THE LIBRARY
OF THE
REGENTS
UNIVERSITY
OF
OMNIBUS
ARTIBUS
CLASS 339.8
BOOK W654
MINNESOTA
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD

NARCOTICS:
WHY USED; WHAT EFFECTS; THE REMEDY.
WITH
Numerous Colored Illustrations.
BY
DANIEL WILKINS, A. M.
SUPERINTENDENT of the wasHINGTONIAN HOME.
CHICAGO:
THE BLAKELY PRINTING COMPANY.
1887.
Copyright, 1887,
BY
DANIEL WILKINS, A. M.
MAY T
MAY 20'52
339,8
W 654
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
The object of this work is to do good. Many years of direct expe-
rience with inebriates has given the author an opportunity to get at the
facts. The work is published at the ardent request of very many per-
sons not only in the United States, but in other nations. It is no nar-
row subject, but is as broad as the race. Facts only are presented. The
Chart of Soul Life will aid the reader much in becoming thoroughly con-
versant with the author's views.
CHAPTER I.
A bitter night.-My first experience with inebriety.-Who suffer
most. All Nations use narcotics.-Talk with a young man about his oc-
casional visits to drinking resorts. His opinion as to his strength.-His
admission as to when and why he takes stimulants.-How he is deceived.-
He sees his mistake.-Reason why men drink.-Alcohol suspends con-
sciousness. The moderate drinker indulges for the same reason as the
inebrlate.-Reference to Chart of Soul Life....
CHAPTER II.
ས-
25
Conscience, what is it.-It needs no narcotics.-The intellectual fac-
ulties, moral affections and will need no narcotics. The senses.—Physi-
cal organs instruments of brain.-Adam and Eve in the garden of
Eden.—The fatal legacy.—Why narcotics are used.Sin changed the
regulation of the emotions and desires. What make up life.-Tears and
joys. Men succumb to their emotions and desires How narcotics de-
lude. They cause men to look on the dark side of life-Alcohol the
great enemy of man.--Narcotics promise liberty, to inflict bondage.-
They offer life, but give death.Relative strength of different inordi-
nate desires compared.-Inebriety a moral, not a physical disease... 43
(iii)
U of M Bindery
999480
iv
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
Division of the army of drinking men into classes.-Moderate drink-
ers make, and then persecute drunkards.—Class differences explained.-
All things differ from one another. - Knowledge of things based on com-
parison and contrast.—How the human faculties are developed.—The
law of affinity.—Soul life and its development.—The world is God's and
man belongs to it...
CHAPTER IV.
56
Pleasures of a moral life.-God and the standard of right.-Compar-
ison of three brothers.-They differ much one from the other.The char-
acter-life of each drawn out.-Night workers more liable to take intoxicants
than day workers.-Periodical drunkards, as a rule, men of genius and
ability.--Great poets and orators mentioned.-Explanation of why a
large class of drinking men have sprees.-Why men trying to reform, so
often fail.-Parents frequently to blame..
73
CHAPTER V.
Of the creation of matter.-Day and night.-Of the physical sensa-
tions.—Varieties in nature.—Elementary substances.-How so few of
them can produce such a variety of results.-The changes in nature.—
Union and separation of simple elements involving life and death.—De-
composition.-Combustion-Life implies action and union.-Death, ac-
tion and separation.-Adaptation of soul and body.-Life depends upon
action and change.-Admiration for the Creator.
CHAPTER VI.
9J
How portions of food become blood.-How physical tissue is con-
structed and reconstructed.-The union and relative affinity of simple
elements.-Carbonic acid gas, how formed.-Arterial blood, what com-
poses it.—Action, mental, moral and physical, tears down the body,
Sleep and rest necessary to build up.-What physical life depends on.—
How druggists preserve liquid drugs.—Alcohol arrests decay of and
hardens particles.-Therefore, alcohol is the greatest enemy to physical
life and heat..
•
102
CHAPTER VII.
Physical life and heat depend upon change of tissue.-Food the fuel
that feeds the fires of change.-Alcohol does not change by chemical
CONTENTS.
V
affinity.-Anaesthetic influence of alcohol.-Plates explained.-Blood
the great restorer in physical troubles.-Beer induces melancholia and
insanity.It is one of the most dangerous of the narcotics..
CHAPTER VIII.
120
Why alcohol becomes obnoxious to the system.-Alcohol wages a
war.-How the narcotics affect the stomach.-Reference to a young
man.-Many inebriates die suddenly.-Healthy liver and kidney repre-
sented.—Interesting case of a drunkard.-Remarks on plates.-Fatty
degeneration of the kidney.-Description of a stomach and kidney.—Dis-
eased cerebellum..
•
•
142
CHAPTER IX.
God's design and workmanship includes al created beings.-We
know only as we trace relations of differences. --The faculties of the soul
constitute a court.—Application of the Chart.-Two gentlemen and two
ladies. A murderer hung.-The first wrong step opens the way to crime.
-The first glass opens the gateway to all others.
167
CHAPTER X.
Innocent games frequently lead to gambling.-Vicious lives make
skeptics. Never trespass on the rights of conscience.-A right con-
science is a sure and safe guide, and to be right it must be enlightened
by God's revelation.-How quickly alcohol destroys the moral nature
and makes the man lower than the brute...
CHAPTER XI.
. 183
Education and reform defined.-Total abstinence from narcotics the
only hope of the inebriate.-The fires of the appetite never die, they are
only subdued.-The effects of alcohol compared to the burning of shav-
ings, a grain of musk and a little leaven.-Individual experience. - Total
abstinence.-Doctors should not give inebriates alcohol or opium.. 195
CHAPTER XII.
Medical convention in London, England.-Tobacco arouses the ap-
petite for intoxicants.-Young man in Chicago.-Citizen of a distant
city, seventy-eight years of age.—A minister of the Gospel.—A woman
eighty years of age. - General Grant's reply to his son.-Cigarettes are
the feeders of saloons.-Tobacco must not be used as a substitute for
intoxicants.-Effects of opium upon the soul faculties....... 207
vi
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIII.
-
How to reconstruct physical tissue. - Alcohol pickles tissue and op-
poses the functions of digestion.-The process of digestion and the
effects of alcohol.-Nutritious food makes healthy tissue.-Appetite is
the demand in the physical system for food. A weak stomach must have
light food.-Students in our Universities.-Hot weather requires less
and lighter food.-Sleep and rest are necessary to reconstruct the ner-
vous system.-Day sleep cannot take the place of night sleep. - Cheer is
essential to a recuperation of the brain cells, and no reform without it.
.. 220
CHAPTER XIV.
Instances given.--A graduate of one of our universities.-Dr. Tan-
ner's experiment.-Will power did it.-A spirited colt to be broken.-
The bit and bridle of the moral affections must hold the emotions and
desires.- How a patient in the Washingtonian Home overcame his ani-
mal passions.-The remedies.-Total abstinence, nutritious food, sleep
and cheer
237
CHAPTER XV.
Inebriates are not the men they once were.-Their motives for good
are overcome by the motives for evil.-Ancient philosophers were in the
dark, not foolish, but seekers after truth.-The conflict is between the
moral and the animal man.-Alcohol overthrows the moral nature and
strengthens the animal.-Moral affections strengthened only by right
doing or right action.-Conscience the only safe guide....
CHAPTER XVI.
254
The desires defined. To strengthen the moral nature the person
must do right because it is right.--Examples given.-God and the stand-
ard of right never change.-When the inebriate throws the fibers of his
reform around the standard of right, he is safe, for it can never fail.
266
CHAPTER XVII.
Know thyself. Shun temptation.--The saloon, the hotel bar and the
drugstore must be ignored.-No one can fully describe or define a
saloon.-Case of William. -Standing on the shores of Niagara.—Avoid
all vicious amusements.-Examples to illustrate...
278
CONTENTS.
vii
CHAPTER XVIII.
Reformed men must avoid the associations of the drinking classes.-
Man is a social being, he cannot live alone.-In doing good to others we
do good to ourselves.-Two travelers.-Reformed men must enter the
temperance organizations and work.--If they fall they must pledge again,
and so continue until they succeed.-No suffering must be permitted to
drive the inebriate back to intoxication.--None to blame but the drunk-
ard. If he is too weak to resist temptation, God will help him if he will
ask him.
292
CHAPTER XIX.
No reservation in this work of reform.-How are the means to be
used.—I desire to lift a book.-Application of the Scale.-What is Time.
-How long, how short.-The Past, the Present, the Future, how long.
-Age of the earth.-Science and the Bible agree. -How can the indebt-
edness of past sins be canceled?-The Cross the only hope.-No physi-
cal universe or Soul Life without the Cross.-Man responsible for sin.
306
CHAPTER XX.
Sin a violation of a righteous law.-The Garden of Eden.-Man a
free agent. The Tempter appears.-Eve and Adam yielded and the
race was lost.-Man's extremity God's opportunity.-Through the
Cross the race is saved.--Examples given of the power of the Cross to
save.--The Scale.--The only time allotted to man is the NOW time.—
Procrastination is the thief of time.-A moment lost is lost forever... 319
CHAPTER XXI.
Is inebriety a physical or moral disease?-The agent used is alcohol.
A universal desire for narcotics.-Ancient philosophers sought but failed
to find a remedy.-Dr. N. S. Davis' opinion.-Do children of drunk-
ards become slaves to intoxicants more than the children of parents who
do not drink?--Reformatory institutions.--What is the testimony of fifty
years ago.--Inebriety a moral disease.--The agent used, the narcotics.
-Inordinate desires the cause.--The wreck of the physical, the intellect-
ual and moral natures, the effects of the cause..
338
viii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXII.
Love of money has much to do with inebriety.-The saloon-schools
fill the treasuries of the different departments of the government.—Pre-
amble of the Constitution of the United States.-Narcotics degrade the
morals and render poverty-stricken the working classes.--Opposed to true
liberty.-Extracts from some of the speeches of the founders of our Na-
tion. They laid the foundations of our government in the principles of
virtue, morality and religion.-Inebriates come from the great army of
moderate drinkers.-The first glass the most responsible one.-Educate
the children, and save the Nation....
358
INTRODUCTION.
In presenting the following pages to the public,
the author has been actuated by a desire to be of
some use to mankind-to do some good-and he be-
lieves that this desire is not prompted by any undue.
assumption of knowledge as to that whereof he
speaks. For many years he has held the position of
Superintendent of the Washingtonian Home, in the
City of Chicago, during which time many thousands of
men affected by inebriety, have been inmates of this
Institution, and have passed under his observation,
treatment and instruction. Thus have been presented
to him opportunities of observing and noting, mi-
nutely and intelligently, the various effects of alco-
holic stimulants and narcotics upon their adherents
and victims, in every condition of constitution and
mode of life.
There is no occupation or profession among men,
and scarcely a nation in the civilized world, that has
not had its representation in the above Institution
within the last score of years. In the discharge of
the important duties of his superintendency, and as a
basis for reformatory work, the author has found it
desirable, and in fact necessary, to prepare a course
(ix)
X
INTRODUCTION.
of lectures to be delivered to those who sought
relief from the slavery to which narcotic stimu-
lants had subjected them, setting forth the alarm-
ingly deleterious effects of everything that can intox-
icate, and the means by which the shackles of this
terrible human bondage may be broken, and the
subject restored to the bright and happy condition
of man's estate.
Many very earnest requests have been made of
the author, that he should publish the substance of
these lectures in book form, in order that the same
might be placed within the reach of all, in the belief
that this would certainly have a salutary effect, not
only upon the unfortunate victim of strong drink, but
that much good might thereby be done by way of
preventing the pure and virtuous youth of the land
from ever falling into the snares of the tempter.
These requests have come appealingly from men
bright of intellect, and noble in intention, who have
experienced the bitter suffering and agony entailed by
indulgence in unwholesome stimulants and narcotics,
supplemented by earnest appeals from all parts of this
country, as well as from Canada, England and Aus-
tralia, from persons who have heard and known of the
teachings of the Washingtonian Home. These consid-
erations have led to this publication, and it is hoped
that it may be received, and read, and studied, in the
same spirit of kindness in which it is sent out,
INTRODUCTION.
xi
Men
If this work shall have the effect to save, in any
measure, the rising generation from the evils of in-
temperance, and to enlighten the people of this and
other countries on this all important subject, or to
better the condition of the unfortunate in one jot or
tittle, the author will feel that his labor has not been
in vain.
It is no narrow subject that is herein treated of,
but it is a subject as broad as the liberties, the happi-
ness and the eternal welfare of the whole people of
every nation. Every bearing of a Christian philan-
thropy urges its agitation to a thorough, intelligent
understanding; and every condition of life, from that
of the occupant of the hovel to the surroundings of
him of the palace, dictates the necessity of its
teachings
Experience and observation teach us that intem-
perance is by far the greatest curse of the world. By
statistics and research we learn that more than eighty
per cent. of the crime of the civilized globe is the re-
sult, directly or indirectly, of intemperance. Why,
then, it is asked, should it not be a duty, a paramount
duty of mankind to be informed, and well informed,
as to the physical, mental and moral effects of any in-
timacy with this stern and relentless enemy-alcohol?
In discussing this subject the author has confined
himself to a strict relation of facts, based upon the
experience and observation of many years, in which
xii
INTRODUCTION.
he has had unsurpassed opportunities and facilities
for thorough, practical study. Furthermore, he has
brought to his support in the formation of many of
his conclusions, the actual experience, astonishing
but nevertheless real, of hundreds of intelligent and
scholarly men addicted to the use of alcoholic liquors,
as they have related the same to him from time to
time during the last forty years.
Nothing imaginary or chimerical is herein put
forth, but plain, unvarnished facts are told, and in
such a way it is hoped as may be readily grasped
and fully comprehended by even the child-mind.
While some of the physical conditions of the hu-
man organism, as shown by the illustrations, may ap-
pear marvelous and almost incredible, yet the reader
is assured that no exaggeration is indulged in, but
that the illustrations are true sketches taken from act-
ual subjects on postmortem examinations, and all the
plates were executed under the supervision of the
author, and many of the subjects were known to him
when they were living.
To say that," What is worth doing at all is worth
doing well," is to repeat an old adage, and believing
that this book, will at least in a measure, satisfy a felt
want, will at least partially fill a niche that has been
gaping long for what would supply its demand, great
pains have been taken in statement and detail, and
conclusions have been arrived at only after years of
careful study and observation.
INTRODUCTION.
xiii
While the position taken by the author in the
twenty-first chapter of this work, denying the hered-
ity of the drinking habit, may, and no doubt will be,
adversely criticised by many able and well-meaning
members of the medical profession, yet it is firmly
believed that the position herein assumed is correct,
and is fully sustained by all relevant evidence. That
there are instances in which this weakness may ap-
pear to have been inherited, there is no doubt, but
that the great bulk of the testimony is in direct con-
tradiction of such a theory, is beyond question. Con-
sumption, scrofula, and other constitutional diseases
may be, and are, transmitted to posterity, but in-
cbriety is no more transmitted than is any other habit
which is provoked and fostered by the animal desires.
Any other conclusion would be as dangerous as un-
true. The argument that inebriety is a physical dis-
ease and hereditary admitted, the impression will
obtain with the inebriate that, the condition being
beyond his control and he not responsible for it, he
must perforce live and die a drunkard. Happily this
is not true, and the drinking man may just as thor
oughly reform from this as any other vicious habit.
All questions treated of in this volume, and all
conclusions and statements herein drawn, bearing
upon the narcotics and their deleterious and demor-
alizing effects, have been subjected to the closest scru-
tiny and the severest tests, in advance of determina-
xiv
INTRODUCTION.
tion, and the author feels perfectly secure in the truth
of his position.
The attention of the reader is especially called to
a consideration of The Chart of Soul Life which fol-
lows this introduction. A careful study and analysis
of this chart with the aid of the Explanation follow-
ing, will be found of great advantage in arriving at a
thoroughly satisfactory understanding of the most
important features of the question of the narcotics,
why they are used, their effects upon the human race,
and the remedy.
Feeling fully conscious of the overwhelming im-
portance of this subject, and of the necessity for the
education of the masses to a better understanding of
their relation to the greatest curse of mankind, and
of what may be done to relieve the race from the
ravages and devastation of narcotics, this work is
sent out by the author in the hope that it may ac-
complish some good.
!

GOD, THE STANDARD OF
RICHT.
CONSCIENCE, OR MORAL SENSE.
INTELLECT.
CONSCIOUSNESS.
MAN.
MORAL DESIRES.
AFFECTIONS.
Love to God.
EMOTION
PERCEPTION.
Sensation.
Love to Man.
Admirati
Delight. P
Intuition.
Love of Right.
Wonder.S
Cognition.
Love of Truth.
SurpriseP
Relation.
Love of Holiness.
Judgment.
Love of Integrity.
Right.
Love of Justice.
CONCEPTION.
Memory.
Love of Knowledge.
Love of Purity.
Retention.
Love of Society.
WILL, OR VOLITION.
Disgust. He
Contemar
Shame.
Pity.
Sorrow.Se
Fear.
Attention.
Love of Liberty.
Horror. Pe
e
Reproduction.
Love of Country.
Despair
Imagination.
Love of Honor.
Beauty,
•
es
REASON.
Benevolence.
Sublim
es
BELIEF.
Goodness.
Reveren
FAITH.
Veneration.
Sufferinges
PAST TIME.
COPYRIGHT
IN 1882 BY
DANIEL WILKINS.
THE CHART
PREDE.

THE HARVEST.
LITIES.
FRUITS OF
FRUITS OF
ANIMAL.
DESIRES.
RIGHT DOING.
WRONG DOING.
Appetites.
Propensities.
Drunkenness,
Temperance,
Adultery.
Fornication,
r.Self Love.
Love.
Uncleanness,
ePride.
Lasciviousness.
t.Hope.
Joy.
Idolatry.
nAmbition.
Jealousy.
Peace.
e. Imitation.
Hatred.
Love of Glory.
Gentleness.
Sexual Desire.
Variance.
Emulation.
Desire of Power.
Goodness,
Wrath.
Desire of Esteem
Strife.
esire of
ir.
Superiority.
Faith.
Seditions.
y, Desire of Praise.
Heresies.
Desire of
Meekness.
mí
en
Pesire of
Happiness.
Envyings.
Possession.
Revelings,
Long
ridesire of Relief.
Suffering,
Murders.
PREME.
FUTURE TIME.
SOUL LIFE.
INSTINCT, OR LOW ORDER OF INTELLIGENCE.
Affection.
Desires.
Appetites.
Anger.
Hatred.
Resentment.
Sympathy.
Suffering.
Fear,
Memory.
Self Love.
Docility.
Ambition.
Happiness.
Misery.
COPYRIGHT IMPROVED
In 1885 BY
DANIEL WILKINS.
EXPLANATION OF CHART.
The chart of Soul Life represents and shows the
action of the different faculties of the soul.
God is recognized as the Creator of the soul, and
His revelation as The Standard of Right, by which
the soul in its action should be controlled.
Conscience is the judge of action, and when en-
lightened by Divine revelation, always approves of
right action, and disapproves of wrong action.
The Intellectual Faculties, consisting of the per-
ceptions and conceptions, are the forces which bring
all causes of action into the soul.
The Will is the jury, and when controlled by the
Moral Affections and Conscience its decision is
right, but when controlled by the Emotions and De-
sires and in opposition to the approbation of Con-
science, its decision is wrong.
The Soul, as a unit, is composed of the conscience,
the intellectual faculties, the moral affections, the will,
and the emotions and desires, or sensibilities.
The action of the Soul is somewhat similar to a
court of justice. When the moral controls the will,
its action is right, but when the emotions and desires
control, its action is wrong.
Just what physiological charts are in representing
the different parts and organs of the physical body,
so is the Chart of Soul Life in representing the various
faculties of the soul. By this Chart the study of In-
(xix)
XX
CHART OF SOUL LIFE.
tellectual and Moral Science is made so plain and
simple that even children can easily understand it.
It should be used in every home, every schoolroom,
every Sabbath school, every seminary, every college
and university in the country.
ILLUSTRATIONS UPON THE CHART.
A little boy, as he passes along, perceives by his
Intellectual Faculties a silver dollar lying in the
street. He picks it up, and after a little time he sees
a gentleman looking back as though anxious about
something, and he imagines at once that he is the man
who has lost the dollar. Now, how quickly his
Emotions are aroused and the Desire of Possession
is excited, and he wishes the dollar was his. As he
walks along toward the waiting man, how this De-
sire of Possession pleads with the Will of the boy
and urges him, contrary to the approbation of his
Conscience, to deny that he has found it—that is, tell
a lie in order that he may keep the dollar. But as
quick as thought, the Moral Affections, situated on
the other side of the Will, begin to plead with
the Will, "Do not deny it, tell the truth," and
Conscience approves of the decision of the Moral
Affections. Now if the Desire of Possession holds
out stronger motives to the Will than the
Moral Affections do, the boy will deny it and
try to keep the dollar, and Conscience will disapprove
EXPLANATION GIVEN.
xxi
;
the act. But if the Moral Affections present stronger
motives to the Will than the Desire of Possession, then
the boy will acknowledge that he found the dollar
and return it to the owner, and his Conscience will
approve the act. But as he approaches the man, the
Desire of Possession becomes stronger than the Moral
Affections, and these as a necessary result weaken, and
the Desire of Possession increases, and this process
continued for a length of time, the Desire of Posses-
sion gains the complete ascendancy, and finally the
boy, as he increases in years, becomes a slave to the
love of money, and he will end his life a wretched,
miserable, unhappy miser. But if the Moral Affec-
tions had been sufficient to have controlled the Will
of the boy, he would not have told a lie, but would
have told the truth, and the result would have been
that the Desire of Possession would have weakened,
his Moral Affections would have become stronger,
and the boy would have grown up to be a noble,
honest, reliable, successful and happy man.
A person being hungry, sits at a table spread with
the most tempting luxuries. Now if he eats just
what his Moral Affections, his better Judgment, and
his Sense of Right, in accordance with the approba-
tion of Conscience dictate, he will eat what is requi-
site to make him healthy and happy, but let his Ap-
petite control the Will so as to force him to eat more
than his Moral Affections, his better Judgment and
1
xxii
CHART OF SOUL LIFE.
Sense of Right, under the disapprobation of Con-
science direct, he will do wrong, and will suffer phys-
ically and morally.
A child is tempted to steal. Now if the mother
has so strongly developed the Moral Affections as to
hold the Will of the child from yielding to the desire
to steal, it will not steal, and this resistance makes it
easier to resist the next desire to steal. But if the
animal desires control the Will, the child will steal
and the animal desires become the stronger, and thus
the Moral Affections will weaken so that it will steal
the next time easier, and this course continued, the
child as it grows up becomes a noted thief.
These illustrations are sufficient to show that
every act of the soul must be either right or wrong,
and the mother or teacher by using the Chart can
make the action of the faculties of the Soul so plain
and simple that even children can understand it.
When the Moral Nature controls the Will, the
fruits will be as seen in the column given under THE
FRUITS OF RIGHT-DOING ; and when the Animal Desires
control the Will, the fruits will be as seen in the col-
umn under THE FRUITS OF WRONG-DOING.
When the Desires of the Emotions oppose the
Moral Affections, these desires become inordinate,
and since we see these inordinate desires early devel-
oped in children, how all important it is then that the
Moral Affections should be sufficiently developed as
EXPLANATION GIVEN.
xxiii
to hold these inordinate desires in complete subjec-
tion. The success and happiness of the race depend
upon it here and hereafter.
ANIMAL.
Under ANIMAL the Emotions and Desires are com-
bined. The Sensibilities of animals are controlled by
Instinct, or a low order of intelligence. Void of a
moral nature, they have no idea of right or wrong,
hence they are not responsible for their acts.
For instance: An animal kills a man; we do not
say that it committed murder or even sinned, because,
having no moral nature, not knowing right from
wrong, it was not responsible.
It is a sad reflection that man under the influence
of strong drink is frequently lower, for the time
being, than the animal; for while the animal, under
the control of Instinct, will die defending his mate
and offspring, man, bereft of moral power through
intoxicants, will murder his wife and children.
SCALE OF TIME.
Upon the Chart will be found a Scale representing
the Past, the Present, and the Future.
Standing as we always do on the Present Point,
it is impossible for us to reach a moment that has
passed the Present Point, or ever to use it again. It
is gone forever. Yesterday will never come again.
xxiv
CHART OF SOUL LIFE.
Neither can we reach forward and grasp a mo-
ment before it comes to the Present Point. Hence
no future moment can be said to be ours. To-mor-
row will never come. How true then, that all the
time that God has given or ever will give to a human
being to use is the present NOWw moment! The only
way to make life a success-life right-is to make the
NOW right. "Procrastination is the thief of time."
CHAPTER I.
À BITTER NIGHT-MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH INEBRIETY-WHO
SUFFER MOST-ALL NATIONS USE NARCOTICS-TALK WITH A YOUNG
MAN ABOUT HIS OCCASIONAL VISITS TO DRINKING RESORTS—HIS
OPINION AS TO HIS OWN STRENGTII-HIS ADMISSIONS AS TO WHEN
AND WHY HE TAKES STIMULANTS HOW HE IS DECEIVED HE SEES
HIS MISTAKE-REASON WHY MEN DRINK-ALCOHOL SUSPENDS CON-
SCIOUSNESS-THE MODERATE DRINKER INDULGES FOR THE SAME
REASON AS THE INEBRIATE-REFERENCE TO CHART OF SOUL LIFE.
At the age of seventeen I was called one evening,
to visit a neighbor's house to take care of a man having
the delirium tremens. As I entered the room, he re-
quested all to leave except myself. Some of those
present hesitated, feeling that it was not safe for me
to be with him alone, but I assured them that I be-
lieved there was no danger, and they left. When he
perceived that I was the only one with him, he said,
"Young man, can you pray?" I replied, that I did
pray sometimes. He then with great earnestness
cried out, "Oh, do pray for me, pray for me."
Reader, you perhaps can imagine in some little
degree the feelings aroused under such circumstances.
To pray for a man sane, is not always pleasant, but
to pray for a man insane, delirious, and mad with
(25)
26
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
drink, wild and raging with the delirium tremens, was
the severest trial of my life. During the prayer, the
room seemingly, was as still as death. As I arose he
requested me to read to him from the Bible. I read
awhile, and then he read, until he became tired, when
he reclined upon his pillow and fell into a delirious
sleep.
Oh, what a sleep that was! For nearly an hour I
watched him with intense interest. At times his
countenance would brighten up until it glowed with
the most fervent ecstasy of joy, delight and happi-
ness, and then it would change to remorse, hopeless-
ness, despair, and the deepest agony. Then the
muscles of his face, arms and hands would contract,
and little bunches as large as hazel-nuts were devel-
oped all along his arms, almost to the ends of his
fingers. Soon a shivering, twitching sensation of his
entire body appeared. His wild, idiotic and glassy
eyes exhibited the fires of the deepest anger. His
face assumed a demoniacal expression, he sprang up
on his feet, and cried out, "Oh! the ghosts, the
demons and devils in hell are coming! They are
coming!" and, with all the strength of an enraged
giant, he would spring forward and give them battle,
until his physical strength failed him, then he would
fall back upon the bed exhausted, and sink again into
a delirious sleep.
As soon as he would arouse and was sufficiently
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
27
composed, I directed his attention to the reading of
the Bible. This process continued until four o'clock
in the morning, during which time he had a number of
these terrible fits of delirium, and when they passed
away and his reflective and moral faculties regained
their ascendancy, sorrow, shame and remorse took
possession of him. In conversation he referred to
his lovely wife and daughter who were buried upon
the shore of Lake Erie, how happily he had lived
with them, what excellent Christians they were, and
how hopefully they had died, and were now blessed
spirits in heaven.
He expressed the deepest sorrow that he had been
the cause of the ruin of thousands of ship carpenters,
by giving them intoxicants while they were in his
employ. At this time he was the best and most skillful
ship builder on the lakes, and during the palmiest days
of steam navigation a very large number of the finest
steamers that plied between Buffalo and Chicago,
were built under his superintendency.
Before leaving him I induced him to sign the
pledge of total abstinence, and I have been informed
that he kept it to the day of his death. Reader, as I
gazed upon this unfortunate man, suffering all the
agonies of deep despair, I then and there pledged my-
self to God that I would devote much of the energies
of my life to the great and important cause of total
abstinence. That pledge I have faithfully kept; for
シ
​28
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
upward of forty years there has hardly been a week
that I have not been interested in some inebriate
whom I have endeavored to help reform.
No men are so weak in control, no men so unfor-
tunate and no men so wrecked as the slave to narcot-
ics; and one of the most marvelous things in this
world is, why men and women who see, feel and re-
alize the destruction, the shame, the poverty, the woe,
the suffering and the moral degradation and death
that the use of these narcotics brings upon them, will
so strenuously and inconsistently continue in their
indulgence.
Reader, permit me to ask you if you drink, and if
so, why? Why do you use a narcotic? As a matter
of fact, the history of the world so far back as it car-
ries us, shows that all the nations of the earth have
used narcotics. These are almost an innumerable
multitude. Now, why is it? Why do the millions
of the world's population rush after them?
Go to the nations of Europe, Asia, Africa, North
and South America and the Islands of the Sea, and
you will find narcotics more or less cultivated and
used. Now, I repeat it, why is it? Do they make
the millions better and happier? Do they wipe away
the tears of sorrow? Do they lift the burdens, cares,
the responsibilities, the obligations, the perplexities,
the troubles, the trials, the disappointments and suf-
ferings of life from weak and frail humanity, and bear
NARCOTICS—WHY USED.
29
1
on their pinions the race up to a higher and grander
destiny? Why do men and women rush recklessly
into poverty, misery, degradation and shame, through
the excessive use of these narcotics? Why destroy
their intellects, debase their moral natures, and be-
come slaves to their animal passions? It is this prob-
lem why the race use these narcotics, and their effects
and remedy, that I propose to solve in the pages of
this book.
Supposing that we take a walk down some street,
passing along until we come to the corner of two
streets. While standing there for a moment we see
coming out of a popular drinking place a young man
whom we have known from boyhood, and who is
loved by all his acquaintances. He approaches us,
and I ask him a few questions.
(6
William," I say, "I am sorry to see you coming
out of that place."
"What place?" he inquires, regarding me with
surprise.
"Just there," I answer, "the last door you came
out of."
66
Why, Mr. Wilkins, are you sorry?"
"Because, William, I am afraid you go in there
for drink."
"
Well, what of that ?"
"Do you drink?" I asked him.
"Yes."
E
30
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
"How long have you been accustomed to visit
such places?"
"About three or four years. I have taken a glass
occasionally."
"Is that true, William?
drink?"
He does not reply.
Why, then, do you
I ask him again, "Why do you drink?" He does
not know. He has been drinking a glass of brandy;
it has passed into his stomach, and a portion has gone
to his brain, and now I am talking to the glass of
brandy and not to him. At last perhaps, he ventures
an answer to my question.
"It makes me social," he says.
He knows that he might be social, and even genial
without resorting to any such perilous expedient, but
he claims this desirable excellence of disposition as
the result of the feverish exhilaration of brandy
stimulation. Brandy would be very likely to arouse
the passions from their slumber, and thus make him
social in a sensuous way, but this he would not be
quite so ready to attribute to the influence of alcohol.
"Now, William," I urge, "you know that many
men suffer sadly through drink, and I am afraid you
will have to pass through the same severe experience.
You know men who have been completely conquered
by strong drink, and how do you know but that it
will likewise crush you?”
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
31
"Mr. Wilkins," he exclaims, "what do you mean?
I am a man, I can control myself. I know what I
am about."
He grows earnest, because I have insinuated that
he might be overcome. Now it is a fact that this
young man hates drunkenness as much as any one,
and of all things that could happen to him the very
last he thinks is, that he should become a drunkard.
Drunkenness is the last thing in the world that he
would be guilty of. False, weak-willed and feeble
minded men may fall beneath the power of drink—
but he, "he is a man."
That is the way he feels.
"Ah, William, I have known men as strong as
you are—and if you will stop to think, you do too—
who have been overwhelmed and utterly destroyed
by this drink."
I look across the street and behold a man stag-
gering along blindly, under the influence of intoxica-
tion. I turn and ask :
(
William, do you see that pitiable object over
there?"
"What object, Mr. Wilkins?”
"That man who is reeling along the street."
"Do you mean to insinuate, sir, that I shall be-
come a drunkard?”
Oh, if you could penetrate the chamber of his
emotional nature you would see the fiery arrows of
resentment dart forth!
32
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
"Well, William," I say, "I believe you are sin-
cere in what you utter." And I think he was sincere,
knowing what I do of the effects of alcohol on the
brain.
A man has many times lost his position in conse-
quence of a protracted spree, and whilst on the de-
bauch in a fight, has received a black eye. After
he becomes saturated with alcohol it grows obnox-
ious to him, and he ceases to use it. He does not
want any more.
Now he begins to think about his position. Wak-
ing up to the situation he feels for his watch. It is
gone, he knows not where. He searches for his
pocketbook-gone! Recovering consciousness a lit-
tle more, he perceives that the clothes he had on
when he started out on that debauch have disap-
peared-he has no idea where. He has a devoted
wife and beautiful children at home, and memory
brings back the thought that the rent is unpaid; and
during the spree he has borrowed money and put his
furniture under a chattel mortgage.
His wife, in absolute destitution, is being turned
out without shelter for herself and helpless children.
He thinks of returning to work, but he has lost his
position. What is he going to do? His employer
will not touch him. In order to look for another
place the first thing is a reference, and it must come
from the last place of employment. That reference
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
33
will kill him. What then? Coming to the bottom
of the difficulty, the only thing that is left for him to
do is to go to that employer and endeavor, if possible,
to get back that lost position.
Reader, have you ever been in that unfortunate
condition and been forced to that unpleasant neces-
sity? You cannot bring yourself to it. Your em-
ployer has already sacrificed all he can through your
neglect, and he has told you repeatedly that if you
took another spree you would be discharged, and
you would never again be restored to your position
and his confidence. Now, something must be done,
and finally you resolve to take a glass of brandy.
After forcing it down your courage rises under its
exhilarating influence; you go to your late employer,
admit that you have been on a debauch, and ask him
if he will take you back. You are ashamed to tell
him how you received your black eye, and so you
say that in getting on or off a street car you fell and
injured yourself.
You tell him anything and everything in order to
get back that forfeited position. You could not have
approached him if you had not taken the brandy.
Oh, how it nerved you up to the difficulty of the
task!
Booth, self-possessed, would never have taken the
life of Abraham Lincoln, though with others he had
conspired against the lives of those in national au-
O
3
34
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
thority, and had accepted as his part of the infernal
butchery the assassination of the President, yet when
the last plan was consummated and the portentous
hour had arrived, Booth faltered. How then, did he
accomplish the infamous deed? The terrible dis-
patch that flashed over the wires that memorable.
morning and draped a nation in mourning, sending a
reverberating wail of multitudinous woe throughout
the civilized world, contained a clause revealing the
secret of the deliberation with which the crime was
committed.
Ah, Booth had three times resorted to the saloon,
and fired his already excited brain with brandy!
Thus his arm was nerved to execute what his heart
had already conceived and cherished. It was brandy
in a conquered Booth that did the deed.
Now, the William I have been talking with, is
very bold at present. I am in reality talking to the
brandy, and might as well talk to a stone. He does.
not know why he drinks. Alcohol has placed liquor
spectacles over his eyes.
One glass of brandy. That is enough. If five
glasses will make him drunk, one glass will make
him one-fifth drunk. If five glasses will destroy for
the time being his intellect, conscience, moral affec-
tions, will and sensibilities—one glass will make him
one-fifth intoxicated with one-fifth of the above result.
Hence, I am talking to the glass of brandy, or to
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
.35
William under its influence, and my efforts are all in
vain.
I proceed, however, to call up reminiscences of
these three years' drinking. I ask:
'During these three years have you not frequently
lost your position when you least expected it?"
"Yes."
16
feel?"
Well, William, when thus deposed, how did you
'I felt mean.'
"Then again, William, during these three years
you have been promoted when you did not expect it,
how did you feel?"
"I felt very happy.'
When you were about to consummate an exten-
sive bargain that would eventually put thousands of
dollars into your pockets, how did you feel?"
66
My anxiety was extremely great.”
"If during these three years, you entered into a
contract which failed to bring forth the expected and
promised results, how did you feel?”
My mortification and disappointment were
dreadful to bear."
((
Now, William, during the years of your moder-
ate drinking you became acquainted with a young
lady of rare accomplishments, who was visiting
friends of yours. She left and went to her home in
a distant State. A correspondence was carried on,
36
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
which but strengthened and confirmed the love you
already cherished for her. Finally, being unable to
bear the feverish uncertainty any longer, you wrote
a letter containing a proposal of marriage. The let-
ter was mailed, but the answer was delayed. Wil-
liam, how did you feel?"
It is the nature of animal affection, when a man
fully makes up his mind that he has found his mate,
to overcome the better judgment and cause him to
believe that, if he does not obtain the object of his
affection, all the future will be dark and dreary.
How many young men and women commit the
mistake of their lives under the blinding influence of
these fiery impulses. If my wishes are not ac-
ceded to, and my desires consummated, the prospect
will be a dark storm-land, full of concealed thunder-
bolts and lightning flashes, gloomy, cheerless and
void of happiness.
"I say, William, during these long, long hours of
suspense, and seemingly endless days of delay, could
you sleep at night?"
"No, sir."
Ah, so excited that he could not sleep! He was
all restlessness and nervousness.
“At last, one day whilst in the company of your
favorite friends a letter was handed you by the post-
You looked at it, and recognized the writing
at once as hers. You were elated; William, what did
man.
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
37
you
you do? I was not there to see you, but I think I can
tell you what did. You did not wait until you
reached your room, but, turning aside a few steps,
you opened the envelope, took out the letter, and
how intensely excited you were. How you trem-
bled with the very delirium of expectation when you
began to read, for your whole future life depended
upon the anticipated answer. Now, when you
reached the words that were to decide your fate, and
when you saw that the answer was favorable, what
did you then do, William? I was not there to see,
but I think I can tell you; you closed the letter and
said, 'Boys, let us go and have a drink.'
"You felt so full of joy, so dilated with pleasure that
you could not help it. Is that not true, William?"
"Yes sir, you are right."
"Suppose the answer had not been in the affirma-
tive, but in the negative, then what would have hap-
pened? You would not have said, 'Boys, come out
and let us have a drink;' you would have gone out
and taken one alone.
"Whenever you have been discharged from your
position during the last three years, that is the way
you have felt and acted. You did not say, 'Boys,
let's have a glass'-you went and had one by yourself.
But when you were pleased by being promoted in a
position, you took all the boys out with you for a
=
drink.
38
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
“Again, during those days of moderate drinking
you were out driving in the bitter cold, and coming
home all shivering, almost before the horse is stalled,
what did you do? You went and took a glass. You
had the headache, stomach-ache, colic, rheumatic
pains-in short, William, any domestic, financial,
physical, intellectual or moral trouble led you to
take a glass."
As he calls up these reminiscences he is still sin-
cere in believing that alcohol does not affect him.
I ask his attention for a moment longer. "How
is it, William, if the glass of brandy does not affect
you, that whenever your emotions have been carried
to either extreme of exaltation or depression, whether
of pain or pleasure, domestic distraction or financial
failure, you have always recurred to the glass? If
the alcohol did not affect you, why did you not take,
instead of an intoxicant, under these peculiar circum-
stances, a glass of milk or a cup of coffee?"
Now, for the first time in his life of drink, this
young man begins to see that there has been an un-
derlying reason for his indulgence in what he calls
moderate drinking. He sees that the fact of his uni-
formly doing so under certain circumstances, involved
some purpose. He is prepared now to learn what
that purpose is.
This, then, is one side of the question-moderate
drinking. Let us for a little while pass to the other
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
39
side. Here is a man who lies down in one of the
alleys of our city, unconsciously drunk, thoroughly
intoxicated. If you and I had never seen a drunken
man, we should imagine him dead. It is cold enough
to freeze him to death in two hours. There he lies,
and, but for the heaving of his chest, and the pulsa-
tions of his heart, we should have pronounced him
dead. He has indeed, in a sense, committed suicide.
In other words, under the control of his will he has
taken the poison alcohol into his stomach, where it
has been absorbed and passed into the circulation ;
about one-fifth of it is forced into the brain by the
heart; it suspends his consciousness, and there is no
power under the control of his will that can call it
back. There he lies.
You watch him, as I have many times watched
the poor inebriate. Cold strikes the surface of the
hand and forehead, and you notice a quivering of the
flesh, a jumping of the muscles, and finally a trembling
sensation that extends throughout the body. By and
by the eyelids open, and those idiotic eyes glare
wildly out upon the surrounding scene.
