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YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

SEIR-HULOnSTS,

PREACHED IN

St. John's Church, Stamford,

FEBRUARY 12, and MARCH 19, 1882,

BY

REV. WILLIAM TATLOCK, D. D„

RXi C T o n. ,

PRINTED FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION.

STAMFORD, CONN.:
WM. W. GILLESPIE & CO., STEAM PRINTERS.
1882.

tie i or imb, ui ns mm.

SERMON PREACHED BY REV. DR. TATLOCK, TN ST. JOHN'S EPISCOPAL
CHURCH, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1882.

Text, — "Now the works of the flesh are * *
these * - * * * drunkenness, revellings, and
such like. I say then.Walk in the Spirit, and ye
shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. — Galatians v
19. 21, 16.
What I have read is not the Apostle's full
catalogue of the works of the flesh. But I
wish to speak particularly of the sin of
drunkenness, and its re nedy. This morn
ing I will speak of what we can do for our
selves in the matter, and at another time of
what we^can do for others.
I am sensible that the people who come to
church and hear sermons are not on the
whole the people most likely to commit this
sin. But I am not going to begin a "tem
perance movemeut" with preaching to you
about the sins of others, nor to flatter you
by taking for granted that you are in no
daDger. Nobody is safe from the sin of
drunkenness — nobody ! This degradation of
Christian manhood and womanhood is pos
sible in any of us, and dishonor to the church
through ns. Judgment must always begin
at the house of God. Let us come to the
subject before ns with earnestness and hu
mility, with fear and trembling for ourselves,
and not sit back complacently in comfortable
pews and think how the rector is hitting
other people. '"Pride goeth before destruc
tion, and a haughty spirit before a fall,"
especially spiritual pride. It may be useful
for us sometimes to remember that we are
all descended from Noab. And there are
not many families here or anywhere, in the
church or out of it, that have no memory of
a lost and ruined one, no anxious fears for
the future of some of their members, no
open shame or secret sorrow in the present,
to make the subject of drunkenness one
that touches them most nearly and most dis
tressingly. Three things are to be coisidered, in rela
tion to the sin of drunkenness :
The first is : What makes drunkenness a
sin? The second is : Wherein lies -the tempta
tion of drunkenness ?
The third is : How may the temptation be
resisted ?

God help us to consider them earnestly
and fairly, and to know and do our duty !
I. The first point in our consideration of
this matter is : What is it that makes drunk
enness a sin? Por it is as a sin againBt God
that we have to deal with it here.
The sin of drunkenness consists in this,
that it mars and defaces the divine part in
man — his spiritual nature, reason, consci
ence, and will — that of which God said, "Let
us make man in our image, after our like
ness." The destruction of this is spiritual
murder, and any violence done it is a crime
not only against ourselves, and against society,
but chiefly against God. Reason — consci
ence — will — let us see how drunkenness does
violence to them all.
1. As to reason, it dethrones it. The
brute in the man comes uppermost in his
cups. And the species of brute that has its
lair in many men's natures, is the tiger.
Look over your newspaper to-morrow morn
ing, and see where the tiger has broken loose.
You will read of deeds of violence springing
forth instantaneously out of heated head and
hand that were incapable of conceiving or
executing them iu cool blood. You will see
ferocity. Husbands assaulting and killing
their wives, parents their children, and'
children their parents, and lovers their best
beloved. "I wouldn't have believed that I
could ever have hurt a hair of her head,"
moaned one of the latter, "but it was the
drink that did it." A few hot words, and
murder. Or, it may be, there has been
pent-up hatred and malignity that never
would have been revealed unless the control
of reason had been overthrown ; but the
blood is inflamed, and the restraints of pru
dence are but as green withes to bind the
passions, and consequences are laughed to
scorn. All the arguments and reasons which
seem so cogent to those who urge them, and
to those who hear them in their sober mo
ments, are utterly idle when the appetite is
upon them, and much more when it has over
turned the throne of reason. The reason is
God's vicegerent — "My mind a kingdom is,"

