INCREASE OF INTEMPERANCE.
Canon Farrar, the noted English churchman, in the Homiletic Review of January, speaks of intemperance as “a frightful, clinging curse, which of all others might the most easily be gotten rid of forever, but which seems to be ever increasing in the deadliness of its effects.” But he tells us that, while the remedy is known, “it has not been listened to, because the greed of gain, the various pleas of self-interest, and the demon force of a self-created temptation, have utterly drowned the voices of reason, of religion, and of conscience.” Of the temperance movement in England he says: “In spite of long-continued efforts, the liquor traffic is not only bloated with enormous wealth, but has managed, to our political infamy, so completely to terrify, hamper, and sophisticate the government, as to leave us no immediate hope of real improvement. A short time ago our conservative chancellor of the exchequer warned us, not without a sense of astonishment, that—including hosts of total abstainers and millions of children—we are spending on drink every year no less than £3 17s. and 6d. [$18.87] per head, and shortly afterward a Liberal ex-chancellor proved by statistics that more beer, more stout, more wine, more ardent spirits of every kind were consumed in England than in any other country on the surface of the globe. Let us judge of the disastrous consequences from the drink statistics of a single city. In 1895, 1,905 persons were convicted of drunkenness in Birmingham; in 1898, no fewer than 4,040.” And in the close of his stirring article, he writes, “May God avert the omens of our crimes; but if things are allowed to go on much longer as they now are, it will soon be too late for repentance or amendment.” And what better is America? There are earnest souls who are doing all in their power—sometimes wisely, sometimes otherwise—to stay or limit the appalling plague, which is sweeping to destruction its many myriads every year, and corrupting Church and State. Truly, it seems as tho the blindness of death was upon the great mass of mankind or they would arise as one—liquor dealer and all—and sweep away the blighting curse. But it is increasing and its feeders,—narcotics and milder stimulants,—are also increasing. When will the power of appetite end? And when will the greed of gain cease to sacrifice bodies and souls, property and character, for blood-stained dollars? “How long, O Lord, how long?”