What's the matter? You say the man is regaining
his consciousness. So he is, and as time advances
his intellectual faculties and emotional nature assert
themselves again. He continues to shiver. The
man is suffering intense agony, and the desire for
relief (see chart) is aroused.
40
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
Oh, how the cold is piercing through him. And
as consciousness is regained, what does he think of?
Wife, home, children?. Father, mother, brother, sis-
ter? Society? God? No, indeed.
All these are farthest from his thoughts. They
have all deserted him, as he imagines. Years ago, in
their cruel perfidy, they cast him off. But that terri-
ble sense of suffering rouses up his will power. He
sits up, and stretching out a feeble and tremulous
hand, he grasps a bottle that is by his side, for that is
his god, his only god. How he grasps it! Pulling
the cork and putting the bottle to his lips he takes a
long draught, lies down, and in a few minutes is un-
conscious again. The same process is renewed until
the liquor is exhausted, and at the expiration of the
two hours, death places his icy fingers on the very
source of life's ebbing current. Amid the wild dis-
tortions of his delirium, the poor drunkard leaves
time and earth to face his destiny and his God!
Now, why this change from consciousness to un-
consciousness? The alcohol passes into the stomach
and a sufficient quantity is carried to the brain to sus-
pend consciousness. The heart, however, continues to
beat, and the inhaling and exhaling of the air into and
out of the lungs go on. A portion of the alcohol is
imbibed by the mucous membrane of the stomach;
about one-fifth is conveyed to the brain, whilst the
rest is caught up by the circulation, and distributed
through the system.
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
4I
Referring to Plate No. 1, you will observe what
is called a perspiratory gland. A large quantity of
the alcohol in the circulation is taken out of the
blood and passed through the perspiratory glands
into the air. There are seven millions of these ducts
in the human frame. Shut a man who is thoroughly
saturated with alcohol, from brandy, in a tight room,
and the air will soon be about as strong as the brandy
itself.
A large quantity of the alcohol is also carried off
in the breath. The lungs and heart are not under
the control of the will. The key that wound them
up is held by the great Creator that made them,
and with proper care this intricate machinery would
perform its wonderful work for a hundred years.
It is not by the will of man, but by the will of
God that the heart and lungs throw out the alcohol,
and when the brain is thus relieved consciousness
returns.
If, like arsenic and strychnine, the poison alco-
hol remained in the system, the first debauch would
be the last. What a blessing it would be to the
human race if it were an established fact that alco-
hol would be as sure to kill as these other poisons.
Then none would dare to drink it.
The very man, however, whom God has resusci-
tated so often, uses the life so spared to curse and
abuse his heavenly Benefactor, living in daily con-
}
7
42
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
tempt and profanation of the very power, which has
been so mercifully interposed to prolong the period
of his probation. This man represents the other side
of the drinking habit.
The moderate drinker indulges for the very same.
purpose that drives the drunkard to inebriation, viz:
The desire of relief. The former wishes to counteract
the effects of cold and heat; of too much elation or
depression; of physical pain; while the latter, his
reflective faculties and moral powers revived, seeks
to drown his sensation of pain in the oblivion of un-
consciousness.
We can see now why the race uses narcotics. We
realize that men everywhere are prompted by the
same desire-the desire of relief! But where in the
system, physical, intellectual, or moral, do we find
located this appetite or demand, that calls for relief?
Additional light will be thrown on this subject by
a glance at the Chart of Soul Life, from time to
time, as we proceed.
0
CHAPTER II.
}
CONSCIENCE, WHAT IT IS—IT NEEDS NO NARCOTIC-THE INTELLEC-
TUAL FACULTIES, MORAL AFFECTIONS AND WILL NEED NO NAR-
COTIC-THE SENSES-PHYSICAL ORGANS INSTRUMENTS OF BRAIN-
ADAM AND EVE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN-THE FATAL LEGACY—
WHY NARCOTICS ARE USED-SIN CHANGES THE REGULATION OF THE
EMOTIONS AND DESIRES-WHAT MAKE UP LIFE-TEARS AND JOYS-
MEN SUCCUMB TO THEIR EMOTIONS AND DESIRES-HOW NARCOTICS
DELUDE THEY CAUSE MEN TO LOOK ON THE DARK SIDE OF LIFE-
ALCOHOL THE GREAT ENEMY OF MAN—NARCOTICS PROMISE LIB·
ERTY, TO INFLICT BONDAGE—THEY OFFER LIFE, BUT GIVE DEATH
·RELATIVE STRENGTH OF DIFFERENT INOrdinate desiRES COM-
PARED--INEBRIETY A MORAL, NOT A PHYSICAL Disease.
Conscience is that moral sense which approves the
right and disapproves the wrong in the conduct of our
lives. It needs no narcotic. Neither do the intellectual
faculties, those by which we know, the perceptions
and conceptions. The moral affections-love to God,
love to man, love of right, truth, integrity, knowledge,
liberty, honor, benevolence, goodness and veneration
-these are not helped by a narcotic. They one and
all, are opposed to the use of them.
power of volition, does not need a
The will, the
narcotic; nor
do the emotions or desires when in perfect obedi-
ence to the moral affections stand in any such need,
(43)
44
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
for there is nothing in them creating trouble and suf-
fering.
Suppose then, that I am standing before you.
My limbs sustain me, you say; my hand possesses
the sense of feeling; my eyes see; my nose smells;
my ears hear, and my mouth tastes. Is that strictly
so?
One of the sublimest powers with which God
has endowed man is the ability to communicate his
thoughts to his fellow men, and to receive communi-
cations in return, by means of articulate sounds.
Located in the larynx there are cords called vocal
cords, and at will these change their positions,
almost imperceptibly. Wishing to communicate a
thought by speech, the will causes the vocal cords
to assume certain positions, and as we breathe they
vibrate, causing a current of air to move along in
undulatory waves which reach and strike on the
drum of the listener's ear.
If you could watch that drum during this pro-
cess, through a microscope, you would not perceive
the least impression made on it. Through four little
bones called the Malleus, the Incus, the Orbicular bone
and the Stapes, the impressions are carried back into
the interior chamber of the ear, where by different
organs they pass to the auditory nerve, are com nuni-
cated to the brain, and the thought of the speaker be-
comes the thought of the hearer. What a delicate
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
45
and complicated machine is the ear, with the sensi-
tive telegraphic nerves, catching alike the insect's
hum and Niagara's roar. Who but the Divine
Architect could construct such an instrument?
But sever the nerves that connect these organs of
sense with the brain, and there can be no hearing,
seeing, feeling, tasting or smelling. Yet otherwise
these organs are as perfect physically as ever. Just
as the telescope does not see, but is simply an uncon-
scious instrument, so are these physical organs mere
instruments for the perceptions of the soul.
I ask you again to suppose me standing before
you. Well, shoot me through the heart. Will my
limbs any longer hold me up? Will my senses
remain? The organs of the body are as perfect,
physically, as ever, except where the ball has pene-
trated; but you have shot out that which held me
up, and could hear, feel, taste, smell, suffer, become
sick, and get drunk. You can now cut my limbs and
body in pieces, and there will be no sensation of pain.
Take out the soul and there can be no more suf-
fering.
Let us imagine ourselves in view of the Garden of
Eden. Yonder are our first parents, Adam and Eve,
in the possession of priceless purity. Of the fruit
hanging in such tempting beauty and luxuriant abun-
dance they are, with the exception of that growing
on one tree, permitted to eat. They are contented.
ព
46
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
and happy in their friendly intercourse with their Cre-
ator, and all nature is tributary to their comfort and
pleasure. Their wills are in perfect consonance with
the will of God. But the moment comes when the
subtle tempter fixes his fiery, fascinating eye upon the
fair Eve, and plies his cunning art and skillful sophis-
try, until the eager gaze, bated breath and beating
bosom indicate the first wild rush of the heart after
the forbidden fruit. The emotions aroused, desire
rendered inordinate, and appetite overwhelming con-
victions of right, better judgment and moral affec-
tions, Eve first, and Adam afterward, takes of the for-
bidden fruit and eats.
They thus disobey their Creator, break his holy
commandment, and sin, the outcome of their apostasy,
springs into being—a hideous monster, surrounded
by his companions, shame, sorrow, fear and suffer-
ing—a fatal legacy to their posterity for all time.
When next God visits the garden he meets with no
welcome, for, in fear and dread the guilty pair are hid-
ing from his presence. Now begins their suffering,
and now comes into existence the desire of relief
which lies deep in the heart of humanity, and ex-
plains the universal use of narcotics.
After our first parents sinned they suffered, and if
they had known as much as we do about narcotics,
they would probably have resorted to them, to shut
out the maddening vision of their dreadful loss, and
NARCOTICS-WHY Used.
47
drown their sorrows in unconsciousness-for fallen
humanity was then as it is now.
The race inherits the inordinate desires from its
first parents. They are the result of sin. The emo-
tions and desires are not regulated as they were in
the beginning. They tend to extremes.
Life is well compared to a pendulum, swinging
between a joy and a tear. The joy makes the sorrow,
and the sorrow the joy. But life must be accepted
as we find it. It is the fierce battle which makes
the triumphant victory. Labor, rest, joy, sorrow,
these make up real life, and we should be as happy
and hopeful in contest and effort, as in the victory
and rest which follow.
How mysterious is life! Here is a solid block
built of brick, divided into a multitude of separate
compartments. In this room is a mother, happy and
full of joy over her beautiful first-born child; in the
very next is a mother, weeping away her very heart
as she sits by the bedside and beholds the death
agony of her only boy.
Here dwells a man in prosperity, there one over-
whelmed with adversity; here a family lapped in
luxury; there another wasted by want. In short,
could you take a stand from which you could look
into the bleeding heart of humanity, what pulsations
of sorrow, shame, misery and moral death would you
behold !
48
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
The suffering side of humanity sighs for relief,
and narcotics temporarily afford it. Hence, all na-
tions have them, and become more or less their
slaves.
Men, instead of meeting bravely, confidently and
cheerfully, the clouds and storms of life, and by the
discipline of the courageous struggle, growing
strong in the true nobility of full developed man-
hood, rather resort to such expedients, which in the
end deepen the source of the troubles from which
they suffer. They are lifted up one rung of the lad-
der, only to be let down two. The stomach is sick,
the body is weak, or the mind distressed, so a nar-
cotic is procured and indulged in. A portion of it
goes to the brain, suspending the perception by
which the pain is felt. But the consequence is after-
ward an intensified perception of pain, for not only
is the relief merely a temporary one, but the nar-
cotic has infallibly weakened the system and in-
creased the cause of the suffering.
Even in the matter of food, the same truth
appears. You and I sit down to a table loaded with
luxuries. We are hungry, but eat only what mod-
eration dictates. Our sensations in consequence are
pleasant and agreeable. Suppose, however, we
permit our appetite to drive us on to excess, shall
we be comfortable? No, we have gorged our stom-
achs, and we long for relief. How many a glass has
been resorted to in such circumstances!
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
49
Men use narcotics on account of their anæs-
thetic influence. If I am in pain and put alcohol into
my brain I think it has cured me; from the fact that
it suspends the perception by which I am made to
feel the pain, I think it is my best friend, and hence I
continue to use it.
In financial trouble or family affliction, precisely
the same thing occurs. Anxiety and sorrow are
supposed to be conquered, but it is only for the time,
because the functions of the brain have been inter-
fered with, and the reaction is as certain to follow as
night the day. Note well the reaction.
If you are a business man, its effects will soon be
perceived. It will bewilder your intellect, and
eclipse your moral nature so that others will readily
deceive and take advantage of you.
Such a case often occurs. The wife and children
cannot understand it. Somehow the property is
wasting away, and finally is all gone. The time
must soon come when the chattel mortgage will
take the last dollar. As the poor victim rouses him-
self sufficiently to contemplate the ruin and realize
the sad fate of those dependent on him, he is seized
with remorse and despair, and cries: "Is it possible
that all this, the accumulation of industry and
economy, will be taken from me to-morrow, and my
family, hitherto always provided for, thrown into
the street without a shelter? Is it possible ?"
C
4
50
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
Many a man has committed suicide under simi-
lar circumstances. But let him go and take two
glasses of brandy and he will not care anything
about that mortgage; the property will cause him
no further anxiety, and he will conclude that his
family is now all right. Does, however, that super-
ficial exhilaration at all alter his condition ?
Does it save his property? It places him in a
semi-comatose state, suspending the perception by
which he is conscious of these terrible calamities,
and that is all.
Sin is the original author of this demand in the
race, and consequently, the deeper men sink in the
evil ways of sin, the more they drink.
To satisfy
their abnormal desires and emotions they rush to
alcohol, opium, chloral, and the weaker narcotics;
giving relief, only to dig deeper the cause of the
complaint.
See that miserable drunkard, lying in the gutter?
He has reached the climax of his folly and is on the
verge of his doom. He hates God now, for he has
not reflective faculties left to appreciate Him, or
grasp the thought of His power, justice and love.
His distorted fancy conjures up the most irrational
opinions and conclusions. He imagines that all his
family and former friends have robbed and forsaken
him. They appear to him inveterate enemies, and
the source of all his woes.
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
5 I
Hating God and his fellow-man he hates truth,
justice, right, honor, in short, he hates everything
but intoxicants. These he loves and worships, and
for these alone he lives. His is a life of suffering,
and the one thought and desire of his heart is how
to secure relief. Not one ray of hope enters the
awful gloom of his soul; not one cheering beam of
light gilds the dark and heavy clouds that have set-
tled down on him.
Drink! Drink, is his cry, by day and night, until
the giant monster, death, serves his summons, and
the poor drunkard's dark and degraded soul leaves
the body tenantless, to take its flight to God and
judgment.
Were such a picture not drawn from the sternest,
and alas! most familiar facts, nothing could warrant
it, but everyday experience attests its truth.
What a terribly deceptive condition! We know,
although he does not, that it was alcohol that
robbed the drunkard of his wife, robbed him of his
children, robbed him of his home; of his parents and
friends; of his money and position; robbed him of
his health and happiness; of his moral affections and
manly dignity; of his God. King Alcohol, his only
friend and hope, has been his only enemy and des
troyer! Every barrel, gallon, quart, glass and drop
of alcohol should be labeled in letters of bold relief :
Physical, intellectual and moral death!-death to
the body, and eternal death to the soul!'
"(
52
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
Narcotics promise liberty, to inflict bondage;
they offer life, but give death. They fascinate like
the serpent, only to lure their victims to destruction.
As was said, sin originally created this demand
for narcotics in the race. And sin continues to aug-
ment the demand. Through disobedience to God,
man has inherited these excessive desires which
drive him to the use of stimulants. The moral has
yielded to the animal nature, and the only remedy
is to educate and strengthen the moral nature up to
its original standard, so that it will resume its
control.
Here are two men, who, twenty years ago re-
formed, the one from intoxicants, the other from
lying. They conquered the inordinate desires by
strengthening their moral affections, thus influencing
the will to resist and refuse their demand. The old
habit, however, in the very nature of things, is ever
ready, like the pent up fires of the volcano, to burst
the limits with all the force and fury of primeval
strength, whenever the moral power relinquishes its
grasp. Around then, the pathway of the reformed
inebriate misfortunes gather into thick clouds.
Everything that he cares for, cherishes in his heart,
leaves him. Not only is he utterly desolate and
stricken, but disease racks his frame. Just as natu-
rally as the rivulet seeks the river, and the river the
sea, will his thoughts revert to his old friend, alco-
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
53
hol.
Under this suffering (see chart) how eloquent-
ly the desire of relief pleads with the will to take the
narcotic again? But the moral affections do not
stand idly by. A contest is waged, and true to their
nature, these moral affections urge the will not to
yield to the importunities of the suffering emotions.
The conflict rages, and if the motive power of the
animal desires is stronger than that of the moral af-
fections, then the victory will be with the former.
The will yields, the first glass is taken, the power of
resistance, the education, the accumulation of forces,
and the moral contests of twenty years in the strug-
gle for reformation, are rendered valueless. Despair
sits brooding over ruin and desolation!
The storms of adversity rage around the path-
way of the reformed liar. He is involved financial-
ly; his last foot of land is about to be sold under a
mortgage. His personal property will shortly melt
away under the auctioneer's cry. Intense anxiety
induces an attack of sickness. His family, unac-
quainted with poverty and want, will speedily be
shelterless, but accidentally he ascertains that by a
craftily conceived scheme he can realize money suf
ficient to save his property. Under the terrible
temptations to relieve his sufferings by these dishon-
est means, how eloquently and persuasively the in-
ordinate desires plead with the will to submit and
consent to the fraud ! But the moral affections plead
54
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
with the will not to yield to the inordinate desires.
As is the case of the inebriate, if the latter are the
strongest, the will must consent to their demands,
and the fair structure of integrity and veracity, which
twenty years have reared, is in an instant shattered,
and falls in ruins.
If medical science can cure the inordinate desires
of the liar, which compel him to deception and fraud,
it can also cure the inordinate desires of the poor in-
ebriate, which lead him to drink; but if medical
science cannot cure the one, then it will fail in all its
attempts to cure the other.
These men instanced, if they had not been re-
formed men, the one could have taken the first glass,
the other have told the first lie without in conse-
quence, madly rushing down the slippery highways
of destruction; but such was the condition of their
emotional nature that the first glass taken, and first
lie told, they immediately plunged into the very
vortex of depravity and ruin.
If the foregoing is true, then drunkenness must
be a moral rather than a physical disease. Those who
drink to excess, not only are subject to the same
physical ailments as others, but when they are under
the anesthetic influence of alcohol, they actually
induce these diseases; consequently they must use
the physician's remedies, and need his skillful care as
much, and even more than others.
!
NARCOTICS-WHY Used.
55
The evil, however, and it cannot be too clearly
recognized, is a moral one, which has struck its roots
deep down into the human nature. The use of nar-
cotics is prompted, not by anything peculiar to this
or that individual, or this or that community. It is
common to the race. The cause of drink is not dif-
ferent then in a moderate drinker and in the inebriate.
The difference is one of degree. Their purpose is
one and the same. And if we would learn a lesson
from what confronts us on every side, how careful
should we be of our habits, how jealous of the first
saplings of moral self-control.
So many think they can free themselves from the
power of narcotics, as simply and easily as Samson
snapped the seven green withes with which Delilah
bound him, "as a thread of tow that toucheth fire,'
but who can reckon up the countless multitude who
have by and by discovered themselves bound with
adamantine chains?
CHAPTER III.
DIVISION OF THE ARMY OF DRINKING MEN INTO CLASSES-MODERATE
DRINKERS MAKE, AND THEN PERSECUTE DRUNKARDS - CLASS DIF-
FERENCES EXPLAINED-ALL THINGS DIFFER ONE FROM ANOTHER
-KNOWLEDGE OF THINGS BASED ON COMPARISON AND CONTRAST
HOW THE HUMAN FACULTIES ARE DEVELOPED THE LAW OF
AFFINITY-SOUL-LIFE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT-THE WORLD IS
GOD'S, AND MAN BELONGS TO IT.
If the great army of drinking men were to pass
before us in review, we should find them divided into
three distinct divisions. These commence their
march together, traveling for a time along the same
road, but finally they separate and pursue different
directions. One division keeps straight along the
same path of moderate drinking. It is composed of
those who uniformly control themselves, and never
become drunkards. I have known men, and so has
the reader, to live eighty or ninety years, drinking
from youth through life, but never getting drunk.
They could take drink or let it alone.
Make yourself intimate with the history of the
second division of this grand army, and you will find
it made up of those who occasionally have a "spree,"
but never become what we call habitual, periodical
drunkards. They indulge in excesses once in a while,
(56)
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
57
but, as a rule, drink afterward right along, control-
ling their appetite, and never becoming inebriates.
The third class or division of this army, diverging
after a while from the main body, is recruited from
those who, if they drink the first glass, do not stop
until they become drunk. This is the great division
of habitual, periodical drunkards.
Why these three classes should exist is a mystery
to the world, not to be understood, far less explained.
Why this difference? Those who drink right along
and never get drunk, persecute habitual drunkards
more than any other class. They measure their
brother by themselves, by their own strength and
disposition, and ask the poor inebriate why he does
not do as they do, drink and not get drunk; why he
makes such a fool of himself. "I can take it or let it
alone," the moderate drinker says; "I can stop when
I have enough, and you can do the same." That is
about the language he uses to his more unfortunate
brother. A great many times when the latter has
felt as though he would never touch another drop,
this class of men have urged him on to indulge by
saying, "You can do as we do;" and, believing it,
he has taken the glass, lost his self-control, entered
on a protracted debauch, and come to himself in the
gutter, or in jail.
Now, I propose to explain the difference between
these three classes, over which the world at large is
58
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
puzzled, and which medical science has not clearly
recognized, if it has even comprehended up to the
present time that they do exist. Only a short time
since, one of the leading physicians in the city said
to me, "Why is it that these men cannot control
themselves? Why will they run off into sprees?
We doctors do not understand it. We have tried to
treat them for it, but we invariably failed to cure,
while you have succeeded time and again. It is a
mystery."
The mistake of neglecting to look at life as it
really is, and our relations to it, is the result of error
and ignorance in reference to this subject. It is an
old fallacy to take for granted a greater uniformity in
nature than exists. The marvelous thing is not life's
uniformity, but its infinite, inexhaustible variety. The
true student of human nature must grasp the relations
man sustains to life, and to his Creator.
There are no two things created the same. Wing
your way among the planets, suspended in space
around us, and you will find this to be true of them.
Now, my idea of the planetary system is, that God
thinks more of Soul Life than he does of mineral life,
water life, tree life or animal life. He acts with wise.
and benevolent designs, and he never hung the planets.
in the heavens, gave them their centrifugal and cen-
tripetal forces, which hold them in their respective
orbits, and propel them on with incredible velocity,
NARCOTICS-WHY USED
59
unless he had in view a wise and benevolent purpose.
I think that the Almighty has displayed as much
design in the creation of other spheres as in the creation
of our own world. He made them and hung them in
their positions, and controls them in their orbits as
they circle around their centers, that Soul Life may
honor and praise Him-that life which alone can ap-
preciate the Creator's marvelous works.
It seems to me that God must regard with greater
interest that which can know him, and love him, and
honor him, than he does the rock, the tree, and the
animal, that are incapable of thought. "Oh, Lord,
how manifold are Thy works, in wisdom hast Thou
made them all." Hence, these planets were made by
wise design, and are probably peopled like our own.
Now, as you ascend through space toward thesc orbs,
examine their atmospheres; see if you find any two
the same. Their velocity around their common cen-
ters, their rocks, their mountains and valleys, gorges
and canyons, deserts and plains, have each and all their
individualities. Just one inch from the common cen-
ter everything weighs less, according to size, and thus
as you compare one planet with another, you will
find no two alike.
But, descending to our own world, are there any
two oceans alike? Any two channels? Any two
sounds? Any two lakes? Any two rivers? Any
two rivulets? Any two springs?
60
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
Compare the mountains that lift their snow-capped
tops above the clouds-are there any two alike? The
canyons, the gorges, the valleys, the plains, the deserts
are there any two alike?
The rocks that lie upon the surface-look at them;
crumble them to the smallest pieces, even to the finest
atoms, and compare the atoms themselves-are there
any two alike?
Delve down into the crust of the earth, and exam-
ine the different strata that form its surface. Dig out
the millions of petrified remains, and compare any
one with another. It is true that geologists have
classified these rocks; given names to the different
eras in which they were deposited, and divided the
organic petrified remains into classes and sub-classes,
but take any two of the same class of these millions
and billions, and compare them-do you find any two
alike?
Take the sand on the seashore, and subject it to
the microscope. Look at those glittering orbs catch-
ing and reflecting the sunbeams; see how transparent
they are. But the very law that crystallizes them
also differentiates them so that no two grains are
alike. The prismatic rays and variegated colors
that gleam and play upon their surfaces are not alike.
The closer you scrutinize, the greater the magnifying
power of your lens is, the more conspicuous will be
their differences, and diversified their variety.
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
61
Direct your attention to the Vegetable Kingdom.
Here the botanist has made his divisions and sub-
divisions, until he reaches an enormous classification
of trces, shrubs, flowers and plants. But, among the
great variety of trees alone, select two oaks, and com-
mence with the little, sponge-like roots that run out
and ramify in a perfect web-work beneath the surface
of the ground, sucking in with their myriad mouths
the fluids which contain the salts and minerals, and
which enter into the very substance of the tree
itself; compare one spongiole root with another, and
follow them as they run back into larger roots, until
you reach the trunk-do you find any two alike?
When you come to the trunk, examine it; take the
bark on the surface and compare it with the bark on
any other oak-are there any two pieces identically
the same? No.
As you pass up the tree to the limbs, you discover
that there are no two limbs alike on the same tree,
much less on two different oaks. Follow these limbs
out as they divide off into smaller limbs, and run out
to the very ends where the leaves are attached; then
examine the under side of those leaves where the
little mouths are located that suck in the gases, as
the mouths in the roots imbibe the moisture and the
salts, and, comparing these leaves, can you discover
any two between which it is impossible to distin-
guish? How many different shades of the black, the
62
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
red, the green, the yellow, are observable in this
kingdom, and who can tell where one runs into
another?
Take the lilac, the rose, the violet-any two flow-
ers that belong to the same class; examine the petals,
sepals, stamens, the calyx and the leaves, and you
will not find two alike. Take a flower in your hand,
magnify it, and in its exquisite hues it would seem as
if God had exhausted the rich and varied colors of
the rainbow to ornament and beautify it; and yet
there are no two flowers that are colored just alike.
Proceed to the animal kingdom. Here the zo-
ologists have divided and sub-divided until we are
confronted with a catalogue which itself shows the
almost inexhaustible variety of animal existence.
Take two of any class, and the same truth which has
confronted us up to this point, comes distinctly out.
Select the elephant for examination, and com
mencing with its proboscis, run up to the shoulder
and you will not find the skin of any two alike.
Even in color and the thickness of the skin there will
be always some observable difference. Continue o cr
the back of the elephant down to its limbs, and you
will not find two limbs alike. When we reach the
animal kingdom, we have gone higher than the min-
eral, and higher than the vegetable. We find that
animals possess these: Emotions and desires. You
will see on the chart under the head of "Animal,
the power and relation of these endowments.
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
63
The animal has the same sensibilities as´are pos-
sessed by man, only in a much less developed condi-
tion. The animal has what we call instinct, or a low
order of intelligence to control it, as is clearly dem-
onstrated by the fact that it possesses and exercises
the faculty of memory.
But take any two animals of the same class, and
see how the affections differ. Incur the ill-will of
some dogs, and you can never recover their favor,
whilst others seem speedily to forget an injury and
become even more affectionate than before. Trace,
then, all the sensibilities they possess, study their
manifestations; and you will find that there are no
two alike.
We take a step still higher, and come to the mas-
terpiece of Divine mechanism, the crown of creation,
the highest combination of matter embodied in the
most intricate, symmetrical and perfect of physical
organisms, the microcosmical Man.
Take the human skull, and examine any two and
will you find them alike? Take the forehead, nose,
mouth, chin, the neck, chest, the arms, legs, feet, hands,
the little lines you see in the hands, there is invariably
a distinguishable difference in different individuals.
Take the hair; can you find that of any two persons
of precisely the same shade or color? The closer
you scrutinize them the further they are found to
diverge.
*
64
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
What then, is the reason of this endless variety?
Why is it that as you travel through the realms of
the physical world you do not find any two particles,
features, functions or manifestations alike? Is there
a purpose here? Has infinite wisdom a design in
this?
In the middle of a vast prairie a little shrub is
growing. God places me beside the shrub. I am
quite like it so far as my physical body is concerned ;
that is, I am made of similar material elements. I do
not know, in my infant ignorance, any more of the
physical world around me than it knows of me. But
in the home which God has made for the Soul, he
placed these all-conquering faculties by which we not
only see and hear, but compare, conceive, perceive,
reason and think.
To begin with, however, these faculties are dor-
mant or undeveloped faculties in me, they are merely
as yet, possibilities or potentialities, and I am there-
fore like the little shrub. I differ from it only that I
have the faculties by which I may know. Now, how
am I to go on to knowledge? How are these facul-
ties to become more than a mere potentiality? How
am I to wake up out of this "know-nothing" condi-
tion into a "know-something" one?
I have the sensibilities, the intellectual faculties,
the moral affections; but they are not developed.
Now, suppose the wind in blowing across the prairie
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
65
shakes the shrub, and one of its little twigs strikes my
hand. The contact arouses an impulse of the sensibili.
ties-the sense of feeling. I have never been conscious
of the possession of this sense before. Conscious-
ness grasps it, and the contact of the twig with my
hand has created in me, through the hand, an impulse
that the shrub never has. The wind blows still
harder, and my coat comes in contact with my other
hand. There is an impulse different from that expe-
rienced when struck by the twig. In this perception
of difference there is a thought. The mind discrim-
inates between the touch of the twig and that of the
coat; it asserts the idea of difference, and in so doing
the mind thinks.
The grass grows long and wavy around me. The
breeze separates the long blades before me, and I
catch sight of a charming little flower that is bloom-
ing in its inconspicuous beauty beneath me. I have
not seen it before, and, consequently, here follows
another thought-a comparison of the flower with
the surrounding blades of grass. And so, from know-
ing nothing, I obtain knowledge only as I develop
the Relation of Differences. I can only know as I
read and study these relations.
How do I get the idea of swiftness? I move my
hand quickly, and that is called swiftness. How do
I arrive at the idea? Only as I contrast it with slow-
The idea of high exists only in contrast with
ness.
S
66
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
the idea of low. So is it with the ideas of light and
darkness, hatred and love. And thus we should find
it, if we were to go completely through the vast
treasures of the mind. We can know nothing except
as we develop and study these relations of differ-
ences.
In the remote ages of the past, before the world
was, God wished to create a being to serve, honor
and appreciate him. To this end it was necessary
that he should create a being with an intelligent and
moral nature. For a man to know anything, he must
be able to discern the differences between things.
How can I appreciate God, then, as a Being of justice
and truth, unless I know the co-relation that exists by
virtue of these differences between truth and error,
right and wrong?
You go to a store with the intention of purchasing
a suit of clothes. You tell the merchant you wish
to buy some cloth to make a suit. He places a roll
on the counter, and tells you the price per yard.
Now, how are you to determine the value of that
cloth? Only as you carefully examine its thickness,
strength of texture, its color and nap, and then con-
trast it with another piece that you know something
about.
You want a farm, and, going out to Dakota, see a
place that seems to answer. You ask the owner the
price of the farm. He tells you thirty dollars an acre.
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
67
1
How are you to arrive at the value of this land?
Only as you compare it with other farms that you
have known. The soil you must compare with
other soils. Its proximity to a market and to the
county seat must be taken into account. In short,
the value of the farm is arrived at only by com-
parison.
Here are twenty men before you, and the closer
you examine them the more you will discover that
they differ each from all the rest. In fact, you recog-
nize a person only as you perceive the differences
that exist between him and others.
If you could call from the grave the billions that
have been incarcerated there, and add to them the
more than a billion that populate the earth to-day,
and then could penetrate into the future, and add to
this mighty multitude already mustered, the billions
that will yet people the world,' and make all pass in
grand review before you-in this vast host you would
not find any two alike.
Now God, in primeval times, created in His wis-
dom, the various simple constituent elements of which
is composed the inanimate physical universe. These
elements have united and separated under the action
of the Law of Affinity, so that change has followed
change; there has been formation and transformation,
until we have the present wonderful Terraqueous
and Solar systems. Through this same Law of Affin-
}
68
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
+
ity the old Granitic and Syenitic rocks, the Chalk,
the Limestone, the Slate and the Coal formations;
the minerals-Iron, Copper, Gold and Silver, and the
entire deposits of the earth, were formed. The sim-
ple constituent elements have been thus, under the
control and direction of the Creator, ordained for the
use, sustenance, growth and development of the
physical, intellectual and moral Man.
We can discover a meaning and a purpose in the
formation of these strata of coal and iron, in these
veins of copper and silver, in these deposits of gold.
These millions of varieties of petrified organic re-
mains in the earth exist by no mere accident; nor is
it the unintelligent caprice of chance in charge of the
volcanic agencies which has lifted up these mountains,
or directed the corrosive forces which have crumbled
the boulders to atoms, and prepared the soil to grow
the grain, from which we obtain our food.
All these primeval forces and elements, during the
formation period, were working for a grand and noble
object—the development of Soul Life. An essential
necessary means to that end was a physical world, a
vast laboratory for this development. As we find
the relation of differences running through the whole
physical world, so will we find them in the soul of
man. Not only was this magnificent physical uni-
verse created for the development of the soul, but also
that by its discipline and instruction, it might lead
the soul to God.
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
69
It is a grand thing to have a soul, and it is a glori-
ous thought that its Creator who has so richly and
variously endowed it, makes ample provision for its
perfect growth and endless fruition. Each man, how-
ever, has his part to perform, which no one can
undertake for him, as God has given to him alone the
necessary apparatus and requisite qualifications for
this department of the work.
What a sublime truth it is that this is God's
world, and that we belong to it, and that he placed
us here that we might grow up into Him intellect-
ually and morally.
The man who is most studious of his duty will
know the most of God. The great trouble is that
we are apt to become discontented with our own
sphere, and to envy that of some other person. The
all-absorbing thought of the father and mother, in
reference to the future of their children, should be,
how to lead them into that field of life-work for
which they have been divinely adapted, and to pre-
vent them from entering those for which they are
manifestly disqualified.
Suppose this physical world were a great undi-
vided field; now partition it off into as many tracts
as there are beings to cultivate them. Each being is
allotted a field or section adapted to his qualifications
to cultivate, and develop the resources of the soil. It
is plain that his happiness and success will depend
七
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
upon his remaining where he was appointed, and
accomplishing the work for which he was commis-
sioned. The moment, however, he crosses the line,
and enters his neighbor's domain, then sorrow, fail-
ure, war and confusion will result. There will be
friction, for his work is not his neighbor's, nor his
neighbor's his. Physically and morally, in our pecul-
iar talents and qualifications we are different, and if
we forsake our allotted task in the vain pursuit of
what is adapted to and designed for others, then duty
remains undischarged, and our fields uncultivated.
For each one has all that he can do to cultivate his
own field.
Oh, with what wisdom, earnestness and faithful-
ness, should we cultivate our respective fields and
perform our individual tasks in life!
Infinite variety, then, is the truth of creation. All
the developments of science cannot overthrow it.
Science can classify, divide and subdivide, but it
must recognize that, under a common name, each
individual thing has some mark of difference, some
distinctive feature. This is true alike of the oceans,
and of the grains of sand upon their shores. It is
true of the oak, and of the lichen on the rock. Every
single flower has an individuality. Animal life, from
the greatest to the least, tells the same story; and
when we reach its summit, and contemplate Man,
the crown of creation, the masterpiece of God's
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
71
handiwork-the link between dust and glory, and
between earth and heaven, we find the truth that no
two things, or beings are alike, emphasized.
The more we study human nature, endowed as it
is with intellectual faculties, moral affections, emo-
tions and desires, the more we are impressed with
this endless variety. We look upon some beautiful
landscape, and select each one for himself some
aspect as the most charming. We listen to music,
and have our individual likes and dislikes. Our very
palates have their individual preferences.
Think of all the faces in the world, and yet each
individual would consider himself wronged, if he
were mistaken for some one else. Why, the admin-
istration of justice would to a great extent be ren-
dered impossible, if all the millions in the world had
not each a recognizable identity; and, if the face is
capable of such infinite modification, what shall we
say of the soul that dwells within? Each spiritual
man has an individuality, is in some way different
from every other. No two intellects are alike; no two
moral natures; no two emotional natures are alike.
We are all different. Your thoughts are not my
thoughts. Your desires are not my desires; your
love is not mine.
There is infinite purpose and use in this, as we
shall at a later stage, make clear to ourselves. It
has to do with the very nature of knowledge, and the
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
existence of Soul Life. It has its origin in the wisdom
and benevolence of God.
Whilst, however, there are no two human beings
alike, yet when we come to the moral nature, the
race is made one in community of interest. The
Moral Law, as revealed in the word of God, is so
simple and plain that it lies level with the feeblest
intellect. The moral relations are so important, and
the destiny of the immortal soul is so great, that God
could not permit man to be without a compass on
the voyage across the stormy ocean of lite. As men
read and ponder this Revealed Will of God, the
moral code becomes plain, and the rules of action so
intelligible, that the simplest may know his whole
duty to God and man.
CHAPTER IV.
PLEASURES OF A MORAL LIFE-GOD AND HIS STANDARD OF RIGHT—
COMPARISON OF THREE BROTHERS-THEY DIFFER MUCH EACH
FROM THE OTHERS-THE CHARACTER AND LIFE OF EACH DRAWN
OUT-NIGHT WORKERS MORE LIABLE TO TAKE INTOXICANTS THAN
DAY WORKERS-PERIODICAL DRINKERS, AS A RULE, MEN OF GE-
NIUS AND ABILITY-GREAT POETS AND ORATORS MENTIONED-
EXPLANATION OF WHY A LARGE CLASS OF DRINKING MEN HAVE
SPREES—WHY MEN, TRYING TO REFORM, SO OFTEN FAIL-PA-
RENTS FREQUENTLY TO BLAME.
The pleasures emanating from a moral life are not
only more enduring than those that spring from the
animal emotions and desires, but they make man God-
like, whilst under the sway of the latter he is, as a
rule, degraded to the level of the brute. Bring,
however, the animal emotions and desires under the
control of the moral nature, and they add to the hap-
piness and perſection of the race. Hence we perceive
that whilst in the physical and moral world there are
no two alike, yet these conditions but enhance and
develop the possibilities of mankind, and we see that :
God and His Standard of Right are always the same.
They are the only two objects in the universe that
never have changed, nor ever can change.
The more we know of God the more we love
(73)
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
Him. The more we know of the moral law, and de-
velop it in our lives, the more we shall love it.
What we have at this point to keep steadily be-
fore us is, that just as in the physical and animal
creation there is endless variety, so is it in the intel-
lectual, moral and emotional spheres. In very vital
regards we are not alike, and it is not right or true
to say that what one does, another necessarily may;
that what one feels another should feel; that the re-
sult of a certain course of action will be the same for
this man and for that—in a word, we are confronted
with a reason in the very nature of things. Why
there should be different divisions or classes in the
grand army which we began by referring to, and thạt
reason will manifest itself in the clearest light, if we
consider what follows:
Here are three little boys, who belong to the same
family but who differ each from the others. That
they are brothers does not alter the fact of their
marked dissimilarity of disposition. They are play-
ing together. Look at Johnny. As he enjoys him-
self with the other boys, you are surprised at the
contrast he presents to them. He moves at his
leisure. No rapid, quick action with him. His talk
is not energetic, nor does it seem possible to excite
him. You tread on his toe, and he will look up as
much as to say, "I wish you would get off my toe!"
He is undemonstrative. Give him a present and he
NARCOTICS - WHY USED.
75
will quietly thank you. But there is no ecstacy. He
appreciates his father and mother but does not mani-
fest any strong affection. Johnny moves along in
long lines. Ask his mother about him and she will
tell you that he has an even temperament. He con-
trols himself; has no trouble with the boys; never
has a black eye, because he keeps right along in the
same track.
He will never set the world on fire,
because it is not in him.
His brother Henry is altogether a different boy
from him. He talks faster, his laugh is louder, and
his step quicker. He is ahead of Johnny in every-
thing. Tread on his toe and he will look up and bid
you get off, for you are hurting him. So you are
hurting him, and he cannot help expressing it. Give
him a present, and he more than appreciates it. It
arouses his admiration and delight, which are openly
expressed. He is more apt to get into trouble than
Johnny.
The third brother, Willie, stands out again in con-
trast to the other two. His emotions and desires are
like a mountain torrent; he cannot be quiet or easy a
moment. Amongst the boys he is always the leader.
He walks at a greater speed, runs more swiftly, and
talks loudest of all; and, when injured or incensed,
gets angrier than do the others. He will not merely
order you peremptorily off his toe, but his fist will
dart out, and, if it should come in contact with a play-
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
mate somewhat like himself, there will be a pair of
black eyes.
The fact is, that Willie is getting into trouble all
the time. He loves intensely, and hates bitterly. He
is warmly attached to father and mother, brother and
sister, playmate and friend. He has strong emo-
tions that, when fully aroused, irresistibly impel him.
When he was an infant and hurt, he suffered in his
feelings, and how long it took his mother to soothe
and quiet the little fellow to sleep! Even as he lay
with his head pillowed on his mother's bosom, his
sleep was broken by sobs and cries. When he grew
older, he was thinking, long before Christmas came,
of Santa Claus, dreaming of the presents, so that on
Christmas eve he could hardly contain himself. He
insisted on seeing that the stocking was hung in the
right place. His short snatches of sleep were full of
resplendent visions, and he was the first up in the
morning examining the gifts. It was a time for him
of joy and ecstacy.