and reason is tbe king, to frame the law of
life. But — think of the "sweet reasonable
ness" of the drunkard! Not only in his
cups, but between them ! When he is at
his best it is impaired ; his perception of re
lations and consequences is dulled. _ What
he can see clearly enough in relation to
others he cannot see in relation to himself.
One of the most frequent and strangest of
the phenomena of intemperance is the diffi
culty of convincing a man that he is intem
perate, and in danger. All the world sees it,
except himself. He is in bondage, but
thinks himself free. Not all his observation
of others will convince him in regard to him
self. He seems to be incapable of reasoning
on the subject most important to him . In
temperance overthrows the reason in man,
and is therefore a sin against God, Who,
when He made him, made him a reasonable
being. .
2. Another divine faculty in man is trie
conscience. It sits upon the judgment seat
among his faculties, and decides between
right and wrong. But intemperance drugs
conscience. The judge upon the tribunal is
unsteady. He cannot discriminate. What
the man wants to do seems to him to be
right enough, and he does it. For how
many crimes against property, and the
rights of others, is intemperance responsible !
How many discreditable failures in business
has it brought about ! How many breaches
of trust have been Iraced to it ! How regard
less it makes a man of his natural obligations,
for the support of his family, for example!
Have you no conscience ? — I will say to a
man who spends his wages for drink, and
leaves his family to be supported by the
church, or by the town. Yes, he has a con
science, but it is drugged. It tells him,
feebly, what he ought to do, but it has lost
its compelling force. It holds a divine com
mission, and to resist it, to impair its force
or faithfulness, is a sin against God.
3. Another divine faculty in ns is the will.
This also intemperance weakens. To
"Know the right, approve it too.
"Condemn the wrong, yet still the wrong pursue,"
this is the way of the drunkard. Freedom
of will - liberty of choice— is our prerogative
as made in the image of God. But what a
bond-slave does he become! He is free to
use intoxicating drinks, but he is not free
not to use them, and surely this latter free
dom is as valuable as the former. The
human will, in all its strength, finds its main
purpose, and its highest prerogative, in con
trolling, not others, but ourselves. A man
who controls others, an army, for instance,
is in a magnificent position ; but what a piti
able position is he in if he eaunot control
himself. This is his first business. But you
have seen men in the grasp of this relentless

appetite, how they writhe and struggle, how
reason and conscience the enfeebled rem
nants of them— urge their wills in one direc
tion, away from the drink ; but the master-
passion has them in its grasp, and carries
them in the other direction— in spite of
themselves, they say. Here is a shameful
defeat of the divine element in the soul of
man, and it is a sin against God.
Here, then, are three things which make
drunkenness a sin. The reason, the consci
ence, the will, are overthrown by it, and the
life is a rebellion against God.
4. And how is it with a man's duty
towards his neighbor, the second table of the
Law? The essence of this law is charity — the
loving others as ourselves, and the doing un
to others as we would they should do unto
us. Why, at the very root of tbe drunkard's
life is self-indulgence — a relentless selfish
ness. He wrongs others remorselessly, in
person and property, for his own gratification.
He brings injury, suffering, and shame ou
his family, whom he loves better than any
thing except himself. Every oue of the last
six commandments he breaks, continually.
Why is it that intemperance leads on so
often to other sins, as dishonesty, and
impurity ? Because the drunkard habitual
ly resigns control of himself. He is not his
own master, and yields to whatever tempta
tions the world, the flesh, and the devil,
hrow in his way.
He is in difficulties, business- wise, and uses
other people's money — his judgment is dis
turbed, and his conscience is lethargic, and
he fails to see what would be obvious if bis
faculties were clear, that the first step in
volves others. His animal nature is inflamed,
and, the restraints of reason and conscience
being removed, he gratifies his passions at
the expense of others. Read "My Duty
towards my Neighbor" in the Catechism, and
see how in every clause th9 drunkard violates
it. There are three Divine institutions iu the
world, ordained as conditions under which
human life is to be trained for eternity, the
Family, the Church, the State. Drunken
ness does violence to them all. It destroys
family life — how utterly! Think of the
home of the drunkard, if he be a husband
and father. Think of it especially if she be
a wife and a mother. There are such homes
among us — loveless, comfortless, the very
mockery of the sweet name, nurseries of
wretchedness, vice, and sin. Not always
unredeemed, but nil the more pathetic for
the patient suffering they coutain, and deep
ening our sense of the deep damnation of
the sin that ruins and desolates them. And
how drunkenness hinders the work of the
Church on men, and women, and children

