast, speaks for God, for our fellow men, for ourselves, unto which we shall do well if we take heed.

In speaking of this subject Temperance and the vice which it would eradicate, I do not profess to be well up in the matter, indeed lam not; but if a man opens his eyes, and uses honestly what common sense he has, he cannot fail to know much, of this terrible evil, and also something of the means that should be used for its eradication. We might dispose of the subject in a very brief way, as a member of the English House of Commons did when a motion was made to obtain a committee to enquire into the cause of intemperance ; this member rose and said he thought he could tell them without a committee —the cause was drinMhg. But we propose to examine it a little more closely. There are three positions of observation in regard to the subject which we may take up:— 1. The seat and causes of the evil of intemperance. 2. The results. 3. The cure.

' Now, as to the latter, the cure of intemperance, our Good Templar friend will say, according to that M.P., th» cause of intemperance is drinking, therefore the best cure is to stop drinking; pthers will say, we can drink so much, and not be intoxicated, are we not an example of strong-minded men—the best way according to them is to drink, but to drink only a little, and then you will never be intemperate or intoxicated.

1. This brings us to ask wherein consists the seat and cause of the evil of intemperance. Here we notice that people are apt to attach all the opprobrium or blame to the visible result; this is a great mistake, and prevents reform. A man is 'seen reeling in the street—and soon it is whispered, "Oh did you hear that So and-so was tipsy last night," and presently the man is shunned or looked down on by polite or virtuous society. But a member of that same virtuous society takes openly in his own house or in his friend's house as much liquor as served to intoxicate the other man, yet is nothing the worse, as it is said, and nobody thinks of blaming him, as the first man was blamed. Now this is wrong, and it prevents reform, for it blinds our eyes to what the sin really is. This sin, like all other sins, consists in an act of the will—in doing that which our better nature, our conscience, tells up to be wrong, or which it once did, before it was seared and deadened: The staggering walk and confused speech are only visible results of* the' sin. The man who drinks two glasses, say of spirits, and is thereby intoxicated, does sin, but so also does he sin who against the voice of his spirit t .kes the same quantity without intoxication. The former may be said to sin in a double sense, he sins against his conscience, and he sins against his physical nature by overtoning it, but in the deep and real cense of the sin both sin in exactly the sanee way, i.e., both allow lust to overcome reason, both make the spiritual nature which is in them bend before the desire of the sensuous nature, bot!i are going in just the opposite direction to what the all-wise Creator and loving Father intended them to go; and both, if they continue in their course, will go to Hell. I say so calmly aud sorrowfully ; I say it because I aai as sure of it as I can be sure of anything. I am not particular about how you explain the word—you caunofc explain j away the fact in some form or other. You say there is no hell because there can be no fire and brimstone, no forkedtongued serpents, no big master devil pursuing, who while in agony himself torments everyone else. You may divegt the concept of all these things, you may even show thai it is not necessarily endless, that it is not simply punishment for the sake of punishment, that all is corrective not punitive; still you can neither banish nor annihilate the results of wrong doing, till they have burned out their fiery path, (only by curing them); you still have the agony, the suffering, the darkness, the spiritual separation from the source of light, warmth, joy, and peace which God in his very uatuie makes the consequences of deviation from right, and continuance in wrongdoing; that must be while God is, and while finite minds turn against or from God, and make the higher nature in them subservient to the lower or lustful nature. No one who thinks at all can get out of believing and seeing that, the voice speaks in every bosom —the consciousness of wrong—nature and human experience echo " Suffering follows wrong doing," and our Holy (scripture also speaks saying "the drunkard inheriteth not the Kingdom of God." This is the sin, the seat of the evil. A certain liquor stimulates our nerves, we

know that it is wrong to like it, but luso rules us and we take it. That is the sin, Now as to the causes. There are predisposing causes, aud exciting or immediate causes. A child is born., with a nervous organism, very susceptible of iv toxic, ting influence. Pre-natal conditions of one kind or anothor usher the ohild into the world an easy prey to the intoxicating influence. Ido not say Hie child inherits a love of drink, but it is born with a certain temperament whish is very open to temptation in this respect. The learned Dr Mandesly says, "Such come into the world weighted with a destiny against which they have Deither the will nor •the power to contend, they are step-children of nature, aud groan under the worst kind of tyranny—the tyranny of a bad organization." Without going quite as far as this (some believe that every human being has the possibility in him of seeking the good, the true, and the beautiful), yet we may safely say that many are ushered into life with organisations or hereditary tendencies which make it doubly and foarfold needful for them to keep watch and ward vigilantly, and constantly over their passions. The causes with individual life are numerous and varied. The customs of society, exposing intoxicating liquors for sale, or the feeling that something is needed to stimulate the system after exposure or fatigue, or when overburdened with trouble, or when equally overburdened by idleness These, and many other thing? cause, or are the immediate causes of people taking intoxicating liquors. Custom on the other hand, that says, perhaps So-and-so would like to take something, or if I don't offer him something he will think I am mean ,or have'nt it. Then the first person imagines his friend would not like him to refuse, and so both sin—first from custom, and perhaps not understanding each other. Then, with others it is almost, or altogether a habit, not co much for the sake of friendship, nor yet because they really need a stimulent, or even desire it very vividly, but because they have to go to the usual corner, and the shop is there and open, and habit has co grown on them that it would be a great wrench ta their whole nature to pass by. I sometimes see such people, and I can read a little, at least of what they think and feel, and are, and I pity them, evt,n as I would pity the slave who drags his tyrant's chains. ; ■ The other great class of causes may be found in the action which a stimulent has on a sensitive organisation of flagged nerves. The brain is partly cojf cted by over wo^k or grief, and a force is sought that wi'l send the floeicoursingio the skin over the whole frame. Or the muscular system is over taskci ard there is a drain on the nerve force, so instead of nature's remedies, food, rest, or Bleep, which will healthily end permanently restore the drain from overwork, men fly to some stimulent, in order to squeeze out more nerve force, when fio much has already been cal'ed forth. I rsed not picture the re-action and the resclts. We have dealt thus fully on the causes, because that point is most important and is often much overlooked.

As to the results, their name is legion, ; but they are a very black legion indead, and I hate no wish to harrow your feeling by calling up in your minds what you already know. The indirect evils of drink are perhaps, more terrible and widespread than the direct ones. The drunkard is unfitted for business, unfit to be in the family, unfit to be in the state, fit only for kindly and considerate treatment in some place specially provided for such, who by their past actions have proved thut they have lost the povfer to govern themselves. The ignorance, the poverty, the disease, the crime, which flow from thin evil cannot be measured. They are tainting the best blood of the hearts of the churches of the nations. The time calls loudly, it has called long, may men hear the voice which calls from the earth as'of old—saying to each one—thou art thy brothers keeper. This brings us briefly to speak of the cure or cures. Do doubt it is a certain cure in the case of e_ch individual man to touch not, taste not, handle not, or I might add see not—to keep wholly and for ever away from the intoxicating liquor. For all who feel that it has temptations for them, this I believe is the best course, the only safe course. For those who have no more temptation to become intoxicated than they have to fly to the moon, it is not so much matter in their case what course they pursue. They may feel the bondage of a pledge even irksome. At any rate I think it is plain we must work both upon the individual and upon the whole. Laws do "make men more temperate. Individual abstinence is the more easy when wo know that we are not alone, but that loving hands and strong are helping us, kind hearts are sympathising with us, praying for us, striving for'us.