Now, the thought is that no three boys are alike.
We have, in the case instanced, the two extremes in
Johnny and Willie. But we cannot draw a line b‹-
tween the two extremes and call it the mean, any
more than we can draw the line where one color runs
into another. Emotions and desires exist in combi-
nations of such infinitely various strength, that it is
impossible for us to put our finger on any precise
}
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
77
line and say that that marks off one class from an-
other. We see broadly and clearly the differences of
disposition between the three boys taken as typical,
but in actual experience there is such endless shading
off of character in different individuals that the laying
down of any hard and fast line becomes an impos-
sibility.
In the light of these remarks, let us see in what
respects these children differ. They do so in their
intellect, and conscience, and moral affections. (See
Chart.) They differ also in their will power. I wish,
however, to direct attention especially to the emo-
tions and desires.
Now Johnny, we know, has very weak emotions,
or he would exhibit them more in his life and be-
havior, for the will of a child is controlled by his
emotions, before the moral and intellectual are de-
veloped. His reflective powers and moral nature
have thus proportionately little to control.
Henry, again, has stronger emotions and desires.
In proportion to the strength of the emotions will be
the strength of the desires. If you find a dollar, it
will only awaken a slight emotion, for its intensity
will be determined by the value of the thing found,
and according to the degree of emotion will be the
degree of desire of possession. If you find ten thou-
sand dollars, it will awaken the desire of possession
ten thousand times more than the one dollar. Now,
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
Henry has stronger emotions and desires than John-
ny, and Willie differs from both, his emotions and
desires being like a rushing river. The will (see
Chart) lies between the moral affections and the emo-
tions and desires. When the moral affections are the
stronger they control through the will; but when the
emotions and desires are the more powerful then they
dominate the will.
These three lads grow up and learn to drink with
their companions. The alcohol, in its very nature,
weakens the moral affections, the better judgment,
the sense of right, the reasoning powers, and, as these
lose their hold upon the will, the emotions and de-
sires grow stronger and stronger. The moral nature
having lost its tone and power, the animal desires
triumph, and the man stalks forth dominated by pas-
sion and lust. Herein lies the devil of drink, and I
cannot emphasize it too strongly. The subtle influ-
ence of alcohol, when it passes into the brain,
strikes down the conscience, God's vicegerent, be-
wilders the intellect, destroys the moral affections,
and leaves a man at the mercy of the animal desires.
Johnny drinks, and his conscience is more or less
obliterated, his reason prostituted, his better judg-
ment, sense of right, and moral affections weakened
-and thus in consequence is diminished the moral
power of the will. But his animal emotions and de-
sires are not potent enough to overcome his moral
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
79
nature, and so drive him to excess. He will not pro-
ceed to the extreme of drunkenness. Hence he will
drink all his life, and not become an inebriate. It is
the animal emotions and desires that drive men to
intoxication in order to relieve their sufferings, but
these are not strong enough in him to prove his ruin.
Henry drinks, and is affected in a like way. He
approaches disaster, for his emotions and desires are
stronger, but unless special circumstances in addition
to the alcohol excite his emotions beyond control,
he will not go on to intoxication. These circum-
stances may be the holidays, election days, some
splendid bargain or disastrous failure, some unprece-
dented sale with large profits. Then he may indulge
to excess; but, the occasion over, he will drink in
moderation right along until some such circumstance
as the foregoing recurs to upset his balance again,
and precipitate him into another debauch. Henry is
what I would call a circumstantial drunkard. In the
great army of drinking men you will find many of
this class.
We now come to him whom we knew as a little
boy, Willie, all action, all life, perpetually getting
into trouble. His emotional nature is so strong that
it forces him into complications before he is aware
of it. That moment in which alcohol passes from his
stomach into his brain he cannot control himself.
The impetuous current of his emotions and desires
с
80
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
carries everything before it. He will go to excess,
and he cannot help it. Whenever he weakens the
moral nature, which God gave him to control these
emotions and desires-as alcohol does weaken it-he
is like a staggering ship without a helm to guide it
amid the ocean's wastes, driven before an angry
tempest.
When Willie takes his first glass, he starts on his
first debauch. For him to drink is to go to excess,
and for him to continue to drink is to become an
inebriate. No power can save him. It is in accord-
ance with the irrevocable law of God. It is a part
of the law of compensation; for the very forces that
drive him to excess and nake him a drunkard, are
the very same, which if under the control of the moral
nature as divinely designed, would make him the
grandest, noblest man of the three. He cannot be
an idler, for these intense emotions will not suffer him
to remain inactive.
Many leading merchants, railroad men, and other
employers of laborers have said to me: "The best
men that we have, those who will do the most in the
least time, whether as clerks, accountants, telegraph
operators, printers, compositors or reporters, are these
periodical inebriates." How many and thrilling the
illustrations. Take for example, Edgar Allan Poe.
His was a singularly sensitive genius. Few have been
so sweetly gifted as he. He seemed destined to cre-
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
81
ate melodies for mankind to be cherished throughout
all the ages. He sings so thrillingly that we forget
the singer in the voice. He was all soul, all emotion,
as fervid a genius as our American country has pro-
duced. He should not have dared to touch a nar-
cotic, but doing so, and being speedily chained to the
rock of an inglorious habit, he became the victim of
this fatal moral malady. A child of sorrow and of
song he fell in the noontide of life, and the knell that
sounded over him was like his own lines in "The
Bells:
"Iron bells;
Every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats,
Is a groan!"
Take Byron. What a mind! What an imagina-
tion! But he allowed the animal nature to control
the moral, and how impure he became. He endeav-
ored to array licentiousness and depravity in the
garb of decency. How amid the elegancies of pol-
ished periods, richest rhetoric, flowing numbers and
poetical imagery, he weaves the tangled web of en-
chantment around us. With what subtlety and dex-
terity he endeavors to make libertinism respectable.
The history of English Literature, indeed, abounds
in instances which are pregnant with warnings on this
subject. Genius has been shorn, beggared, dis-
graced, extinguished by narcotics. The glories of
:
6
82
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
the Elizabethan era, the golden age of English Litera-
ture, are dimmed when we read of the many brilliant
writers who ruined and shortened their lives by
drink. The reign of Queen Anne, the time of Addi-
son and Steele, tells the same story.
The poet Burns, whose name is a household word
all over the world, allowed alcohol, or as he might
have said, "John Barley-corn," to ruin his career and
dig his grave.
We referred to Byron, but were there not at the
same date, Coleridge the poet and philosopher, and
afterward his precocious and brilliant son, Hartley,
not immoral in their writings, but still alas! the vic-
tims of an immoral and ruinous habit! When we
think of the brilliant circle of that time, do not we
feel infinite regret for the scholarly and graceful De
Quincey, and the quaint and genial Charles Lamb?
Take Daniel Webster, the defender of the Consti-
tution, the man whose burning thoughts and breath-
ing words held thronging multitudes and listening
Senate in rapt attention. And as Bunker Hill's mon-
ument, with which are linked his name and fame,
shall perpetuate the memory of the noble efforts of
our Fathers in the sacred cause of Liberty, so will
the memory of Daniel Webster ever remain im-
pressed on the minds of America's sons as an illustra-
tion of the awful power and destructive influence of
inebriation.
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
83
10
Oh, how many noble and able statesmen of the
most eminent nations of the world, after having
established a world-wide reputation for statesmanship
and eloquence, went down in the same maelstrom of
ruin and death!
Now let us recur to our example, the third of the
brothers, him of whom it was said that for him to
drink, endowed as he was, was to become a drunk-
ard; he could not help it; the very forces that make
him so would establish him as the grand and noble
man God designed him to be. Let us think of those
Willies, those who became periodical drunkards.
Calling up, by imagination, the past, you can see the
Johnnies that drank, drank but never went to excess.
You see the Henrys, who in peculiar circumstances
went wrong, but mainly observed moderation; but
where are the Willies-those genial, laughing, frolic-
some, whole-souled boys, who commenced drinking
with you in those early days? They are degraded
drunkards, or to-day fill prison cells, insane asylums
or premature graves.
Does it still remain incomprehensible why we
have these three divisions among the drinking classes?
Surely not. The differences of disposition, of natu-
ral endowment, which bring them about, have their
foundation in the design of the Creator, in the immu-
table laws of God. The alcohol is the same, but
they are not alike who partake of it.
84
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
The Almighty has seen fit, not only to create in-
finite variety in nature, but out of the same elements
in our constitution, to make men of widely different
temperaments and dispositions. We can to a great
extent sce the wisdom and benevolence of his pur-
pose; but God never intended, we may be certain,
that the race should use narcotics to strike down the
moral nature, and sink man below the level of the
brute.
One of the greatest mysteries connected with this
drink habit, and one that has puzzled the medical fra-
ternity for ages is, why a large class of drinking men
have periodical sprees. By reference to the Chart, I
think I can easily afford the explanation.
Given a man with strong emotions and desires,
one such as was pictured in Willie. The character
is so common that it has been met with in the experi-
ence of every one. We readily recognize Willie.
Alcohol weakens the conscience, bewilders the intel-
lectual faculties, overthrows the moral affections,
whilst, under its influence, the animal emotions and
desires grow stronger. The will is thus enlisted on
the side of, and is controlled by these latter, so that
when such a one drinks, it is only a matter of time,
after the first glass is taken, before he becomes drunk.
When Willie wakes up out of his first debauch, how
miserable he feels! Does he admire the spree? (See
Chart.) Is he delighted with his course? Does he
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
85
discover any beauty or sublimity in having been
drunk? No. On the contrary, how he wonders at
his conduct, and what a contempt for himself he has !
Sorrow, fear, horror, and despair haunt him, con-
stantly reminding him of the forfeiture of his man-
hood, and the disgrace of his character. How in-
tensely humiliated and mortified he feels! "I have
done," he cries, "just what I hated most of all things
to do. What a consummate fool I have made of my-
self! But I will never, never do it again! I will
never, never touch another drop!" When he speaks
thus, he is as sincere as an angel. The very emotions
that drove him to drink, and led him through the
stages, first of desire, next, satisfaction, and third,
satiety, and finally to self-loathing and utter disgust
—these same emotions which precipitated him into a
dreadful debauch, now changed, give him that lion-
like will, which determines him never to drink again.
Still, however, these emotions are on the animal side
of his nature, and although he is undoubtedly in
earnest, this resolve of his is not reform. He does
not think of strengthening his moral affections.
The difficulty is that he takes emotional disgust
for reformation, and hence, when the emotions
change, as the disgust wears off, he is driven to drink
again by the force of the very same emotions and
desires. Every periodical drunkard commits this
mistake, and that is why he does not reform. He
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
continues to associate with the Johnnies and Henrys
of his acquaintance, but, in the strength of his new
resolve, does not drink. By and by they say, "Have
a glass of beer or wine." "No," he answers, "I made
a fool of myself once; I can't touch it." "But look
here," it is urged, "you are no man at all if you can't
take a single glass." Now he does not know why it
is that he cannot drink as others do; hence he says to
himself, "I believe that I can take a glass too, for
I am certainly as much a man as any of them."
So he takes a glass, innocently, for he knows no
better. He does not know himself. As he does so, he
weakens his power of control, and arouses again his
emotions. It is only a matter of time before he takes
the second glass and the third, the end being another
debauch. The scene, when he comes to himself, is
acted over again. His emotions rise up and thunder
home to him again his guilt and shame. He says,
"Twice I have made a fool of myself, and I will never
drink again." But he is no further on. He has not
brought up the moral forces yet. When the emo-
tions subside, as after a time they are certain to do,
he is left without a prop to hold him up. Months
and sometimes a year or more elapse before he is
induced to take another glass, just one, but it is the
same old story, he gets drunk again. This course
continued, and a periodical appetite or demand is
created in his sensibilities, and habit finally fixed, he
soon becomes a habitual, periodical drunkard.
NARCOTICS-WHY USED.
87
And thus the mystery is solved. The process is
governed by an inexorable law. A habit is thus
created. Would that the millions understood this
great law! If men and women, of strong emotional
natures use narcotics, they must expect to become
slaves to them, and if they continue in the use of
them, they will become periodical slaves.
The idea prevalent among moderate drinkers,
many physicians, and thousands of men and women
who never drink, that a reformed man can drink a
glass of wine, beer, ale, or cider without going to the
gutter, is not true.
During my experience in The Washingtonian
Home, a gentleman of character, ability and affluence
called to see me. As I met him in the parlor he in-
formed me that he had a son in The Home concern-
ing whom he desired to make a few inquiries. He
proceeded to say that he did not wish to see him
and even went on to denounce him as the only
black sheep in the family, the cause of all the trouble
they ever had, etc. I listened until he had finished,
and then asked a few questions:
"Was his son as
desires? When
a boy strong in his emotions and
he loved did he love with all his heart, and when
he hated did he do so with equal intensity? Was
he the charm and sunshine of his home? Always
active, always doing something?" To all these
questions the father replied in the affirmative, and
2
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
said further, that "he had been really the life and
cheer of his home, loving all and being loved
by all; that he had a beautiful wife and three as
lovely children as any one could wish for. But, oh,
how he has abused us all! I do not wish to see
him, for I know I shall say too many hard things
to him."
I then inquired if he kept and used liquors in his
family.
"I have always," he answered, "had them in my
cellar and on my table, and we have all used them
moderately. He is the only one that has gone to
excess, and made a fool of himself."
I then explained to him how that alcohol weak-
ened his boy's conscience, his moral affections and
better judgment, and how on the other hand his re-
inforced emotions and desires drove him to excess.
"Perhaps," I ventured to add, "your son is not the
only one to blame. Perhaps his father and mother
will have to bear their share for his misdoings."
After explaining as well as I could, I paused for a
reply. It came thus;
“I see that I did not know my boy, and I have not
taken the right course with him. I have abused him,
when I myself was to blame. Ignorantly I placed the
wine before him, and ignorantly I have made him a
drunkard. Where is my son? let me see him."
As his son entered the room the father arose
NARCOTICS-WHY Used.
89
and embraced him as affectionately as a father ever
could. I left the room. The next day the father
returned to his home. In a few weeks a request
came for his son to go. He went, and from that
time to this he has lived happily with his family
and friends. The father saw that his son could not
be a moderate drinker.
Periodical drunkards are the Williams, as a rule,
who, when they take the first glass, cannot avoid
becoming intoxicated.
These lessons ought to be well pondered by all
concerned, and every one is concerned directly or
indirectly. A reformed man cannot become a mod-
erate drinker. If he does not want to become a gutter-
drunkard he must forever repudiate that first glass; he
must be an absolutely total abstainer from every-
thing that intoxicates. Banish, too, forever from the
mind, the delusion that emotional power is refor
mation.
Read the history of this country. When the In-
dians used to enter neighborhoods and massacre the
inhabitants, men and women sick with fevers, appar-
ently unable to leave their beds, were there. When
the herald arrived and cried, "The Indians, the In-
dians are coming," these men and women would
spring from their beds, although under other circum-
stances totally unable to sit upright, and under the
impulse of the moment and the emotion of fear, would

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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
run like deer through the forest. But, safety secured
and emotion dying away, they frequently fell dead
on the spot. They were sustained by emotional
strength.
Here are two armies approaching each other.
One side is in the right, and knows it; the other is
in the wrong, but under the emotions excited by
martial music, and the inspiriting influence of the
stirring appeals by their fearless commanders, they
rush into battle, and fight nobly for awhile. Vain,
however, will be their desperate and impetuous
charges, for they are fighting with nothing but emo-
tion to sustain them, while the enemy has emotion
uniting with the moral nature-the consciousness of
the righteousness of their cause to back them, and
nothing can resist their onward advance. They must
prevail.
Oh, what a mighty being a man may be with his
emotional nature directed and supported by his con-
science and moral affection! But the man who trusts
only in his emotional nature to battle with the power
of drink, never has conquered, and never will conquer.
CHAPTER V.
OF THE CREATION OF MATTER-DAY AND NIGHT-OF THE PHYSICAL
SENSATIONS-VARIETIES IN NATURE-ELEMENTARY SUBSTANCES-
HOW SO FEW OF THEM CAN PRODUCE SUCH A VAST VARIETY OF
RESULTS-THE CHANGES IN NATURE-UNION AND SEPARATION OF
GASES INVOLVING LIFE AND DEATH--DECOMPOSITION-COMBUS-
TION-LIFE IMPLIES ACTION AND UNION-DEATII, ACTION AND
SEPARATION-ADAPTATIONS OF SOUL AND BODY-LIFE DEPENDS ON
ACTION AND CHANGE-ADMIRATION FOR THE CREATOR.
Bara is a Hebrew word which means creating
something from nothing. Asah is also a Hebrew
term signifying to transform anew that which has
already been created. Three times in the first chap-
ter of the Bible Bara is used, viz., when matter, when
animal life, and when man was created. On the
other hand, when the days and nights are spoken of,
Asah is used, because this was simply a new arrange-
ment, or division of duration which already existed.
All was chaos, gascous space, until under the word
Asah came the changes and transformations of matter.
Now, as we look out with our sensitive sight,
everything that we can see-the vast variety of ob-
jects that appear to our bewildered vision belongs to,
and is made of matter. Everything that the ear can
hear, the harmonious sounds that delight and charm
A
(91).
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
the heart, are but the reflected sounds of matter. It
is necessary to taste that there be matter, for there
must be something to taste. All the senses, there-
fore, have matter as their basis. Physical sensations
would otherwise be an impossibility.
Now, view the innumerable variations in the for-
mation of matter; see it thrown into the form of
worlds, suns and galaxies; see the mountain whose
gray and glittering peaks pierce the sky; the drops of
the ocean, the grass upon the plain; the trees of the
forest, the myriads of living creatures which throng
the water, and the air, and luxuriate on every lus-
cious product and in every open flower; or those of
more ponderous frame which plow the deep and rove
the forests; or, last of all, the highest type of animal
existence, who tenants every valley, and whose lordly
bearing proclaims him the head of creation's work—
man.
Nature is crowded, and numbers are confounded.
What mind can grasp the varieties in nature, as we
look out on God's marvelous creation? Yet every
unity in this vast sum was made of matter. Not-
withstanding these overwhelming and endless differ-
entiations of nature's formations, chemists, with all
the accumulated results of ages of experiment and
investigation, tell us that there are only about sixty-
five simple elements that enter into these innumera-
ble varieties.
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
93
Among these elements oxygen seems to be the
prime factor-the king of matter. (See Plate I.)
Oxygen is the great motive power under the law of
affinity, which God uses to produce these various
transformations. Take water and weigh it. Out of
every nine pounds you will find that eight are com-
posed of this one gas, oxygen. Delve down into the
earth, and, as you analyze, you will discover that
about one-half of everything that composes its crust
is oxygen.
The air is composed of nitrogen and oxygen; out
of every one-hundred parts twenty-two are oxygen.
Carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen also come in to serve
their purpose, and play their part in these great
changes in the physical universe.
The great Creator, when he brought from noth-
ing these simple elements called into existence a law,
which chemists term the Law of Affinity, and which
operates reciprocally between these elements. There
is a stronger affinity between some of these elements
than others. Thus, when oxygen in the atmosphere
lies among particles of nitrogen, there is not enough
affinity to produce any chemical change. It would
be like taking twenty-two shot and coloring them
red; then taking seventy-eight shot and coloring
them green, then placing them together; there being
no affinity to unite them, there could be no change.
But let a particle of oxygen come in contact with
2
94
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
two particles of hydrogen, and by the law of affinity
they would immediately unite, the result being a drop ·
of water.
Now, this law of affinity has been doing its work,
producing its vast and rapid changes, combinations
and transformations, since the primal dawn. From
the chaotic period, one stage of progress has fol-
lowed in quick succession upon the heels of another,
in the radical changes which have constantly been
going on under the operation of this silent and yet
omnipresent law. Every step in the series has been
an advance, as revealed in the discoveries of geology,
embracing the old Granitic formation, the Syenitic,
the Slate, the Chalk, the Coal and the various miner-
als, which give strength and durability to the earth's
structure, whilst at the same time they anticipate
many of the wants of the human race.
The rocks have been changed by the very same
forces that produced them. The gases, heat, rain,
and the winds attacking them, in co-operation with
the corroding power of oxygen, have crumbled them
into boulders, stones, gravel and alluvial soil.
This mighty globe once trembled upon its axis, as
subterranean fires ran hissing hot through its bowels,
and volcanic power with the noise of bellowing
thunder upheaved this continent, ruptured its strata,
overturned its mountains, and filled up its gorges.
Agencies, electrical, chemical, mechanical, caloric,
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
95
volcanic, atmospheric and aqueous, are still at work
upon the physical structure of the earth.
So this vast globe, rugged with mountains, in-
dented with valleys, burdened by cities and orna-
mented with forests, foliage and flowers, is permeated
with pillars of slate, and foundations of granite.
From these formations are produced by the mighty
forces of the various gases, the fertile soils that grow
in such wild luxuriance, the cereals and fruits that
sustain and cheer all forms of animate nature.
But how is it possible that only sixty-five simple
elements can produce such a vast multiplicity and
confusing variety of results? The best illustration I
can give you is the little rule that you found in the
back part of your arithmetic, called Geometrical
Progression. Take three figures and see how many
changes and different positions you can make them
assume, by putting one around the others in succes-
sion. Add another figure, and place it around these,
and these around it; add another figure, and yet
another, until you have sixty-five, and see what bil-
lions of changes and combinations you can effect.
Now, by making the given quantum of Oxygen,
in anything, a little more, and of something else a
little less, you have a new compound. Make Hydro-
gen a little more, and something else less, and you will
find another compound. Hence, some of the most
virulent poisons are composed of the same simple
96
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
*
elements which are found in our most nutritious
food. According to the number of atoms uniting, as
you subtract here and add there, so will be the variety
of the compound of things formed.
Nature is changing. The rocks themselves are
not still. All are full of hidden forces. Through the
little highways permeating these rocks there are gases
constantly passing and repassing, and so effecting a
change of nature and form. Gold is being hidden be-
yond the miser's reach; gems of beauty and value be-
yond the extravagance of Oriental story; and, per-
haps, beneath our very dwellings are vaulted caverns
rich with jewels, spangled with gems, and fretted with
gold.
Copper and coal, and all the minerals that are so
useful and indispensable to man, are being formed by
these transmogrifying forces under the law of affinity.
All is activity, and God seems to employ Oxygen as
the prime factor of physical life.
Stop the tree from sipping in the Oxygen at its roots
and its leaves, and it dies. Destroy the Oxygen that
the animal breathes into its lungs, and it dies. Stop
the Oxygen that enters into these highways of the
mineral kingdom, and change largely ceases. That
means death. Union of these gases and minerals, as
a rule, means life-separation, death. As they are
sipped in through the leaves and roots the tree grows;
but if they are cut off from the avenues through
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
97
which they enter, the tree dies. Sever a limb from
the tree. As it lies on the ground you watch it, but
do not observe any immediate change. Leave it,
however, for a few days, and you can see the poros-
ity getting deeper and softer. As you visit it day
after day, you notice a gradual change, until, finally,
the limb is all gone, save a little streak of ash on the
ground. Put another limb into the fire and watch it.
You will see the same process effected more quickly,
to be sure, but by the same forces, leading to the
same results—there will be only a little ash left.
The process is this: The Oxygen of the air is
combining with the Hydrogen, so generating water,
which passes into the earth or rises in the form of
vapor; the Oxygen unites also with the Carbon of the
wood, forming carbonic acid gas, which escapes into
the air. The most of the limb passes into the atmos-
phere, and but a little streak of ash remains on the
surface. We call that process of change death, which
means the separation of particles. The same process
goes on in the fire, only more rapidly, and we call it
combustion. When the process is so slow that it does
not produce combustion, then it is termed decom-
position, or decay. The same gaseous fingers that
accomplish the one accomplish the other, only they
move more deftly and rapidly in the former than in
the latter case.
Oxygen has also a strong affinity for Phosphorus.
98
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
7
This affinity, in fact, is so strong that Phosphorus has
to be bottled perfectly airtight, or the Oxygen getting
to it, will produce spontaneous combustion.
Physical life and Spiritual life imply action and
union, whilst death to these implies action and separa-
tion. There is no life without action, and no death
without action. Physical life implies union, and phys-
ical death, separation. Spiritual life means union with
God, and spiritual death, separation from God. No
annihilation of spirit, and no annihilation of gases and
salts.
There is such an exquisite adaptation between soul
and body that there cannot be an impulse of the one
or action of the other without the destruction of par-
ticles of matter. I cannot move my finger without
its cellular structure being changed. The action in
the system changes the cellular structure into a fluid,
and these fluids are absorbed by the veins; but in
that process of change Carbon and Hydrogen are
generated, hence venous blood is dark-that is, it has
too much Hydrogen and Carbon, and, therefore, is
conveyed by the circulation to the lungs, that the ex-
cess may be eliminated. The funtions of secretion and
excretion are very active, the latter in tearing down
the tissue when the body is in action, and the former
in building it up when the body is at rest.
Life depends then upon action and change. Stop
the food from which the arterial blood is made, and
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
99
:
upon which the functions of secretion depend, so that
it cannot reach the functions of assimilation, and life
will speedily become extinct. With nothing to feed
these, change and action must cease, and then there
is death. This process of change is constantly going
on, under the law of affinity in action, and by close
observation physiologists have been able to deduce
the fact that in from five to seven years every human
body undergoes a complete change, so that at the ex-
piration of that time, not a particle of the original
Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen, Phosphates, Sulphates,
or Salts remains; other particles of the same kind
having taken their place.
The particles of the human body are so small,
however, that we do not notice this process, nor can
we perceive any sudden change in the appearance of
the physical frame; hence the individual does not
lose his identity, although in forty-two years every
atom of his body has undergone, six times, a complete
renewal. Now, look at that hand. (Plate 1.) What
an evidence of Divine creatorship! What an exhibi-
tion of superhuman design and conception, in its
matchless power and multiform adaptability! The
human hand-four fingers and a thumb-what, under
the direction of mind, has it not accomplished? It
has woven the most delicate webs, and ribbed the
world with iron rails; those fingers, fair and tapering,
have struck from the heart's vibrating strings life's
ΙΟΟ
THE CURSE OF THE World.
anthems of love; firm and strong they have crim-
soned the sword of valor in the defense of liberty
and truth; they have built the ponderous engine, and
fashioned the intricate machinery of the watch; they
have bridged the rivers and chasms, and tunneled
and shifted the mountains; they dig the mine, and
rear the column; they drive the steaming, panting,
flaming engine, and feel with sympathetic touch, the
fevered pulse throb of the dying child. Oh, what is
it that the hand has not done and cannot do?
I cannot therefore but admire and reverence the
God who made that hand. He must have done so
for a noble purpose. He certainly never intended
it to injure, or destroy the innocent and helpless;
to steal the hard won earnings of the poor; to over-
reach the ignorant, or oppress the weak. He never
made it to bear the cup of poison to my own or to my
neighbor's lips; but he did fashion it to bless the
afflicted, to deliver the oppressed, to bind up the
broken-hearted, to help the needy, to wipe away
the tears of sorrow, and to sow thick and far the
golden seed of a glorious harvest of human happiness.
Reader, call up the reminiscences of the past, and
trace the work of that hand of yours. What has it
done under the control of your brain? How have
you used it? None but God and yourself may know
the record. Examine its physical construction—the
muscles, bones, arteries, veins, nerves, and carti-
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
ΙΟΙ
1
lages; what a wonderful and complicated machine.
God made it, and to God are we responsible for its
use.. It was, again be it said, never designed by Him
to lift the intoxicating draught to your lips.
And now view the body to which it is attached.
God, according to Divine Revelation, selected out of
the dust the simple elements, and, putting them to-
gether, formed this matchless mechanism; this won-
der of creation; this epitomized representation of
the physical universe. Into this beautiful and sym-
metrical structure, God "breathed the breath of life,
and man became a living soul." God has imparted
to the race that spiritual power of which he himself
is the source, and which is conferred that we may be
able to control and direct the body, in the operation
of its organized functions. By virtue of this gift,
we are responsible to God for the cure, growth and
health of the body.
CHAPTER VI.
HOW PORTIONS OF FOOD BECOME BLOOD - HOW PIIYSICAL TISSUE IS
CONSTRUCTED AND RECONSTRUCTED-THE UNION AND RELATIVE
AFFINITIES OF GASES-CARBONIC ACID GAS, HOW FORMED-AR-
TERIAL BLOOD, WHAT COMPOSES IT-ACTION, MENTAL, MORAL
AND PHYSICAL, TEARS DOWN THE BODY-SLEEP AND REST BUILD
UP WHAT PHYSICAL LIFE DEPENDS ON-IIOW DRUGGISTS PRE-
SERVE LIQUID DRUGS-ALCOHOL ARRESTS DECAY OF AND HARD-
ENS PARTICLES-THEREFORE ALCOHOL IS THE GREATEST ENEMY
OF PHYSICAL LIGHT AND HEAT.
We must provide and select our food. Here is a
piece of bread. It is nutritious, composed of Carbon,
Hydrogen, Oxygen, the phosphates, the sulphates
and salts. We pick it up with the hand and pass it
between the lips. (See Plate I.) First, the food
comes in contact with the incisors-the front teeth,
which have been so fashioned by the great Architect
that they cut the food up. It passes to the next teeth,
the canine; then to the bi-cuspids, and then to the
molars by which the food is masticated. Under the
tongue you see the little salivary glands, in which
the Master workman has created the power to secrete
the saliva. In the saliva is a very important substance
called ptyaline. This permeates the food and turns
(102)

Left Lung.
Air Cells.
Villi.
PLATE |
Larynx.
Alcohol.
Nutrition.
Salivary Gland.
Esophagus.
Pancreas.
Perspiratory Gland.
Liver.
Arteries.
Capillaries
Veins.
Thoracic
Duct
C.
0.
H.
O
N. Sulph. Phos. Sts.
Water.
Mesenteric Glands.
Starch.
Air.
PHOENIX LITH CO CHICAGO
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
105
•
the starch into sugar; this is the first chemical
change.
It matters not what you put into your mouth-
a dry chip or a piece of tobacco-it excites these
glands, and causes you either to expectorate or to
swallow the saliva. When a little boy on my father's
farm, as I walked to and fro from school I would pick
the gum that exuded from the pine and spruce and
chew it, and before I was ten years of age I had
ulcerated teeth, and have suffered therefrom all my
life.
It is not easily imagined how I feel as I every day
witness men using tobacco, spitting out this divinely
provided ptyaline which is so absolutely necessary
to the proper change of the food, and consequently
to the all-important process of digestion. If the pty-
aline is ejected by expectoration, a blow is struck at
one of the first laws of health.
As the food is being thoroughly masticated this
saliva saturates it and makes it pulpy. The food
then passes into the pharynx, and then down what is
called the esophagus, or gullet, into the stomach.
The esophagus is composed of little cartilaginous
rings connected by a membrane, which crowd the
food down. The best illustration of this process is
the milking of a cow, where finger after finger presses
the milk down, and forces it into the pail.
The cardiac orifice, situated at the entrance to the
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
stomach, is a little smaller than the esophagus above.
Now, if you eat, and do not masticate your food
thoroughly, it will catch in this orifice and produce
a very distressing sensation.
The stomach, into which the food passes through
the cardiac orifice, is composed of three membranes;
the outside one is called the serous, the intermediate
one, the fibrous or muscular; and the inside one, the
mucous membrane. The fibrous membrane is com-
posed of fibers which contract, and thus produce a
wavy motion of the mucous membrane, causing the
food to pass all over it. The mucous membrane is
soft and velvety, and is covered with indentations in
which are deposited the gastric juices, which imme-
diately on the appearance of the food saturate it, and
change it into a grayish, soft substance, called chyme.
The chyme then passes from the stomach through
the pylorus. This pyloric orifice is said by some to
be so sensitive in a healthy stomach that it will not
pass any food from the stomach until it is thoroughly
changed into chyme. When the chyme leaves the
stomach through this orifice it enters the duodenum,
or second stomach, as it is sometimes called. Con-
nected with this you will perceive two organs, the
liver and the pancreas. The former is made up of
minute cells which take out the liquids from the sys-
tem and change them into bile and deposit it in the
gall-cyst. This cyst is connected with the duo-
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
107
denum by a canal, through which the bile passes
into it.
The pancreas is also connected with the duo-
denum by a canal, conveying the pancreatic fluid into
it. These two, the bile and the pancreatic fluid,
change the chyme into a milky colored liquid called
chyle. The chyle passes from the duodenum through
the entire length of the intestines. The mucous mem-
brane of the intestines is found in folds with an im-
mense number of thread-like projections, called villi.
These villi dip into the canal and by means of their
little mouths the chyle is sipped up, just as the spon-
gioles at the ends of roots of trees imbibe the moist-
ure and salts from the soil.
Little glands, or lacteals, connect with these villi
and carry the chyle through the mesenteric glands,
and empty it into the thoracic duct. This duct is
not larger than a goose quill, and passes up through
the thorax, near the spinal column, emptying the
chyle into the left subclavian vein. Through this
vein the chyle passes and is carried with the venous
blood into the right auricle of the heart, and through
the tri-cuspid valves into the right ventricle of the
heart. These valves have a large opening at the top,
to the membrane of which are attached a large num-
ber of cartilaginous threads, that extend and take
hold of the inside membrane of the ventricle. When
the ventricle expands, these valves are opened and
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
the blood passes in, and when it contracts the valves
are closed, the blood being thus forced out into the
lungs. This process is called the systole and diastole
of the heart.
Thus far the blood has passed through three
chemical changes, in which Oxygen, Carbon and
Hydrogen have played a conspicuous part; first, in
the mouth, by the ptyaline; next, in the stomach,
by the gastric juices; and third, in the duodenum,
by the bile and pancreatic fluid.
We left our food in the form of chyle, forced into
the lungs with the venous blood. Now, the lungs
are surrounded by a double covering of delicate
membranes called the pleura. One membrane is con-
nected with the walls of the chest, whilst the other
embraces and is attached to the lungs. Inclosed in
these coverings are the veins, arteries, nerves and
bronchial tubes. The trachea or windpipe connects.
the larynx with the bronchial tubes. These tubes
ramify through each lobe of the lungs, and divide
and subdivide until the cluster of little air cells sus-
pended from their branches, are said to number eight
hundred millions. The blood vessels which convey
the venous blood and chyle from the right ventricle,
so divide as to connect with these cells. Just as
many little blood vessels connect with the other side
of these cells, and convey the arterial blood into the
left auricle, where it passes into the left ventricle of
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
109
the heart, and by the pulsations of this organ is
thrown out into the aorta, which with its ramifica-
tions and connections with the arterial system, dis-
tributes it to all parts of the body.
This large artery, called the aorta, divides and
subdivides into an innumerable host of small
branches, traversing every part of the physical sys-
tem. These little arteries are connected by a count-
less number of capillaries, too small to be seen by the
naked eye, with as many veins, and, in this network
the forces of assimilation perform their functions.
Now we have traced our piece of bread through
its various changes by chemical action in the mouth,
duodenum, intestines and lacteals, and have finally
seen it forced, in the form of chyle, by the right ven-
tricle into the lungs, and thence distributed through-
out the system.
Here is a match, called a friction match because
by friction it is ignited. Remove the compound
adhering to the end, and there is left only a little pine
stick, composed mainly of Carbon, Hydrogen and
salts. Burn this and there will be nothing left but a
little ash, composed of the salts, showing that the
match was almost entirely Carbon and Hydrogen.
Now, in the gas pipes in our homes we have a gas
extracted from coal composed of marsh gas, hydro-
gen and carbon-protoxide, and it consists almost en-
tirely of Carbon and Hydrogen, the same as the part
IIO
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
of the match without the salts. It is the Oxygen
and the salts that, by chemical affinity, unite the Car-
bon with the Hydrogen, and so form the solid wood.
Now on the end of the pine stick is placed a little
Phosphorus, mixed with glue, over which is a solu-
tion, or compound, to protect it from the Oxygen in
the atmosphere. Oxygen has such a strong affinity
for Phosphorus, that the moment it comes in contact
with it, it sets it on fire. When the membrane cover-
ing the Phosphorus is broken, the Oxygen of the air
immediately leaves the Nitrogen, rushes to the
Phosphorus and ignites it, and thus combustion is
produced.
Now apply this burning match to the gas, and
how quickly it is ignited as it comes from the jet!·
The reason is that the Oxygen of the air has a
greater affinity for the Carbon of the gas, than it has
for the Nitrogen, and, rushing to the Carbon it unites
with it in forming carbonic acid gas, which passes
into the atmosphere. Other particles of the Oxygen
rush to the Hydrogen of the gas, and by their union
a watery vapor is formed, which also passes off into
the atmosphere. The union of these gases produces
what we call combustion. Stop this union, and com-
bustion dies. The union of these gases is the life of
the fire.
The same process is going on in the lungs. As
the venous blood and chyle pass over the membrane
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
III
of the air cells, the Oxygen of the air inhaled passes
through the membrane of the air cells, unites with
the Carbon in the venous blood and the chyle, and the
result of the combination is carbonic acid gas, which
passes out through these cells, and is exhaled in the
breath. Other particles of Oxygen pass through and
unite with the Hydrogen in. the blood and the chyle,
and thus form vapor, which passes off in the same
way.
Now take a glass of strong lime water and
breathe into it. Immediately it will assume a white,
milky appearance, owing to the formation of a sub-
stance called carbonate of lime, thus demonstrating
the presence of carbonic acid gas in the breath.
Again, breathe upon a cold looking-glass, and the
vapor will condense into drops of water, evidently
showing that the Oxygen has united with the Hydro-
gen and generated water. Here, then, we have pre-
cisely the same process of change that is going on in
the burning gas. In the lungs, the union of these
elements is so weak, that combustion does not take
place as with gas. In proportion to the quantity of
these simple elements, Oxygen, Hydrogen and Car-
bon, and the intensity with which they come together,
will be the heat generated.
The chyle, with the venous blood, enters the lungs
dark and impure, and leaves them after the excess of
Carbon and Hydrogen has been taken out by the
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
Oxygen, of a light scarlet color. Our piece of bread,
changed to chyle, with the venous blood, is now
transformed in the lungs to pure arterial blood, and
passes through the left auricle into the left ventri-
cle, from whence it is forced along the arteries
as they divide and subdivide, until it enters the
invisible capillaries before mentioned, which are so
small that only one drop of blood can pass through
them at a time. These capillaries connect the arter
ies with the veins.
This arterial blood is composed of two distinct
parts a clear, colorless fluid called the plasma, and
a large number of little corpuscles that float along
in the plasma. These corpuscles give the red color
to the blood; but they are so small that it would
take more than ten thousand, placed one upon
another, to make one inch.
The plasma contains albumen, fibrine, a little fat,
sugar and salt. The corpuscles carry the Oxygen.
Hence as the labor, thought, pleasures, troubles,
exercises and sufferings of life wear away the tissues.
of the body, so the plasma, bearing the nutrition
and the corpuscles, loaded with the Oxygen, rebuilds
these tissues. When these corpuscles, as they are
borne along in the plasma, through the minute
capillaries, unite with the other elements of the
blood, a chemical change is produced, and the func-
tions of secretion replace the waste caused by the
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
113
1
process of excretion. Thus the body lives, as a
whole, by the union and separation of particles.
Mental, moral and physical action tear down, whilst
sleep and rest build up. Hence, whilst the body, in
the course of every seven years, undergoes a radical
change, so that no part of it is composed of the same
identical elements as before, yet by this process of
assimilation, we never lose our identity or individ-
uality.
Physical life and death, then, depend upon union,
separation, decomposition, change; and physical
heat depends upon the intensity with which these
processes take place.
Now I have been thus minute in this description
for a purpose. I want the reader to understand that
physical life and physical heat absolutely depend
upon decomposition, or change. Stop the change,
and you stop life. This is no new theory, it is one of
many years, but I wish to bring it vividly before the
mind, in order to give due weight and force to the
application.
Go with me, if you please, into any drugstore.
Look around upon the shelves, and see the variety of
liquid drugs. You ask the druggist how he preserves
those drugs, how he keeps them from souring and
spoiling. Some time ago in the lecture room of The
Washingtonian Home, we had sitting in the class one
of the first druggists and chemists in the country,
8
114
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
connected with a large manufacturing establishment.
I said to him, "How do you preserve your drugs?"
"There are three ways of doing it," he answered.
"One is to put them up in strong syrups; another is
the way in which we put up fruit-the liquid in
which the drug is, is heated, in order to get all the
atmosphere out, and the vessel is then hermetically
sealed."
"Are all the drugs you have," I asked," kept from
decomposition, or change, in that way?"
"No," he answered, "generally we put a little
alcohol into them, and that preserves them."
if
"When you put just enough alcohol into these
drugs to preserve them, if any one should ask you
there was alcohol in them, would you," I inquired,
"answer no ?”