defeats her agencies, closes the ear to her
appeals, and tramples the pearls of the Gos
pel under the feet of swine — and how it
weakens and imperils society and the State.
it needs no words of mine to tell. I only
want to impress the truth, too often over
looked in the merely humanitarian aspeots
of the subject, that intemperance in drink
is a sin against God.
II. And now, in the second place, What
is the temptation? Whatever induces any
body to drink to excess ? What is that speiefic
thing for the sake of which a man is willing
to be drunken ? And, especially, how are
such sort of people as are before me exposed
to the temptation of drunkenness?
We may dismiss as an altogether inade
quate explanation of the phenomenon of
drunkenness the notion that a man drinks to
excess for the sake of the physical pleasure
of it, the gratification of the sense of taste.
Iu regard to the stronger forms of liquor it
is not easy to see where the pleasure of taste
comes in. And at any rate it must be an ac
quired taste, aud the question is, how it ever
came to be acquired. It is not pure and
simple sensuality, as gluttony is.
The temptation to drunkenness lies in that
middle region of our threefold nature, be
tween body and spirit, which is properly,
though not commonly, called the soul. The
body, the mere material part of us, is one
thing. The spirit, the absolutely ethereal
part of u-i, which includes the intellect, the
will, the conscience — all that is derived into
the earthly body from the breath of God,
and by which, as by a nature common to
both, we hold communion with God — that is
another thing. But between these two, and
linking them together, is the psychical region
of our nature, the region of the appetites,
the instincts, the pas-iiono, which we possess
iu common with animals. This is what the
Scriptures mean when they speak of "the
flesh." The body is not the flesh, in the
Scripture sense, it is the instrument of the
flesh, and nothing else except as body and
soul are dominated and used by the spirit.
And it is the spirit of man, his intellect, his
will, his conscience that must be acted upon
by that which is of like nature to it, the
Holy Spirit of God, in order to dominate the
flesh. See how this explains Scripture.
"Walk in the Spirit" — let your spirit be acted
upon by, and act with the Divine Spirit —
"and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and
the Spirit against the flesh, and these are
contrary the one to the other. Now the
works of the flesh are these" — then follows
a classified catalogue, first of those sins of
the flesh of which the body is an instrument
and partaker, as adultery, uncleanness,
drunkenness, revellings, and such like— and

then, in the next place, of those sins of the
flesh, that is, of the natural man, with which
the body has no necessary concorn, as idola
try, or putting something in the place of
God, witchcraft, or the use of devilish means
to attain our ends, hatred, variance, strife,
envyings, and murders. The indulgence of
the appetites and passions is a work of the
flesh, the restraint of them is the work of
the spirit, dominating the flesh.
Now there is a certain stage in the process
of drunkenness when this middle part of the
man's nature is exalted, aud its life intensified.
And what the drunkard seeks is, an intenser
life for his fleshly nature It is in the na
ture of every living thing, and every part of
every living thing, to desire life, and increase
of life :
"More life, and fuller, tkal we want — "
exaltation, stimulus, in a word, intenser
vitality and more lively action, more of the
joy of living. See how the animal leaps up
in the man, and the conscience first, and
then the will, and then the intellect, retire,
as he mounts into the successive stages of
his intoxication. Nay, the intellect is domi
nated and harnessed to the passions for a
time, and the man is brighter, wittier, as the
fumes begin to rise, than when he is sober
and common-place. It is, I believe, this
factitious vitality of intoxication which is the
specific thing sougbtfor, though unconscious
ly, in the excessive use of stimulants. It
seems an ample compensation to the druuk-
ard, momentary though it be — an ample
compensation for all the after-consequences
of the debauch, and the prospect of it puts
out of sight for the time being all the disas
ter and ruin that the habit of indulgence en
tails. And now I think we can see why the temp
tation should be so strong, to some people,
as it is ; and we can see also when they are
in special danger from this temptation.
Physical and meutal depression constitutes
a temptation to intoxication. Nature cries
out against a low vitality. Many men be
come drunkards simply because nature has
not given them a full and vigorous life, and
they stimulate the feeble life they have intp
fitful flashes instead of strengthening it by a
rational hygiene. Ill health is often the ex
cuse for the beginnings of stimulation. Ma
laria is a temptation to intemperance. Bus
iness cares and worries, domestic unhappi-
ness, disappointment, the consciousness of
failure, over-work, trouble of any kind — all
these depress the tone of the system, and
constitute a temptation to raise it, to get re
lief for the time being, to escape the unnat
ural and intolerable burden and oppression.
The momentary joy and. exhilaration seems
better than the monotonous level of a life
below par. All the troubles and common--

