Temperance by M. K. White

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 26, 1880

Temperance.

By M. K. White

INTEMPERANCE VS. STRENGTH.

THE practicability of farming on strictly temperance principles has been tested by many successful experiments. Among the earliest of these was that of S. V. S. Wilder, the founder of the American Tract Society, and for twenty-five years its president. Mr. Wilder was a strictly temperate man, not only in drinking, but in eating; usually rising from the table, as he said, "with a disposition to go another slice." In the early stages of temperance reform, he abandoned the then common habit of using and offering wine at the table. But he was not long satisfied with a silent example. He early entered into the aggressive war against the giant sin intemperance under the wise and zealous leadership of such men as Dr. Lyman Beecher and Dr. Justin Edwards. The latter was his amanuensis and helper in the publication of the tract entitled, "The Well-Conducted Farm," which was a veritable history of the temperance principles introduced on his own farm of six hundred acres in Bolton, Mass.

He first requested his workmen to dispense with the usual daily portion of ardent spirits, promising them any amount of nourishing food and drink, and additional wages at the close of the year, if they would. The experiment of temperance farming succeeded admirably, and was followed the next year by the additional stipulation that no workman should in any way secure or use those poisons.

At the close of the year those who were at first offended and threatened to leave the farm, were the first to testify to the improvement resulting from the new plan. One of these came to Mr. Wilder, and with tears in his eyes, said,—

"Sir, I thought you were very hard, in keeping us from drinking rum, I had always been accustomed to it, and thought that I could not do without it. And for the first three months, it was hard, very hard. I had such a caving in here," putting his hands up to his side. "But, as you gave us good wages, and good pay, and the rest resolved to stand it without rum, I thought I would. And now I am well and happy. I work with ease, sleep sweetly, and when I get up in the morning, instead of having, as I used to, my mouth and throat so full of cobwebs as to be spitting cotton wool all the time, my mouth and throat are clear as a-whistle, I feel active, have a good appetite, and can eat anything.

"Formerly, when I worked hard I was at night tired, and could not sleep. When I got up in the morning, I was so sore and stiff, so filled up in my throat, and my appetite was so gone, that I could do nothing till I had taken a glass of rum and molasses. I then stood it till breakfast. But my breakfast did not relish, and what I took did not seem to nourish me. Soon after I got to work I was so hollow and so tired, that I felt desperately ugly till 11 o'clock. Then I took a new vamper. And by the strength of that I got on till dinner. Then I must have a little more to give me an appetite. At three o'clock in the afternoon I must have recourse to the hair of the same dog, to keep up my sinking spirits. And thus I got along till night. Then I must have a little to sharpen appetite for supper.

"Thus I continued year after year, undermining a constitution which was naturally robust, and growing worse and worse until I came under your wise and excellent regulations; and now I am cured. I can do more labor than when I took spirits, without half the fatigue. If a man would give me the same wages that you do, and a dollar a day in addition, to return to the practice of drinking rum, I would laugh at him."

During the last years of his life, Mr. Wilder was a sworn enemy of narcotic, as well as alcoholic, indulgence. In a letter to a friend he thus describes a circumstance which caused him to renounce the habit of snuff-taking. He says:—

"Finding myself, a little over a month since, in the stage from Providence to Worcester, with a person who had still in appearance the remains of a gentleman, and remarking that at every public house he drank brandy, or some other liquid fire, as often as our stage horses drank pure water, I at length asked him if he found the liquor on that route so remarkable for its superior quality as to induce him to have frequent recourse to it, and if he really thought it did him any good.

"As to its quality, sir,' said he, 'I am not aware that it is better than what I find in other sections of our country, but I am sure what little I drink does me good, and my health is excellent—that is to say, with some few exceptions. On rising in the morning, it is true I feel somewhat ugly and depressed, but a good glass of sling sets me to rights, and by occasionally taking a glass through the day, I feel in good spirits until bedtime; and if, as it sometimes happens, I have little or no appetite for my meals, a moderate glass of brandy and water will generally create an appetite, and enable me to relish my food, though I am sometimes troubled with indigestion; but I never make a practice of drinking to my injury.'