"Certainly I should," he replied, "for this is cus-
tomary, and has been for years with druggists, the
alcohol being in such a minute quantity, it amounts
to nothing."
Ah, they think that the little alcohol they use to
preserve their drugs amounts to nothing. They do
not comprehend the all-devouring fires of the sensi-
bilities that these few drops will kindle and arouse
in the emotions of the reformed inebriate. Of the
three ways to preserve these liquid drugs, it is the
least trouble to use the alcohol, and consequently,
that is the means generally adopted.
NARCOTICS_WHAT EFFECTS.
115
When I was a boy we used to make our own
cider, and let it change into vinegar. Sometimes it
was not strong enough to preserve the pickles, and
my mother would send and get a little alcohol to put
in, to keep the pickles from spoiling. The alcohol
arrested the decay and hardened the pickles.
Here is a man sick from consumption, and about
to die. Any skillful physician knows that if he gives
that man alcohol it will permeate the tissues of the
lungs and retard the process of decomposition.
Hence it will prolong his life. Still that alcohol is
a poison, and it will not save the man, it will only
defer death.
In my humble judgment President Garfield was
kept alive in that way two or three weeks at least.
The ball from the assassin's revolver entered his body
and lodged behind the mesenteric glands, and one of
the greatest wonders is, that the physicians could not
follow the track of that ball. For a long time they
looked for it, and but for an accident, it is said, they
would not have found it when they did. They always
looked in the wrong direction. But in taking out the
tissues and placing them in a bowl, the ball was heard
to click upon the side of the vessel, and was thus dis-
covered. It had torn its way through the muscles,
veins and arteries, and the result was blood-poisoning.
There was perhaps, in addition to this, a slight oxy-
dation of the lead. Now, a particle of blood-poison,
116
THE CURSE OF THE world.
like a particle of rot, will contaminate by contact all
surrounding particles, and thus the poisoning process
continued until life ceased. To arrest this poisoning
process, alcohol was freely administered.
But should a surgeon sever a hand from the arm
and wish to preserve it, what would he do? He
would put it into alcohol, in order to keep the simple
elements from separating, decaying, decomposing.
In short, alcohol would prevent the change-the sep-
aration of the particles of which the hand is com-
posed.
In every civilized nation in the world, you will
find alcohol used as a non-decomposer, an enemy to
change of particles. On the other hand, physical life
and heat everywhere depend on decomposition, or
change. Now if alcohol is universally recognized as
an enemy to change of tissue in the body, it must
therefore be the greatest enemy of physical life and
heat. Hence it must be the greatest enemy to health.
If
you desire still further the proof, you have only
to array before you the great army of inebriates.
Look at the glassy, idiotic eye, the wrinkled brow,
the gray hair at thirty to forty years of age, the
trembling hand, the staggering walk, and then ask,
why? The answer is, that they have been introduc-
ing into their systems the mortal enemy of every-
thing that gives health and tone to physical tissue.
It is not strange that inebriates are sick, for every
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
117
cell in the brain and body is more or less affected,
the stomach suffering most, because it is the recep-
tacle of all the alcohol as it enters the system.
When you have a pain in the body, or are in trouble,
and take a glass of brandy or whisky, almost one-fifth
of the alcohol is passed to the brain, temporarily sus-
pending the perceptions by which you feel the pain
or trouble; but a portion of the other four-fifths digs
deeper the cause of the pain, and renders you less
able, eventually, to endure the trouble, and thus the
victim rushes deeper and deeper into ruin.
Go to the oldest life insurance company in the
world. You will find it in the city of London. Ask
to see the statistics on longevity. The statement was
published a few months since, that the average life of
the total abstainer, arriving at the age to be insured,
is from forty-eight to fifty years; the average life of
the moderate drinker is reduced to thirty-two, and
the average life of the inebriate, subsequent to his be-
coming a drunkard, is only ten years. Many live
longer, but many die sooner. Alcohol strikes at the
vital forces which give health to the body, and when
these are stricken down, the man must die.
But that is not all. Under the anæsthetic influence
of drink, men will lie down on the park seats when it
is cold enough to freeze them to death. They are
saturated with alcohol; their perceptions are sus-
pended, and, consequently, they lie there all uncon-
2
118
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
F
scious of the cold and the terrible work it is doing.
When they awake from the death-like sleep they have
a cough and depressed breathing. Oh, how they
suffer! The patient goes to the physician, who ex-
amines him and feels his pulse. Why, my friend,"
he says, “you have the pneumonia." That cold has
pierced his lungs, and he did not know it. It is la-
mentable to think how many, every winter, go down
by exposure, to premature graves.
Others will lie down in the park on midsummer
days, with the sun's rays pouring down on them hot
enough almost to burn the eyeballs out of their sock-
ets. I have seen them lying with their eyes wide
open-not a wink or blink. The perception by which
they should have been sensible of the heat was sus-
pended by alcohol, and when they were aroused from
their delirium they were more or less cranks. The
functions of secretion and excretion had been sup-
pressed and partially destroyed in the brain, and they
wandered forth into the world with nothing to control
them to live and die as worthless tramps. How fre-
quently men die from such exposures!
Others-grand, noble, intellectual young men in
the morning of life, when every generous blossom of
springtide breathes a sweet freshness around the
heart-have bowed at the altar of Bacchus, charmed
by the fascination of the glass, and have perished,
forgotten and unlamented.
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
119
Ah! Depravity invades the very asylum of inno-
cence to make it the abode of crime; and whilst
Fancy waves her fairy wand till all above is sunshine
and all beneath is beauty; when to the enchanted
vision this world is all an Eden whose every tint mir-
rors Nature's loveliness, and every sound breathes
Heaven's melody-when every breeze is fragrant,
then it is that the serpent's shining scales are
seen, and, under the fascinating and bewildering
influence of the cup youth is led down into the
tinseled dens of infamy, to mingle with debauchery
and disease! How many bright flowers, contam-
inated by loathsomeness and blighted by a clinging
curse, have been withered there! How many young
men, lusty with life and big with hope, have entered
thus on "the way to hell," going down to the cham-
bers of death!
CHAPTER VII.
PHYSICAL LIFE AND HEAT DEPEND UPON
CHANGE OF TISSUE-
FOOD THE FUEL THAT FEEDS THE FIRES OF CHANGE-ALCOHOL
DOES NOT CHANGE BY CHEMICAL AFFINITY—ANÆSTHETIC INFLU-
ENCES OF ALCOHOL-PLATES EXPLAINED-BLOOD THE GREAT RE-
STORER IN PHYSICAL TROUBLES-BEER INDUCES MELANCHOLIA AND ·
· INSANITY—IT IS ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS OF all THE
INTOXICANTS.
Physical life and heat depend upon change of tis-
sue. This change is accomplished in the system
through the food we eat. Food is the fucl that feeds
the fires of decomposition or change. Stop the food
so that it cannot reach the forces of assimilation, and
life ceases, just as surely and quickly as when you cut
off the Oxygen the fire goes out.
During the last half-century the attention of phy-
sicians and physiologists has been turned more di-
rectly to the effects of the narcotics, and especially
that of alcohol, upon the physical, intellectual and
moral man than ever before. Among the various
temperance organizations, the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union, being thoroughly organized in
every State of the Union, has been the most active
in this work. The leading temperance workers in the
(120)
NARCOTICS—WHAT EFFECTS.
1.21
>
country have of late been working with various legis-
latures of the different States to get them to pass laws
making it incumbent upon the teachers of the com-
mon schools not only to be examined upon the effects
of alcohol upon the physical, intellectual and moral
man, but to teach the same to their pupils. The re-
sults of these efforts are that upward of twenty States
have passed laws for this purpose. During these
years much time and labor have been devoted by mi-
croscopists and others interested in this subject to
examine and ascertain the real effects of alcohol upon
the physical tissues of the body.
Through postmortem examinations-the stomachs,
livers, kidneys, lungs, hearts and brains of inebri-
ates have been thoroughly studied and the results
recorded, so that, seemingly, there is no more doubt
in regard to the direful effects of alcohol on the physi-
cal organs. Men of various ages have been killed
suddenly-total abstainers-moderate drinkers, hard
drinkers, and habitual periodical drinkers; others
have died with the delirium tremens and diseases of
the different organs, and from a postmortem examina-
tion, the true abnormal condition of the tissues have
been ascertained, and perfect representations have
been painted on canvas. In our reformatory insti-
tutions these facts are being continually developed,
and we are no longer left in doubt, but learning more
and more every day the curse of these narcotics.
2
122
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
In The Washingtonian Home in Chicago great
effort has been made to get at the absolute facts, to
know for ourselves, from actual knowledge, the
effects of narcotics upon the tissues of the body, and
all the plates found in this work, were executed under
the author's direct supervision, and a description of
them will be given as they are introduced.
Plate II represents the condition of a healthy
stomach of a person from twenty to thirty years of
age. As no two individuals are alike, so the stom-
achs of no two are exactly the same.
The mucous
membrane of a child's stomach is softer and of a
deeper scarlet color than those of older persons, and
as the child increases in years its mucous membrane
loses its scarlet hue and becomes harder.
It is wonderful the skepticism there is among the
masses in regard to the effects of the narcotics upon
the human system.
Moderate drinkers and even inebriates themselves
have not the least idea of the terrible destruction
produced by them. It is the nature of these narcot-
ics to conceal their effects from those who use them,
and when the slaves of these intoxicants have exhib-
ited to them the wrecked organs of those with whom
they have associated and dissipated with, who have
been destroyed by the use of them, they are aroused
and excited as never before. They now understand
why they suffer and why they are wrecked. When

PLATE II
PLATE III
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
125
added to this is the moral wreck, the inebriate is not
at a loss to know the awful cause of all his suffering
and is thus inspired with a deeper and stronger deter-
mination to indulge in these narcotics no more.
Reader, as you examine these plates think of the
millions all over the world who are ignorantly and
innocently rushing into the use of these narcotics and
through their anæsthetic influence are borne down
into misery, woe and despair. What father, what
mother, what brother or sister does not suffer
directly or indirectly through the indulgence of these
beverages?
It is not the alcohol which gives the name to
whisky, gin, champagne, beer and all the rest, but
the other ingredients distinguish them one from
another, and no man wants any of them when the
alcohol is taken out. Hence, it is evident that it is
the alcohol that produces the results which are found
in the organs.
Alcohol does not change by chemical affinity. It does
not change at all in the stomach. Dilute it as you
may, you do not weaken it; for the full strength of
the original quantity thus diluted is still there. A
drop of alcohol is always the same. Some authori-
ties hint that it may possibly, in very minute quanti-
ties, oxydize in the system, but it is only a sugges-
tion on their part. Hence it would seem that a par-
ticle of alcohol is almost indestructible. You can
126
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
neutralize arsenic and other poisons in the stomach,
but not alcohol.
It remains alcohol all the time; in the duodenum,
gastric juices, bile, pancreatic fluids; it is alcohol as
it passes through the intestines, through the lacteals,
the thoracic duct, the lungs, and as it is forced out
by the left ventricle of the heart into every part of
the system. It is alcohol when it escapes through
the millions of little perspiratory glands, and when
it is breathed out from the lungs. It enters, perme-
ates, and leaves the system-alcohol. Now, as it
travels through the millions of little arteries, veins
and capillaries, let us for a while consider its effects
on the human system.
Suppose you were to receive a blow on the
sclerotic coat of the eye; in a little time it will be
red, and the harder the blow the greater the inflam-
mation. What, in this instance, is the relation be-
tween cause and effect? The highways through
which the circulation passes have been mangled.
The blood is at once the physician and the medicine
that cures, and the moment you create an abnormal
condition in any part of the body, the blood will rush
there to make it right. The blood is the restorer.
Take a thread, and having waxed it thoroughly,
wind it about a round stick. The edges of the waxed
thread will adhere together, and pulling out the stick,
you have a tube. In like manner the veins and arte-
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
127
ries are made, and round every coil is a nerve, and
that nerve gives life to the tissue. Through these
nerves, the tissues that make up the coil of the arte-
ries and nerves, are controlled. Alcohol benumbs or
paralyzes the nerves, fights the process of change,
and in so doing does direct violence to the nervous
and muscular tissues. Consequently, the moment
that one of these indestructible drops of alcohol
strikes the sclerotic coat of the eye, you will per-
ceive the same inflamed appearance as that produced
by a blow. This result is produced first by alcohol
opposing the change which gives vitality to the scle-
rotic coat, and next, because it paralyzes the nerves
which give life to the tissues and control the exten-
sion and contraction of the arteries and veins. As
the blood rushes in where the eye is struck, to restore
and heal, so it runs in to correct the abnormal condi-
tion produced by the alcohol.
Now, when a man drinks one or two glasses of
brandy, he does great violence to his stomach, as it
receives all the alcohol with its full effects. The
result is that a portion is absorbed by the mucous
membrane, the nerves become more or less paralyzed,
the tissues rendered abnormal, and hence the blood
rushes into the veins and arteries greatly enlarging
and extending them, as seen in Plate III. Just one
or two glasses of brandy or whisky will do it. Com-
ing in contact with the mucous membrane, it is very
128
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
soon imbibed and passed into the circulation; a fierce
fight begins between the outraged system and the
invading foe, alcohol-but the powerful narcotic
overwhelms every resisting force, captures every
stronghold, inflames the rebel passions, discomfits
the last contending might of the nervous system,
and as it enters the brain-the metropolis of the
physical municipality, the capital and palatial resi-
dence of man's royal power-the splendid throne of
conscience and reason is usurped by pirate passions
and demoniacal desires. In this mighty struggle,
every function and fiber of the physical system is
engaged. The stronger the army of invasion the
fiercer will be the resistance in defense, and among all
the allied physical forces that struggle to defeat the
mortal enemy, there is none that fights with greater
impetuosity and persistency than the blood. How
it rushes to the surface, and strives to expel the dan-
gerous intruder.
It has been discovered in many postmortem ex-
periments, that one or two glasses of brandy in a
healthy stomach would produce the change similar
to that indicated in Plate III. It was not understood,
however, until within a few years when after admin-
istering liquors for eight or ten days, and producing
the condition of the stomach as represented in Plate
IV, why the patient was not conscious of pain. To
look at the stomach it indicates a condition of ex-

PLATE IV
PLATE V
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
131
treme suffering. But of late the mystery has been
solved.
The physicans of that day did not understand the
anasthetic influence of alcohol, its wonderful power
to paralyze the nerves and suspend the perceptive
faculties.
The alcohol, in fighting the healthy changes in the
stomach, causes a deposit upon the surface of the
membrane of vari-colored and vitiated mucous, as is
seen in Plate IV. Pass a cloth over the stomach
when in this condition, and the vitiated mucous deposit
will easily rub off, the entire stomach then presenting
a fiery-red appearance.
Another effect of alcohol is that it fights the water
in the system. Liebig, in his analysis, says that a
drop of alcohol occupies about one and a half times
the space of a drop of water. Somehow, water seems
to be afraid of alcohol, and rushes from it. Drinking
men are witnesses to this fact. When they drink hard
they perspire profusely, and excessive thirst makes
them crazy for drink. But when they take water it
immediately nauseates.
i
Water and alcohol seem to be implacable foes in
the system. Now, I have stated that nature, when
any point is attacked, concentrates her forces on that
part, and the whole body struggles to get rid of the
enemy—hence the blood rushes to the fray.
When I was a boy I read of a young man who, in a
132
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
terrible storm was cast upon the western coast of
Africa. All the men were lost but himself. He was
picked up by the Arabs, and, after being with them a
week or so, was seized with a very severe fever. They
tied him on a camel to keep him from falling, and pro-
ceeded on their way. One afternoon they stopped in
the desert, with the sun beating fiercely upon them,
and commenced digging a hole in the hot sand. This
being done, they untied the youth with the intention,
as he supposed, of burying him alive. His struggles
were of no avail, and he was laid in his imagined
grave. But, instead of covering him up and leaving
him, the little Arab boys, barefooted, jumped upon
him, and kept treading upon him, backward and for-
ward; and then, turning him upon his side, they
continued the operation, and next placing him on his
face, they trod on his back, and so they went on until
they had thrown him into a profuse perspiration,
when he was taken out and placed on the camel
again. He soon began to realize that a new life had
been trodden into him, and he rapidly recovered.
The millions of perspiratory tubes in his body having
been closed by the intense heat, had been filled with
malaria, which is fatal to health, and the course
adopted by the Arabs forced the blood to the surface,
and drove out this morbid matter through the perspi-
ratory glands, thus breaking the fever. That taught
me a lesson that I have never forgotten,
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
133
So, when I sit by an open window, or feel a cold
current of air strike upon my neck, or if I take cold
in my side, I immediately practice the rubbing and
pounding process, and frequently by this operation
the severest pains have been relieved and entirely re-
moved. The cool air contracts the muscles, nerves,
veins and arteries, and thus diminishes their size. By
brisk rubbing and pounding an excitement is pro-
duced; the blood rushing to the combat, forces open.
the veins and arteries to their natural size, and the
pain subsides. Instead of taking drugs, I have
adopted this course for years, to remedy these tempo-
rary attacks of indisposition.
Blood is the great restorer of any trouble that
may exist in the physical system; hence, when you
put alcohol into the stomach, it being the mortal en-
emy to life and to the forces of change and assimila-
tion, upon which life depends, the blood rushes at
once to the smitten part to drive the evil forth, and
the rest of the system, from whence the blood comes,
suffers in proportion to the amount that suddenly
withdraws.
All over the mucous membrane of the stomach, if
the use of alcohol is continued, will be secreted a vi-
tiated mucous deposit, which will become drier,
darker, harder and thicker the longer a man drinks,
and the weaker the functions of secretion and excre-
tion grow.
134
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
Seven glasses of lager beer contain as many parti-
cles of alcohol as a glass of brandy or whisky, and
the stomach will find these particles. One might as
well drink the brandy or whisky, so far as the alco
hol is concerned. Five and a half glasses of hard
cider contain the same amount of alcohol, and it is
this that does the destructive work. Of brandy
sauce on the table the same thing may be said, and
you might as well drink the brandy as to use the
sauce in which it is contained. The stomach will
always discover the alcohol.
Plate V represents the stomach of a constant.
drinker where viscous ulceration ensued. First there
arises an inflammation and the stomach becomes a
fiery red; then little sores, ulcers appear, constantly
enlarging as the man continues to drink. Rubbing
off the vitiated mucous with a cloth, you will per-
ceive, at once, that the whole stomach is covered
more or less with these ulcers, that eat away and
decompose the mucous membrane, until it sloughs
off and is gone entirely. After the ulcers have accom-
plished the destruction of the mucous membrane,
then they commence to eat and rot the fibrous mem-
brane until finally it is similarly destroyed, and the
sufferer, sooner or later, passes off into a premature
grave. Thousands in our large cities are suffering
with ulcerated stomachs produced by the narcotic
alcohol.

PLATE VI
PLATE VII
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
137
Plate VI illustrates a disease of the stomach
with which men who never drink are rarely afflicted.
The functions of secretion get into a condition that,
instead of depositing natural, healthy tissue, they
deposit a fatty substance taking the place of a healthy
mucous membrane. One frequently hears physicians.
speak of fatty degeneration, and this Plate shows its
appearance. Men with such a condition of stomach
may continue to transact their business, when the
great wonder is that they can live a day. Some-
times nearly the entire mucous membrane is covered
two inches thick with this adipose matter. A dis-
tinguished German physician, not long since, stated
in a paper which he read before a Medical Society,
that he had conducted forty-one postmortem exam-
inations of this fatty degeneration connected with
his own practice. Beer and ale drinkers morè than
any other class in the world, suffer in this way. I
have not the least doubt that beer is the worst drink
a man can possibly take into his system. Beer drink-
ing is, beyond doubt, one of the most prolific sources
of insanity.
Years ago I took pains to keep a record of the
names of men who committed suicide. When a year
had expired I looked over my list, and was surprised
to find that seven tenths of the names that I had
gathered represented men of beer drinking nation-
alities. From that day to this, my attention has
138
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
been directed to beer drinking as a potent cause of
insanity, and further investigation has tended to con-
firm my opinion.
Reader, you know that the leading papers of the
country have held up beer as a great temperance
drink; that "instead of making men drunkards, it
will make them temperate." A few years ago an ar-
ticle which astonished the world was published in
one of the official journals of a leading European na-
tion. It declared that the higher officers in the army,
and the most influential men in the nation, were be-
coming subject to delirium, and were madly rushing
into suicidal graves. The question naturally arose
in the minds of statesmen and rulers, "Why is this?"
The history of the officers in the armies was studied,
and that of their more prominent men, when great
astonishment was created by the discovery that the
beer-drinking nationalities suffered, in this respect,
the most.
The article alluded to was reproduced in some of
the papers of this country, and it was then for the
first time admitted that beer made men melancholy
and delirious. Now, what makes men melancholy
has a tendency to render them insane and lead them
to suicidal purposes.
Distilled liquors are evaporated into an iron
chamber. Connected with this chamber is a leaden
tube that coils around like a serpent in a large tank.
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
139
}
The evaporated alcohol is forced from the chamber
through this tube. In the tank is cold or ice water,
which condenses the vapor into a liquid which is
nearly pure alcohol. Not so with beer. It is strained,
and it is impossible to procure a strainer fine enough
to prevent the minute particles of malt and other in-
gredients from passing through.
That explains why beer sometimes looks cloudy,
with little particles quite perceptible to the eye pass-
ing up and down. Now the alcohol in the beer
pickles these particles, and when they pass into the
stomach they are very difficult to digest. By fight-
ing the change that would be produced by the gas-
tric juices they do not become pure chyme. The
imperfect chyme entering the second stomach or du-
odenum, the bile and pancreatic fluid are resisted,
and healthy chyle is not formed, and, when that goes
through the circulation into the lungs, the Oxygen
cannot take out the Carbon and Hydrogen as it
should, because the alcohol in these pickled and un-
digested particles fights the change, and the result
is that the chyle is not transformed into pure arterial
blood. After this impure blood passes into the cap-
illaries, the functions of secretion are so changed and
weakened that they deposit this fatty substance in the
brain cells, instead of healthy tissue.
The relation that exists between the physical and
spiritual man is so intimate and sympathetic, that you
140
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
}
cannot alter a particle of tissue without affecting
more or less both mind and body. The brain cells
are so nicely adjusted to the conditions of life that
they cannot be disturbed without doing violence to
the whole man.
Now in these millions of little brain cells, some
of them so small that you cannot see them, this fatty·
abnormal deposit is made. This condition of the
brain creates a feeling of depression, and as this feel-
ing increases, the mind grows morbid and the man
becomes a victim to melancholy. Day after day this
vitiated deposit increases, the cloud of melancholy
settles deeper and darker, until the poor victim re-
sorts to the excitement of intoxication, or rushes to
suicide itself. Think of the horror and deep damna-
tion of dying from self-inflicted wounds. This heavy,
fatty deposit that beer drinkers are forced to carry,
producing undue corpulency, is always the indication
of disease, the premonition of death. Hence let one
of these men mutilate or burst a vein, it produces in-
flammation, and it is almost impossible to save him.
Beer is, therefore, one of the most deleterious and
dangerous of all the intoxicants, and inasmuch as it
is peculiarly destructive of the brain cells, it is the
most productive of insanity.
Persons accustomed to the excessive use of beer
or ales, when attacked with congestion of the brain,
the lungs, liver or kidneys, it is almost impossible
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
14I
for physicians to save them. The physical tissues
become so abnormal that medicine has but little, if
any, effect upon them.
CHAPTER VIII.
WHY ALCOHOL BECOMES OBNOXIOUS TO THE
SYSTEM-ALCOHOL
WAGES A WAR-HOW THE NARCOTICS AFFECT THE STOMACII REF-
ERENCE TO A YOUNG MAN-MANY INEBRIATES DIE SUDDENLY-
HEALTHY LIVER AND KIDNEY REPRESENTED-INTERESTING CASE
OF A DRUNKARD-REMARKS ON PLATE NO XII-FATTY DEGEN-
ERATION OF A KIDNEY-DESCRIPTION OF A STOMACII AND KID-
NEY DISEASED CEREBELLUM.
Plate VII represents the stomach of a periodical
drunkard after a debauch. There is a point of time
in the "spree" when the whole system is saturated
with alcohol and it refuses to receive any more. The
liquor then becomes obnoxious to the inebriate, and
he is compelled to stop. If it were not for this, he
would drink until he would fall dead. When the man
stops drinking the circulation drives the alcohol out
through the pores, and in the breath. As it is thus
eliminated the reflective faculties regain their grasp;
the moral nature gradually awakens, and as his emo-
tions and desires assume their wonted condition he
becomes, of all men, the most miserable. Inebriates
tell me that it is worse than death to go through the
changes from inebriation to sober consciousness.
Now, as he wakes up out of his debauch, the ine-
(142)
NARCOTICS-WIIAT EFFECTS.
143
briate thinks of his work. He is a stenographer, and
is expected to report the day's proceedings in one of
the courts. As he raises his hand he realizes that it
is impossible for him to do anything with that trem-
bling member. He is a telegraph operator, but he is
too shaky to use the instrument. He is a bookkeeper,
but he cannot write. In short, he is not in a condi-
tion to do anything. He does not want to drink
liquor; the very thought of it nauseates him. But
something must be done, and I will tell you what,
finally, he does. He proceeds to the saloon and
forces down a glass or two of whisky, and then he
goes to his work with a steady hand. But the alcohol
which he has introduced into his body and brain,
whilst it temporarily bridges the difficulty, adds
strength and intensity to the refluent tide of his
troubles, which will carry everything before its
treacherous current.
This Plate will discover to the reader why the in-
ebriate has a red nose and blistered lips. A fierce bat-
tle has been going on in the stomach, and his whole
system has been disturbed. Take a cloth and rub off
that dark deposit, when you will see the long lines of
inflamed membrane. It can appear no longer strange
why the inebriate feels so miserable. Look at that
stomach, and then compare it with the healthy one
which God gave him. Ask then, this question: What
2
144
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
sin, what crime, can a man commit against his body
greater than to put such a deadly enemy into it.?
Plate VIII represents the stomach of a man who
died with the delirium tremens. He has passed
through a number of those terrible struggles which
threatened death in its worst form. The last struggle
came, and laid him in his grave. You see that dark,
vitiated mucous? It is sometimes found loose within
the stomach, and when it is rubbed off the whole mu-
cous membrane is covered, frequently with large,
fiery-red spots. How a man can live with such a
stomach is a mystery; but it is not life, in any true
sense, but a living death. Few men die with the
delirium tremens; they die before they get so far.
While under the anesthetic influence of alcohol they
expose themselves, and contract diseases which soon
carry them off.
Twenty-five years ago, connected with the church
of which I was a member, was a promising young
man whom I had known from his boyhood. He was
one of the finest lads of my acquaintance. He be-
longed to the Sabbath-school of which I was super-
intendent. Without the knowledge of his parents,
he formed the evil habits of card-playing and gam-
bling, and finally of drinking. The last habit fastened
firmly upon him, and he became a drunkard. Friends
rallied around him as I have never seen friends rally
since. It was not long before his system yielded to

PLATE VIII
PLATE IX
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
147
the terrible delirium. At last, he became intensely
interested in the salvation of his soul. He said: "I
want to be a man, but I cannot. I want to stop this
cursed drink, but I cannot. Oh, pray for me!"
I remember well the last time he was himself, as
he stood before the pulpit earnestly imploring his
Christian friends to pray for him. But it was too
late; he had gone too far. Only a few days after,
while struggling and praying, he passed away from
time into eternity.
Yes, drunkards die suddenly. One hundred and
fifty thousand die annually. That is one person
nearly every three minutes. What a vast host to be
driven every year from the land of churches to per
dition, from one cause. Die! Yes, they die on the
pavement; they die in the gutter; they die along
the roadside; they die away from home; and when
they die at home their friends often wish they had
died away. They die where no loved ones can kiss
their quivering lips and catch the last whispered wish
to send to dear ones far away, and then they are low-
ered into the stranger's grave where no fond father can
rear the sculptured marble, or tender, tearful mother
can plant the creeping vine. May God save my read-
ers all from the drunkard's dreadful death.
In conversation with a prominent physician who
spent eighteen years in a dissecting room in Phila-
delphia, I said to him:
C
148
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
"What is the condition of the brain in persons
dying with delirium tremens?"
He replied that he had postmortem examinations
of such cases almost every day, and he always found
the brain more or less pickled. He added that hẹ
had frequently taken a spoon and pressed it on the
brain until it was filled with liquid, and then upon
applying a lighted match, it would burn.
A party of sailors was wrecked on the coast of
England years ago, late in the fall, when it was very
cold. Their vessel had been laden with brandy.
They saved a few barrels, and stored them in a neigh-
boring barn, and there they lived on that brandy,
with what little food they could get. One of them
became so sick that they had to send for a physician,
to a village not far distant. The physician was absent,
but a student of his came late in the evening. The
student took a lantern and went into the barn. When
he reached the place where the man was lying, he
took the candle out of the lantern to enable him to
see the patient's face, when the man's breath took
dica fire. Water was immediately applied, but of no avail,
ty and the sailors and student being superstitious, ran
mor from the place, thinking it was the devil. The next
timiny
oboret
tv morning the doctor himself proceeded to the spot,
stale, to find that all that remained of the poor fellow was
a few ashes. So saturated with alcohol that he was
literally burned up.
NARCOTICS-WHAT Effects.
4
149
Plate IX represents a healthy liver. You can see
here how the liver appears in a healthy state. Under
the influence of alcohol there are produced changes
that result in those conditions of that organ, desig-
nated, "Hob-nailed," "Nutmeg," "Cheesy," "Can-
cerous," and "Fatty degeneration." The liver se-
cretes the bile in the gall cyst, from which it is con-
veyed to the duodenum.
All know that the moment the liver is affected,
the whole system suffers.
Plate X shows the kidney in a healthy condition.
The function of the kidney is to take out of the
juices and fluids of the system the nitrogenous sub-
stances. With drinking men the kidney suffers as
much, if not more, than any other organ of the body.
It overacts in forcing out the poisonous nitrogenous
fluids from the system. Drinking men can only ap-
preciate the work it has to perform, and the terrible
consequences resulting therefrom.
Few realize how the kidney has to act when men
are drinking.
Plate X1 is the representation of a degenerate
condition of the kidney, common to drinking men,
which is the result of the over action of this organ
under the stimulating influence of alcohol. It is
overworked. Thousands of drinking men are suffer-
ing with this disease of the kidneys. It frequently
ends in the terrible disease, diabetes.
'
150
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
A letter was received from an eminent physician
of a distant city, stating that he had under his care a
patient whom he wished to have admitted to The
Washingtonian Home. The condition of the patient,
as represented, was such that I could not perceive
any hope of his reformation, hence I replied that I
thought that we could not cure him. Through further
correspondence, however, it was determined that he
be received, and in a few days he was brought to the
institution in a very precarious condition. On ac-
count of the large amount of fluid secreted over his
abdomen he could hardly breathe.
Two days after his arrival he was tapped and two
gallons of fluid, by measurement, were drawn from
him, and in three days, two gallons were taken, one
from each side. It afforded him great relief and he
was truly a happy man, but the relief was only tem-
porary, for the cause of this fluid deposit was not re-
moved. The organs of digestion were so abnormal
that his food was not changed into arterial blood,
hence there was no reconstruction of tissue. He was
intensely hungry and continually clamorous for food.
Every kind of nourishment that he desired was given
him, yet he was starving all the time, for not a par-
ticle of nutrition reached the functions of assimila-
tion. What a condition! A man hungry and starv-
ing, and at the same time eating continually, yet very
little arterial blood was generated to reconstruct his

PLATE X
PLATE XI
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
153
body. The withdrawing of the fluid relieved his vital
organs so that he could breathe easier, hence he was
almost frantic over the idea that he would soon re-
cover and return to his palatial home, and enjoy the
society of his wife and daughter. How little he re-
alized his true condition! On returning from an ab-
sence of nearly three weeks, I visited his room, when
he immediately reached out his emaciated hand and
warmly greeted and welcomed me.
"How are you getting on?" I asked.
First-rate,” he replied; "I am going home in a
few days to see my dear family."
one.
Oh, how deceptive are the ways of death! He
was then looking more like a dead man than a living
When he was told that there was no hope of
his recovery-that perhaps in a few hours, or at
farthest in a few days, he must die-he said in the
deepest anguish :
“What's that? I must die? Can't I get well?"
(6
Yes, you must die soon; you cannot get well.”
"Can't I look out upon the green leaves and
beautiful flowers again?" he pleaded-pitifully. "Oh,
must I die?"
"You cannot recover," he was told.
Then he said, "I want to go and die at home, with
my loved ones."
They took him, and he died in three hours after
his arrival, but he died at home and in the bosom of
his family. He was slain by the narcotics.
154
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
3
He had gone too far. All the functions of secre-
tion were calling for arterial blood, but they could
not get it. Here was a man constantly eating, but
yet starving to death! The difficulty was, the digest-
ive organs were so destroyed that the food never be-
came so changed that it could be used by the func-
tions of secretion, and thus build up the body. Al-
cohol was the active cause of this fearful suffering
and final ruin.
Less than three years ago a lady came one after-
noon, with a letter from a prominent physician, in
which he stated that he had a patient under his charge
whom he was anxious to have admitted to the Home.
I learned from the lady, who was the wife of the man
in question, that her husband's business had always
been in connection with a brewery, where beer was
as free as water. After due consideration I consented
to receive him, and he was admitted on the afternoon
of the same day. He was a strong, healthy-looking
man; in fact, he looked so well that I thought it im-
possible for him to be in the condition represented by
his physician. I felt his pulse, but it was not per-
ceptible for some time. All at once it jumped as if
the blood rushed through the artery in quantities
sufficient to burst it, and this was followed by quiver-
ing pulsations like running the finger over a fine saw.
I never met with such a pulse before or since. He
was taken immediately to the hospital, and soon

PLATE XII
PLATE XIII
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
157
""
wanted to lie down. He was sedulously cared for by
the physician and steward, but grew rapidly worse,
and became at times delirious. At eleven o'clock it
was evident that he was going to die, and his wife
was at once sent for. Entering the room and looking
at her husband for a few moments, she said, "Henry,
Henry! do you not know me?" He did not reply.
Gazing tearfully upon him, she knelt beside his bed,
and, putting her right hand into the palm of his left,
and her left hand on his forehead, she said again,
Henry, Henry! don't you know me- don't you
know me?" He still made no reply. The weeping
woman then directed her eyes upward, and clasping
her hands, talked with God. "Oh, God!" she'
pleaded, "Oh, God! down in a little room in this
city are sleeping six small, helpless children—the
eldest under twelve, the youngest a little infant-and
they are dependent for their lives upon this dear hus-
band of mine! Oh, God! Thou canst not-Thou
wilt not take him away from us!" But her husband
had gone too far, and in half an hour he quietly passed
away.
A postmortem examination was held, and I imme-
diately engaged an excellent artist to make a picture of
his stomach, and every stroke of the artist's brush
was watched by the steward and myself, in order that
it might be a perfect and faithful representation. You
see it as it then looked, in Plate XII.
158
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
Commencing with the pylorus you will notice
how prominent are the veins, but as you advance
toward the cardiac orifice they diminish in size; the
mucous membrane disappears also, and the fibrous
membrane appears, and grows less until the serous
membrane only is left. Little by little the ulcers
that you see have eaten away the mucous and
fibrous membrane, until not much more than two-
thirds of the stomach is thus covered. Compare this
stomach with that represented by Plate II, and what
a remarkable contrast you have!
Plate XIII refers to a man brought to The Home,
who was a builder, said to have been very wealthy.
He, for a few months, had been cruel to his family,
who could do nothing with him. When he arrived
he was delirious and continued so until his death, only
a few hours later. His cries of agony and struggle
with death were most appalling. All who knew him
in his sober days had a most affectionate regard for
him. Drink was his only curse. In places the mucous
and fibrous membrane were entirely destroyed. The
cells of the right lobe of his brain were, seemingly,
melted together, and the convolutions were entirely
lost. His liver, through fatty degencration, was
nearly as large as two livers. An idea of the condi-
tion of his kidney can be obtained from Plate XIV.
Not having been told what it is I am sure my
reader would be at a loss to give it a name.

PLATE XIV
PLATE XV
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
161
Now a healthy kidney has a thin, fatty membrane
around it to lubricate it and make it free, but this
kidney was inclosed with "fatty degeneration," from
one and a half to two inches thick. On the inside the
organs which secrete the nitrogenous fluids were
entirely displaced by the fat. In short, the healthy,
life-giving functions were gone. Is it strange that
men should suffer when they use these intoxicants?
Rather is it not strange that they do not suffer more
from the use of them? He was an excessive drinker
of beer.
Plate XV represents the worst condition of all
these stomachs. It was that of a man of strong emo-
tions and desires, hence very sociable and known to
thousands in different parts of the Union. He was
employed by the Government on the Pacific Coast
for a time, and was very highly respected until he
formed the habit of drinking. In course of time he
gave up alcohol and commenced taking laudanum as
a substitute. The opium produced the dark color of
the stomach. He came to the Home for the opium
habit. His suffering for two weeks was intense, but
by his indomitable will he conquered this awful
habit, and held the enemy at bay. He became active
in the work of temperance, and after a time returned
to his home, cured of these narcotic habits. But it
was too late to save his health; he had not stopped
in time, as this Plate of his stomach indicates.
162
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
Those dark coagulated and granulated streaks,
and the darker streaks lying between them, were, in
places, two inches thick. Seemingly there was noth-
ing left with which to digest the food. The condition
of this stomach speaks stronger and more vividly
than words can describe the terrible destructive
effects of opium and alcohol combined. Reader, as
you look at this stomach, think of the thousands that
are thus suffering in this and other lands. What a
day of reckoning there must be in the coming future!
Who will be responsible?
Plate XVI represents his liver. You would call
this anything else but that organ. The left lobe was
not more than one-third its proper size. You have read
or heard of cirrhosis of the liver, or, as it is frequently
called, the "hob-nailed liver." The dark spots on this
liver look like rough nail-heads; hence the name
"hob-nailed." It speaks for itself stronger than
words can tell or pen can describe, of the awful effects
of strong drink.
Plate XVII represents the cerebellum or lower
lobe of the brain of a man who lived in Chicago, who
died with cerebro-spinal meningitis. He was a pho-
tographer. It shows how onc-half of the cerebellum
was almost entirely absorbed-or atrophied —and
destroyed by alcohol. He was sick only ten days, and
died in the most intense agony.
Alcohol abnormalizes the whole physical man, and

PLATE XVI
PLATE 'XVII
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
165
that is why we see the glassy eye, the ghastly look,
the tremulous gait; for these are the results of a
pickled brain, diseased kidneys, enlarged liver, and a
ruined stomach-an abnormal condition of the tissues
of the whole system. From these illustrations you
can see why men who use these narcotics become
physically wrecked. But they are not conscious of
this terrible process of death, because the alcohol that
destroys their bodies suspends and destroys also their
perceptions, by which only they could become aware
of the destruction. It makes a man believe that it is
the best medicine in the world, because it blunts his
sensibilities to all pain, uneasiness and distress. It
promises a man liberty through its anæsthetic influ-
ence, and at the same time forges and binds upon him
the chain of the most damning slavery in the world.
Look out around you, and behold the ravages of
this curse. See how it has controlled Presidents, Sen-
ators, Judges, Lawyers, Physicians! View the mill-
ions that are suffering under its infernal influence!
The masses of the world do not know what alcohol
is doing, or they would rise en masse and drive the
demon from our land. Men who offer to take a drink
of it should always pause and think of the terrible
and direful results. Reader, could you call up from
their graves the millions of inebriates that have been
entombed in the past, and array them in a line with
the millions that live to-day, what a sight to look upon!
166
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
What a wrecked and diseased army! These narcot-
ics-what a dark, dense, awful pall of woe, of mis-
ery, of sorrow, they throw over the population of the
world! The great day of account can only solve and
reveal their results.
In view of this awful state of the world, one of the
most hopeful, happy, encouraging thoughts of the age
comes from the efforts being put forth by the Christ-
ian churches, the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, the National Temperance Society, the Good
Templars, the Sons of Temperance, the Catholic To-
tal Abstinence Societies, and various other temper-
ance organizations so thoroughly organized through-
out the Christian world.
Mothers, sisters, fathers and brothers, move on!
Be happy, be hopeful, be cheerful, be faithful and con-
fident. With your eyes upon and your arms clinging
around the Cross of the Redeemer, as sure as the sun
continues to throw out its radiant beams to light up
the physical world, so sure will the benign and efful-
gent light emanating from your altars shine into the
great heart of suffering humanity, dispel the gloom
and suffering of this dark pall of physical and moral
death, tear asunder the manacles that bind and enslave
the devotees of Bacchus, and bid these oppressed go
free.