places of life are for the time put out of
sight and forgotten, and the man is blindly
happy. He has found the elixir— he has
drunk of what is even called, in grim though
unintended irony, the eau de vie, the water
of life. "Spirits," again they call it, and
"spirit" means life.
We may well have deep sympathy in such
cases. The thing begins. It grows. It be
comes habitual, Stimulation to a certain
extent is not unnatural, nor necessarily wrong
— it has its place and use— but there is al
ways temptation in it to be guarded against.
It can be. And when intern p rauce is the
outcome of such causes of low vitality as
these it can generally be reached with reme
dies. The case is not yet hopeless.
But as we are speaking plainly, I am bound
to say plainly that there sometimes is a cause
of that low vitality which craves the stimu
lation of intoxicants and therefore lies back
of the sin of drunkenness, and that is, the
sin of impurity, vice, in a grosser and more
secret form. So secret that it is not easily
known ; so gross that it is seldom mentioned.
It is a temptation that assails the young be
fore the temptation to intemperance in drink,
and prepares for ft. Its indulgence saps the
constitutional foundations of a healthy and
vigorous life, and creates the craving for
artificial vitality. I see in the shop windows
of our main street prints and papers intend
ed to stimulate the passions of the young.
Make war upon them first, and upon the
drinking shops second. They feed the root
of evil while it is yet tender. This form of
vice is commonly considered and spoken of
as one of the direst consequences of intem
perance, and so it is. But it is also a fruit
ful cause, for causes become consequences
and consequences become causes, in the mor
al constitution of things. There are causes
of intemperance that iu themselves involve
no moral depravation and disgrace, and there
are causes that do. And profligacy, begin
ning young, and continued in maturer years,
impairs the health, destroys the relish for
sober and temperate enjoyment, and creates
and maintains the craving for alcoholic stim
ulants to the jaded life. Where this is in
any degree the cause of intemperanc ', there
is a moral degradation which makes restora
tion difficult indeed, and makes one feel the
inadequacy of superficial remedies. "The
whole head is sick, and tne whole heart faint."
Another avenue of temptation is, our social
instincts and habits. Society is, in itself,
quickening and stimulating. The contact of
life with life exhilarates. Here, no doubt, is
the origin of our social drinking customs.
Men's spirits rise in company, and the social
instinct is the more gratified as they rise
higher, and the "wine" that "maketh glad
the heart of man" is brought in, in tbe inter
est of sociability.

These are the two elements in the temptation
to excess, so far as it ordinarily readies peo
ple who are not habitual drunkards— the
temptation of vital depression, and the
temptation of sociability. They are tempta
tions to which we are all exposed ; they are
reasons for temperance and self-control, and
do not. of themselves, constitute a reason for
total abstinence. Beyond them, and de
manding a different treatment, is the dipso
mania of tbe habitual drunkard, which laughs
at the idea of temperance and self-control,
which has grown to a disease, partly physical
and partly moral, and which creates the ur
gency for some system of public protection
and control of those who cannot or will not
control and protect themselves.
III. And now what is the remedy for drnnk-
nness ? As drunkenness is, first of all, a
sin against God, it must find first of all, a
religious remedy. "I say, then, Walk in the
Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the
flesh." The remedy for drunkenness is neither
more nor less than that moral revolution
which we call conversion, and which is the
remedy for all sin. We can do much in
other ways to prevent it, and to mitigate its
evils, to remove temptation, and to strength
en weak wills. God forbid that we should
speak lightly jr unappreciatingly of any
honest effort to deal with drunkenness as
a vice, or as a social evil. But its chief as
pect before the eye of the Church is that of a
sin, and Christians will not be fully awakened
to conscientious dealing with it in themselves
or others uutil they rightly estimate it as a
a sin, against which they are pledged by their
Christian vows to take a stand. Not by sim
ply casting out the evil spirit, and leaving the
house empty for its return in seven-fold
power and malice, but hy filling the soul
with the grace of God, by conscientiously
using the means of grace, by living in the
Spirit and walking in the Spirit — in view of
the sanctions of the world to come living a
godly, righteous, and sober life iu this pres
ent world.
In detail, then, the remedy for intemper
ance, if it has begun, and the safeguard
against it if there is danger of its beginning,
is 1. In the first place to form a Christian
purpose about it. Have ever before your
minds the conviction that it i6 a sin against
God. Do not be satisfied with economL-al
reasons against it, with prudential considera
tions, with motives of mere self-respect. The
temptation lies far deeper than such consid
erations can reach. The laws of God are the
conditions of bodily health, of moral recti
tude, of business prosperity, of social well-
being. "Believe iu God. fear Him, love
Him, with all your heart, with all your

™^' orih IP y°Ur SOu1' an* With all
your strength." And then recall your
^wT- ^°W8'.make reli8ion a ^ality,
worship Him, give Him thanks, put your
whole trust in Him, call upon Him, honor
His holy name and His word, and serve Him
truly all the days of your life." Aim at noth
ing short of the life He has intended you to
hve. And then there will be "no room left
in you for error in religion or for viciousness
in life."2. In the second place, and as a part of
this Christian purpose, avoid the temptations
to drunkenness which come from a low vital
ity. Live a cleanly and wholesome life, and
maintain your natural vigor. Caerish a con
tented spirit, and do not suffer yourselves to
be so depressed in mind and body that you
crave factitious vitality. Instead of going to
the wine-cup with your troubles, carry them
to God. Contentment, and cheerfulness, aud
rest, and recreation when it is needed, will
be a safeguard. I think it never occurs to
many people that there is any religious duty
in keeping up the tone of the system, bodily
and mentally, in being as wed as they cau
be ; and they often feel like martyrs to their
untoward circumstances when in truth they
are to blame. I would not speak hardly, or
undiscriminatingly, about such matters, but
indeed, people have more responsibility than
they often think they have for the conditions
of their life. And when physical and men
tal depression open avenues to temtaption, it
is surely a Christian duty to fight against
them. And certainly it is a duty to avoid those
temptations to intemperance which come
through our social nature. Avoid the com
pany of those who have no principle about
drinking. Avoid drinking-places. Be tem
perate at your own tables, lest they become
a snare to you. Avoid the tempting display
of various liquors, especially strong liquors,
at your entertainments, and the wretched
boast of hard-headedness. Avoid treating

