Health and Temperance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 19, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 12.

Health and Temperance.

Temperance at Home.

ONE of our prohibition speakers, some time since, made the assertion that the liquor traffic, when once it shall become a violation of the law, will give us no more trouble, but will die of itself and drunkenness be known no more. This seems to me a very rash statement.

Because there are laws against theft, is our property safe without continued caution on our part? Do the laws against murder, and the terrible penalties incurred, render human life altogether free from peril in that direction?

So long as the world stands, we shall need stringent laws, and then we shall need steady and constant endeavor to make men law-abiding.

We mothers realize that we cannot neglect the moral training of our children and trust to the law and the fear of its penalties to make and keep them good and pure.

The work of making good citizens, it must be conceded, begins, like charity, at home.

To begin at the very foundation of things, parents must, first and foremost, govern themselves.

Undoubtedly each deed, each word, yea, each thought and impulse of our lives, leaves its mark upon the very structure of our bodies, and through the working of physiological law is impressed upon the inherited constitutions of our children. Says Dr. J. H. Jackson: "The desire for stimulants can be inherited, and it need not necessarily, in such case, be the result of the excessive use of alcoholic drink on the part of the ancestors, but of such other habits as produce a call for stimulation. The use of tobacco, indulgence in stimulating foods and drinks, a life of excitement, mental worry and overwork, all have their tendencies in this direction." And no step toward the training of our children into a clean, strong manhood and womanhood is so great as this one of self-discipline.

It seems to me that the first lesson taught to a child is to turn to the gratification of appetite as a panacea for all troubles of mind and body.

When he is cold, he is fed. When he is writhing in pain, he is fed. When his tender body is uncomfortable from its numberless and senseless bandages, he is fed. When he bumps his nose, or pinches his tiny finger, he is fed.

You do not believe, perhaps, that anything can have a moral effect upon such a mite of unthinking humanity. But the same faculties of the brain or mind are at work, however feebly and unconsciously, as though he were a dozen years old instead of as many weeks or months. And, insignificant as this may appear, I believe it to be a step toward the bitter end, the beginning of the course of training which is to prepare the child to join the vast army of those whose life consists in the gratification of the senses, whose souls may be barely saved from destruction, but who bear little or no part in redeeming humanity from its guilt and ignorance.

Not only is the babe thus supplied with food, in season and out of season, but it is dosed with drugs and patent nostrums, of the nature and ultimate effects of which the mother is absolutely ignorant. "Fed on poison by the hand of love." Mothers should understand that in this ignorant dosing, fearful risks are run. The soothing syrups with which mothers and nurses quiet these overfed, worrisome babies, are largely composed of elements which directly tend to create an appetite for stimulants.

Of the diet of children in American homes, Rose Terry Cooke says very forcibly: "You women who indulge your children with tea and coffee and indigestible food of every kind under the plea that they ought to have whatever they like to eat and drink, do literally keep a dram shop in your own homes and make drunkards of your own children." Mrs. Emma C. Bascom, wife of the president of Madison University, in commenting upon this, says:—

"This seems strong language, but the facts are strong, and nothing can be more true than that the average American home, through its ill-prepared, unwholesome food, and its unwise discipline, or lack of discipline, does send forth its children not only un-armed for any fight against bodily temptations, but with perverted tendencies and inward cravings that are almost sure to lead to downfall. Unless the ounces of prevention are applied here in our homes, pounds of cure will never redeem our race from drunkenness."—Harriet M. Morris, in Christian at Work.