CHAPTER IX.
GOD'S DESIGN AND WORKMANSHIP INCLUDES ALL CREATED BEINGS-
WE KNOW ONLY AS WE TRACE THE RELATION OF DIFFERENĊES-
THE FACULTIES OF THE SOUL CONSTITUTE A COURT-APPLICA-
TION OF THE CHART-TWO GENTLEMEN AND TWO LADIES—A
MURDERER HUNG-THE FIRST WRONG STEP OPENS THE WAY TO
CRIME-THE FIRST GLASS OPENS THE GATEWAY TO ALL OTHERS.
•
God is the beginning. He is the source and es-
sence of all action. He spoke worlds into existence.
His divine design and workmanship include all created
things. The physical universe in its totality repre-
sents the creative conceptions of the Deity. The way
the world acts is the way that God thinks. God is infi-
nite force. He penetrates all substances, yet is mixed
with none. He is everywhere present with the same
concentration of almighty energy. Here he suspends
a star; there he stains a stone; here he adds fuel to a
burning sun; there he gives food to the tiniest insect;
here he pencils the flower of the field; there he rain-
bows the darkest wing of the storm; and throughout
the innumerable varieties of Nature there is no beau-
ty of shape or shade, but that he has carved or col-
ored it. Hence it is that the Chart of Soul Life, to
(167)
168
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
which the reader is particularly referred, commences
with God.
The physical universe mirrors and reflects to the
inquiring creature the glory and perfection of the Cre-
ator. To enable us to know, appreciate and love
God, he has endowed us with intellectual faculties
and a moral nature.
This dual endowment of intellectual faculties and
moral affections necessarily implies that man has the
ability to do the right or to yield to the wrong. In
other words, all men are free moral agents. If this
be true, then it logically follows that all men are good
or evil as a matter of choice, hence they are volun-
tarily good or voluntarily evil.
We cannot know anything otherwise than by
tracing the relation of differences; there must be a
wrong and there must be a right for us to choose be-
tween, else there could be no choice. We can only
know the wrong as we know the right. We can only
know the light as we contrast it with darkness.
Now, ability to choose the right requires that we
have moral affections to appreciate the right, and at
the same time a perfect freedom to embrace the
wrong, if we so desire and decide.
So when God created us, he not only gave us in-
tellectual faculties to perceive the difference between
the right and wrong; moral affections to love the
right; conscience to persuade us to embrace the right
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
169
and shun the wrong, but he invested us and crowned
us with the royal prerogative of will-power by which
we act independently of all extraneous impulses.
Hence while God may say to us, "Thou shalt not,"
we, by the exercise of this power may reply, "We
will," and God cannot prevent us from carrying out
our purpose, without suspending this will-power, or
depriving us of life. Now man possessing an intel-
lect, a conscience, moral affections, and this inde-
pendent power of will, would never do wrong unless
there were something to tempt the emotions and de-
sires, and thus arouse a sufficient motive to influence
the will. This involves the necessity of a tempter,
and the necessity of animal emotions and desires to.
be tempted and influenced. There is no desire with-
out an emotion, and the strength of the former is de-
termined by the strength of the latter.
The soul is the sensitive center where reticulate all
the sensibilities-emotions and desires. When these
are controlled as Deity designed, by the moral affec-
tions and conscience, they help to sustain man in the
moral rectitude of his God-like manhood; but when
they become agitated and exasperated by the flagit-
ious passions, then they work man's speedy destruc-
tion. If man's appetite for food, for instance, is prop-
erly controlled by the conscience and the moral nature,
it will conduce to the health, strength and happiness.
of man; but if let loose to revel in wild indulgence,
170
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
·
it will destroy the health, deplete the strength, and
turn happiness into misery.
As is seen in the Chart, on the one side of the will
are the emotions and desires, which bring man into
communication with the physical world; while on
the other side of the will are the conscience and moral
affections, which connect a man with God. One side
is God-like and the other is animal; hence when the
emotions and desires become inordinate, they are
arrayed against God and the right. Through my
consciousness I know that I have a conscience; for I
realize that I possess a faculty within me that ap-
proves of a right, and disapproves of a wrong action.
I know as well that I have faculties by which I can
perceive the distinction between these two extremes
of human conduct, which are the perception and con-
ception of the intellect.
I know that I have moral affections that run out
in love to God, love of man, love of right. Then
further, I am conscious of the possession of capricious
and tumultuous passions, emotions and desires which
struggle with the will to influence it against the
moral nature. This is the great battlefield, on which
are fought the fiercest conflicts in the history of man,
resulting every day either in the dignity or degrada-
tion of the race; or, to change the metaphor, there
may be found in the soul of every man a fully
equipped court, upon the decision of which man's
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
171
destiny depends. Here is the Judge, here the jury,.
counsel for plaintiff and defendant, witnesses; and
there the statutes of the nation, the standard of right.
The Judge is supposed to understand the statutes,
and it is his duty to conform to them in his control
of the court.
Through his knowledge of the law, and in his rep-
resentative character, he disapproves of the wrong
and approves of the right. What the judge is in the
civil court, conscience is in the court of the soul, for it
is the judge of human action. As the civil judge ob-
tains his knowledge of the right from the statutes,
so conscience receives its idea of right and wrong
from the statutes of God's Revelation. This also is
the basis of the civil statute, for, while every human
law does not emanate directly from Divine Revela-
tion, yet none of them can be in conflict with it.
All human enactments are but ramifications and
elaborations of Divine principles. Consequently the
Bible has always been considered part and parcel of
the common law of nations.
Mapping out with your pencil the Christian and
non-Christian nations of the world, you will find no
more remarkable or apparent contrast between these
than in the difference of their standards of right and
wrong in human conduct. While among the non-
Christian there is an endless variety of civil codes,
and as many standards of right, there is a homoge-
172
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
neity of law, and one great and universally accredited
standard of right among the Christian nations of the
earth.
Blackstone's Commentaries is usually the first
textbook placed in the hands of students of law. In
the first chapter and first sections of that remarkable
work, it is laid down and reiterated with great em-
phasis, that any law not in accordance with the Di-
vine Law is not binding on the individual. Why is
this? Because it is recognized that God in his law
is the supreme and ultimate authority. On this piv-
otal point turn not only the destinies of men, but also
those of nations. This is the only sure and steadfast
foundation stone upon which a nation may build with
serene security.
Thus it is, that in the Chart of Soul Life God and
his Revelation are placed first. That none may be
ignorant of God's law, he has made it so simple and
plain that it lies level with the feeblest intellect. The
above statements being admitted, we are confronted
with this interesting fact-that the fundamental prin-
ciples upon which the judge in the court of justice
bases his decision, are identical with those that influ-
ence the conscience in determining questions of right
and wrong in individual conduct. The standard of
right for the nations of the earth and for the individ-
ual is one and the same.
The perceptions and conceptions are the witnesses in
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
173
this court of the soul. Take for instance, sensation.
That is a faculty of the intellect. I raise one of my
fingers and immediately have a sensation. Intuition
comes forward to say it is a finger. Sensation and
intuition, therefore, establish a fact. I raise another
finger, and sensation and intuition convey the intelli-
gence to the mind that there are now two fingers;
this is a cognition. I cannot tell why one and one
make two, because it is a simple cognition of the in-
tellect a simple fact, which cannot be denied.
When again, we look at different objects, the fac-
ulty which contrasts and compares them is that called
relation. The judgment is, in the perception of the
relation of differences in physical objects, analogous
to conscience in its instant determination of all the nice
moral distinctions of right and wrong. Then come
the conceptions; memory with its power of retention
and reproduction and finally imagination, that creative
faculty which most nearly allies us with God. These
intellectual faculties, then, are the witnesses in the
court of the soul.
In a civil court, in addition to the judge, the stat-
utes, and the witnesses, there is an attorney for the
defendant and one for the plaintiff, and so in the court
of the soul, there is an attorney for the defendant, our
moral affections, who is always defending the right,
and one for the plaintiff, our inordinate desires, who is
always pleading for the wrong. If the desires in this
174
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
court of the soul are consonant with the moral affec-
tions, as when in a court of justice the attorneys have
no issue, there is then no trial.
In the court of justice there is also impaneled a
jury which decides the case according to the weight
of testimony; so in this court of the soul, the Will,
which is the jury, decides all questions of conduct by
the weight of testimony, and the amount of influence
brought to bear upon it. When the animal desires
hold out stronger motives to the will than the moral
affections do, the plaintiff gains his suit, but when the
moral affections present a stronger motive, then the
defendant wins his case. When you are tempted to
wrong any one, love to God and love of right, the
defendant say, "No, do not do it." The impartial
judge, conscience, disapproves of the act and sustains
the defendant in his plea. The plaintiff in the case
eloquently urges the interest of the animal desires,
and the interest involved is the destiny of an immor-
tal soul.
I have been an inebriate. I have reformed. There
is a glass of brandy on the table before me. Deep
depression has taken hold of me; bereft of wife, chil-
dren, friends, and, ruined in estate, I long for at least
temporary relief from my suffering, and the means
are within my reach. On the one side of the will
the inordinate desires plead, and on the other the
moral affections. The issue will depend upon
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
175
whether the motive of the moral or that of the ani-
mal is stronger.
Before you on the table are spread all the luxuries
and delicacies of the season. Eat just what the bet-
ter judgment and moral affections dictate, and con-
science approves, and you will be the happier and
healthier for the banquet; but let the will yield to the
motives presented by an inordinate appetite, and you
will break two laws-the moral and the physical-
suffering, in consequence, remorse in the soul and
pain in the body.
How, again, the sense of right and the moral affec-
tions will fight the first temptation to lie! But, if
tempted to lie in order to make money, you allow
the animal desires to present stronger motives to the
will than the moral; you will weaken the conscience,
the sense of right, the better judgment, the moral af-
fections, and thus strengthen this evil propensity.
Every time that violence is done to the moral na-
ture the forces that impel to deception grow mightier,
and it is but to continue the habit in order, in time, to
become a confirmed liar.
Self-love, again, when properly tempered and judi-
ciously controlled, is a grand endowment of the soul,
but when so petted and pampered as to assert itself
to the injury of others, it becomes the bane of soci-
ety and the destroyer of our higher nature. So it is
with Pride and Ambition. When these are indulged
176
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
the moral nature is weakened and the power of resist-
ance diminished.
The Sexual Desire is divinely provided for the
propagation of the race. Here are four individuals—
two ladies and two gentlemen. One couple meet
under pleasant circumstances. They highly re-
spect each other, and, after an acquaintanceship
of some time they become mutually conscious of a
more or less ardent affection for each other. They
are, however, so situated that they do not wish to
marry, while, at the same time, they desire to live to-
gether as man and wife. Now, it does not matter
how highly educated, cultivated, religious or virtu-
ous they may be, if they allow their desires and
awakened passions to control the will, they must
yield to the terrible temptation. Look at the moral
forces to be overcome-love to God, the precepts of
the Divine law, their better judgment, sense of right
and every moral affection. The moment they mutually
consent to this prostitution of all that is noble, pure and
chaste in their natures they become the prey not only
of remorse but jealousy, each doubting the loyalty of
the other. So, in their unholy associations they have
defied God, violated his law, violated the law of the
land, forcibly silenced the voice of conscience, broken
every moral affection, and, sinking lower and lower
into the abyss, their future is of easy prediction-full
of degradation and infamy. As they travel down this
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
177
slippery path, conscience, the better judgment, the
sense of right and the moral affections, become
weaker and weaker. Slaves to their passions, they
are lost to every pure emotion and virtuous impulse.
The other lady and gentleman become acquainted,
and friendship ripens into love. In her chaste pres-
ence he discerns only what heightens and strengthens
his virtuous esteem. Their love is pure, and their
marriage sanctioned by God himself. It is not en-
tered upon inconsiderately or lightly, but with a due
regard for the purposes for which it was ordained,
and the duties which it imposes. Such a union is
fraught with happiness and blessedness. As time
advances their offspring grow up in the strength of
manhood and the grace and beauty of womanhood,
gathering around them in old age to support their
steps and cheer their hearts. The first couple pass
away from life in fear, remorse and despair, whilst
the other, having lived in obedience to the laws of
God, the dictates of conscience, and under the sway
of the moral affections, find at life's close that for
them
There is no death; what seems so is transition.
This life of mortal breath
Is but the suburb of the life Elysian,
Whose portal we call death."
They go to heavenly mansions, to hear on entering,
the "Well done, good and faithful servants," fall from
the lips of their Lord.
178
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
Every moral act of man involves the approval or
disapproval of conscience. It is like a delicate mu-
sical instrument, whose sensitive chords respond to
every gust of passion and breath of prayer. Not
only does conscience suffer by every violation, but a
passion gratified to-day will clamor more loudly for
indulgence to-morrow, and thus an appetite, a habit,
is formed or contracted, gaining in intensity and fix-
edness by the frequent repetition of the immoral act.
Like a car starting from the top of an inclined plane,
which gains momentum at every revolution of the
wheels, so the growth of habit is accelerative in its
progression in a geometrical ratio, and not merely
arithmetical.
When I was a boy I read in a New England paper
a touching account of the hanging of a man.
It was
customary in those days to bring the children of the
surrounding country, that they might witness the
struggles and sufferings of the dying criminal. Their
parents believed that it would deter their boys from
the commission of crime. In the graphic description
referred to it was stated that when the rope was ad-
justed around the condemned man's neck, the cap
drawn over his eyes, and his hands were pinioned,
just as the sheriff was in the act of striking the blow
that would spring the trap, the murderer said to
him: "Sheriff, I wish you would remove this cap and
untie my right hand for a few moments. I want to
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
179
talk to the boys." As it was a dying request, it was
granted; the cap was removed and his hand untied.
He lifted his right hand, held it up for a moment, and
then brought it down again. He lifted it once more,
and looked at it. His utterance was so choked that
he could hardly speak, and the tears rolled down his
cheeks. "Boys, boys!" he said, "do you see that
hand? Once these fingers were delicate and small,
like yours. Years ago, I was sitting in a schoolroom
on the side of the Green Mountains, and a little boy
who sat on my left took out a piece of paper-I think
it was blank paper-and laid it on his desk. When
his head was turned these fingers picked it up and
put it in my pocket." The poor man choked again
for awhile, and then continued: "Boys, boys! this
rope is put around my neck to-day in consequence of
that early act of dishonesty. It was a few days after,
boys, while sitting in the same place, that these same
fingers reached forth and picked up a little pin, which
was of more value than the piece of paper. Months
and years glided away until, quite a youth, I went
with my father to the city, where he was accustomed
to trade, and as the clerk went to look over my
father's account, these same fingers, larger now than
before, picked up a penknife, when no eye was resting
upon them, and put it in my pocket. Years went on,
and one dark, stormy night I wended my way to a
farmer's barn. These same fingers that took the
180
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
piece of paper pulled out the pin which held fast the
door of the barn, took down a bridle, put it on a
horse, saddled him and led him out, closing the door
behind him; and, boys, boys! these same fingers stole
that horse."
Up to this time he had not acknowledged the
crime of which he had been convicted, and for which
he was about to be executed. He now continued:
((
Boys, boys! on a terribly stormy night, when the
wind was blowing and howling, I made my way to a
house in the suburbs of a city. Within a room of
that house stood a bureau, in a drawer of which was
ten thousand dollars. I had found this out, and also
that a man slept in the room, and that the probability
was that I should have to murder him in order to se-
cure the money. The same fingers that took the pa-
per sharpened the knife before I started and put it in
my pocket; the same fingers lifted the window and
helped me in; the same fingers took out that knife,
opened the blade, and with it cut that prostrate man's
throat from ear to ear. These same fingers felt his
feeble pulse until the last spark of life had expired."
His voice was now broken with sobs, and some time
elapsed before he could say another word. At last,
controlling himself, he went on: "Boys, boys! if I
had never been guilty of that first dishonesty—if I
never had taken that first wrong step-this rope
would not have been around my neck to-day!"
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
181
The murderer does not become the foul spirit he
is all at once; he was not made so in a moment.
Years have been confirming habits early formed and
giving intensity to desires early cherished. It is by
indulging in corrupt thoughts, mingling in evil com-
pany and cultivating evil habits that the disposition
and appetite for sin are acquired, and then the cur-
rent grows swifter and stronger, until the rapids are
reached, and the final plunge from the rounded edge
of the cataract is inevitable.
'Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
But, seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace."
How this comes home to the drinking man. If
he had never taken that first glass, he would never
have been a drunkard. When he took it, when he
first yielded to the animal emotion, with his eyes wide
open and against the warnings of conscience, the
teaching of Revelation and the voice of his better
judgment, he committed the greatest sin of his life.
This sin was an enemy entrenched; a spy secretly
admitted to the citadel that betrayed his confidence,
and opened the gateway in the wall of his moral de-
fense to the armed foes without.
That man would never have committed murder, if
he had not taken that first wrong step. The voluptu-
ary would never have become the abject slave of sen-
182
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
suality, if he had not given way to the first lascivious
impulse. That boy would never have become filthy
and profane in his conversation, if he had not told
that first lewd story, and for the first time taken the
name of his God in vain.
To me, profanity is the most inconsiderate habit
in the world. I cannot understand how any rational
man can use the very breath that God has given him
to profane the name of his Creator. When a man is
dying with hunger, I can understand how he may be
driven to steal; but I cannot conceive of any possible
circumstances under which a man can have a particle
of reason or justification for profanity.
A few years ago, three men were directing a raft
of logs down the St. Lawrence River. One of them,
who was a very profane man, thinking that he had
passed all danger, in a defiant way challenged God
to drown him. Before the oath had fully escaped
his lips, the log upon which he was standing struck
a rock concealed beneath the surface of the water,
forcing it from the others, his feet slipped, he went
down, and was drowned. God took him at his word.
CHAPTER X.
INNOCENT GAMES FREQUENTLY LEAD TO GAMBLING-VICIOUS LIVES
MAKE SKEPTICS - NEVER TRESPASS ON THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE
-A RIGHT CONSCIENCE IS A SURE AND SAFE GUIDE, AND TO BE
RIGHT, IT MUST BE ENLIGHTENED BY GOD'S REVELATION—HOW ·
QUICKLY ALCOHOL DESTROYS THE MORAL NATURE AND MAKES A
MAN LOWER THAN THE BRUTE-DRUNKENNESS NOT A PHYSICAL
DISEASE.
In a beautiful parlor one evening was gathered a
lovely and religious family. The father and mother
were discussing the question how they could interest
their boy in his home. He had arrived at that age
when young men are restive under restraint, and
seek to demonstrate their manhood and independence
by going contrary to the advice and instruction of
their parents. He was now gradually falling into the
habit of absenting himself from the family circle *
during the evenings, and his parents were studying
how to make his home attractive and pleasant.
Among other things they introduced the game of
eucher, and the boy soon became enamored of it.
As the months passed by the young man grew
proficient at cards, and became more than the peer
of any other of the household. Naturally strong in
(183)
184
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
his emotions and desires, he became very ambitious
to excel in this as in all other objects of his pursuit.
When he became of age and went into society, he
was tempted to test his dexterity in handling cards
in a few games with professionals. He knew that he
ought not to go into these disreputable places, but
having once entered on the fascinating scene, and
become the winner of fifty dollars, one hundred dol-
lars, five hundred dollars, of one thousand dollars, an
infatuation seized him, and his animal desires drove
him on.
If he had known nothing about the game,
there would have been no temptation to gamble. In
the ratio of his indulgence, his moral nature was weak-
ened, until he finally became a victim of the gambling
mania.
The father and mother sought to rescue their boy
from danger, but the very means they employed ren-
dered him the more susceptible to temptation, and
eventually paved his path to ruin. Handling the
cards for the first time in gambling, he did violence
to his moral nature, and that weakened, he found it
much easier to play the second time. In other words,
if he had not the moral force to withstand the first
temptation to play, how could he refuse the second?
If men have not the moral stamina to refuse the
first glass, they will take the second. Not only is the
moral nature weakened by these forces of sin, but
the very idea of God is obliterated from the heart.
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
185
The process is not always a quick one, but it explains
the reason why men who live vicious lives, so fre-
quently become skeptics and infidels. There are
only two words that reveal all there is in the moral
life, namely, Right and Wrong. These two words
involve obedience and disobedience. Obedience cov-
ers every right act, and disobedience every wrong
one that men can commit. All that I have to do is
to sear my conscience, harden my heart, erase the
divinely-engraven tracery of God's image from my
soul, and there will be no God for me, and my life
will be in accordance with my belief. This is the in-
evitable result of going back on our moral nature.
It will be evident to you now, why men drift
away and become criminals. These inordinate de-
sires, the more they are kept in subjection to the
standard of right, as approved by the conscience, the
better judgment and the moral affections, the stronger,
grander, and nobler they make the man.
Here then is a golden law: Never perform any
act that conscience whispers," Thou oughtest not." Con-
science is the representative of God in man. It
works in the manner so beautifully exemplified by the
ring that a great magician, according to an Eastern
legend, presented to his royal prince. The gift was
of inestimable value, not on account of its jewels, but
for a rare and mystic property in the metal. It
rested comfortably enough upon the finger in ordi-
186
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
nary circumstances, but so soon as its wearer formed
a bad thought, designed or committed a vicious act,
the ring became a monitor. Suddenly contracting,
it pressed painfully his finger, warning him of sin
and danger. Such a gift is not the peculiar property
of kings; the poorest of us, those who wear none
other, possess this inestimable jewel.
The ring of the fable is, that conscience which is
the voice of God within us, commending when we
are right, and condemning when we are wrong. But
this conscience is representative of something higher
than itself. With all the other powers of man it suf-
fered the shock entailed by original sin. Since that
fatal folly of our first parents, conscience has ceased
to be an infallible directory of duty. It has fre-
quently been guilty of compliance with custom, and
complicity with crime, lending its sanction alternately
to great virtue and gross vices.
Saul of Tarsus thought that he was doing the
service of God when he was haling Christian men
and women to prison and death. What wild and
weird imaginings has not conscience cherished as the
inspiration of God. Every page of religious and
profane history testifies to the most fiendish cruelties.
and foulest crimes, conceived and committed in its
name. Bloody scaffolds and burning stakes have
been furnished with tender women and aged men by
those directed by conscience. However honest the
1
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
187
purpose, pure the motive, and fervent the zeal of
even the religious zealot, his conduct is to be tested
and tried, not by his conscience, but by the great
Standard of Right, the Revealed Will of God. The
conscience then, must receive its life and education
from God's Word, before it can be safely followed.
I emphasize this thought so that it may be seen
clearly that, as the conscience is, so will our actions
be. There have been men who have endeavored
to lay waste their conscience, to silence its voice of
warning, and, when it is dead and desolate, they
have imagined that they could pursue a life of sin
with impunity. This is as if one, carrying a lamp in
the darkness in order to see by its light the approach
of his enemy, upon blowing out the light should con-
gratulate himself on the disappearance of his foe.
How a man, with the light of Divine Revelation
beaming upon his path and illuminating his mind,
can become so low, so degraded and sunken in the
depths of moral indifference as to have no fear of
God before his eyes, is beyond human comprehen-
sion. The Scriptures tell us, however, that it is “the
fool" who "says within his heart there is no God."
The secret, then, of that man becoming a murderer,
of the wild young man becoming a notorious gambler,
and of the downward course of the leprous libertine
is this-they each and all did violence to conscience,
sense of right, better judgment and moral affections,
God and his Revealed Will.
188
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
1
I come now to the application of these thoughts,
and will illustrate: Here is a young man, physically,
intellectually and morally, strong. But as is gen-
erally the case, he is of an ardent, emotional nature.
When I was a lad it was popular, and considered
right to drink intoxicants. My mother always, in the
fall and spring of the year, made her egg nog. She
thought that we could not be healthy during the
change from cold to hot in the spring, and from hot
to cold in the fall without the use of stimulants, ton-
ics. Although I have not drank it since I was ten
years of age, yet through memory I can see her
pouring the whisky into a large bowl and stirring it
up, and I can realize as if it were but yesterday, just
how it tasted; and if there is anything in the world
that will make my mouth water, it is to think of that
old egg nog of my boyhood's days. The appetites
formed in our early lives, like the intellectual impres-
sions of youth, we rarely forget or lose, whilst thou-
sands of intervening sensations, experiences and
events, have passed into oblivion.
When the minister came to pay my father a pas-
toral call, after the hand-shaking the first question
was, "What will you have to drink?" On the side-
board were the decanters, in a conspicuous place, for
it was not in those days considered wrong to take a
social glass.
Indulging then, those old-fashioned ideas of the
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
189
use of intoxicants, I meet with the young man of
whom 1 have been speaking. Now, whilst I would
not ask him to do anything I or he considered wrong,
I nevertheless place before him a glass and a flask of
brandy. I pour out the brandy for him to drink; he
has never tasted a drop of liquor in his life, nor in-
dulged in any other narcotic. Be it remembered
that I am speaking of the young man of a strong in-
tellectual, moral and emotional nature. His moral
nature is so strong that his best friends and those who
love him most, cannot induce him to yield one iota
to what he considers wrong. No power in the uni-
verse of God, but one that I know of, can influence
him to do violence to his moral nature. It would be
useless to tempt him to lie, steal, or become licentious;
to take advantage of his neighbor, or be guilty of any
questionable act. I will only pour out that glass of
brandy and invite him to partake. He accepts the
invitation.
Now, as to the effects, I can confidently appeal to
drinking men as witnesses. Will that brandy stimu-
late his emotions and desires? (See Chart.) Will it
dilate his emotion of delight and admiration? As I
help him to more, will not these exquisite emotions
be intensified? Oh, what a grand man he suddenly
becomes. And, as these emotions grow higher and
higher, conscience, the better judgment and the
moral affections, grow weaker and weaker.
190
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
How independent men feel when they have put a
little alcohol into the brain. Though in reality they
may not be worth one penny, they are in imagination
as rich as Croesus. The time comes when the excited
emotions of admiration, delight, pleasure and beauty,
rise just as high as the physical and spiritual will
permit, and as I give the young man of whom we
have been talking a little more brandy the admira-
tion and delight begin to wane. I repeat the dose
and a sort of reckless feeling comes over him; and,
as I follow it up, that recklessness is increased to
desperation, and dark clouds of melancholy gather
around his intellect. Finally, as I still ply him with
brandy, the moral succumbs altogether and I have
reduced him to that state called the semi-comatose
condition, when, conscience and judgment gone, sense
and reason dethroned, all stricken down for the time
being, there remains only an animal. Aye, something
lower than an animal.
Now, if I were to give this young man a little
more brandy, it would render him unconscious, or in
other words, he would be "dead drunk." I stop,
however, when the moral side of his nature is stricken
down, and the animal has control. The power that
God gave him to restrain himself, is eclipsed and
canceled by the influence of the intoxicant. I can
now lead him down into the lowest den of infamy,
into the darkest haunts of sin, and he cannot help
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
191
himself. I can deceive him, betray him, rob him, and
utterly destroy him, without meeting with any resist-
ance on his part. In short, this young man of the
highest virtue, under the influence of this narcotic,
can be led in a half-hour to commit crimes of the
most appalling character.
Now, I repeat the assertion that there is no power
in the universe, that I know of, which can compass
and accomplish this work of degradation and ruin in
so short a time, but alcohol! While opium will sink
its devotees as low morally as alcohol, yet it exhausts
and destroys the lascivious desires. Opium smokers,
as a rule, have these desires stifled. It is alcohol
alone that can bring man down from his God-like dig-
nity and sink him into the slough of passion and lust.
It would take him long to descend the moral scale
and reach this degree of degradation without the use
of a narcotic. How true, then, is it that alcohol is
the only power in the universe of God that can re-
duce man to the condition of the animal-nay, even
lower than the animal, for the wild beast of the forest
will die fighting for its mate and progeny, while God-
like man, under the influence of alcohol, will stagger
to his desecrated home, and in his madness murder
his weeping wife and crying children.
Not only, however, is alcohol the prolific source
of domestic sorrow and shame-of individual degra-
dation and remorse, but it is the direct source of nine,
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
tenths of the crime that is committed in the world.
Mr. W. W. O'Brien, one of the most noted and bril-
liant criminal lawyers of this nation, stated in a lec-
ture delivered to thousands at Farwell Hall, in Chi-
cago: "I have been interested in, and have had charge
of, more murder cases than any other living man. I
have visited more penitentiaries and talked with more
criminals than any other lawyer. I have taken the
pains to write down the names of these criminals, and
I have sounded them until they cried to me for help.
I have gotten at all the facts. Now," he continued,
"that record shows that in forty-nine out of every
fifty of these murder cases I have had charge of, al-
cohol did the crime; and nineteen out of every twenty
of the criminals I have visited in the penitentiaries,
jails and houses of correction were sent there by
alcohol!"
A man with his conscience, intellectual faculties
and moral forces stricken down by this accursed alco-
hol, lives only to be controlled by his inordinate de-
sires. There is nothing else to lead him, and the
fruits of these desires will manifest themselves in his
character and conduct.
We have not only here the suggestion of the evil
effects of alcohol, but it is a matter of the sternest
demonstration that the most melancholy creatures of
domestic ruin, of individual disgrace, and the worst
phenomena of crime and of pauperism are directly
NARCOTICS-WHAT EFFECTS.
193
traceable to this source. It not only palsies our char-
ity at home, but paralyzes our philanthropy abroad; it
enervates the mind, vitiates the taste, impairs the judg-
ment, dethrones the reason, pollutes the imagination;
it soils the judicial ermine, corrupts the legislature,
debauches the ballot box, and threatens the very ex-
istence of our magnificent edifice. Ah, so many are
the voices of lamentation coming from the wrecks of
virtue, the ruins of manhood, the waste of desolated
homes; from the spectral lips of desecrated love and
prostituted honor, that, to the listening ear of the
lover of man, the whole heavens reverberate with the
woe!
Alcohol dethrones God, and enthrones Satan.
God, in his Revelation, places this question of drunk-
enness where it properly belongs. He does not say
that the man afflicted with leprosy, the intermittent,
bilious, or typhoid fever, small-pox, or any other
physical disease, "shall not enter the kingdom of
heaven." While no one pretends to say that the man
who perishes through the contagion of one of these
malignant diseases is responsible for contracting the
disease, yet it is altogether different with the
drunkard.
The man who voluntarily decides to drink, and
then voluntarily takes every step in the process of
the debauch, is responsible! He must will his feet
to take him to the place of danger; he must will
13
194.
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
his hand to grasp the chalice of death; he must will
his lips to seize the fiery drops in which devils dance
and laugh; he is responsible!
•
Physical diseases cannot always be avoided, but all
forms of immoral conduct which involve the action
of the will and require its acquiescence, every sane
man is responsible for, and God will hold him to a
strict account. Hence Holy Scripture says: "No
liar, no thief, no whoremonger, no murderer, and no
drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of heaven," thus
placing drunkenness where it belongs-among the
moral maladies of the race.
CHAPTER XI.
EDUCATION AND REFORM DEFINED-TOTAL ABSTINENCE FROM NAR-
COTICS TIE ONLY HOPE OF THE INEBRIATE-THE FIRES OF THE
APPETITE NEVER DIE, THEY ARE ONLY SUBDUED-TIE EFFECTS OF
ALCOHOL COMPARED TO THE BURNING OF SHAVINGS, A GRAIN OF
MUSK, AND A LITTLE LEAVEN-INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE TOTAL
ABSTINENCE FOREVER-DOCTORS SHOULD NOT GIVE INEBRIATES
ALCOHOL OR OPIUM.
<<
The word education is derived from the Latin
ducere, which means to lead, and the prefix e, which
means out. Education, therefore, is a leading out.
To educe is to evolve, or develop. The process of ed-
ucation is illustrated in the growth of the tree.
If we
examine through a microscope the germ of the oak,
we see, in promise of potentiality, all that is after-
ward developed in the full-grown tree. In a handful
of acorns we may behold, in imagination, a whole
waving forest of giant monarchs. The little embryo
seed in the soil, warmed by the sun, and nourished
by the moisture, sending, by and by, its stem up-
ward and its roots down; putting forth first the blade,
then the ear, and last the full corn in the ear, which
rewards the farmer's toil, illustrates the process of
nature's wonderful development, throws light on the
analogous subject of education.
(195)
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
The word reform is also from the Latin, and is
compounded from the word formare, to form, and the
prefix re-again. Thus, to reform is to form again, to
make anew, to get back that which we had, but have
lost. Applied to the reconstruction of the body, as
involved in this work of reformation from inebriety,
it means to recover that healthy condition of stomach.
represented by Plate II. It is to regain that better
life which we once enjoyed. Now, the alcohol which
the drinking man has imbibed has produced the ter-
rible changes on the organs of the body which we
saw—the stomach, the brain, the kidney and the liver.
The first drop that is taken is just as damaging as the
last drop, and, therefore, Total Abstinence is the
trumpet-note of Reform. And that not from brandy
merely, or from whisky, or gin, or champagne, beer,
cider and narcotic drugs, but from everything of the
kind, to the brandy and wine sauce upon the family
table. There must be total abstinence from every-
thing and anything that has the first drop of alcohol
in it. A drop of alcohol in the wine sauce is just as
potent as a drop of alcohol in the brandy, hence the
inebriate must shun the one as sedulously as the
other.
Now, there never would have been periodical
drunkards if the individuals had not possessed strong
emotions and desires. The emotions, like our
thoughts, never die. Their impressions on the soul
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
197
are as eternal as the soul itself. The soul comprises
the intellect, the conscience, the moral affections, the
will and the emotions and desires. When you strike
off the emotional side, you remove one of the most im-
portant agencies of the soul's activity. An emotion
strengthened by frequent excitement never loses its
power and is never annihilated. As by memory and
association we can recall the vicissitudes, experiences
and events of a lifetime; so, emotions that may have
slept for years return to remind us of their power.
The heart is like a vase once filled with precious per-
fumes, which retains the odor when the vase itself is
old and decayed.
The way-worn traveler, hungry and thirsty amid
the sands of the Great Desert, sees afar off the green
and cool oasis, which, on his approach, turns out to
be only a deluding mirage. In the extremity of his
agony what comes up, instinctively, in his mind with
infinite readiness and clearness but the home of his
youth, on the verdant mountain-side, where the cool
brook sang through the shading moss? Later hopes
and ambitions may fade away from us like the mirage
of the desert, but early impressions are engraven
deeply on the soul.
Our emotions and desires act in the same way,
when once they have been set steadily in one direc-
tion-when they have been strongly connected with
some association, or have been aroused by particular
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means to assert themselves, they will, under similar
influences, as certainly assert themselves with all their
original vigor, as will early sympathies and memories.
If our moral affections are so trained that they will
hold us to God, as the tested cable holds the ship at
anchor, then all will be well, but if these are weak-
ened and destroyed, and the emotions and desires are
excited to tempestuous fury, there is nothing to pre-
serve the man from wreck and destruction. The
emotions and desires, then, never die.
Here is a pile of shavings. Ignite one and place
it on the side of the pile. The flames catch the half-
dozen around it, and these ignite the dozen or two
around them, until shortly the whole pile is ablaze.
The baker places a little leaven in his lump of dough.
This communicates itself to the particles next to it,
which in turn communicate it to their neighbors, un-
til the whole lump is leavened. Place a grain of
musk in a corner of a room, and in a few minutes it
will saturate every particle of the inclosed air.
So when a reformed man feels strong and able to
resist temptation, and entering a saloon he calls for a
glass of beer, he takes in that one glass, at least one-
seventh as many particles of alcohol as there are in
a glass of whisky. He thinks that he can safely drink
this without incurring the temptation of going fur-
ther; but after that beer has entered into his system,
the little particles of alcohol which it contains, like
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
199
the burning shaving, the little leaven, the grain of
musk, fire his sensibilities, excite his brain, stir his
emotions, move his impulses and arouse the appetite,
demanding further indulgence. It is scarcely neces-
sary to say that this is nearly the prelude to a terrible
debauch. He soon has taken half-a-dozen drinks,
until his moral nature succumbs to the power of the
animal passions. The alcohol in the beer, then, is
not sufficient to meet the demands of his now highly
stimulated system, consequently he begins to drink
whisky, and this will end in intoxication. Hence, the
first great and all important step to take in order to
bring the stomach back to its healthy condition is
to abstain totally from everything that has alcohol
in it.
On one of the principal avenues of this city lived
an industrious, moral and noble man. He attended
regularly to his business, and was beloved by every-
body who knew him. In consequence of his industry
and application he accumulated quite a large fortune.
Notwithstanding his financial independence he was
not above driving a double dray in his own business,
thus making money by the sweat of his brow.
Through over labor, and perhaps by exposure, he
was taken sick. The family physician was called in
by his anxious wife. The doctor was one of those
who honestly believe that the use of intoxicants is at
times necessary for some patients, and in this case he
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
4
prescribed wine. The man said, "No, doctor, I can-
not use wine." His physician earnestly pleaded with
him, and endeavored to convince him of the necessity
of a slight stimulant. But all his importunity did
not overcome the patient's objections. So stoutly
did he protest that he would not take the wine that
the doctor pressed him for his reason. The patient
said, "Thirty-five years ago I was wandering through
the streets of Dublin under the influence of liquor,
when I saw a great concourse of people entering one
of the large churches. I drifted in with the rest, and
took a seat near the speaker in order that I might
hear what he said. As he proceeded I soon learned
that his subject was temperance, and I listened in-
tently. The last appeal of the lecturer was an invi-
tation to those who had been accustomed to drink, to
come forward and sign the pledge. Under this ap-
peal of Father Matthews I immediately went forward
and signed the pledge, and doctor, from that day to
this I have not dared to touch anything that had a
drop of alcohol in it.”
He had learned the invaluable lesson of total ab-
stinence—not simply from brandy, or whisky, but from
everything that had alcohol in it. It took that phy-
sician two days to persuade him to take a little wine.
The doctor urged that his idea was foolish that he
could not take a little in case of sickness when he
had gone thirty-five years without touching a drop.
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
201
That physician did not know the pent-up fires and
forces which had slept in that man's sensibilities for
all that time; he did not know the power of the little
drop of alcohol in that wine to awaken into life again
and arouse those uncontrollable emotions and desires.
The man yielded and took the wine. Not being
seriously sick he soon recovered and went back to
business. The old fires, however, were started, and
began burning deeper than ever in the chamber
of his emotions. The second day after his convales-
cence whilst driving under the delirium and bewilder-
ment of drink, he fell from his dray, his head struck
the pavement, and, breaking his neck, he thus sadly
ended his career. Reader, who killed him? What
killed him?
In a village adjacent to my own native town in
New England, lived a man eighty years of age. He
was a pattern of morality and integrity—a grand and
noble Christian man. He was a deacon in the church,
and to know him was to love him. Such was his
admitted honesty of purpose that his fellow citizens
frequently placed him in official positions in the
county-for in those days the office sought the man,
and not the man the office. He was taken suddenly
sick. At that time it was customary and considered
right to drink; no one among his acquaintances knew
that he had any passion for stimulants, but when on
that bed of sickness his physician prescribed a stim-
$
202
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
ulant, he said: "Doctor, I dare not drink it. Forty
years ago, before I came to this section of the coun-
try, I was a miserable drunkard. I had to leave my
old home and get away from my old associates, to
break the tyrannous habit that held me, since which
time I have not dared to touch anything of an a'co-
holic nature." The doctor laughed at him, however,
and insisted upon his taking the prescription as the
one condition of his recovery. He took the stimu-
lant, and in less than three years died with delirium
tremens. The old latent fires that never go out had
been aroused, the treacherous flames of passion burst
out with redoubled fury, and he could not conquer
them. It cannot be too strongly urged, or too firmly
grasped that the only safe stand for those who have
been drinking men to take; is total abstinence for-
ever from all that can intoxicate.
:
Three years ago, during one of our Sunday even-
ing meetings in The Washingtonian Home, a man
arose and said, "Seven years ago I came into this
Chapel for the first time. I was then a drunkard, a
low, degraded drunkard; I had repeatedly, on my
knees, asked God to help me overcome this terrible
habit. After struggling, with no success, for years,
I happened to visit this Chapel, when one of the
speakers closed his remarks with these words: Mr.
Superintendent, I shall never, NEVER, NEVER touch
another drop of alcohol!' It was a new thought that
•
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
203
had never occurred to my mind. The idea of never,
never, never touching another drop came like an inspi-
ration to me. On no occasion had I said that to my
Creator, myself, or my friends. The words contin-
ued to ring in my ears as I sat there; they followed
me as I walked down to the front pavement. What!
dare I say, I will never, NEVER, NEVER touch another
drop? As I walked along the street my steps seemed
to beat time to these words, and on reaching my
room I fell upon my knees and pleaded earnestly
with God to give me strength and courage to make
and carry out this one great resolution, to never, never,
never drink another drop of alcohol.
