Your ShelfYour Projects

Temperance in the Home

4%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 18, 1907

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 29.

Read the full edition

Temperance in the Home

By Augusta C. Bainbridge

AUGUSTA C. BAINBRIDGE
“A whip for the horse,” says the Word of God.
“Yes, yes,” says the would-be scientist, “but a whip for a man is better.” And as your confidential physician, he orders a little port wine, just a little, three times a day, in a beaten egg.
Is God right? Does a horse need a whip once in a while? Then why not a man?
“Here, Joe,” says the father as they prepare a load of hay for the weekly trip to town, “don’t forget to put in the whip; we may need it on that rocky hill.” And the whip goes in its place, ready, under the wise direction of the father, to be used when it will be necessary to encourage the horses to move a little faster over a rough road or a dangerous pass.
Comfortably seated beside his father, Joe fell to thinking about the whip.
“You said, father, that horses need a whip. Do we ever need one?”
“Tell me, Joe, is the load any lighter when we whip the horses, and they go faster?”
“Why, no; it’s just the same load. ”
“Are the horses any stronger, or is the wagon any easier to pull?”
“No, not a bit, only the horses move faster.”
“Did you ever notice that when you whip a horse and keep him moving as fast as he can, the time comes when he pays no attention to the whip? Beyond a twitch of his ears, or a flirt of his tail, he pays no heed to it; and if the whipping continues, the horse lies down and does not even try to move.”
“But a whip is good for a horse sometimes.”
“Yes, because a horse is a horse, and not a man; and there may be occasions when man may use a whip on a horse, remembering that it was God who gave him dominion over the horse, and so, in a sense, he is to the horse as a guardian, caring for him, and while using his strength for work, not abusing him.”
“Then what do we have whip-nerves for?”
“Because we at times need to move faster, to think faster, to speak faster, than at other times; and if our whip-nerves (accelerators) are in good order and under proper control, we can at will cause them to act.”
“These whip-nerves are not so sensitive as the brake-nerves, and so they do not so quickly feel the effects of narcotics like alcohol, as the brake-nerves do. But if a man continues to drink any intoxicating liquor after his brake-nerves have been paralyzed, then his whip-nerves feel the effect of it. And when he drinks glass after glass, he finds he can not move faster for it, and all his efforts to speak or see or hear are in vain, and soon, like the overwhipped horse, he lies down, unable to go a step farther.”
“Then he is drunk, like old Soote, is he not?”
“Yes, we generally call it drunk, but I should say ‘poisoned’ or ‘paralyzed’ would be better words, as they would more nearly express his condition.”
“Well, father, I do not see any need of drinking anything that poisons us, or paralyzes any of our nerves.”
“No; there is no use in it, but there is actual harm. ‘At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder;’ that is, it is an actual poison, and nothing that burns as alcohol does, and as drinks containing alcohol do, can ever quench thirst.”

Experiment

Have three one-ounce bottles just alike. Fill one with alcohol, one with water-white coal-oil, and one with pure water. Have a board about four feet long, and on it three old tin plates in a row. Provide three pieces of white cotton cloth.
Saturate one piece of cloth with the contents of the first bottle, lay the cloth in the first plate on the board, strike a match to it, and watch it burn. Then lay the second bottle with the second piece of cloth on the second tin plate; and the third in its turn. Why does not the last one burn? Why will the contents of the last bottle, and not the contents of the other two, quench thirst? The children need not know what is in the bottles until after the experiment has proved their character.