and being treated. Make a resolution of
total abstinence if you canuot be temperate
otherwise ; and if there is the slightest doubt
about the matter, give temperance, aud not
self-indulgence, the benefit of the doubt. This
is the very least that you can do, And it
ought to be done as a 'Christian duty. If you
pray "lead us not into temptation," do not
rush into it, or be drawn into it. Practice
the presence of God. ' 'Whether ye eat or.
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the
glory of God." This not a pious formula, it
is a practical principle of living.
3. And then, in the last place, having
formed a Christian purpose about this matter,
seek for God's grace to car/y it out ; and
having resolved to resist temptation, resist it
in the strength of God. Call upon the
Stronger to cast out the strong, and keep.
possession of the house which has been emp
tied, swept and garnished. You know how
to get grace — it is by making the institutions
of religion real channels of grace to your
souls. I have no new devices to recommend
for obtaining spiritual strength against drunk
enness and what leads to it. There are the
old and well-tried means of grace, prayer and
sacraments; If these will not answer, then
nothing will. Only, they must be used with
an earnest and true purpose ; no mere form
al saying of prayers, public or private, but
praying, supplicating, beseeching God as for
things you really want, aud not merely ought
to want ; no mere perfunctory and conven
tional going up to the monthly communion,
but a conscious approach with open hand and
open heart to the Source of life and strength
whose Body and Blood, given and shed for
you, will lift you out of your low vitality,
and "preserve your body and soul unto ever
lasting life." You are to make religion and
the church which embodies it a reality to
you, to make them of your very life. This
it is to "walk in the Spirit," and then "ye
shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh."

Practical CobjMIb as lo IfenbU Methods of Tnmotiiig Temperance.
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, STAMFORD,
SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 1882.

Some weeks since I preached on " The
Sin of Drunkenness, and its Remedy," so
far as it related to ourselves. I said that
while nobody is beyond the reach of tempta
tion, yet the people who come to church are
not on the whole the people most likely to
yield to it.
But since Christendom has been divided,
and there are so many churches for peo
ple to fall between, a large part of our popu
lation does not go to church, and has no
pastoral care. It has been in the hope of
reaching these unattached masses, that socie
ties have been formed to deal especially with
the vice of intemperance ; societies which
are outside of all churches, and whose
methods are not necessarily religious. It is
impossible not to respect and sympathize
with this effort and its motive. But the suc
cess has not been large in proportion to the
effort, and while people in' ide of temperance
rooms are listening to warnings against a
vice of which for the most part they are in
no danger, the streets outside are lined, with
throngs of men in real danger of intemper
ance, but who nevertheless remain outside.
This is no argument against temperance
rooms and temperance lectures ; the people
whose need of religion is most conspicuous
are outside of our churches — we do not there
fore propose to shut up our churches. But
it is a fact nevertheless which may well lead
us to ask if the best thing is being done for
the promotion of temperance, and the most
likely to influence the people who need influ
encing. For my part I believe that the best
thing to be done in the interest of temper
ance, as of every other form of good morals,
is to re-enforce the two Divine institutions
which are established to promote morality,
The Church and The Family. The exp'an-
ation of the prevalent intemperance — let us
own it and keep it in mind — is to be found
in the failure of the church and the family to
do their proper work. And we shall best
promote the cause of temperance, and of all
virtue, not by relieving these Divine institu
tions of thvir responsibility, but by keep