"In the morning, as the sunlight streamed through
my open window, all doubt was dissipated from my
mind, and rising a new man, by grace divine, I was
enabled to say to God, I will never, NEVER, NEVER
touch another drop."
In concluding his remarks, he said, “Mr. Super-
intendent, from that hour to this, whenever I have
passed a saloon, and been tempted to drink, just that
one word never has given me strength and enabled
me to keep my good resolution.”
It matters not if wife, father, mother, sister or so-
ciety forsake the reformed man; it matters not how
dark the storm or how deep the sorrow he has to
pass through, he must cultivate that moral power by
which he will be enabled to say to the incoming tide
204
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
of evil passions, "Thus far shalt thou come, and no
farther!"
On the walls of The Washingtonian Home hangs
a motto, "Boys, if you don't drink you won't get
drunk." The man who said that was a noble re-
formed man. He took great delight in speaking at
the Sunday evening meetings, always concluding
with these words, "Boys, if you don't drink you
won't get drunk." He was connected with the Board
of Trade, and talked temperance and personal reform
there as well as elsewhere. He was very grateful to
The Home for saving him. Before he reformed he
had wrecked the functions of his liver, and the "Hob-
nailed" condition (See Plate XVI) was produced.
He had gone too far to recuperate, and suffered se-
verely. He concluded to visit his old friends and
acquaintances across the Atlantic. On his way back
he was taken very sick, and a minister was likewise
sick in an adjoining stateroom. The doctor aboard
the ship said to him that he must take some brandy or
he would not live to get home and see his family.
"Doctor," he replied, "it is unpleasant for me to think
of having my body thrown into the deep, but I will
die before I will drink a drop of brandy." He did
not, however, die. The minister in the next room, on
the other hand, who took the brandy, died. Our
friend lived to reach home and continued to live after-
ward for a number of months. As he lay upon his
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
205
deathbed he was urged to take a little wine. "You
have but a short time to live, and as you want to see
your son, who is absent, it may prolong your life till
he returns, and you can bid him good-bye." He
looked up and said, “There is alcohol in that wine
and it is alcohol which has brought me to this dying
bed; it has been the curse of my life, and when I
leave this world I want both soul and body to be free
from this dreadful curse that has been my destruc-
tion." We cannot but admire the man who stands
so true to his convictions, to his honor and to his God.
One of the well-known graduates of The Washing-
tonian Home was taken seriously sick with malig-
nant fever. In such a dangerous condition was he
that his physician gave it as his opinion that he could
not live without a narcotic, and he urged him to take
a stimulant. "No, Doctor," was the reply, "I will
die before I will take a drop of it." For three or four
days the physician plead with him, but to no purpose.
As a matter of fact, the patient did not die, but re-
covered, and is living and well to-day, a witness to
the grandeur of standing by the Right, and leaving
results with God.
What has been said in regard to the use of alcohol
and its effects, is true as to the use and effects of
opium. Physical, intellectual and moral ruin is at
the end of both. Morphine, Dover's powders, Laud-
anum, Paregoric, et hoc genus omne, arouse the same
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
sensibilities of the animal nature, according to their
strength. Hence, the man who stops taking alcohol
and substitutes opium in any of these forms, is but
"jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire," and, in
addition, opium being more acute and withering in
its effects than alcohol, the habit is more difficult to
resist and overcome. One dose of morphine admin-
istered to a person of strong emotions, when sick or
in severe pain, if the patient is informed of the kind
of medicine, is sufficient to make him crazy for the
same when in pain again; and, when taken for a
length of time, the individual becomes a slave to it,
while a person of weak emotions can use it without
becoming thus enslaved.
CHAPTER XII.
MEDICAL CONVENTION IN LONDON, ENGLAND-TOBACCO AROUSES THE
APPETITE FOR INTOXICANTS-YOUNG MAN IN CHICAGO-CITIZEN
XICANTS
OF A DISTANT CITY SEVENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF AGE-A MINISTER
1
OF THE GOSPEL-A WOMAN EIGHTY YEARS OF AGE-GENERAL·
GRANT'S REPLY TO HIS SON-CIGARETTES ARE THE FEEDERS OF
SALOONS-TOBACCO MUST NOT BE USED AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE
INTOXICANTS-EFFECTS OF OPIUM AND TOBACCO UPON THE SOUL
FACULTIES.
There are weaker narcotics which more or less
affect the emotions. Any narcotic that will arouse
the desire for drink should be entirely ignored.
Not long since there was published an interesting
account of a convention of physicians in one of the
cities of Europe. An experienced elderly man read
a paper on the various narcotics, closing with strong
denunciations against the use of tobacco. Nicotine,
he said, was one of the most virulent poisons to be
found. There was a large number of young physi-
cians present addicted to the use of tobacco, who,
of course, fiercely assailed his position, calling him a
fanatic, and demanding proof of his statement. He
arose, stating that his dispensary was only a few doors
from the hall, and if they would appoint the last gen-
(207)
208
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
tleman who had so severely denounced him a com-
mittee of one to go with him, taking a piece of to-
bacco and a cigar to his office, he would prove that
what he said to them was true. He was instantly ap
pointed. "Now," said the old physician before leav-
ing, “I do not wish to kill any of these young doc-
tors, and if you will procure a couple of cats we will
make the experiment with them on our return."
They left, and returned in twenty-five minutes.
When ready for their report, the doctor requested
the young physician to state whether the nicotine in
the little cups was taken from the tobacco and cigar.
He replied that he did all the work himself, and there
was no deception connected with it. Two drops of
the nicotine taken from the piece of plug tobacco were
placed upon the tongue of one of the cats, and in a
very few seconds it was dead. Two drops taken
from the cigar were applied to the other cat in the
same manner, and it died as quickly. Of course,
there was no more debate; the question was settled.
One of our inmates received a letter, which I read,
from an acquaintance who was working in the pine
woods of Wisconsin with another friend of his.
They were both inveterate users of tobacco. While
working some distance from the settlement, and the
snow being so deep that it was almost impossible to
reach it, they ran out of tobacco. His comrade took
his old pipe, and after stopping up the aperture of
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
*
209
the stem, filled it with water and held it over the fire,
stirring the water and at the same time scraping the
tobacco off from the inside of the pipe. He was after
the tobacco. When, as he supposed, he had secured
this, after letting it cool he drank it, and in less than
twenty-five minutes he was dead. The nicotine ab-
sorbed in the deposit on the inside of the pipe did
the work quickly.
Residing in this city is a wealthy, influential and
honorable citizen. He has an only son, whom he
educated in one of the best institutions of the land.
While in college he formed the habit of smoking, and
became wonderfully captivated with cigarettes. He
graduated in the literary and law departments with
distinction. Returning home he married an intelli-
gent, beautiful, educated woman. No young man
had better prospects for the future. The great de-
sire of the father was to have him take charge of his
business. But as time passed away the father noticed
that his son was losing control of his reflective facul-
ties. His memory, especially, was failing, so much so
that he was not reliable. He had never used any
narcotic but tobacco, and his father was very loth to
believe that it was injuring him. He finally visited
The Home, to make some inquiries in regard to his
son. Learning the excessive use he was making of
cigarettes, I told him that I had not the least doubt
but the nicotine was the cause of his trouble, and the
14
210
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
only remedy left him was to quit the use of tobacco,
or it would ruin him.
((
The difficulty was, that the very reflective faculties
by which only his son could see his weakness, were
so wrecked by the nicotine, that he could not see it.
Hence, there was nothing left, within himself, to lead
him out of this condition. His father tried by shut-
ting him up, but he would jump through the win-
dows, and rush for the cigarettes or cigars. Finally,
his father said to him: 'My son, here is a note for
one thousand dollars, due me yesterday. You see
by the name signed, that it will be paid the moment
it is presented. It is now nine o'clock. I want you
to take this note, go and collect it, and return with-
out fail by eleven o'clock, for at that time an account
will be presented to me for that amount, and it must
be paid, or your honor and mine will suffer. My son,
will you do it?" "I will," was the reply. Three
times the father said that he repeated this injunc-
tion, emphasizing it more strongly, in order that he
might not forget it.
The son left and did not return until one o'clock
in the afternoon. As he entered, his father inquired
if he had collected the note. "What note?" he
asked. "My dear son, do you not remember how,
at nine o'clock this morning, I gave you a note for
you to collect and return without fail by eleven
o'clock, for I had to pay an account that would be
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
211
presented at that hour? My son, do you not remem-
ber it?" After a pause of a few moments he recol-
lected it. "Now, my son, do you not see that you
are losing your mind, losing your ability to do busi-
ness, and in a short time you will become insane?”
The young man saw for the first time where he was
drifting, and consented to come to The Home. When
he came here he said to me, "It is no use, I cannot
stop smoking. I shall not live if I do." I assured
him that there was no trouble, and after treatment of
three weeks he returned home a free man, and the
last I knew of him he was continuing free, and his
reflective faculties were being restored little by little
every day.
ង
Another gentleman, seventy-eight years old, resid-
ing in one of our large cities, was brought to The
Home in almost a helpless condition through the use
of narcotics. He was a graduate of Yale, very
wealthy, and had traveled all over the world. After
a residence in The Home of about six weeks, and he
had regained some of his physical strength, he said
to me: "I have some good news to tell you. Two
weeks ago when you were lecturing upon the use of
tobacco, after listening to the facts adduced coming
under your observation, I was thoroughly convinced
that alcohol was not my worst enemy, but that nico-
tine had been the devil of my life. I saw for the first
time, that in every instance, the nicotine of tobacco
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
had kept the fires of the appetite burning until finally
I was driven back to intoxicants, and then and there
before you closed that lecture, I pledged myself never
to touch another particle, and I have not since, and
never will." Then lifting up his right hand and rais-
ing himself upon his tiptoes, he exclaimed, "Look at
that hand, see how still I can hold it! Oh, look at it!
For more than half a century I have drank liquors;
for not less than half a century I have smoked on an
average not less than ten of the best cigars daily, and
during these years I have not been able to hold my
hand as I can to-day. I always thought that it would
kill me to stop the use of narcotics. I have all my
life boasted of being a free man, when I was only a
base slave; but now I am truly a free
shall never again use these narcotics."
as I have been able to learn, he has been
word.
man, and I
And so far
true to his
In an adjacent State lived an intelligent, able, in-
fluential and eloquent minister of the gospel. I was
very intimately acquainted with him. He was an in-
veterate smoker of tobacco. He was frequently cau-
tioned by physicians that the tobacco would destroy
his health and perhaps his life. He, like the alcohol
drinker, knew that it did not injure him, hence he
could see no necessity for stopping. Finally his
most intimate physician told him that if he did
not stop he would die in less than two years, with the
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
213
delirium tremens. He ridiculed the idea.
But the
time came, and for two weeks before his death it
took six men, three at a time, to control him, and he
died a raving maniac, with delirium tremens. He
never used any narcotic except tobacco.
I knew a woman who had, when forty years of
age, never used a particle of tobacco. Her stomach,
however, being diseased, her physician recommended
her to smoke. In accordance with the directions of
the physician, she commenced, and soon acquired the
habit. Living by herself, in a home of her own, until
within the last five or six years of her life, her chil-
dren knew nothing of this indulgence. When she
was compelled to take up her abode with them, she
was completely crazed, and wanted to smoke con-
stantly. She had altogether lost control of herself,
and would cry out so that she could be heard all
around, for her tobacco. She would sometimes
scream, "Don't kill me! don't kill me!" and fre-
quently would jump up, crying, "I am burning up!
I am burning up!"
Her friends soon realized that the use of tobacco
was killing her, but on account of her age (she was
then eighty-two, and in a feeble condition) they
thought it was almost impossible to deprive her of
her pipe. They were afraid that she would die if it
should be taken from her. I told them it was the habit
of smoking that was killing her, and that if she were
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
my mother I would take her tobacco from her. They
consulted with a physician, who said he did not think
it would do to take away so suddenly the tobacco from
so old a woman. She grew worse, however, until her
friends came to me, saying that something must be
done, or she would die of delirium tremens. They de-
sired me to take her under my charge. I commenced
by laying down the rule that she was to smoke but
three pipes a day, one after each meal. When I in-
formed her of this, she exclaimed excitedly, "You
will kill me! you will murder me, and you will have
to answer to God for it!"
Up to forty years of age she had always been a
noble, Christian woman, and had been esteemed and
beloved by everybody, before she became a slave to
this narcotic. After I had commenced the new regime
it was not twenty-four hours before she was a new
woman, and she continued every day to improve.
Her nerves were, of course, wrecked, and the least
thing excited her beyond the power of self-control;
but in a few months she was an angel, as compared
with what she had been a year and a half before. I
believe, if she had been deprived of tobacco altogether
when her failing strength was first discovered, that
she would have regained her health in a few weeks,
and lived the balance of her life a happier woman.
The reply that General Grant made to his son,
when the latter asked him if he did not feel like smok-
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
215
ing, was, "No; it is the effect of that narcotic that is
choking me to-day." He gave it up entirely. One
of the attending physicians has reported that the Gen-
eral asked him one day, "Do you think that I will
ever get well? You are giving me morphine. If I am
going to get over the ravages of this terrible cancer,
I don't want to be a slave to morphine, and I would
not take another particle."
Cigarettes, I believe, are the most formidable.
feeders of the saloons that we have. By a number
of men who have worked in establishments where
cigarettes are manufactured I have been informed that
the papers used for wrapping the tobacco are soaked
in a solution of morphine. This, with the nicotine,
fires the emotions and desires so that the recipients
in a little while become crazy for them, and they not
only use many more, but rush from them to beer, and
then to the whisky. What an immense army are grow-
ing up to become drunkards! This narcotic fans the
fires of the appetite, and keeps them alive until they
drive reformed men back to intoxication. Hence, I
have been constrained, in the reformatory work of
The Washingtonian Home, to urge upon the inmates
the necessity of refraining from the use of tobacco,
and many of them, knowing its tendency and effects
by experience, have ignored the use of it entirely.
Why do men smoke so incessantly when they quit
drinking? Because the nicotine measurably meets
216
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
the demand in their system for alcohol. Now, the
physical system must be reconstructed and brought
back to its normal condition. There is never any time
to lose. Men have already lost too much time.
With a great many it may possibly be too late. If a
man, in drifting down the stream of his sensual de-
sires, gets too near the rapids, such is the rapidity of -
the current that hope of rescue is out of the question.
Do you wish, my reader, if a drinking man, to re-
form? Are you willing to burn every bridge behind
you, and, facing the foe, fight this dread evil to the
death? Trusting in God, I hope to see the day when
the race will rise en masse against these destroyers of
the human family.
No people, whether barbarous or civilized, have
hitherto been without a narcotic. The English and
Germans have their Hop; the French, their Lettuce;
New Grenada and the Himalayas, the Thorn-apple;
Peru and Bolivia, their Cocoa; Polynesia, the Ava;
the Malays and Papuans, their Betel-nut and Betel-
pepper; South Africa, Persia, Turkey and India,
their Hemp and Hasheesh; Turkey, China and In-
dia, now their Opium; Liberia, the Fungus; and
America to begin with, Tobacco, and now all the
world, Tobacco and Alcohol.
In many instances different nations have tried to
crush out these narcotics, but as yet their efforts have
been futile.
}
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
217
For example, the ancient laws of China forbid the
growth, manufacture and use of opium, and severe
penalties, even to decapitation, are by them enacted
to follow violation. These laws are still extant, al-
though non-active in consequence of the action of the
British government who compel the Chinese author-
ities by force of arms, to accept the opium grown in
India in exchange for the valuable products of China,
such as tea, silk and rice.
With the exception of the corn and cotton crops,
the commercial interests and capital invested in the
manufacture of all the various narcotics, are nearly
as great as in all the other commercial commodities.
together. Their action on the human system is won-
derful. While they all soothe and allay generally,
yet in various climates they act very differently.
Some of them give the power to talk, and in im-
agination to converse with one's ancestors, while
others take away the power of speech and motion;
others throw the habitues into a dreamy and almost
unconscious condition, whilst others still, excite the
baser passions and drive the victim to temporary
madness. All of them, according to their narcotic
strength, seem to make men more or less foolish.
They excite and arouse the animal emotions and de-
sires, and as these increase in strength, in the same
proportion the moral affections and the conscience
become weakened, and the intellectual faculties be-
wildered.
218
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
The effects of opium on the physical system are ·
somewhat similar to those of alcohol. Opium fights
and weakens the functions of the organs of digestion
and assimilation, hardens and lessens the size of the
tissues, and renders the whole body more or less ab-
normal. Its effects upon the intellect, the conscience,
the moral affections and sensibilities, is remarkable.
The opium eater is very suspicious in regard to him-
self, always fearful that something is going to happen
that will deprive him of his narcotic. He seems to
have lost his sense of honor and love of veracity.
With his hand upon the Bible, he will swear that he
has not a particle of morphine about him, when it is
secreted in various parts of his clothing in large
quantities. Its effect upon the vitiated passions is
different from that of alcohol. It makes the suicide,
whilst alcohol makes the murderer.
•
Tobacco was cultivated and used by the Indians
of the West India Islands, when those islands were
discovered by Columbus in 1492. It is the most ex-
tensively used of all the narcotics. The active chem-
ical ingredients of the plant, according to analysis,
by which its varied effects are produced, are three in
number. One is a volatile oil which is bitter to the
taste, and gives the odor to the tobacco. By taking
the leaves of tobacco and infusing them in water
made a little sour by sulphuric acid; then distilling
this infusion in quicklime, we obtain for the second
substance a small quantity of a volatile, oily, colorless
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
219
alkaline liquid, heavier than water, called nicotine. It
is so poisonous that one drop will kill a dog, and res-
p'ration in a room where one drop is evaporated be-
comes very difficult. The third ingredient is known
as Empyreumatic Oil. It is very poisonous and se-
cured by distilling tobacco alone in a retort, or when
burned in a pipe.
These three chemical substances in the tobacco
produce the sensible effects persons experience in
smoking. These poisonous oils, whether in the form
of vapor or liquid, taken into the system like the
other narcotics, weaken the functions of digestion and
assimilation, according to their strength. When
smoked, the vapor is more penetrating than the juice
received into the system by chewing. The habitual
smoker of tobacco, like the drinker of intoxicants,
when he is lonely, in trouble, in want, tired and weary,
in short, suffering, flies to this narcotic for relief, be-
cause it soothes his troubles, mitigates his sufferings,
relieves his pain, and makes him temporarily a hap-
pier man; and thus he keeps the fires of the appetite
burning, which, after a while, will push him back to
the intoxicants. The idea that a weaker narcotic can
be used as a substitute for alcohol or opium, no doubt
has been the cause of leading more reformed men
back to the use of them, than all other things put to-
gether. There is no safety, no absolutely sure, per-
manent reformation for the inebriate without total
abstinence from the use of all narcotics.
CHAPTER XIII.
HOW TO RECONSTRUCT PHYSICAL TISSUE-ALCOHOL PICKLES TISSUE
AND OPPOSES THE FUNCTIONS OF DIGESTION-THE PROCESS OF DI-
GESTION AND THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL-NUTRITIOUS FOOD MAKES
HEALTHY TISSUE—APPETITE IS THE DEMAND IN THE PHYSICAL SYS-
TEM FOR FOOD-A WEAK STOMACH MUST HAVE LIGHT FOOD-STU-
DENTS IN OUR UNIVERSITIES-HOT WEATHER REQUIRES LESS AND
LIGHTER FOOD-SLEEP AND REST ARE NECESSARY TO RECONSTRUCT
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM--DAY SLEEP CANNOT TAKE THE PLACE OF
NIGHT SLEEP-CHEER IS ESSENTIAL TO A RECUPERATION OF THE
BRAIN CELLS, AND NO REFORM WITHOUT IT.
The absolute necessity in the great work of per-
manent reform, of ignoring all narcotics, has, in the
preceding chapter, been demonstrated. There is not
a ray of hope, I repeat, that I can see of any perma-
nent reformation in the case of any inebriate who
does not totally abstain from all intoxicants. Total
abstinence then, is a fundamental necessity on which
to construct successful reformation. The inebriate,
however, needs not only reformation of habits and
morals, but the reconstruction of physical tissue is
also imperative, and in this and the following chapter,
I desire to revcal to the reader the process by which
this can be accomplished.
Alcohol fights the changes that are continually
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NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
221
going on in the system, which produce the forces of
physical life and health. It pickles tissue-that is a
word which well expresses its effects. "Pickling
means the hardening and holding of particles together
so that they will not separate, soften or decompose.
When the cells and tissues of the body tend to de-
compose and separate, alcohol prevents the process.
A little alcohol placed in weak vinegar, when pickles
are softening or spoiling, will permeate the pickles,
stop the process of decay and harden them.. If I cut
my finger off and put it into alcohol it will permeate
all the little cells, and holding all the particles to-
gether, will prevent decomposition, producing the
same result. Every drop does its work. Let the in-
ebriate count the drops if he can, that he has drank,
and then calculate the ruin they have wrought.
Estimate the effect of alcohol upon the one physi-
cal process of digestion. See the food as it enters
the mouth; observe the depleted saliva, the insuf-
ficient ptyaline; trace it as it enters the esophagus,
without having first undergone that complete chemi-
cal change which God designed should take place in
the mouth, by which the starch is changed to sugar,
and the food thus prepared for its reception into the
stomach. There the gastric juices fail to perform
their work, and the food is not converted into healthy
chyme. When it passes through the pyloric orifice
into the duodenum-or second stomach-the bile and
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
pancreatic fluid, secreted by an abnormal liver and
weakened pancreas, cannot possibly change this
already imperfect chyme into healthy chyle.
Again, when the food passes through the intes-
tines, the villi, that sip out the chyle with their little
mouths, having lost their sensitiveness, through the
paralyzing effects of alcohol, fail to imbibe all the
pure nutriment, thus robbing the circulation of the
supply of nourishment required to make the system
healthy. An impure and imperfect chyle, passing
through the lacteals and mesenteric glands into the
thoracic duct is conveyed into the heart, and thence
into the lungs along with the venous blood. Here,
on account of its abnormal condition, it is not changed
by the oxygen that comes through the little air cells.
at the ends of the bronchial tubes, into pure arterial
blood.
Now the food transformed into imperfect arterial
blood, is forced into the left ventricle of the heart
and thence into the aorta, which distributes it through
the millions of smaller arteries into all parts of the
body. These arteries are connected with the veins
by, perhaps, billions of capillaries, in which the func-
tions of secretion construct an abnormal tissue. Now
as the tissue is being taken out through exercise, suf-
fering, care and thought, by the process of change,
this food in the form of arterial blood is intended to
supply material for rebuilding the system; but in the
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
223
case of this vitiated arterial blood, it takes the place
of the normal tissue which has been removed by the
functions of excretion, and thus through the secretion
of this abnormal arterial blood, we see the dread
work of alcohol in the human system.
The stomach suffers more than any other organ,
because it receives all the alcohol, and the worst work
is done where the alcohol first enters it, that is, near
the cardiac orifice. (See Plates XII and XIII.) The
author was acquainted with the men from whom
these stomachs were taken, was present at their post-
mortem examinations, and closely watched the artist
who painted the pictures from which these plates
were made.
One-fifth of the blood goes to the brain, bearing
with it about one-fifth of the alcohol that is in the cir-
culation. How the brain must suffer from the intru-
sion of this fiery and destructive element. With this
quantity of alcohol in the brain, is it any wonder,
while intoxicated, that a man becomes insane? The
question before us now is, by what process can a
healthy condition of the stomach and the entire sys-
tem, which has been destroyed by these narcotics, be
restored?
The foundation upon which we are to build a re-
constructed physical system, is total abstinence. From
this foundation are to rise the three pillars which can
alone support the new superstructure, viz.: Nutrition,
Rest and Cheer.
224
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
First, then, what makes healthy tissue? The an-
swer is, Nutritious food—that is, food composed of
oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, the phosphates,
sulphates and salts. Anything not composed of these
elements is more or less a dead weight in the system,
and is more or less deleterious to it.
The average
weight of the nutritious food which a man eats dur-
ing the day is said to be six pounds. Three and one-
half pounds is mineral, including the water and the
salts; one pound is animal, including meat, butter
and eggs; and one and a half pounds vegetable. In
twenty-four days the amount consumed is nearly
equal in weight to that of the average man, which is
one hundred and forty pounds.
Now in order to know how much nutritious food
any one should eat, he must ascertain the condition of
his body. All the food taken that is to go into the
circulation, has to be changed into arterial blood.
When men become slaves to drink and are under its
influence they have, as a rule, no appetite,—no desire
for food. The question arises, How much liquor
does an inebriate consume during a debauch? He
can have no idea of the quantity. The intellect is so
bewildered by the effect of the alcohol that he does
not realize that he is starving himself. But when he
commences the work of reform by placing himself in
some reformatory institution, the doors of which
close upon him until such time as his system is free
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
225
from the direct effects of the alcohol, and tends to its
normal condition, the intellect, recovering its per-
ceptive power, then he becomes conscious of the
want of food as appetite reasserts itself. How hungry
he becomes! His hunger is the demand of the func-
tions of secretion which are clamoring for a supply
of nutritious material.
The appetite, therefore, is the voice of the system
in its demands for food. Now, if a man were left
unguarded to himself under these circumstances, with
the wild clamor of importunate appetite, he would
eat too much. Hence, in these reformatory institu-
tions, food is administered as a medicine, under the di-
rection of judicious physicians, versed in the laws of
hygiene. Overload the stomach in this condition with
even pure and nutritious food, and what would be
the result? It certainly could not be changed into
pure chyme or chyle, nor would it become pure arte-
rial blood, and thus consequently the object for which
men enter these Homes would be thwarted.
Even when the patient leaves the hospital, and en-
ters the dining-room, it is necessary for him to remem-
ber that he should control his appetite, and not be
controlled by it. If he eats too much the result is,
that, in a few days, he feels bad, the sclerotic coat of
his eye is tinged with yellow, and in a little while the
whole surface of the body is of the same color. The
fact is, the man is bilious. Some inebriates have such
15
226
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
voracious appetites that they seemingly are unable
to control themselves, and they leave these reforma-
tories no more reformed than when they entered.
The patient should eat just what his weak, sick
stomach can grapple with, and thoroughly digest.
Keep out the alcohol; take nutritious food--not too
much or too little, but just enough-thoroughly mas-
ticate it; let it become saturated with the saliva,
changed by the ptyaline, and, thus prepared, it will
be in a good condition to enter the stomach. As the
food passes through the process of digestion, and is
conveyed by the circulation to the functions of assim-
ilation, the abnormal, exhausted tissue is displaced
and supplanted by new and healthy tissue which is
constructed by the secreting of this properly digested
food, changed into arterial blood.
The recuperative and reconstructive process in-
volves time, and is accomplished little by little; hence
if the patient goes to work mentally or physically
one moment before the brain-cells are sufficiently
strong to sustain the strain of exercise, he will suffer
in consequence. This is one great obstacle in the way
of permanent reform, that men will not take time for
perfect physical reconstruction.
Plate No. VII represents the condition of the
stomach of a man who was killed immediately after a
spree, and is, perhaps, a good representation of the
stomach of a periodical drunkard. This stomach is
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
227
1
•
weak and wrecked; the functions of change are al-
most destroyed. Now, the only way to reconstruct
it is by the use of such food, judiciously administered,
as will give it a healthy tone and strength. It is uni-
versally conceded, I believe, by medical and hygienic
authorities that the extract of beef is one of the best
and most nutritious foods for a debilitated system,
and a weakened stomach, especially an alcoholic stom-
ach, and that is the reason why it is used in so many
hospitals.
Sometimes the patient thinks, when his attendant
hands him a bowl of beef tea, and a few crackers,
that he is insufficiently fed. This food does not just
meet the demands of his appetite; but he fails to re-
member that while he has eaten very little nourishing
food for days, and perhaps for weeks, he has at the
same time been burning out and destroying his stom-
ach with alcohol, and thereby weakening the func-
tions of digestion. To fill the stomach in such a con-
dition, with large quantities of food, would be but to
stop the processes of digestion and reconstruction,
and prevent the system from recovering its lost
strength and tone.
You will perceive, therefore, that this matter of
diet must be in other hands than those of the patient,
so that food may be hygienically administered, and
thus be a medicine to the shattered system. As it
takes four hours or more to digest pork with a healthy
228
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
•
stomach, how imperative the necessity of abstaining
from it entirely, and all other food difficult to digest
while the stomach is in such a weak condition. In
other words, the judgment, and not the appetite, must
determine both the kind and quantity of food to
be partaken of. How can a person know when he
has eaten too much? He carries constantly with
him a monitor that will cry out in tones of pain, “Too
much!" This means, eat less the next time. And so
the same monitory tones are heard when he does not
eat enough. A feeling of want is the consequence.
The quantity of food to be used is largely to be
determined by the amount of physical and mental
activity. The processes of thought, as well as the
exercise of muscle, consume tissue. When I exer-
cise continuously and vigorously I must cat more; if I
exercise less I must eat less. Persons accustomed
to daily toil and constant exercise, when they have by
drink inflamed their stomachs, disordered their livers
and kidneys, are liable when beginning the work of
reform, to forget themselves in their enforced idleness,
and overload their stomachs with food, which the
system does not demand, and cannot digest. They
are thus fighting healthy assimilation and reconstruc-
tion, and consequently there is no reformation.
In the University where I taught for a number of
years, ambitious young men would frequently come
from the country, rendered robust and healthy by the
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
229
fresh air, vigorous exercise and the nutritious food of
farm-life. During the first week after their matricu-
lation they have frequently come to me and said,
"Professor, I cannot study. It is impossible for me
to think. I have a dull, heavy pain in my head. I
am afraid I am going to be sick. I must go home."
My first question was, "Where are you boarding,
and what tables do they set?" Most frequently they
would answer, "We have a very good table; beef,
pork and other strong food, such as we have been accus-
tomed to at home." Now, the only trouble was that
they were eating too much strong food. I generally
recommended them to limit themselves to one-half of
their usual quantity; to take more exercise, and try
it a week longer. I never knew a case in which this
advice, fully followed, did not successfully remove
the difficulty. Judgment, then, and not appetite,
must hold control in this matter. The farmer re-
quires stronger and more nutritious food than the
man of sedentary habits, because of the additional
demand in his system for sustentation. Just in pro-
portion to my physical and mental exertions is the
waste and wear of tissues, which must be recon-
structed by the secretion of nutritious food used in
hygienic quantities.
The temperature of the atmosphere must also be
taken into consideration. One does not need as
much food in warm as in cold weather. As I have
230
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
before stated, a great factor in the problem of phys-
ical life and health is Oxygen. Now, take a bladder
and partially inflate it with air; tie a strong string
around the neck; put it beside the fire, and the par-
ticles of oxygen and nitrogen becoming heated, will
enlarge and burst it. Heat expands material particles.
Nature has made beneficent provision in recognition
of this great law.
In visiting the Torrid Zone you will find that the
food of its inhabitants consists chiefly of fruits. Ana-
lyze these fruits, and you will discern very little car-
bon. As you approach the north, passing through the
Temperate Zone, you will observe that the cereals
and meats are largely used, an analysis of which dis-
covers the presence of carbon in a larger proportion
than in the fruits of the Torrid Zone. Upon entering
the Frigid Zone we find that the inhabitants live en-
tirely upon meats, and by analysis it will be ascer-
tained that in these there is a much larger quantity of
carbon.
Doctor Kane, in giving an account of his northern
explorations, states that the sailor boys he picked up
in Philadelphia, who were fond of milk while in the
milder climates, when they reached the extreme
northern regions took their cups and dipped them in
the blubber oil, which they drank, seemingly, with
the greatest relish. The explanation of this is, that
the colder the atmosphere the greater the contrac-
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
231
1
tion; hence, in that extreme northern region, where
one inhalation of air has a much larger number of
particles of oxygen than at the Equator, where the
heat is so intense, nature has prepared a much larger
amount of carbon in its food for the oxygen to con-
sume.
God has so equalized in nature these forces that the
temperature of the blood is precisely the same in the
man who lives in the Arctic regions, as in the man
who lives at the Equator. Agreeably to these laws,
therefore, we must adapt our food in quantity to the
seasons of the year, making it more when it is cold,
and less when it is warm.
Q
If one eats food in which there is too much car-
bon for the oxygen to consume, the result will be that
the little cells that hold the fluids in the system be-
coming weakened, give way, and the fluids pass into
the alimentary canal, and leave the system, as in the
case of diarrhoea. When the little gates fail to hold
the blood in the system then dysentery ensues. I
have no doubt that the majority of the cases of chol-
cra infantum, of which so many children die in the
summer, is directly caused by mothers eating too
much hearty food, difficult of digestion. The qual-
ity of the mother's milk is determined by the quality
and quantity of the food which she eats, and thus the
little infant with its weak stomach and undeveloped
organs of digestion and secretion, is dependent for
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
its life and health on its mother's discretion in this
matter of food.
If the healthy person to keep healthy must care-
fully use the hygienic laws, how particular then must
the inebriate be, if he desires to recover the healthy
condition of his physical system. Nutritious food,
then, hygienically administered, is necessary for the
reconstruction of healthy physical tissue.
God
The next great pre-requisite is recuperation-rest.
“Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep." How
little we understand the great necessity of sleep.
The emphasis placed upon it by the Creator may be
seen in the construction of the universe. Why the
diurnal revolution of the earth? Why this equal
division of our time into periods of rest and motion
-sleep and activity-repose and exercise?
understood the necessity for and value of sleep, and
hence he provided for it in the very construction of
the world. So when the thrush at the close of the
day, leaves the tree tops for its rest; when the flow-
ers shut their beautiful eyes; and when the sun, re-
clining within the cloudy curtains of the evening
sinks within his ocean bed, nature teaches man, how-
ever some may neglect the lesson, to seek repose.
When I exercise my intellect, my muscles or my
moral affections, I am using up physical tissue, and
such is my constitution that I must need have rest to
recuperate and replace that which has been used and
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
233
destroyed. The man who violates this law will in-
evitably suffer, but further, in order to receive the
full benefit rest must be taken at the time appointed
by the Creator,
"Who for toil the day hath given,
For rest the night."
You may sleep as much during the day as at
night, but you will not receive the same benefit as
they do who use the night for sleep and rest. To be
healthy man needs the sunlight just as much as the
plants do. Look at the class of men who have to labor
during the night-telegraph operators, compositors,
physicians, and many others. Just group them to-
gether, and contrast them with those who have the
proper period for rest and recuperation. How many
of them become slaves to narcotics, and rush into
premature graves.
The physician who is called up at all hours of the
night, and who cannot have any regular sleep, how
soon he abnormalizes his brain and nervous system
generally, until finally he becomes unable to meet the
demands upon him without artificial stimulation. So
reporters, telegraph operators and railroad men are
frequently drinking men, and how many of them
have been inmates of the reformatory institutions,
but never succeeding in reforming until they have
changed their work from night to day work. I
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
have only known of a few who have been successful
at reformation while they continued in night work.
The reason is that the brain recuperates only when
the man is at rest. When he is awake his mind is
active, and when in action the brain cells are being
destroyed; therefore the proper rule is-day for
labor, and night for rest.
The night is the period which God has appointed
for man to relax his wearied energies, to gather new
strength and to collect fresh material to perform the
duties of another day. If man wars against these
laws of his being, and these provisions of God in
nature, he does violence to his own physical structure
and cannot but expect to suffer the penalty.
The next essential condition to the reconstruction
of a perfect physical tissue is Cheer. What the sun-
light is to the physical world, cheer is to the mind
and heart of man, and as the delicate vernal flower
would droop and die, shedding its petals one by one,
if robbed of the sunshine, so the brightest affections,
the tenderest feelings, the most vivifying sentiments,
and the purest thoughts of man wither and mildew
in the absence of sunlight and cheer.
Misanthropy and gloom are death to the health
and happiness of man. The most cheerless of all
men is the slave to drink. He may be sincere in his
desire to do right, but the use of the narcotic has
destroyed the foundation of self-control, and when he
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
235
would do right, evil is ever present with him. Cheer-
fulness, as in contra-distinction to buffoonery and
levity, is one of the rare blossoms which grow upon
the stalk of morality. It is the rich result of moral
cultivation, and can only exist when the conscience
is in consonance with the will and word of God.
*
Could I enter the chambers of the souls of the
human race and explore their intellectual faculties,
moral affections, and especially their emotions and
desires, I should find in many anything but cheer.
Now these wrecked brain-cells rendered abnormal as
they are through drink, can only be recuperated and
reconstructed by rest and cheer. When inebriates
are recovering from the effects of alcohol, they are
so anxious, so nervous and uneasy that they cannot
rest. As long as this condition of mind continues,
they are not able to sleep unless it be through sheer
physical exhaustion, and this by its very nature, will
not have the desired restoring effect.
If you visit the newspaper and telegraph offices
at two or three o'clock in the morning, as the printers
and operators leave for their homes, you will find
them stopping by the way at one of the ever-open
restaurants to take a drink or two. The reason of
this is, they realize that in their present nervous con-
dition they will have to induce sleep by a narcotic.
When they reach home, the alcohol having entered
the brain and suspended its perception of weariness
236
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
}
and trouble, they sink into a heavy sleep. But it is
a narcotic sleep, and consequently does not refresh or
restore their worn and wearied energies. In course
of time these men become so shattered in their ner-
vous systems that they cannot trust themselves, and
losing the confidence of their employers, they lose
their positions and wander out to swell the ranks of
the tramps. How then can this cheerfulness be re-
covered upon which depends restful sleep? Perhaps
some one reading this may say, "I try to be cheerful,
but I cannot." The slaves to these narcotics which
suspend the perceptions by which they are made to
realize their sufferings so they are enabled to sleep,
little think that these very narcotics are digging
deeper the cause of their suffering while they sleep,
and before they can eat or enter upon the labors of a
new day, they must resort to these same narcotics to
drown their misery ere they can perform the duties
of life, and thus they are driven farther and farther
from rest or cheer.
The heart and lungs are no exception to this de-
mand for rest. The time existing between the pulsa-
tions of the heart during twenty-four hours, amounts
to over seven hours, and between the inspiration and
the expiration of the lungs during the same time,
over twelve hours. These organs during this time
are reconstructed by the functions of secretion, and
kept in a healthy condition.
CHAPTER XIV.
INSTANCES GIVEN—A GRADUATE OF ONE OF OUR UNIVERSITIES—DR.
TANNER'S EXPERIMENT-WILL POWER DID IT—A SPIRITED COLT
TO BE BROKEN-THE BIT AND BRIDLE OF THE MORAL AFFECTIONS
MUST HOLD THE EMOTIONS AND DESIRES-HOW A PATIENT IN THE
WASHINGTONIAN HOME OVERCAME HIS ANIMAL PASSIONS—THE
REMEDIES-TOTAL ABSTINENCE, NUTRITIOUS FOOD, SLEEP, AND
CHEER.
A few years ago an editor of a paper, a graduate
of one of our eminent Universities, and a splendid
scholar, came with a friend to be received as a patient
into The Washingtonian Home. He said that he had
not slept for many days. "Professor," he said, "it
is no use for me to come here; I never shall sleep
again, and of course if I do not sleep my days will
soon be numbered." That was the greatest trouble
with the man. He was in that moody, melancholy
condition that negatives the very idea of sleep: I
watched him very carefully for a couple of days, his
case was very complicated; he would not eat a
morsel.
Finally I determined upon the following plan: To
visit the hospital every morning and evening, about
the time he arose and retired. At nine o'clock at
1
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238
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
night I went into his room, for he had a private room,
and so surly was he in his demeanor, that he would
not come out to see anybody; whilst so strong was
his conviction that he would never sleep again, that
it seemed gradually to grow into a determination that
such should be the case. I said to him, "My dear
friend, you are right, if you do not sleep you will
surely die. You of course know the effects of mel-
ancholy on the brain. You know that the weaker
and more diseased the brain cells become, the less
control you have over your feelings. Now, although
you tell me you have not slept for many days, yet I
advise you not to try to sleep, but to banish the idea
from your mind.
"You know that the more quiet you become, the
more control you have over your muscles, and your
nerves, the more rest you will enjoy, and the greater
will be the activity of the forces of secretion. You
know also that the more cheerful you are during the
night the more composed you will be, and conse-
quently, to-morrow morning, your nerve cells will
be so much the stronger. These brain cells are now
so abnormal and wrecked, and your sensibilities so
excited, that you cannot sleep, and consequently you
must be calm and composed, so that they may gain
sufficient strength to enable you to rest, and as a con-
sequence, you will soon sleep.
You must remember that you are a man, and not
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
239
a child, and that you must exercise your will power
in overcoming this morbid condition of mind. You
know that the law by which the will is controlled,
makes every effort of the will easier by repetition.
Now, in this course lies your only hope. Resist this
melancholy, shake off this morbid condition, will the
blues away, and be as cheerful as you possibly can.