"Well, sir,' said I, 'I have the satisfaction to assure you that my health is excellent also, without experiencing any of the ills of which you complain, having confined myself principally to pure water for several years past, and for the last thirty years I am not aware of having drank half a pint of ardent spirits.'

"On saying this, I had the misfortune, or as it has eventuated, I may say the good fortune, of taking a pinch of snuff.

"Pray, sir,' said the gentleman, 'do you think that snuff, of which, to say the least, you seem to take a pinch as often as I take grog, does you any good?'

"Sir,' I replied, 'I exceedingly regret the necessity which obliges me to have recourse to this vile practice, but in consequence of feeble eyes, my physician recommended snuff as the best remedy, and in accordance with his prescription, I have been compelled to take it for several years."

"Well, sir,' said the gentleman, 'your case is precisely mine. I have a feeble stomach, and I have long been compelled to take an occasional drop of spirits for its relief and restoration.'

"Is it possible,' said I to myself, 'that my taking snuff should serve as a pretext for drunkards to ruin perhaps both soul and body?' and I silently resolved that eyes or no eyes, by the grace of God assisting, I would desist from taking a pinch of snuff for one month; and if, at the expiration of that period, my eyes suffered no inconvenience, I would forever renounce the pernicious practice.

"In order to enable me the better to test the strength of my resolution to resist temptation, I merely transferred my box from my waistcoat to my pantaloons pocket, where it has remained for one month, without my having taken a single pinch of the poisonous drug; and my eyes, praised be God, having suffered thus far no inconvenience, I herewith have the pleasure and satisfaction of sending you my snuff-box, which please to receive as a trophy of a victory gained, the grace of God assisting, by one who was once an inveterate snuff-taker, but who now considers himself emancipated from this sinful and disgusting habit, and who recommends to all other snuff-takers, or chewers, or smokers of tobacco, to go and do likewise."

By these two instances we see the fallacy of the idea that liquor or narcotics give permanent strength or benefit to the user. Mr. Wilder himself at the age of fourscore is said to have been a living argument for temperance. The testimony of a gentleman who had traveled extensively in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as in this country, was that he had never seen so fine a looking man in point of health and personal appearance as Mr. Wilder. Few men could say as he at the age of eighty, that he had no aches nor pains, nor had he known headache or toothache in his whole experience. Noble example of true temperance. Would there were more such.

"I must tell you of one little girl about twelve years of age. Last December I was talking with the family about signing the pledge, and she was very anxious to do so; but her mother thought that she was too young, she could not understand it. I saw her two or three months afterward and she wanted to know if I had the pledge paper yet. When I told her that I had, she said, 'I want to sign it, but mamma won't let me. Well, I know if I sign any of the pledges and then break them, I have broken my word, and done wrong, and if I sign any of them I have signed it to keep for a lifetime.' But at our meeting she came to me and wanted her name put on the pledge paper, as her mother had said she might, so I gave her the pencil and paper and she walked up to the desk and signed the teetotal pledge. She has been in the habit of using coffee, but said she knew she had to give it up and was glad of it, and that now she should try to get her schoolmates to sign the pledge also.

"Since our last meeting our membership has increased from fifty-seven to sixty-three. Two men, who have used tobacco for many years, said they were going to give it up and sign the pledge at the next meeting. The people were very anxious that the meeting should be held as often as every two weeks, and quite a number offered to help us.

"The president had given me the charge of getting up an interest in the neighborhood where we held meetings, so I went to work and first obtained permission to use the house, if the teacher would let me have the key. This was not very difficult, as the teacher is a temperance worker herself. Then I posted notices of the meeting along the road and talked about it to nearly everyone I met, and the result of it was, that with the help and blessing of the Lord, we had a large gathering and everyone seemed interested."

Who shall we hear from next?