ing them up to it. It is time to ask wheth
er it has not been a mistake on tbe part of
the churches generally to remand so much of
their work to outside and independent organ
izations. I can quite understand their hav
ing done so when the whole work of the
church was conceived to consist in providing
two services on Sundays, and two set ser
mons, which everybody went to hear. But
in our day everybody does not go to hear
sermons, and therefore the church has had
to find other methods of reaching and teach
ing the people, and now preaches the gospel
by every available means of getting its funda
mental ideas into the minds of men, and in
fluencing their lives for good.
The attitude of the members of the Epis
copal church generally, and of very many
thoughtful people in other churches, towards
this great evil of intemperance, has not been
one of. indifference — God forbid'-! I utterly
deny that— but what I may call,- (as the word
seems to be coining into use,) an attitude of
passivity. Passivity may be described thus :
When you don't know what to do, do noth
ing. AmA there is a vast amount of moral
force in tbe community to-day which is not
specially brought to bear on the evil of in
temperance, because it does not know just
what to do about it-^it is locked up in the
impotence of passivity. I think it must be
admitted that after fifty years of earnest ef
fort on the part of philanthropic people, a
very large and influential portion of the com
munity, who live temperately themselves,
aud desire to help others to do the same,
have not seen their way to unite themselves
actively with the ordinary temperance move
ments. It will not do to charge these people
with indifference, or with unwillingness to
make sacrifices for such a cause ; they are
among our best and most intelligent citizens.
Their passivity has been owing in part to
their sense of the magnitude of the evil, and
the difficulty of wisely dealing with it: but
chiefly to their inability to accept the argu
ments and methods of those who have under
taken to deal with it. The "temperance

movement^.', lends itself readily to strong.even
to exaggerated statement. ' But, educated
people generally do not like exaggerated
statement- it repels them. And the advo
cates of temperance have generally under
taken to prove too muoh ; as for instance,
that total abstinence is the only possible and
right form of temperance ; that the use of
fermented wine is not sanctioned but univer
sally condemned in Scripture ; that its use is
an unmixed evil, and invariably tends to
abuse ; that the pledge is the great preserva
tive against drunkenness ; that the sale of
alcoholic liquors must be prohibited by law,
These positions have been . eloquently and
forcibly urged, but they have not been ac
cepted ,by the majority of intelligent citizens
and christians. They simply do not believe
them. And, therefore, they do not act upon
them. To many such persons, honestly anxious
to do something towards diminishing the
evils of intemperance, and yet unable to co
operate in the methods . generally followed
hitherto, it has been a satisfaction to learn
that a movement on sounder principles has
been begun in the mother^ country and in our
mother church. It has commanded the ad
hesion of men of character and intelligence
there to an extent that makes it now the most
efficient promoter of temperance in Eng
land. Already the amount, expended for in
toxicating drinks there has been, reduced by
$125,000,000 a year, nearly one-fifth of the
whole amount formerly expended on them.
It has been felt that a movement on similar
principles was timely in thisconntry, aud a
society has been formed here under the name
of the "Church Temperance Society." Its
objects are (first) the reformation of the in
temperate, and (second) the removal of the
causes which lead to intemperance. . It can
not hope to accomplish either of these ends
perfectly, but it may hope to contribute
towards them. And this it proposes to do
by the associated effort of those who desire
to promote temperance in the community,
whether they believe in and practice a. rule of
toti}l, abstinence, or not.. It recognizes abso
lutely and unreservedly the legal, moral, and
religious right of every man to use fermented
beverages; and aims primarily to prevent
their abuse. It recognizes that these may be
the means and occasions of intemperance,
but they are not its cauBe. The cause of
drunkenness is original sin. And the cure
for it is the grace of God.  _
I am disposed, if others agree with me; to
promote the establish men of such a society
as one of our parochial agencies for making
men, better. And I will state how I think
some useful results may be accomplished by
it, and some principles and methods on which
I should advise its working.

.First- of all it should, be kept in mind
that religion includes temperance, and that
the best preservative from intemperance is
Christian principle. It is not worth while
for the Christian Church to work on any oth
er basis than this. There are, and always
will be, sooieties for restraining intemperance
by legal and political means, and in other
ways, and we may wish them well, and aid
in their work, so far as we individually agree
with them. We respect the opinions of oth
ers, and demasd equal respect on our own,
on the various questions involved. We- do
not propose to hinder or to be hindered;
The Church will have-its Temperance Societjr,
just as it has its Missionary Society and its
Charitable Society. The Church is; of
course, itself a missionary- society and a char
itable society, and a temperance society also,
but it organizes its .special agencies for doing
these special works, and does not merge it
self in them, nor resign its work to them,
but uses them as so many hands with which
to take hold of the specific neecw r men. It
has been working in one way or another all
the time ; I do not assent to the statement
sometimes made that the Episcopal Church
has not hitherto been active iu promoting
temperance ; it simply has not done it in
this specifio way. . .
Now let me say in plain English what I
mean by the statement that temperance
work is religious work-; for I do not wish to
deal in pious phrases and glittering generali
ties in speaking on so practical a subject. I
mean that drunkenness is to be treated as a sin
against God ; that temperance in eating and
drinking, is a , duty towards Qod^ that the
Christian Church ought to instruct people in
this duty, not only, by preaching from the
pulpit, but in every other way in which she
can get. the idea into men's minds; that
strength to-do this duty is only to be found
in the grace of God ; and that the grace of
God is to be obtained by prayer and sacra
ments. These are the principles of the
Church Temperance Society;, it is an arm
by which the Christian Church works in this
matter, and what we rely- upon under God is,
not the .Temperance Society, but the Church,
the Body behind it and of which it is a part.
Now there, are in this congregation and
parish a good many persons who are very
much interested in diminishing intemperance
and rescuing the intemperate, and among
them are many self-respecting working men,
who desire to be helped themselves in this
matter, and to help others. It is desirable
and reasonable to associate for this purpose.
And therefore I propose to form an associa
tion which shall work in harmony with the
general Church association, and so get and
give the help which comes from a large and
ympathetic movement towards a good end.