If they go away only for a moment and then return,
keep on exercising your will, and preserve a cheerful
mood, for in this is your only hope of ever regaining
the power to sleep."
To all this he assented. Every morning I went
up to see him and would say, "To-day do not think
about sleep; try to be cheerful and give as much rest
as possible to your nervous system." He followed
this advice for fourteen days, and every morning I
could see, by the appearance of his eyes and coun-
tenance, that he was approaching a little nearer sleep.
On the fifteenth day I went to his room, and as I
opened the door, before he saw me, he cried out, "I
have found it!" I never saw a man look happier in
my life. "Found what?" I asked. "Why," he said,
"I found fifteen minutes' sleep last night." The spell
was broken, a mountain was rolled away from that
man's mind, and hope and cheer, blessed, bright and
inspiring, returned to give new life to his shattered
system. In less than two weeks he slept as soundly as
a healthy pig.
240
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
I was intensely interested in Doctor Tanner's ex-
periment. When he proclaimed his intention to fast
for forty days, he became the cynosure of all eyes,
and a great many physicians dubbed him a humbug.
He, however, said to them, "You understand the
laws of health and life, so you make the arrange-
ments, select the rooms, appoint a committee, and
take every precaution against deception." They ac-
ceded to his request and speedily arranged every-
thing. I watched intently for the dispatches as they
came over the wires.
On the thirty-fifth day, the eleven o'clock paper
announced that the committee had that morning
called as usual. They entered and stopped near the
door, and looking at the man, took a thorough diag-
nosis of his case. The window curtain was looped
so as to admit the sunlight into the room. As he
was sitting with his head resting on his hand, the
sunlight fell upon his hand and face. They spoke of
his wrinkled forehead. When the fat is all out of the
cutis-vera the skin itself becomes almost transparent.
Quite a conversation ensued in reference to his fin-
gers, the bones of which could be seen through the
skin, and the glassy and death-like appearance of
his eyes.
The unanimous conclusion was that it was impos-
sible for Doctor Tanner to live five days longer with-
out food. He looked like death itself, and, when the
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
241
R
dispatch closed, the physicians were discussing the
question as to whether the community would not hold
them responsible for what they termed his suicide,
and whether they should not endeavor, if possible, to
induce him to eat something. After the committee
went out the Doctor arose, bathed and dressed him-
self, drank his quantum of water, took his cane and
walked nimbly about the room, and at the time of
sending the dispatch he had gone to the Central Park,
taking his usual daily ride.
It is said that the sensations of starvation are the
most terrible man can experience. The suffering
must indeed be intense, from the fact that all the life-
functions are demanding food, but demanding it in
vain. Now, this man was voluntarily submitting to
this excruciating agony, and indescribable torture in
order, as he said, to demonstrate to wrecked mar-
iners, and travelers lost on the desert or in the forest,
that they could, if they would, live without food
longer than seven or nine days. The object thus was
to save life. Consider! Starvation with all its fierce
fires consuming every fiber of his body, and every
cell of his brain, and every tissue of his physical or-
ganization continually demanding food, and yet con-
stantly held at bay by this man's invincible will. I
ask you, reader, what supported him during these
forty days of agonizing existence? It was not nar-
cotics, or food, or medical treatment. I cannot solve
16
242
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
the problem in any other way than by concluding
that "I will" did it.
live five days longer.
I will live forty days. I will
What an astounding power is
here exhibited, illustrative of that which lies reserved,
concealed, undeveloped in the will of every man!
What! shall one say that he cannot sleep or pre-
serve cheerfulness, when this man after having lived
thirty-five days without any food, with his whole sys-
tem crazy with hunger, and death from starvation
staring him in the face, suffering the most poignant
agony possible to imagine, was enabled to say, in vir-
tue of this puissant will power, “I wili live five days
longer," and he did. How childish then it is for
any one to say that he cannot control that which
makes him cheerless, restless, and sleepless.
Here in a pasture is a spirited and untamed horse,
all nerve and muscle. It takes half a dozen men to
catch him; the same number to harness him, and
hitch him to the carriage, two men to hold him by
the bit, while the trainer, who is to master him, gets
carefully into the carriage. He sees that his harness
is strong and his reins firm. Bracing himself stoutly
against the dash, he gives the word to let go, and the
wild horse springs, like an arrow from the tense bow
of the Indian, through the air. The trainer knows
that whilst he cannot stop him he can control him;
he therefore determines to do the best he can to keep
him in the road. He knows well that to once loosen
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
243
his hold upon that bit is to let the horse catch it be-
tween his teeth and hurl him to death. Every muscle
and nerve of the horse is exerted to its utmost
strength and fullest tension, and he madly and blindly
rushes on, but at last under the firm and steady hand,
the kind but authoritative tones of the trainer, the
proud creature becomes tame and tractable.
So men must put the bit and bridle upon these
feelings that trouble and overcome them; fix the limit
to their demands; take hold of the reins of reason
and the moral forces, and as these fiery emotions rush
wild and headlong, control them with a steady hand.
This is the only way to conquer completely the ani-
mal desires. It is not medicine that is wanted, nor
narcotics, but a firm determination to acquire and to
maintain the mastery. To use drugs and narcotics is
simply to make a voluntary surrender of one's gov-
ernorship, for it is to inflame and intensify the pas-
sions, and at the same time to bewilder the intellectual
powers and emasculate the moral forces which should
dominate and control the animal nature.
The influences therefore, of a morbid mind must
be resisted by the royal power of resolution. The
enthroned Will, enlightened by intelligence, guided
by reason and conscience, confirmed by the better
judgment, and inspired by the moral affections, should
reign supreme in the Soul Life, dictating law and
limit to the circle of emotions and conduct.
244
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
The instinct of the lower animals preserves them,
unless forced, from using narcotics, whilst the God-
like being, man, for whom all other beings were cre-
ated, and subservient to whose comfort and pleasure
the world was made, sinks, through the tyrannous
and paralyzing influences of intoxicants, lower than
the beast. For, whilst his animal passions are in the
ascendancy, and his intellectual forces obscured, his
conscience forcib'y silenced, his will held captive by
his excited desires, he lacks the instinct which con-
trols the animal. When, therefore, these narcotics
are used to relieve the burden of painful reflections
and bitter memories, and to break the dark clouds of
brooding melancholy, those partaking of them are
strengthening the enemies of their peace and rest, and
rendering themselves less able to resist the next
attack.
Do not then, ever say again that you cannot sleep
-that you cannot be cheerful. There is no one who
is altogether unable to smile, and it is within the
power of every one to speak cheerful words; a sunny
face can be had for the seeking, and when, even, one
takes hold of another's hand, it should not be in that
cold, icy and indifferent way, which indicates mere
formality, but the cordial grasp and hearty shake
should be the outward expression of the warm, sin-
cere soul.
Journeying along life's pathway, go with the deter-
NARCOTICS-TIE REMEDY.
245
mination to bridle your emotions, and control your
desires when they become capricious, impetuous and
wild. Burying the past, the inebriate must enter
upon the future strong, determined, hopeful and
happy. He must not tear away the bandages from
the wounds of old sorrows, or nurse into life the dy-
ing griefs of the past; he must not brood over the
disappointments and reverses of by-gone days; but
rather say as a brother once remarked to me, "I have
buried all the past in one grave, and erected a grave-
stone over it, and my future shall date from that spot
of sepulture."
Of all men in the world who should bury the past,
it is the man who is struggling to conquer the habit
of drink; for he, most of all, needs cheer and sun-
shine.
Years ago a gentleman was brought into The
Washingtonian Home, who was the most distracted
and reckless man I had ever seen. His intellectual
faculties were bewildered and almost destroyed. In
short, he was physically, intellectually and morally a
complete wreck. He went into the hospital and re-
mained there five days. But when he was released,
five minutes had hardly passed before he was in a
saloon drinking. Of course I concluded that there
was no use in trying to reform him, and consequently
he was not brought back. A few days later I re-
ceived a letter from a prominent firm in Chicago,
which read as follows:
246
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
((
Professor WILKINS:-If you will take this man
back, when he gets on his feet squarely, we will give
him a position in our store." The letter further indi-
cated that the firm would be responsible for his board,
and I was desired to keep him a year if necessary.
It stated that he was one of the best business men
they ever had in their employ, and that they would
rather have him than any other, if only he could be
reformed. He was re-admitted and was in the hos-
pital department nearly two weeks. When he came
out I said to one of the inmates, "I want you to
watch this man; follow him without his knowing it,
and if he attempts to leave the premises, stop him
instantly." For two days he was watched, but on
the third he slipped away, and it was not long before
I heard that he was drunk. I took no further notice
of the case, concluding that he had gone too far to
reform, and that all efforts on his behalf would be in
vain.
It was not more than four or five days before I
received another letter from the same firm which
said, "That man is out and on a drunk, but we want
you to take him again." I found afterward that in-
fluential friends had intervened and prevailed upon
his employers to stand by him. The member of the
firm who wrote me concluded his letter by saying,
"If you will take him back again and he reforms, I
will do as I agreed before. Now, I throw the respon-
sibility on you."
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
247
He was again received and kept in the hospital
for nearly a month. I detailed three men this time
to watch him, and enjoined them in no case to let
him get away. At first he was rather inclined to
attempt escape, but every time he looked toward the
door, he saw three pairs of eyes watching him, and
abandoned the idea of getting off without being
noticed.
In a few days he lost the inclination to escape, and
as he was walking hurriedly backward and forward
in the hall, in the greatest excitement, I went up to
him, and tapping him on the shoulder, said, "I want
you to go up to your room, get what clothes you
have, and look for another place to live." "What?"
he asked. I repeated what I had said. He hung his
head and looked intensely excited for a few moments,
then said, “I came here to reform, Professor." There-
upon I commenced walking up and down the floor,
in imitation of what he had been doing, and then
said, "That looks like it. Why, you are getting
worse every minute you stay here. You are injuring
your physical, intellectual and moral being." "What
do you mean?" he asked. "I mean that you are
getting worse; you must control these feelings or
you will never reform. Go up," I repeated, "and
get your things." He looked down at the floor, then
turning, raised his eyes and said, "Good God! Has
it come to this? Is there no hope for me? Must I
die a drunkard?"
*
248
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
The tears rolled down his cheeks, his utterance
was choked, and it was some moments before he
recovered himself sufficiently to speak, then he
asked, “What shall I do? Tell me. I do not care
what it is, under God I will do it." I saw for the
first time that he possessed what I had not supposed
he had. There was a little moral manhood left. It
was difficult to know what to do; I was in a perfect
quandary.
A thought, however, occurred to me, which I be-
lieve was a happy one. In the first school I taught,
on the front benches was a large number of A, B, C
scholars, and there were always some little boys and
girls laughing and whispering, more or less, who
seemingly could not keep still. I would get through
with the lesson, and say to these little boys and girls
who were getting so restless and uneasy, "See here,
boys and girls, there are Willie and Johnnie and
Sarah sitting beside you; they keep still, why cannot
you
do the same? They do not whisper, why do you?
Now, I am going to see if you cannot also remain
quiet." Then taking out my watch and sitting down,
I said, "Now boys and girls, I want the little ones in
front to sit still, fold their arms and see who can keep
perfectly quiet the longest." Well, of course they
would put on the will power and sit there while I
watched them.
When I had made up my mind that they had sat
NARCOTICS--THE REMEDY.
249
still about as long as they could, I would say, That
will do." In a week or so, through this system, these
children obtained the control of their wild emotions,
and they frequently became the best scholars in the
school. That is what fathers and mothers should
teach their children to-day-to control their emo-
tional natures.
The thought occurred to me that this man in his
emotions and desires was a child; that he lacked con-
fidence, that he was deficient in self-control. I there-
fore said to him, "I want you to go into the reading
room and, folding your arms, see how long you can
sit still." He smiled a little, but did as I bade him.
I was quite busy, but nevertheless, kept my eye
upon him. I saw that when he walked out into the
hall he had a new thought, he had better control of
his hands, he walked more slowly and steadily, and I
could see that he was thinking. This was at ten
o'clock in the morning.
At two o'clock in the afternoon he was beginning
to yield to his emotions and desires as before. I im-
mediately stepped up to him and said, "You did first
rate." "What do you mean?" he asked. "I re-
ferred," I replied, “to the manner in which you con-
trolled yourself while sitting in the room. But you
have forgotten your new lesson already. I want you
to go back and try it again." I asked him how long
he had sat there in the morning. After thinking a
250
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
moment, he answered, "About thirty minutes."
“No,” I said, “you sat there just two and a half min-
utes." But it was thirty minutes to him, for he had
not kept still so long for years. He went back into
the room and remained there thirty-one minutes,
which was entirely beyond my expectation. He came
out a new man, for he had learned the lesson that his
only hope lay in conquering his animal nature.
In about two weeks from that time, he grasped
both of my hands and said, "You have taught me a
lesson that my mother failed to teach me. I never
had the idea that I could control my passions, and
subdue these terrible feelings that rush me into mis-
ery; but you have taught me this important lesson
and, under God, I can and will be a man. The future
shall be one of sobriety." He was soon a new man,
physically, mentally and morally. He recognized
God and looked to him for strength.
As soon as he was able to leave The Home, I sent
him to his employers and he was immediately given
work. For four years he sat by the member of the
firm who was so much interested in his reformation,
and remained a grand and noble man, deserving of
the confidence which was placed in him.
If a man wrecked, degraded and almost insane,
as was this man, could recover his self-control and
subdue his bad passions, then I am constrained to
ask, who cannot reform?
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
251
I might refer to many others, as weak, hopeless
and helpless, who occupy to-day positions of confi-
dence and responsibility, and there is here an import-
ant lesson for all, because what has been accomplished
once, can be again.
Under God, the most helpless can do everything
that is right, for the same power that made and
moved the universe is pledged to assist them in vir-
tuous purpose and every noble act. Here then, are
the means to be used in the reconstruction of the
physical frame:
The first is Total Abstinence from all narcotics.
The second, Healthy food, hygienically taken—
eat nothing but nutritious food, not too much or too
little.
The third is Sleep, hygienically taken. The sleep-
ing-room should continually be blessed with fresh
air,-persons are breathing out constantly carbonic
acid gas. In a room eight feet by seven and eight
feet high, if it were so tight that no air could get in
or out, a man would breathe out, in a single night, a
sufficient quantity of carbonic acid gas to destroy his
life. Every time he draws in the oxygen it unites
with the carbon, and generates carbonic acid gas,
and this he breathes out into the room.
It is the same gas that destroys the lives of so
many well-diggers in sinking wells. Sometimes little
openings are found which have been left by small
252
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
roots that have rotted out, and which run back to a
chamber where carbonic acid gas is generated. Little
by little, through the night, it runs down into the
well, and as it is perfectly transparent it cannot be
seen. The well-digger looks down next morning,
sees that all is clear, and begins to descend; but as
soon as his head is under the gas, there is a slight
quivering and trembling of his muscles, and he is
dead. It appears to be an easy way to die. How
many thus lose their lives! No well should be en-
tered before lowering into it a lighted candle or
lamp. If carbonic acid gas is there, the light will
be immediately extinguished. Consequently there
should be a continual current of pure air in the sleep-
ing-room to carry off this suffocating and dangerous
gas.
The fourth remedy is Cheer. This, with sleep,
will surely
Knit up the raveled sleeve of care."
These four remedies constitute the only method
that I know of, by which the physical system can be
reformed or reconstructed from the direct effects of
alcohol. Now, if the inebriate has any other disease
which affects local organs, or results in chronic dis-
orders, he must go to the skillful physician for help.
I am simply referring now, to physical reconstruction
made necessary by the non-decomposing or non-
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
253.
changing effects of alcohol. Ignore total abstinence
and these other remedies, and there is no reformation
or physical reconstruction. All of them must be
used, and under the influence of the God-given forces,
the inebriate will be able to solve this perplexing
problem of personal reformation. With him alone,
under God, the responsibility rests, of employing the
means, and unless the functions of assimilation have
been destroyed, the result is sure.
Thousands upon
thousands have unconsciously and needlessly glided
away into insanity and died in the insane asylums be-
cause they were not taught to control their morbid
passions, and will the cheer.
1
CHAPTER XV.
INEBRIATES ARE NOT THE MEN THEY ONCE WERE THEIR MOTIVES
FOR GOOD ARE OVERCOME BY THE MOTIVES FOR EVIL-ANCIENT
PHILOSOPHERS WERE IN THE DARK, NOT FOOLISH BUT SEEKERS
AFTER TRUTH-THE CONFLICT WAS BETWEEN THE MORAL AND
ANIMAL MAN-ALCOHOL OVERTHROWS THE MORAL NATURE AND
STRENGTHENS THE ANIMAL-MORAL FACULTIES STRENGTHEN ONLY
BY RIGHT DOING OR ACTION-CONSCIENCE IS THE ONLY SURE
GUIDE OF SOUL LIFE.
It
One of the saddest of the facts which have to be
encountered in dealing with the great army of inebri-
ates, is that they are not the men they once were.
is no question merely of physical deterioration. That
is hard and painful enough, and the way back to at
least a measure of health and strength is often ardu-
ous; but the mental and moral declension is a far
sadder, and quite as sternly a real matter of observa-
tion. The memory has lost its old tenacity. Fre-
quently one might as well write on water, as attempt
to impress the most ordinary train of ideas, or se-
quence of facts on the inebriate's recollection.
He himself, complains that his memory is gone.
The intellectual faculties have lost their wonted keen-
ness. They can no longer grasp a conception, or
{
(254)
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
255
distinguish between things that differ, as they could
before alcohol had done its work. There is a feeling
of confusion, of an inability that did not always ex-
ist; a blind sense of a lack of power that once was
securely his; like one who has been weakened by
fever, and who, convalescent, finds to his astonish-
ment that a mere feather's weight has become to him
heavy, so intellectual effort to the inebriate is a bur-
den all the heavier because he knows that it was not
always so. His confidence, too, is gone. There is
hesitancy in all he says and does. It may be that he
hungers for a little of that acknowledgment which
he knows he has forfeited, and that his apologetic
attitude indicates the presence of a grain of con-
science; but he is not the man he was, and he knows
it, and by his manner shows that he is aware that
others know it too.
Infinitely sad, however, although these things be,
they are not the worst. It is the unconscious deter-
mination which is the awful thing. The conscience.
of the inebriate is not so quick in its responses as it
once was, or so keen in its perceptions and discrim-
inations of right and wrong—and he does not know it.
The moral affections are weak and wrecked, but he is
unaware of any change unless indeed it be that he
feels, when temptation comes, that there now is no
force to resist its solicitations. Oh, how weak are
motives for good, how completely shattered the moral
nature!
256
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
Nothing could be more important than the sub-
ject now before us. In Tennyson's "Vision of Sin,"
the following lines occur:
""
At last I heard a voice upon the slope
Cry to the summit, "Is there any hope?"
From which an answer pealed from that high land,
But in a tongue no man could understand,
And in the glimmering limit far withdrawn,
God made himself an awful rose of dawn,
Unheeded."
In Jeremiah there is a verse which says, "Can
the Ethiopian change his skin, or the Leopard his
spots? Then may ye do good who have been accus-
tomed to do evil." These passages well express the
practical work-a-day faith of very many of even the
Christian man. They might have some faith in a
physical restoration, but not in a moral one. Now,
thank God, they are wrong. There is a possibility,
proved and proved again by thousands of instances,
of moral reformation from what seemed the lowest
depths to which an inebriate can sink.
“All things
are possible with God, and Christ is the power of
God."
In the order of the Divine cosmogony, God created
first the Mineral Kingdom-the gases, the salts and
minerals, which are the simple elements that make
up the physical world. He inter-penetrated nature
with the all-pervading law of affinity. The action of
NARCOTICS THE REMEDY.
257
this law results in the union and separation of ele-
ments with the result of continual change. The
same law, dealing with these simple elements, formed
the plants, the flowers, the grasses, the shrubs and
the trees, which are renewed in successive reproduc-
tion, still by this principle of affinity.
It was by the observation of these things in the
study of physical phenomena, that the ancient Greeks
went on, in successive series of inquiries, until they
elevated themselves above matter, above experience,
even to the loftiest abstraction, and until they classi-
fied the laws of thought. They erred in supposing.
a greater simplicity in nature than really exists.
This was very natural. Thales sought the first or
fundamental principle of things, and thought he had
found it in water. With him it was the prima materia,
the beginning of all things-the origin of the world.
His disciple, Ouiximenes, thought that air, not water,
was the primal cause. Heroditus regarded fire as
the elemental principle. And so they groped their
way along until Xenophanes reached the sublime
conception of God as the first great cause.
They were not foolish, these heathen seekers after
truth; they manifested an eager and painstaking long-
ing for light, which may well teach us a lesson.
They reached even in Plato, to dreams of immor-
tality. Our means of arriving at truth, through
science and Divine Revelation, are infinitely greater
17
258
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
than theirs, but some acquaintance with their endeav-
ors should at least teach us new earnestness and hu-
mility. Of their system it may well be said,
"All tend upwardly though weak,
Like plants in mines that never saw the sun,
But dream of Him, and guess where he may be,
And do their best to climb and get to Him."
Incarcerated and petrified among the rocks we
find many trees, plants and shrubs, taking us away
back to pre-historic days, and constituting part of `
Geology's venerable records.
In the upward grade of creation's series, we reach
the Animal Kingdom. But as yet we have met with
no creature that could know the Creator, no intel-
lectual or moral nature capable of appreciating God,
or of assuming the personal responsibility to serve
and honor him. The ages come and go, till finally
God creates Man. That magnificent and symmet-
rical structure, the human body, which He designs as
the fit organism for an intellectual and moral nature—
the home of the Soul. In all its parts and in its
various phenomena, it stands first in the order of or-
ganic and animated existence. It is indeed Heaven's
material masterpiece, which God has prepared, and
adapted all surrounding nature to develop, sustain,
and prolong its existence. The mighty kingdoms of
Animal, Vegetable and Mineral existence, together
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
259
with all the elements, are ordained to furnish their
contributions.
Here, then, we have a being, endowed with reason,
judgment, faith, moral affections and perception of
right. These attributes do not belong to the inferior
kingdoms. In the Animal Kingdom we do not find
conscience,— consequently the animal has no idea of
right and wrong. It has no moral affections, conse-
quently it has no love for God and his Truth. When
an animal kills a man we do not say it has committed
a crime. Why? Because it knows no better. But
let you or me kill any one, and we should be immedi-
ately held responsible, and brought to trial for mur-
der. Man, then, comes into existence as a moral
agent, and is the only being in the world capable of
appreciating God.
The physical universe is the great laboratory for
the development of man's marvelous powers.
In man there is a conflict, not waged in any other
being, and that conflict is between the animal and
the moral nature. The emotions and desires are
intimately dependent on objects of sense for their
gratification and satisfaction. This is so also with the
lower order of animals, with this difference that, in
man, emotions and desires are under the control of
higher intelligence and a moral nature.
The battle, then, is between the motives of the
moral, on the one side of the will, and the motives of
!
260
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
the animal on the other side. (See Chart.) When
we are tempted to do wrong, and yield, we have
weakened our moral nature, and strengthened the
animal, and as we have the inherent power to reject
the evil, and to refuse to yield to temptation, the
whole responsibility rests with us. We are not only
responsible for the act, but also for the consequences.
What instinct is to the lower animal, is conscience and
the moral affections, or what is denominated the moral
nature, to man. Strike down this, and man be-
comes weaker than the animal.
Alcohol, per se, overthrows the moral nature of
man, and bewilders the intellectual faculties; hence,
alcohol sinks a man lower in degradation, when in
perfect subjection to it, than is the brute. Standing
by the Right strengthens the moral, and weakens the
control of the animal, nature.
Now, the problem is, how the inebriate is to re-
cover his moral nature, injured, weakened, and de-
graded through the use of narcotics? How is he to
regain the normal condition of his intellectual facul-
ties? How has he destroyed them? By yielding to
the inordinate desires of his animal nature. How
can he recover his moral nature and intellectual facul-
ties? Only by bringing up the moral affections, so
that the motives of the moral will hold at bay the
animal desires. (See Chart.)
As right action always strengthens the moral, the
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
261
only hope is to do what is right. How are we to
know what is right? By our conscience. What the
compass is to the tempest-tossed mariner upon the
ocean's wide expanse, is conscience to the soul upon
the stormy sea of life. And if the compass is true
the mariner is right, but if it be false he is misguided
and lost. Just so with conscience-when it is
right, the man guided by it is right; but if it be
wrong, the man is wrong, and consequently lost.
Moreover, the conscience is just as liable as the com-
pass to become wrong. One single inordinate pas-
sion gratified, will cause the conscience to vary from
the pole of right.
The first thing evidently to ascertain is, if con-
science is right. How can it be tested? Vessels,
before starting on a long voyage, are taken to certain
neutral spots at which the compass, undisturbed by
local influences, may be adjusted. In like manner
there is a resort for the trial of conscience, and it is
found in the Revealed Mind and Will of God.
Conscience left to itself, or corrupted by human
⚫ surroundings may go, and has often gone, far astray,
even in the highest concerns of religious devotion.
The heathen mother used to go down with her little
infant in her arms to the banks of the Ganges, and
throw the darling of her love into the jaws of the
crocodile, thinking that in so doing she was perform-
ing a duty required of her by the god which she
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
served. But that did not make it right. The priests
from whom she derived her religious knowledge were
equally deluded with herself. They taught her that
nothing would appease the anger of the gods she
worshiped so much as this terrible sacrifice, and in
making it she performed the highest form of duty
that she knew. "The times of this ignorance God
winked at; seeing that the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God had not shined on them in the face
of Jesus Christ." The trouble was that the poor
heathen woman's conscience was educated wrongly.
Who made conscience? Who brought into ex-
istence the intellectual faculties, the moral affections,
and the emotions and desires? The great Creator.
We are believers in God. He has not endowed us
with these awful powers, and planted within us these
infinite possibilities of good and evil, and then left us
in the dark to work out, unaided, our own destiny.
He has not created us bubbles to lie tossed by chance
on the bosom of the world-wide flood.
Throughout the whole creation of God we find
running an all-pervading law. God works by law.
and it is a merciful thing that he does so. Sometimes
indeed, law seems a hard, unequal and inexorable
arbiter, as in the storm, in the earthquake, in the pes-
tilence and famine, in poverty and bereavement, but
that is only because our vision is circumscribed, and
our comprehension limited. If we could see far
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
263
enough, and deep enough, there is nothing more cer-
tain than this, that under law alone is there the
possibility of continued existence, and for man of
happy existence. Chaos, disorder, caprice, mean
ruin and death; law and order are the conditions of
life.
On a higher plane it can, with the utmost truth
be said, and this is the highest law, that "All things
work together for good to them that love the Lord,"
and that, "The law is always good if the man use it
lawfully." God has given a complete code of laws
to man, adapted to all the physical, intellectual and
moral exigencies of his being. God's Holy Word
contains the only infallible rules of human action.
All others are fallible and liable to change and modi-
fication, but these remain as they were uttered by Di-
vine Inspiration, and "The heavens and the earth
shall pass away before one jot or tittle of the law
shall fail."
This then, is the fountain of truth; the great
Standard of Right. To this we must come and have
our conscience enlightened, and informed on all
questions of duty and right. This Standard of Right
is the test of the code of all Christian nations; it is
the arbiter of all moral and spiritual questions, the
reference in all ethical disputes; the grand event of
appeal from the world.
With how many is the Bible associated with the
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
thoughts of a mother, who perhaps gave it as the
most precious of gifts. It calls up in the heart and
mind of how many early resolutions, and youthful
aspirations. It brings back the tender heart of child-
hood, and a mother's instructions, her prayers with
her beloved child in the closet, and the consecration
of her darling to God. How vividly it brings back,
in seasons of quietness, her whose voice may now
be hushed in the stillness of death, who taught our
childish lips to say the evening prayer.
Oh, well for us if, arrived at manhood's years, no
evil associations or degrading habits have caused us
to forget the lessons taught by a mother from the
Word of God. How many are there thus happily
and hopefully commencing life, who have drifted
further and further away from the early teachings
and, beginning to drink, have smothered all the noble
feelings and pure emotions that a mother's instruc-
tion and God's truth had inspired in their hearts.
The Bible is the Standard of Right. It is the
representative of God in the world, and it is adapted
so exquisitely to the intellectual and moral condition
of the race, that whilst its ability and profundity are
beyond measurement, yet is its teaching so simple
and the way made so plain, that even "the wayfaring
man, though a fool, need not err therein."
The inebriate has forgotten his Bible. It is to it
he must again betake himself. He must no longer rest
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
265
satisfied with the decisions of his own darkened con-
science, but loving the truth he must go to its light.
He will find the Bible "a light to his feet and a lamp
to his pathway." In every perplexity it will decide
for him. He will find that "the law of the Lord is
perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the
Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes
of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the com-
mandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous alto-
gether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea
than much fine gold; sweeter also than the honey
and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy ser-
vant warned, and in keeping of them there is great
reward."
In his hours of utmost despair it will take him
"out of the horrible pit and the miry clay and set his
feet upon a rock." In times of sorrow and remorse
the Bible will speak to him cheering and hopeful
words; its promises will brighten his future, and
every day he may hear the words in the midst of
weakness and temptation: "My grace is sufficient
for thee." Yes, it is the truth, and no more than the
truth, of the Bible, that the forces of the universe are
on the side of the weakest arms that clasp the cross
of Christ-of the most faltering tongue that from the
heart calls him Saviour. Such is "the glorious Gos-
pel of the blessed God."
CHAPTER XVI.
THE DESIRES DEFINED-TO STRENGTHEN THE MORAL NATURE, THE
PERSON MUST DO RIGHT BECAUSE IT IS RIGHT-EXAMPLES GIVEN
-GOD AND HIS STANDARD OF RIGHT NEVER CHANGE-WHEN THE
INEBRIATE THROWS THE FIBERS OF HIS REFORM AROUND THE
STANDARD OF RIGHT HE IS SAFE, for it CAN NEVER FALL.
Whenever we go contrary to our moral nature
(See Chart) in order to satisfy our own Self-love,
striking at the rights of others and making them suf-
fer, we do wrong. It is wrong because we violate
the dictates of enlightened conscience. Just so with
Pride. When we want to exalt ourselves at the ex-
pense of our neighbor, we do wrong—we renounce
the right. Hope is found on the Chart, because it is
a compound of desire and expectation. That which
a man expects but does not desire, he fears; but that
which he both expects and desires, he hopes for. So
with Ambition. It is this passion of the soul, which
makes all things subsidiary to the accomplishment of
the one end in view; sacrificing comfort, happiness,
early associations, family ties, human life and untold
wealth, to secure the cherished object.
How many and notable are the examples of both
the power and punishment of this enthralling passion.
7
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NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
267
Alexander the Great, Cæsar, Napoleon, are but strik-
ing instances on account of their ability, opportuni-
ties and achievements, their unparalleled rise and in-
glorious fall, of what has run through all ranks, in all
ages.
may
There is certainly a laudable ambition, which
tend to ennoble a man, whether it be exercised in the
family relation, in civic affairs, or in behalf of his
country. The father rightly aspiring for the sake of
his children, the citizen eager to place himself in the
van of the community's progress, the brilliant soldier
in the service of his country-leading his armies in
the cause of freedom-the patriotic statesman, are all
and each of them worthy of our highest esteem; but
ambition unrestrained by the moral affections, would
dethrone God Himself, if only it could. It was am-
bition that made Satan fall, whom the poet Milton
describes as saying words well expressive of the all
absorbing passion:
'Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven."
So it is with Love of glory, Sexual desire, desire of
Superiority, desire of Possession, and that which is the
sum of all these in exercise, and intensity, the desire
of Relief. This is what drives us into all kinds of
sin. "Suffering," as seen on the Chart, not only rep-
resents the tear side but the joy side of life. When
we feel ecstatic and happy, how natural it is for us
:
268
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
to suffer in being anxious to have our friends feel as
we do. Thus the inebriate, when he feels happy, suf-
fers from the desire of relief, and is anxious to have
his associates feel as he does, hence he will treat
them. In this desire of relief, is found the basis of
the treating custom so much practiced in this
country.
The slave to drink, whenever he is suffering from
any cause, the desire of relief will drive him to the
narcotic. From the fact that alcohol destroys the
power of the moral nature over the will and places
the inordinate desires in the complete mastery, the
suffering caused by this condition is equal to the sum
of the suffering of all the emotions, and as the desire
of relief emanating from these emotions is in strength
equal to them, it follows as a sequence, that the desire
of relief, or appetite, in the inebriate, is in force
equal to all the other inordinate desires. How potent
are the facts in regard to this condition of the ine-
briate, and how terrible the effects of these narcotics
on the soul-faculties and life!
T
When under the terrible ravings of his appetite
for strong drink, how true it is that this desire of re-
lief robs the inebriate of the love of money, love of
health, love of respect, love of reputation, love of
honor, love of right, love of integrity, love of father
and mother, love of home, love of wife and children,
and love of God!
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
269
Of all the subordinate desires, that of Possession is
the strongest. The reason is that this passion is for
the securing and supplying the means of gratification
to all the rest. Hence it will drive us farther than
any of the other subordinate desires. By a curious
but indubitable law, it often arrives at a condition
when it seemingly cares only for itself, with no
thought or any ulterior object, and this tendency car-
ried to the extreme, and confirmed into a habit,
a species of monomania is produced, which we see
exemplified in the miser.
The desire of relief for intoxicants, when aroused
and fully developed, is stronger than all the other
animal desires. Now, suppose I resolve that I will
not drink, but will yield to the inordinate desire of
possession. See in what a dilemma I have placed
myself. No, "I will not drink," I say, just as the in-
ebriate has said time and again after his debauches.
I have already admitted that the desire of intoxicants
is stronger than all others combined, and yet, having
fully determined to forcibly conquer the giant appe-
tite for intoxicants, I am convinced of my inability to
resist my inordinate avaricious desires. If I have not
the moral strength to resist the inordinate desire of
the love of money-then, when this desire to drink is
aroused, I am sure to yield. There is nothing that can
help or save me. When I yield to the solicitations
of any of these inordinate desires, I do direct vio-
lence to every moral affect on of my nature,
1
270
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
To strengthen the conscience and the moral affec-
tions one must do right because it is right, and not from
the prompting of any selfish motive. The Standard
of Right must be placed before the inebriate, and he
must say, "I believe what I say. I will never drink
again, because it is right that I should not drink.
Not even to get back wife and children and home.
again; not to make money; not to recover lost
health; but because it is right." This may cause
some to exclaim, "This is a hard principle. Who can
carry
it out?" Yet it could be shown that in the
long run it is best, and it is illustrated and enforced
by many of our Saviour's utterances: "Whosoever
will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”
"He that loveth father or mother more than me is
not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daugh-
ter more than me is not worthy of me."
There are, indeed, magnificent promises attached
to this sacrifice-promises which even in this life
have been fulfilled in the experience of a great crowd
of witnesses. "There is no man," declares our Lord,
“that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife,
or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall
not receive manifold more in this present time,—and
in the world to come, life everlasting."
The point to see clearly here is that there must be,
in order to arrive at any good end, a complete giving
up of self. No selfish motive will ever permanently
hold the inebriate.
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
271
Some years ago there was in The Washingtonian
Home a noble and intelligent man, of general good
habits, with the exception of an occasional debauch.
He had gradually grown worse, until the result was
a decree of divorcement between himself and his ex-
cellent wife. He had two beautiful little daughters.
The family became scattered, one daughter was in
one of the Western States, the other in another,
while their mother was in the East. As that man met
me at different times, and in different places, he would
say, "Oh, if I could only get back my wife and my daṛ-
ling little daughters again, and the lovely home I
once had, how happy I should be!" The tears would
roll down his cheeks whilst he acknowledged that
his wife and children were all right, and that he only
was to blame. I used to caution him by saying, "My
dear brother, your reformation must be built upon a
firmer foundation than a mere desire to recover your
wife and children." I could see from the welling up
of his affections, that the motive that influenced him
was a selfish one.
He remained in The Home for about three months.
Just before he left, in a conversation with me he said,
"I would like to have you write to my wife and tell
her the course that I have taken." Now, no man
ever lived up to the rules of the Institution better
than he did. He gave me her address, and I wrote
to her, telling her the facts of the case. About three
272
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
months subsequently I visited one of our churches,
and while sitting in the pew assigned me, I observed
a lady and gentleman, with two children, little girls,
come in and take the pew immediately in front of me.
The gentleman was the friend of whom I have
been writing, with his wife and children. After the
service he turned around and introduced his wife,
who was a lovely lady. She took my hand in both
of hers, and said, "Professor Wilkins, oh, how glad
I am to see some one through whom I may thank The
Washingtonian Home for what it has done for me!
Here we are, a family re-united, and our happy home
is restored."
I remembered then the frequent declarations that
I had made to him, that his reformation must be
based upon something stronger and surer than a de-
sire to regain his wife and children. I thought to
myself, it will be demonstrated, in this case, whether
I am right or wrong. Six months passed away.
This man was very happy, and showed it most com-
pletely. He was a man of ability, and held a position
which yielded him a large salary. His home was
reconstructed, and there was nothing further, seem-
ingly, essential to his happiness.
One night he returned from his business as usual,
happy and hopeful. After supper, he sat down with
his wife and children for a pleasant chat. He loved
that wife and those children as he did his life. In the
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
273
course of conversation, they reverted to scenes that
transpired in the days of his drinking, which they
never should have done, and as they talked over these
things, by the law of association, the same tempestu.
ous emotions arose, and the same dreadful desires
sprang from these emotions that carried him captive
in his drinking days.
As they continued this thoughtless conversation,
sharp and bitter words were exchanged, and the man's
animal nature had become so aroused and exasper-
ated, that he finally concluded he had not recovered
his wife's confidence and love, and that was what he
had been working for through his struggles toward
reformation. Now, as the sequel proved, his wife's
love being the standard around which he had thrown
the fibers of his strength, when that failed him he
fell; for in less than half an hour he was drunk in the
streets of Chicago. He then separated himself from
his wife and children forever. His motive proved to
be a selfish one.
I knew another man who died a terrible death
from the use of narcotics. He frequently lectured
in different places on the subject of Total Abstinence.
He would say, "Boys, boys, I reformed to make
money. It don't make any difference what you re-
form for, only reform." I used to say to him, "My
brother, you are educating yourself to drink." His
reply was, "I know what I am about, Professor."
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
For three years he was one of the strongest advo-
cates in the temperance clubs. He made money and
was always kind to the family he dearly loved. One
afternoon he met a saloon keeper with whom he had
in former times taken more drinks than with any
other. The saloon keeper said to him, “I am in
trouble, I have mortgaged my saloon, and the note
is for so much. Now the saloon, with everything in
it, is worth ten times as much as the face of the note;
if you will give me so much I will sell you the sa-
loon." He had been educating himself all the time
to make money, and here was a splendid opportunity
to realize a large gain. He grasped it. The papers
were made out and signed. This was on Wednes-
day.
He went home and sat down to consider a speech
that he was to deliver on Friday before one of the
temperance clubs. He was a man of some common
sense, and consequently, while sitting and thinking,
his true position flashed upon him, and he said to
himself, "Look here, how will it look for me to speak
at that temperance meeting, an advocate of total ab-
stinence, while at the same time I keep a saloon, and
sell liquor?" He arose from the table, and sent
word to the chairman of the club to scratch his name
off the posters, as he could not possibly speak on that
occasion.
Now, he had no idea of drinking liquor when he
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
275
bought that saloon. "I can do anything and not
drink," he had said, and that was his idea now.
Another thought occurred to him, that his name was
on a large number of total abstinence pledges in the
city; how inconsistent! He withdrew from these as-
sociations, and in about three months all the money
he had made was sacrificed upon the altar of Bacchus,
and he became a low, abandoned drunkard, again.
Nothing can permanently strengthen the moral
nature of a man unless he does right because it is
right. There is nothing in the universe that does not
change, but God and his Standard of Right-His Re-
vealed Will. The inebriate, to reform, must build
upon a foundation as firm and durable as God's throne.
He must build on Divine Truth, and give com-
plete obedience to the Standard of Right. Money
takes unto itself wings and flies away; ambition is
the gratification of an hour, an ignus fatuus, we
grasp the phantom, and find it air. Power is but a
glittering dew-drop, soon absorbed by the very beams
that make it shine. Society, that we have followed,
courted and flattered, and been flattered by, quickly
turns the cold shoulder and a deaf ear, when the hand
of disaster is laid heavily upon us.
The only standard around which the reformed
man must rally, is the Standard of Right. Around
this he must throw the fibers of his reform, and then,
when wife, father, mother, sister, brother, employer,
1
276
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
or society ignores him, that standard will never let
him fall. He loses nothing in reforming, because it
is right, and he gains everything calculated to make
him happy and truly prosperous. There is no such
thing as half reform. It is reform through and
through from everything that is wrong. It is to be
as true to the right, so far as man is able, as God is
true to the right.
