Health and Temperance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 12, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 43.

Health and Temperance.

A Century of Temperance Work.

The publication by Dr. Benjamin Rush of a pamphlet entitled, “The Effects of Ardent Spirits on the Human Body and Mind,” has been fixed upon by temperance workers as the “beginning of the crusade against liquor, the first evidence of an earnest temperance sentiment in this country.” That little work made its appearance a hundred years ago; and by a common agreement a centennial celebration has been held in all the chief cities of the United States, and even in Canada, Great Britain, and Australia. In Philadelphia, as the home of Dr. Rush, special prominence was given to the occasion. Here a Centennial Temperance Conference was held, which was attended by delegates from all parts of the country. Speaking of the temperance movement, Dr. Cuyler said, in a recent sermon: “One hundred years ago, Dr. Benjamin Rush published the first treatise on the influence of ardent spirits upon mind and body. Fifty years ago the first national convention was held, and unfurled the salutary principle of total abstinence; so that the reform, in its present organized shape, is about half a century old. It has wrought great good. Mistakes have been made; follies have been committed.” But “is it not so with every good cause and every human effort for the glory of God and the good of men? I look back over it, and see thousands of homes changed, thousands of hearts comforted, thousands of stumblers rescued, thousands of souls saved.”