But you will want to know definitely how
such an association' will work, and what it
can do. A society will not work itself; _ and
it may be simply a new piece of machinery
serving only to increase friction and waste
power, instead of making power available
for the production of results. A good deal
of power is wasted in church machinery.
What are the results, then, at which we
aim? The first is, the rescue of people who are
already drunkards, or in danger of becoming
¦neh. I know of no means for accomplishing this
but private and personal dealing with such
persons by the pastor and judicious friends.
I have small faith in public meetings and
general exhortations, for this puipose. Un
der the influence of excited feeling, the man
whose failing it has always been to be led by
his impulses may be led by a good impulse
to take a pledge of abstinence. But his
moral nature, his conscience and his will, has
become enfeebled ; if he could keep a pledge
he would hardly need to take it. He needs
to be followed up, and the amount of follow
ing, up, and the kind of following up that he
needs, nobody knows who has not tried it.
It must be done perseveringly. And it must
be done privately. Shame for sin is a means
of grace, and it must not be violated. When
a- man goes forward before the eyes of others
and takes a pledge on the ground that he is
a drunkard, he has impaired his sense of
shame, and sacrificed a part of his armour
of defense. He had better make his pledge
privately to a friend ; or, better still, to his
pastor, with prayer and benediction. One
witness, who will do in this matter just what
sponsors or witnesses in baptism are supposed
and expected to do in that matter, is better
than many who do nothing but applaud.
The less publicity there is, the better. And
the qualifications necessary for dealing quiet
ly and effectively with others in this matter
are possessed by few. There is one man who
can do this sort of work without suspicion of
intrusion, and that is the pastor. But the
work is too large for any one man, who has
other things to do, and the sending of a
deputy is a very delicate business. It cannot
be done by a committee — an official flavor in
such work spoils it. The fact is, good men
are responsible for their neighbors, and ought
not to shirk their duties. The battle would
be half jwon if we would all face our provi
dential responsibilities and improve our prov
idential opportunities for moral and Christian
influence, instead of passing by on the other
side, and getting as far as possible away from
people whose habits make them repulsive to
our tastes and sensibilities. Especially are
we responsible for patience and faithfulness
with our own kindred.

So then, in the way of rescuing the intem
perate, there is little that a temperance soci-
etv can do directly that is not already the
prime duty of the Family and the Church.
If the rescue of the intemperate were the
only object of a temperance society, I should
feel that there was so little that a society
could do in th:s direction that it was not
worth while to form oue. But the work of
prevention is one in which sweh a society, can
accomplish something. It can do something
towards forming public opinion, promoting
just and true ideas on the subject, creating
an atmosphere, so to speak, in which intem
perance will not flourish. Think for a mo
ment how largely the temptations to intem
perance are social temptations, and you will
see the use of Society's organising itself to
discourage and restrain it.
One of the means relied upon for the re
moval of the causes which lead to intemper
ance is the providing places and occasions of
healthful, rational, and innocent amusement
and recreation. Reading-rooms, lectures,
and coffee-taverns, have been established for
this purpose, and where such agencies have
not been already provided, they ought to be.
I must take the liberty of saying, however,
that I think all these devices have been
much hindered of success in commending
themselves to those who need them, by the
very fact that they have been advertised as
distinctively "temperance" agencies. If
I were a working man in search of a place to
spend my evenings, the last place I should
be willing to go to would be a place that was
commended to me as being provided by
benevolent people for the express purpose of
keeping me out of harm's way. My self-re
spect and independence would take alarm at
the suggestion of patronage and guardianship
implied. And therefore I have not the
slightest idea of proposing , that those among
us who are interested iu promoting temper
ance should subscribe to establish anything
of the sort. "Surely in vain the net is
spread in the sight of any bird. " If working
men feel disposed to provide themselves
with a coffee-tavern, or a club, for the sake
of the general benefit to themselves and
others, on purely business principles, I shall
think it a great gain, and expect it to succeed.
They are abundantly able to manage it with
out the advice, and to support it without the
chanty, of others.
And we have, in this community, all the
provisions necessary for wholesome recrea
tion, open to all classes alike, and sustained
by all alike. Besides the Temperance
Rooms on Main street, which are available for
those who find them useful, I think that the
Ferguson Library and Reading Room is like
ly to be quite as valuable an auxiliary for the
promotion of temperance as if that word

9

were conspicuous in gilt letters on its sign
The Young Men's Association has its courses
of interesting and useful lectures. The Odd
Fellows and Free Masons include iu their
mutual benefit arrangements a large propor
tion of the men of the town. And we may
say, in general, that there is no occasion for
providing anew what is already so amply
provided in other ways, simply to give it a
flavor of temperance. Those who care to avail
themselves of such provisions can do so.
And those who do not care for them will not
care any more for them under another name.
I have often thought that a good deal of
strength and means for philanthropic work
is wasted in doing things twice over. If we
will put more vigor into the agencies we
have for doing good we shall accomplish
more than by creating new ones, and do it
with less fuss.
The only effective thing that a church
temperance society can do for those who cau
be brought within its inflnence is, as I have
already suggested, to re-enforce the influence
of the Church and the Family iu teaching
stlf-control. After all my study of possible
methods of promoting temperance I come
back to these two Divine institutions. If
they do not succeed, nothing will.
The question then resolves itself into this :
In what way can our church adapt its meas
ures more amply than it does to meet the
needs of working men and their families ?
How can we increase thei:- interest, and pro
mote temperance by promoting religion ?
The arrangements of our parish seem to
me to be sufficient for all purposes of instruc
tion and worship for aU its members, except
in one particular. I tbiuk it will be well to
provide for a meeting on Suuday evenings —
an informal meeting in the School Room,
with hearty music, and practical religious in
struction, bearing largely on the subject of
Christian morals, and particularly on temper
ance. That is the time when many people
cau most conveniently attend, and when they
feel most disposed to come out. The labor
of it ought not to be left entirely to the clergy,
already taxed by the services of the day.
There are laymen among us amply qualified
to speak aud teach, aud who can do their
part to secure a good attendance, and to make
the meeting interesting and profitable. The
gathering together of our people for such an
object will keep the matter of temperance
prominently before us all. and out of it, it
seems to me, may grow much quiet, modest,
but real and effective work for the promotion
of good morals, brotherly kiudness, and prac
tical religion. And from time to time we
may hope to have the assistance of qualified
persons to make addresses on the general
subject, which shall stimulate and guide our
thought about it. We shall not invite re

formed drunkards to instruct us in temper
ance, and I do not think there will be any
danger of ranting. We shall treat the sub
ject seriously, and may hope and pray for
Divine guidance and blessing in our effort to
do what we can to allieviate an evil which
has grown to be the most terrible of all the
specific evils that afflict our land. In all that
we do, or try to do, I invite the friendly re
gard of all, and their candid and sympathetic
criticism. There are two points to which I ought to
reter more definitely, by way of guarding
against what may be preliminary objections.
1. The first is as to the relation of this
proposed society to the question of total ab
stinence. I hope there is no man who does not feel
that if in the consideration of this subject he
is led to the conclusion that total abstiuence
is the only practicable form of temperance,
or that such a rule is necessary or desirable,
for his own sake or for the sake of others, he
would be ready to adopt such a rule. But so
far as this society is concerned, that is left
eutirely an open question. It requires no
personal pledges ou the subject. All that is
involved iu membership is the purpose to
find out and do what will best promote tem-
perauce aud diminish drunkenness. It is
necessary to say this distinctly, because in
the popular mind to join a temperauce socie
ty means simply to take a personal pledge of
total abstinence. This is as if one could not
join an anti polygamy society without a pledge
of total abstinence from marriage.
2. Auother point is as to the use of pledges
-at all. , •
It is a grave question how far they are
useful. Their use has certainly been exces
sive aud demoralizing, and it ought to be bet
ter guarded. My ow; feeling is that when
there is reason to think they would be useful
in particular instances they should be made
privately aud not publicly ; between a man
and his pastor or friend. Aud, further, that
they should not be so made as to, be a snare
to the conscience, but should be terminable
whenever the judgment or the will respecting
them has changed. A man's choice should al
ways be free, and to-morrow's couduct should
not be in bondage to the convictions of to diy.
There are other things to be thought of,
but I have said all that seems necessary to be
said iu this place. I leave the subject to
your consideration for the present, and will
invite a conference of those who are inter
ested in it, to be held iu the School Room
next Sunday evening. And may God grant
us to have "wisdom and a right judgment in
all things," "that we may both perceive aud
kuow what things we ought to do, and also
may have grace aud power faithfully to fulfil
the same."

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