Let us then, measure up to the exalted Standard
of Right and, fixing our eyes on the crown that God
holds out to the victor in life's struggle, ever cry to
our contending foes and confiding friends, "Hinder
me not, I mean to wear that crown!"
The emotions and desires are a constituent part
of the Soul; they are immortal. And since nothing
can fully meet and satisfy these emotions and desires
but that which is immortal, and from the fact that all
earthly objects are not immortal, it follows, as a se-
quence, that no earthly object can fully meet and
satisfy the immortal cravings of the emotions and
desires.
The individual then, who is struggling to satiate
his emotions and desires with worldly objects, strug-
gles in vain, for to develop these is but to strengthen
them and make them more fiery and demanding, and
the individual more unhappy and miserable.
The spirit of God being immortal, is the only
!
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
277
thing that can fully satisfy the longings of the emo-
tions and desires. They are fully satiated only when
they are consonant with the moral affections, and
when these perfectly coincide with the will of God.
<
CHAPTER XVII.
KNOW THYSELF-SHUN TEMPTATION-THE SALOON, THE HOTEL BAR,
THE DRUGSTORE, MUST BE IGNORED-NO ONE CAN FULLY DESCRIBE
OR DEFINE A SALOON-CASE OF WILLIAM-STANDING
SHORE OF NIAGARA-AVOID ALL VICIOUS AMUSEMENTS-EXAMPLES
TO ILLUSTRATE.
ON THE
Inscribed above the entrance to the temple of
Apollo at Delphi, were the words “Man, Know Thy-
self." While it is a grand thing for one to know
himself, how much grander is it through that knowl-
edge to be able to control himself. "Greater is he,"
says the wise man, "that ruleth his own spirit, than
he that taketh a city."
The man who comes out victorious in the soul
struggle, with the forces of his emotions and desires,
gathers trophies, and wears a crown, compared with
which "the laurels that a Cæsar reaps are weeds."
In this warfare, Scripture tells us that "we have not
a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like
as we are, yet without sin," and we are therefore to
"come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
As we look back along the line of life from the
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NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
279
•
standpoint of to-day, every struggle that we have
experienced has sprung from the antagonism of the
moral and animal man. The difficulty with the ine-
briate is that he has yielded to the animal desires, and
then resorted to a narcotic to soothe the sufferings of
his body, alleviate the despair of his mind, and render
less poignant the reproach of his conscience. The
question is—how to redeem his manhood, and to re-
store to him what he has lost? There is no effect
without a cause; means were used to destroy his
moral forces, and means must be used to restore them,
and as it requires more time to build up than to tear
down, it will need both time and patience to recon-
struct the desolated and deserted temple of moral
manhood.
The first step requisite to this reformation and re-
construction is, that a man should be thoroughly
persuaded in his heart and mind that his every act
must be in accordance with the Standard of Right.
He must determine within himself, "I do this, because
it is right. I shall not do that, because it is wrong.
The next step is persistently to shun the enemy that
has proved too strong. Every time the inebriate has
placed himself in the hands of the tempter, he has
succumbed to its merciless power, consequently his
only safety against its seductive influence is to keep
outside the circumference within which it has its
abode.
280
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
Here is a deadly enemy lying in ambush by my
pathway. Every time I walk along within his reach,
he seizes me with his mighty arm, and I cry out in
wild alarm and distress, when, just as he is about to
destroy me, you come to my relief. Prudence, in
such a case, would surely dictate to me, that, having
been once within his deadly embrace, I should for-
ever afterward avoid his lurking place. Common
sense then, as well as the dictates of the highest rea-
son, bids a man who has uniformly succumbed to the
wiles of the tempter, alcohol, to keep out of its way;
it tells him to give it and those who indulge in it a
wide berth. And what says the Inspired Word?
"Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not
in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it,
turn from it and pass away. Ponder the path of thy
feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not
to the right hand, nor to the left; remove thy foot
from evil. Watch and pray that ye enter not into
temptation."
>
If we could get at the secret record of the influ-
ences which lead men into the treacherous paths of
drink we should find that these three, the saloon, the
hotel-bar, and the drugstore, are the most formidable
and fatal.
In that temple in which Bacchus is enthroned as
king of the domain of drunkenness, there are two
gateways. The first is the popular saloon, with its
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
281
sparkling decanters, cut glassware, Venetian screens,
polished mirrors, snowy sculpture, fascinating and
lascivious pictures, Mosaic floors and tessellated ceil-
ings. This is the hall of entrance, the gorgeous ves-
tibule to the more unblushing scenes in the interior
of this palace of sin.
There is a second gateway, another saloon, with
its foul atmosphere, its dingy walls, dirty floors, dis-
gusting odors, and disgraceful scenes. While the
glittering saloon is the place where drunkards ma-
triculate, this second saloon, this den of infamy, this
place of hideous sounds and horrid sights, is where
drunkards are graduated.
While in the first saloon you find-amid its mer-
etricious display, and gaudy ornaments-the throngs
of merry tipplers, witty convivialists, fashionable
voluptuaries, and rich young bloods, who seek there
the stimulating prelude to midnight revelry, and the
wild nocturnal scenes of lust and passion, in the low
and loathsome second saloon, you will meet with quite
a different group. See them with their tattered clothes,
unkempt hair and beard; eyes bloodshot and stream-
ing with rheum; faces bloated and streaked with the
filth of a long debauch-these are the graduates of
the school of drunkenness! Hear their conversa-
tion, their shocking profanity, their awful oaths and
filthy stories!
Perhaps in the group there is one less degraded
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{
CC
than his comrades, and amid all these horrors, he
stops to think of home and mother, and with tears
trickling down his cheeks he says to his associates,
Boys, I have been thinking of my dear old mother,
whose heart I have broken by my sinful life! That
loving mother taught me to pray, and as I see her
dear form and face, in the vision of the bright scene
and the happy days of my old home, I have been
thinking I have drifted far enough away from virtue,
and I must stop where I am, and begin to be a man
again." Silence may prevail for a moment, but soon
a voice full of derision, cries, "Will, Will, why you're
getting very religious all at once! What is the mat-
ter with you?" interspersed with a profusion of pro-
fane words,—and the good resolution that comes like
an angel visitant in this man's soul, the aspirations of
a better life, and the high revival for a moment of the
soul's purest feelings and best emotions, are dissipated
by the ridicule, the scorn, the jeering and the blas-
phemy of his associates.
But we have not seen all of this place of degrada-
tion and moral death. There is a door, well guarded,
that leads into a side room, dedicated to gambling and
swindling. Into this room are led the poor unfortu-
nates, who, having crossed the threshold of this den
of vice, have exposed their money, and aroused the
cupidity of these human beasts of prey. When once
within this inclosure, drugged beyond all conscious-
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
283
ness, they are relieved of whatever of value they
may have in their possession.
There is yet another department to this place of
debauchery and crime, more thoroughly concealed
than the others. By opening another door, and en-
tering a dark hall-way, you are ushered into a bediz-
ened room, filled with a group of lolling, leering,
ogling, simpering, insentiate women, reeking with filth
and rotten with disease. Here is where men lose, if
they have not lost it before, that which is of infinitely
greater value than money and position-the prize-
jewel bestowed upon man by heaven-virtue.
There is another thing connected with these sa-
loons which has a most degrading and destructive
influence, and that is the "treating" custom. This
custom is largely the product of saloon life. How
many hard-working men go home at night, weary
with their day's toil, met at the door by a loving wife
and affectionate children, but, alas! how many others,
although they appreciate the cheerful welcome that
would invite them, the kiss of the wife and the warm
caresses of the little ones, yet spend by choice the
greater part of their earnings in the saloon! The
one dissonant note in many a home is, "My husband
drinks." "Papa is a drunkard."
After the evening meal, the father fondles the lit-
tle one upon his knees and enters into pleasant con-
versation with the wife of his bosom. Is it possible
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
that there is a place dearer to his heart than this
blessed home which God has given him? Yes, there
is one other place that rises before his vision, which
exercises a greater charm, and yields a more subtle
influence over him. It is the saloon, with its associa-
tions. He soon takes his coat and hat and starts for
the door. But that anxious wife whose hopes and
happiness all concentrate in that loved husband, ap-
proaches him and taking him by the hand, says,
William, William, you know your weakness. Oh,
come home sober, William," and his generous sym-
pathies and loving nature, touched by the tender and
tearful appcal, respond when he answers her, "Mary,
I will take but one glass. I will come home sober
to-night."
He is as sincere as an angel in his good resolutions.
He wends his way to the saloon, and at every step
he takes he says to himself, "Just one glass, and no
more." The image of that noble wife, earnest and
loving in her pleading, has possession of his mind, as
turning the knob of the saloon door he enters, saying,
"Just one glass, and no more." Walking toward the
counter he whispers, “One glass, and no more." Ad-
dressing the bar-keeper, he says, "Henry, I want
just one glass, and no more. I promised my wife
when I left home, that I would take but one glass."
The bar-tender says, "That's right, Will, that's right,
keep your promise to your wife." The glass is
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
285
poured out, and as William takes it and presses it to
his lips, he says, "Just this glass, and no more." But,
as he is about to drink the liquor, the door is opened
and one of his old acquaintances comes in, to whom
he says, "Why, Tom, you have come just at the right
time. Henry, give us another glass."
After they have taken the drink, of course Tom,
according to the etiquette of the "treating" custom,
must call for two glasses more, or he would be con-
sidered a low, mean, stingy man. Now, that bar-.
tender does not hesitate at all to pour out that second
glass for William, notwithstanding what he has saiḍ
in the conversation above referred to.
As long as a man has a cent in his pocket, and the
saloon keeper knows it, he will pour out the liquor
until the last penny is gone. Never mind how many
tears may be shed, hopes blighted and hearts broken,
in consequence. This shows the depths of degrada-
tion, the amount of cruel indifference, the sordid
selfishness and rapacity, characteristic of the success-
ful rumseller.
William and Thomas now raise their glasses, and
just as they are about to drink, the old door creaks
on its hinges again, and another acquaintance comes
in. Tom cries excitedly, "Why, Sam, come up,
you've come just in time." And another glass is
filled. William now becomes more excited and ani-
mated. Now, a man who drinks is considered no
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
man at all unless he complies with the rules of that
fraternity; hence, Sam must reciprocate and treat
also, which makes three glasses that William has
taken. And that is but the beginning of the end, for
William is drunk before he leaves the first saloon. A
man who is struggling to reform, must forever ignore
the saloon. He cannot resist its influence. The
social power of the “
of the "treating custom" must be
shunned.
As I look around upon the reformed men of our
country, and see them clothed in their right minds
and in the possession of their reflective faculties, I
ask myself, "Is it possible that it is necessary to urge
these men, who have passed through such terrible
experiences, and suffered so intensely through drink,
not to enter again the saloon which has been the
source of this desolation and ruin?"
་
If one, as a small child, burned his finger, how
would he forever afterward dread the fire. And yet,
strange as it may seem, notwithstanding all the suf
fering, the agony, the deprivations, the desolations,
the ruined hearths, broken hearts, blasted hopes, the
cruel wrongs to wives and the cry of the children for
bread, these men will still persist in running willfully
into the arms of the arch enemy that has caused all
this ruin, and produced all these woes.
Of all men who walk on the face of the earth the
reformed man is the last who should ever think of
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
287
entering a saloon. We are standing on the shores
of the thundering Niagara; one of our number strolls
up the shore away from the rapids. In a very little
time a wild scream of terror which freezes our very
blood, greets our ears. Looking in the direction from
which the cry comes, we see our missing brother,
standing in a boat in the stream, waving his hands in
the wildest terror. He has lost his oars; his boat is
now tossing and gyrating in the quick swirls of the
impetuous current, and will soon dart like an arrow
over the rounded edge and be lost in the awful abyss
beneath. What heartrending cries he sends forth
for rescue. One of our number fortunately discov-
ers a rope, and with what speed we rush to the shore,
and there throw him a life-line. How eagerly he
grasps it as it falls across his boat, and as he holds on
for very life, we drag him ashore. Grateful he can-
not help being, for he has been delivered from the
very jaws of death.
But imagine our amazement if, standing a few
weeks afterward on the same spot, we should behold
the same man so lately rescued from the most immi-
nent peril, again get into a boat, take out his knife
and, cutting the rope which holds it to the shore, push
off into the rapids again. As soon as he perceives his
danger, and realizes that he is being rushed to the
cataract below, in wild alarm he calls for help once
more. What would you think of this man? Would
288
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
you not judge him insane? And yet I might confi-
dently appeal to the inebriates of this country, and
ask which man exhibits the greater insanity, he who
voluntarily incurs again the dangers of the cataract,
or the man rescued from the whirlpool of intemper-
ance-from the awful thraldom of drink-who, after
being placed high upon the hill of sobriety and safety,
voluntarily rushes again into the very stronghold of
the enemy, inviting the same peril and tempting the
same visitation, desolation and destruction? There-
fore, I say again to every reformed man, especially,
keep clear of the saloon.
In order to accomplish a thorough reformation,
the inebriate must place a complete embargo on
everything that has a tendency to corrupt the princi-
ples, deteriorate the tone of the moral nature, vitiate
the taste, and arouse and strengthen the appetite. He
should forever avoid card parties, billiard halls, pool
rooms, and all the associations and accompaniments
of what is known as dissipated life.. He cannot
with safety visit even "Temperance billiard halls."
He cannot go there and take up the cue and play the
game without bringing up by association the thoughts
and emotions of the past. With these thoughts and
emotions will recur the depraved desires.
Further, if I were struggling to reform, I would
not visit even the theater. Occasionally you will find
upon the theatrical stage a drama that gives point
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
289
and pungency to some great moral truth, but this is
the rare exception. The preponderant influence of
the modern stage inclines toward the excitement of
the worst passions, and the wildest emotions in man's
corrupt nature. It undoubtedly panders to perverted
tastes. To talk of the educative influences of the the-
ater is mere mockery, and none know this better than
its habitue.
It is chiefly from moral truth that the soul ex-
pands—the recognition of responsibilities and duties.
Art in any form, dramatic or otherwise, amuses and
may refine when it itself is pure. But how often
does it not brace up the soul for conflict. It does
not teach how to resist temptation. It frequently
presents temptation, rather. It gilds the fascinations
of earth. It does not directly point to duties or to
the life to come. The very emotions and passions
which are generally aroused in the theater goer are
those which must be kept in subjection, or it will be
totally impossible for an inebriate to reform. Hence,
I repeat it, that if I were struggling to reform I
would avoid the excitement of sensational dramas.
The man who is so strong in his own estimation
that, overlooking the strength of his depraved incli-
nations, corrupt passions and wild desires, goes out
to invite the attacks of temptation, and challenge the
assaults of the numerous enemies that await him, not
19
!
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THE CURSE OF THE World.
only makes an egregious mistake, but is guilty of
criminal indifference to his own safety.
One of the most influential and generous men that
we have ever had in The Washingtonian Home, not
only was a slave to liquor, but was also a confirmed
voluptuary. He was in the habit of attending the-
atrical matinees, the better to carry out his impure
purposes. Whenever he commenced attending these
performances regularly, he invariably started on a
drunk, in consequence of which he was three times.
an inmate of The Home. The last time but one, he
said to me, "I will never repeat this thing. I know
that I ought not to visit these places, and thus sub-
ject myself to influences which I cannot resist. My
amative propensities constitute my greatest difficulty.
If I could overcome these depraved passions I could
conquer my other appetites." The man who delib-
erately purposes to violate virtue and destroy chas-
tity is the meanest and most degraded of human be-
ings. Although this man at one time held a position
as foreman in one of the largest manufacturing estab-
lishments in Chicago, yet he could not control him-
self. He finally said to me, “I will conquer these ter-
rible desires or put an end to my existence with a
pistol!"
He remained in The Home some months, but on
a Saturday evening he failed to make his appearance.
I knew immediately that something was wrong.
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
291
About midnight he came home drunk, and was taken
at once to the hospital. As soon as he was released
he said to me, "Professor, I cannot stay here. There
is no place for me in this city." He took the cars
and went to Philadelphia, where he became so drunk
that he had to stop over. He went to New York,
and there rushed headlong again into intoxication.
He called at the house of one of the graduates of
The Home,-the son of a leading merchant of that
city. He did not find him in, but left his card.
His friend, on returning home, received his card,
and knew by the writing that he was on a “spree.'
The next morning the graduate visited the different
hospitals, and finally found him. He straightened
him up, took him to the cars, bought his ticket, and
was about to leave him, when he grasped his hand
and said, "I will write you a letter, but you will hear
from me before you receive it." He reached his
Eastern home about half-past eleven at night. His
mother had retired. He awoke her and shook hands
with her, kissed her, and went to bed. He did not
get up in the morning, but his mother, having heard
a noise, went to his room. A pistol lay beside him,
and the blood was oozing through a hole in his temple.
He had fired a ball through his brain, true to his dec-
laration, "If I ever fall again, I will shoot myself."
O, how many there are, who blindly seek and
court temptation, and thus rush madly down into
quick and sudden destruction!
CHAPTER XVIII.
REFORMED MEN MUST AVOID THE ASSOCIATIONS OF THE DRINKING
CLASSES-MAN IS A SOCIAL BEING, HE CANNOT LIVE ALONE-IN
DOING GOOD TO OTHERS, WE DO GOOD TO OURSELVES - TWO
TRAVELERS-REFORMED MEN MUST ENTER THE TEMPERANCE OR-
GANIZATIONS AND WORK-IF THEY FALL, THEY MUST PLEDGE
AGAIN, AND SO CONTINUE UNTIL THEY SUCCEED-NO SUFFERING
MUST BE PERMITTED TO DRIVE THE INEBRIATE BACK TO INTOX-
ICATION-NO ONE TO BLAME BUT HIMSELF - IF HE IS TOO WEAK
TO RESIST TEMPTATION, GOD WILL HELP HIM IF HE WILL ASK
HIM.
If inebriates wish to reform, they must be men;
they must dare not to do to-day what they could have
done before. They fell victims to the power of drink.
And in the days of their moral strength they could
take a glass and stop, but they cannot do so now.
Some men can be licentious and not drink, but re-
formed men cannot. Gamblers, generally, do not
permit themselves to indulge in intoxicants, because
they are sharp enough to know that if they are to
swindle without detection, they must keep sober.
Reformed men have not only to keep away from the
temptations to drink, but they have also to ignore the
association of drinking men. All of these things it
is absolutely necessary that they should abandon and
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NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
293
avoid, if they wish to reform from this vicious
habit.
Let me sit in my study and deliberately propose
to myself, with all my intense hatred of these narcotics,
to enter one of these saloons, and sit and talk with
the frequenters of the place. See what this determi
nation involves. First, I must insult God, go contrary
to His Divine Law, do violence to my conscience, my
reasoning powers, my better judgment and moral
affections. Before I leave my room I have allowed
my emotions and desires to carry me away on the
tide of my animal nature, despite the warnings of
God, the voice of conscience, and the dictates of my
better judgment. Thus my moral nature has been
subjugated by my animal passions.
The more faithful and cordial my adherence to the
right, the higher I rise in the scale of intellectual and
moral worth; and, on the other hand, the more fre-
quent my deviations from the path of rectitude, the
lower I shall sink in the scale of virtue and moral
manhood. If I go then to this saloon my moral
affections will give way, and quickly submit to the
control of the animal. It will not be long before my
scruples will be removed, and, becoming accustomed
to scenes of sin there enacted, and the evil associa-
tions there formed, I shall think as they think, talk as
they talk, desire what they desire, do what they do,
and drink as they drink. It is the result of the inex-
orable law of association.
294
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
The Apostle, speaking of the Epicureans, whose
maxim was, "Let us eat and drink, for to-mor-
row we die," cautioned the Corinthian Christians.
as to the result of associating with them, and em-
phasized this very law of moral association, when he
said, "Be not deceived, evil communications corrupt
good manners."
Thus it is simply suicidal for those predisposed to
drink, to go to the saloon. As a man values his own
soul, and "what shall it profit him if he gain, the
whole world and lose his soul?"-he must shun the
saloon, and avoid all its associations. It was in the
saloon that the links of the chain were formed which
bound him to drunkenness, and to have the remotest
association with it, is to incur a risk that no sane man
in another concern of life would dream of taking
upon himself,—it is to walk into the jaws of death.
Man is a social being. Hence, it is true that we
are "every one members one of another." The hu-
man race is an organic unity. Each man is a unit in
that unity. His thoughts, words and acts are not
isolated, independent entities, but have their place
and influence in the grand sum of human thought
and action. Every man, further, is connected with
the past, present and future, by a thousand ties of
sympathy and association. No man stands alone.
He cannot help being influenced by all that has been,
and all that is.
NARCOTICS-THE Remedy.
295
The self-made man, of whom we sometimes hear,
has, except in the narrowest sense, no existence.
Chords of sympathy, intellectual, spiritual and moral,
connect every man with what has been, is, and shall
be. Each individual is a sensitive center, from which
radiate influences tending to injure or help the lives
of those about him.
Recognizing this law, and keeping in view its
subtle power, when we place ourselves within the
range of the seductive influences of sin and vice,
how can we wonder at the result? Neither the
power of the will nor the strength of the well-trained
moral principles, will enable us either to resist or re-
verse the consequences of evil associations.
The power for evil contained in a single meaning
glance, a word dropped in secret, a remark with a
double entendre, or a salacious story, can only be
estimated by the continual revelations of the courts
of law; but they can never be fully appreciated until
the great hosts of Earth's unnumbered millions shall
crowd before the judgment throne of God, to hear
on the Last Day, the record of their deeds in the
flesh. The artist who, on being questioned concern-
ing his enthusiastic and conscientious devotion to his
art, replied, "I am painting for Eternity," gave ut-
terance to a striking and suggestive thought. The
young man, who, having lived a life of debauchery,
cried out on his dying bed, "Oh, bury my influence
with me," asked a simple impossibility.
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
One of the grandest thoughts, and the most vitally
important and pregnant, given us in Divine Revela-
tion, is the relation we bear to one another, in virtue
of our sonship to God, the Father in Christ Jesus.
Our Saviour approved of the lawyer's summing up
of the law, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind, and with all thy strength; and thy neighbor as
thyself." The Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Ga-
latians writes, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and
so fulfill the law of Christ." And Saint John puts it
thus-"He that loveth not his brother whom he hath
seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen ?"
Through the whole of the Scripture this sublime
idea of the inter-dependence of God's human crea-
tures upon one another runs. It is the law on which
all human well-being depends, and human progress
and civilization, such as they are, are the result of at
least partial obedience to it. All the evils of society
are attributable to its violation. What the law of
affinity is in the chemical world is this law of mutual
inter-dependence of interests and well being in the
world of humanity. Self-seeking selfishness is iso-
lation, and isolation is the precursor of death.
The individual man is in many respects the weak.
est creature on God's earth, as the babe is the most
helpless; it is by union, by combination, that he be-
comes more powerful than all the forces of the world,
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
297
that are to be arrayed against him. Man combined
with man, community with community, generation
with generation, unites in developing experience,
until what were considered the thunderbolts of Job,
become mankind's servants and messengers. All na-
ture yields more or less to his behests. The highest
forms, and the only enduring forms of combination
in society, are not the union of selfish interests; that
in the end, has always resulted in debasement and
disintegration.
The noblest ends have been secured, and the
grandest achievements of society have been attained,
where there has been belief in God, and the bond
has been realized to exist in Him. In such circum-
stances it is impossible to indicate the limit to which
society and the individual man may rise. It at any
rate, has given the world an occasional age of heroes,
and now and then an outburst of genius, which makes
other times in comparison seem small and petty.
Mere material progress is, after all, comparatively
unimportant. The truth will ever be "that man does
not live by bread alone." "It is the spirit that quick-
eneth, the flesh profiteth nothing."
By virtue of this bond of unity all mankind be-
come one family, and however separated by distance,
and broken off by diversity of language, the world
becomes a common altar, in virtue of a universal
affinity, and a universal claim of affection.
298
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
"For so the whole round earth is everywhere
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God."
No man can at this day ask as Cain did, “Am I
my brother's keeper?" God has made man his
brother's keeper.
But there is yet another truth underlying all this,
of which nothing has yet been said, and giving still
grcater importance to the law of social reciprocity.
There exists in our influence, one upon another, what
is known to physicists as "The law of action and re-
action," which action and reaction are said to be equal
and contrary. Hence, a man in doing that which is
evil, not only injures others by his actions, but there
is a reactionary injury inflicted on himself. So also,
a man in brightening the lives of others blesses his
own. In other words, man cannot live alone.
Two men travel out on the prairie in cold winter
weather. There lie out before them in dim and di-
minishing perspective, the wide stretches of the open
and uninhabited plain. Toward evening, as they
journey on, a little cloud appears upon the horizon.
It spreads out over the sky. The sun flings its eve-
ning kiss through a rift in the clouds, and drawing
the amber curtain of his cloudy pavilion about him,
retires to his ocean bed. The night advances, the
clouds grow denser, the wind blows more fiercely,
the stars go out, and the storm comes on. Finally the
dark wings of the storm hover over the travelers,
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
299
and the little snow crystals begin to descend. How
innocent these little flakes seem as they gently fall
upon them. But these tiny particles multiplied and
massed, are mightier than earth's grandest generals
and greatest engineers. Had it not been for these
apparently harmless and innocent snowflakes during
Napoleon's Russian campaign, it is possible that his
grip upon the thrones of Europe would never have
been relaxed, until he had reared upon their ruins
the throne of his own universal sovereignty.
Soon the pilgrims on the plain perceive that their
path is entirely obliterated. Every guide-post, stone
and landmark is either hidden from their vision by
the blinding snow or covered beneath ever deepen-
ing drifts. A desperate struggle ensues with grim
death. How eagerly they peer through the mingled
black and white of the surrounding storm for some
trapper's hut, or place of shelter. One of them at
last is forced to succumb to the bitter, piercing cold,
and he falls with rigid limbs upon the snow, yielding
to the indescribable languor that in such circum-
stances creeps over the frame, and steals away con-
sciousness, amid dreams of the blazing fire, a hearty
meal, and a cheerful welcome of some bright home.
scene. The other is contemplating an abandonment
of hope, and a surrender to approaching death, but,
while with burning brain, glazed eyes, and stiffened
limbs, he stands over the prostrate form of his un-
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
conscious comrade, there comes to him like an inspi-
ration, this thought, "I will not let him freeze to
death." And so, manipulating, rubbing and chafing
his limbs, in order that he may quicken the circula-
tion, and rescue the perishing one from the stupor
that possesses him, the constant friction and success-
ive changes of position to which he subjects him,
arouses and increases the vitality, and sets the blood
coursing in greater volume through the paths of the
arteries and veins. The fires of change have started
and, as these begin to burn, they light up in succes-
sion the other forces of the system until heat is pro-
duced, and then, almost before he knows it, his friend
is on his feet again.
Now, what is the condition of his benefactor? Is
he freezing? No. The very exercise he has em-
ployed to arouse the vital forces in his comrade, has
set the essential fires of life brightly burning in his
own physical system. Hence, in saving his friend,
he has saved himself. I repeat, therefore, that we
are not only social beings, but that when we are
working for the good of others, we achieve the most
possible good for ourselves.
Reformed inebriates, indeed, are more responsible
than any others for the reformation of their fallen
brothers. When they have been saved from the
sinking craft of their wrecked manhood, amid the
wild winds and boisterous billows of the storm-
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
301
smitten ocean of inebriety, it is their manifest duty to
consecrate and exert their renewed energies to the
salvation of those still in imminent danger of utter
destruction. Surely they should need no urging.
Knowing as they cannot help knowing, from what
awful calamity they have been delivered, not only to
show the keenest sympathy and tenderest pity for the
fallen and almost lost, but to use every effort to-
ward the reformation of those enslaved by drink,
should be felt by them to be a bounden duty.
They know well by experience what temptation
is, and this fact of their past experience should bring
home their duty to rescue their perishing brothers
from that destruction and death from which they
have been so gloriously redeemed and delivered.
The man who, having himself been saved, is so dead
to feelings of humanity and insensible to every emo-
tion of gratitude, that he has no care or desire to ex-
tend to others the boon he has himself received and
is enjoying, and who even fails to manifest that interest
which springs from the "fellow-feeling which makes
us wondrous kind," will be sure to return to his evil
habits, and will probably die the drunkard's death.
And they could be so useful, for not only have they
passed through the inebriate's dreadful experiences,
but they have trodden the path of reformation, and
have, therefore, the very highest qualifications to act
as authoritative and sympathetic guides in leading
others away from the quicksands of intemperance,
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
1
In conversation with a gentleman, some time ago,
he said to me, "I have pledged myself so often and
fallen, that I am afraid to pledge myself again.'
This is just what the Evil One would have a man say.
Certainly the taking of the pledge had nothing to do
with his relapses, and the question is, whether he
would not have gone wrong sooner and more fre-
quently, had it not been for the restraint of the pledge.
At any rate, it seems bad logic to say that because I
have done wrong, I will not promise to do right.
While at all times relapses into intemperate habits of
the past are lamentable and disgraceful, yet there are
times when a fall may be a fall upward, producing
greater caution and a continuous concentration of all
the moral and intellectual forces upon the weak place
in our character. In this sense, then, in going down,
we may go up. At all events, we know that there is
a mighty inherent moral power in the sincere resolve
to do right. The appreciation and approval of the
right strengthens the moral tone, and there is neces-
sarily a power of volition entering in, and flowing
from, the very act of resolution.
When I stand before the temptation to do wrong,
and say, "I will not yield," what a power there is in
that resolution! Hence, if pledging myself to-day,
I should break my pledge to-morrow, I would renew
it with a stronger determination, not only to keep it,
but to use the means to keep it, and God would bless
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
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me in the effort. God cannot help a man who is con-
trolled simply by a mixed and conditional resolution.
In order, then, for God to bless our efforts, our reso-
lution must be unequivocal, unreserved, uncompro-
mising, affirmative of the right, and negative to the
wrong.
Therefore we must leave the associations of drink-
ing men and women, and associate only with those
who are controlled by their moral nature. We should
by all means enter a temperance organization, and,
taking the pledge, secure every possible grip and
use every possible means to hold us up.
Another thought: Wife, child, father, mother,
brother, sister, angels, and even God himself, cannot
reform us unless we ourselves desire and resolve to
reform. I say, God cannot, unless he work a miracle,
and none of us have any right to expect such inter-
ference in our behalf. He only helps those who help
themselves. God has given us will-power, and as
long as we are in possession of that power, he will
never do for man what man can do for himself.
Then, here is where the man, struggling to reform,
stands. If he use the means which have been given,
he cannot fail of success in this grand and noble
work of reform. No one can use these means for
him. Therefore, if he fails to take advantage of the
aids afforded him, he alone is responsible for the re-
sults. Here, reader, is just where I wish to leave this
all-important subject.
304
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
One of the great fruits of inebriety is for the ine-
briate to blame everybody but himself, for the sad
consequences of his evil habits, and for his failures in
the attempts to reform. Generally, the drunkard
thinks that his best friends are his worst enemies, and
upon them he heaps his fiercest anathemas. What
more can be done for the inebriate than has been
done? What more could God do than he has done?
If the inebriate does not reform, it is simply because
he will not.
Of course men can go too far. There is no doubt
that there are some men who have reached this point.
The brain has become abnormal, and the functions of
assimilation have become so weakened, that they can-
not bring about a reconstruction when the materials
to work upon are so utterly wrecked and destroyed.
The physical system can never be renewed, and so
far reform becomes a simple impossibility. When
he unfortunately has gone too far, he is physically be-
yond change or recovery.
Even Christianity proposes only to save the soul,
it does not promise restoration of exhausted physical
functions. I have known a few men who had gone
so far as to have wrecked their physical tissue beyond
the possibility of reconstruction, and yet had their
reflective faculties remaining, by which they could
appreciate God and realize their obligations to obey
Him,
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
305
I could give the history of a number of such men
who reformed, and remained so till the day of their
death. While their physical functions may never re-
cuperate, yet they may hold their enemy at bay, and,
though dying prematurely, still die true to their
moral principles..
•
But if the struggling inebriate feels too weak to
withstand the tempter's power, and if having used
all the natural ability that God has provided, he yet
fails, then he has reached the exigency where the
great Master can come in and help. For him especially
is the loving invitation, "Come unto me all ye that
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
"The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him
that heareth, say Come; and let him that is athirst,
Come; and whosoever will, let him take the water
of life freely." "He that puts his trust in Me," says
God, "shall never be confounded; " that is, never fall,
never slide away or be overcome. God says this to
every living soul. Hence, until a person gets so very
low that he cannot appreciate God or his promises,
there is hope, there is moral reform, there is complete
and full salvation.
20
CHAPTER XIX.
NO RESERVATION IN THIS WORK OF REFORM-HOW ARE THE MEANS TO
BE USED ?—I DESIRE TO LIFT A BOOK-APPLICATION OF THE SCALE
-WHAT IS TIME?-HOW LONG, HOW SHORT?—THE PAST, THE PRES-
ENT, THE FUTURE, HOW LONG?—AGE OF THE EARTH-SCIENCE
AND THE BIBLE AGREE-HOW CAN THE INDEBTEDNESS OF PAST SINS
BE CANCELED?—THE CROSS THE ONLY HOPE-NO PHYSICAL UNIVERSE
OR SOUL LIFE WITHOUT THE CROSSMAN RESPONSIBLE FOR SIN.
In previous chapters I have endeavored to point
out the means to be employed in this great work of
the reformation of the slaves of narcotics. The
means which I have enumerated, and respectively
discussed, are infallibly certain, properly used, to pro-
duce the desired result. It, however, requires the
employment of all the means. It is all or nothing in
this work of reform.
Reform signifies the bringing up of the moral
powers to control the animal desires, and the recon-
struction of the physical system. Hence, if you make
a reservation here, and a concession there, you have
done violence to the whole moral nature and, in yield-
ing in one point, you have pampered and strength-
ened the animal forces that underlie, and express
themselves through the inordinate desires.
(306)
NARCOTICS—THE REMEDY.
307
If you have not the moral stamina to resist and
overcome one passion, one inordinate desire, you will
inevitably yield to the desire for drink-that is, if you
have been a drinking man, and are endeavoring to
break from the habit. This follows, because the de-
sire for drink is, in such a case, stronger than any
other, and carries along with it the intensity of all
the others combined.
means.
Now, the question before us is, how to use these
We may pledge ourselves to reform, but all
these pledges, all these sincere determinations and
firm resolutions are worth nothing, if we do not take
the measures to insure success. Herein lies the secret
of a man's past failures, frequent falls-always resolv-
ing, always pledging, but never utilizing the means
upon which the success is contingent.
Take a simple illustration: I desire to lift a book.
Now of course there enters into that desire, an object
in view for the removal of the book. First, then, I
must determine to lift it. But that simple determi-
nation does not move the book. It is merely the gate
that opens into the field of action. What will lift it?
The Will that telegraphs through the nerves that run
from the ganglion in the brain, which is the center of
authority and control, down to the muscles, causing
them to contract and relax, comes into play, and un-
der its authority the book is lifted. The book is
lifted because the will uses the muscles as the means.
308
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
As you look back along the line of your past life,
how frequently you have pledged yourself to certain
courses of conduct, but failed of success because you
did not exercise the Will in the employment and
proper use of the necessary means. Herein lies the
secret of the most melancholy failures among men-
always willing the change of life, but never willing
the means by which alone the change can be effected.
This same process, under these conditions, holds.
good, and is in daily operation in the great business
world. A man determines to be a merchant prince,
but he never realizes his fond ambition until, by the
mighty power of the Will, he seizes hold of the
means to be used, and by them works out the accom-
plishment of the great purpose. Here is found the
basis upon which have been erected, and the instru-
ments by which have been fashioned, the grandest
and most glorious achievements of the race.
How important then it is for us calmly and care-
fully to consider this serious question of how to use
the means. Turn to the Chart of Soul Life. You
will see there a scale at the base, concerning which
nothing has as yet been said. You have perhaps
queried in your mind as to its purpose. You may
now see at a glance what it means. Here in the cen-
ter is a long perpendicular mark which represents
the Present. From this point as you look to the left,
the Chart facing you, you see the end which em-
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
3C9
braces what we call Past Time. Looking the other
way from this central point, you get as intelligent an
idea as can be found of the great Future. Who can
define Time? Who can unfold it? Think of the
great cycles of the ages which have passed, and the
great cycles of the ages which are to come! What
mind can grasp them? And yet we are told in the
Sacred Scriptures that with God, these two extremes
of an infinitely receding Past, and an infinitely ex-
tending Future, meet in an eternal Now. With Him,
"Nothing there is to come and nothing past,
But an eternal Now doth always last."
Can you tell the number of years from this cen-
tral point since our earth was formed and found its.
orbit? Skeptics have announced a great discrepancy
between the statements of Scripture, and the rocky
records of the physical world in relation to this pri-
mal period of the earth's existence. They base this
declaration of the Scriptures' inaccuracy, upon the
proposition that the Bible distinctly declares the
world to be 6,000 years old. Now take the Holy
Bible, which those men curl the lip at and ridicule,
and without fear I challenge any one to find in it a
single chapter, verse, line, or word, that undertakes
to state or settle the question of the age of this world,
or the definite period of its creation.
There is only one verse in the Bible, and Moses is
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THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
the accredited author of it, which speaks of the time
of the creation of the world. "In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth." When was
that beginning? It may have been millions of years.
ago. If Moses could be put upon the modern wit-
ness stand, and be ever so searchingly cross-ques-
tioned as to that particular point in duration, called
"The beginning," it is probable that he would exhibit
as great ignorance on that subject, as we are in our
selves.
However, to be exact, neither the ignorance nor
the knowledge of Moses is sufficient to remove the
difficulty involved in this question, inasmuch as it is
plain that he wrote the account of the cosmical de-
tails of the creation period, not at his own option,
but by Divine dictation. The real solution of the
difficulty is found in the fact that Time, being the
child of Eternity, carries us back to that indefinite,
undefinable, unanalyzable Unity, or that beginningless
and endless circle of eternal duration, which is only
measured by the succession of God's infinite thoughts.
As it is utterly impossible for the human mind to
originate an infinite conception, and as it is already a
postulate of philosophers that the mind cannot com-
prehend an idea transcending its capacity, the men-
tal power of origination, therefore the human mind
has not the requisite power either to originate or
comprehend a conception of infinite duration. When,
NARCOTICS-THE REmedy.
311
:
therefore, running along the limited line of Eternity,
which the strongest-winged angel, who cleaves the
illimitable ether may fly around forever, and never
compass the circuit, or find a break or termination,
we are lost in our hopeless and helpless insignificance
and ignorance. For God then to have introduced
upon the pages of Divine Revelation an explanation
of that which must be unintelligible to those to whom
it is communicated, would have been a work of such
supererogation as to fatally impeach the Divine per-
fection, and disprove the inspiration of the Reve-
lation.
While connected with a University for a number
of years as Professor of Natural Science, I remem-
ber that I was so interested in the study of this sub-
ject that I wrote a lecture, in which I traced back as
best I could, the footprints of creation, to see if I
could arrive at any idea of how long this earth had
existed. In that lecture I reached, with satisfaction
to myself as to accuracy, the period of 3,000,000
years, and then was manifestly far from "the Begin-
ning." In my studies and researches upon this sub-
ject, I found that the greatest harmony exists between
God's Word and Geology, as Hugh Miller, Agassiz
and many others of the greatest geologists have dis-
covered and declared.
The Bible does not say that it is only 6,000 years
since this world was created. After "the Beginning,"
312
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
the Bible states the successive acts of creation by
which the various organs of life were brought into
existence.
The days mentioned were evidently geological
days, and Moses did not know, and consequently did
not say, what period of duration they embraced.
Neither does he indicate the length of time between the
point called "the Beginning," which embraced the
period of the earth's elemental condition and “the
First Day," which saw the commencement of the
formation and differentiation of the chaotic mass and
elemental material into the earth's symmetric and
splendid structure.
The sciences which the infidel has tried to enlist
in his crusade against the Word of God, have strongly
rejected his advances, and sifted from them the empty
honors he has proposed to arrogate to them. Join-
ing hands around Revelation's shrine, they attest the
truth of the Bible, confirm its records, illustrate its
Divine energy and, with the stars of the heavens, the
gems of the earth, and the wealth of the universe,
they crown it as Divine and Supreme.
Now, looking down the Past, as indicated by this
Scale of Time, how we are moved by the reminis-
cences which come trooping up in the deep cham-
bers of the soul. Instance the inebriate when away
from the tempter's cruel power, how often his
thoughts travel back to home, mother, wife and chil
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
`313
dren, to the horrible habits formed, and the dreadful
deeds he has committed; and to the results which
have followed his life of sin. As the inebriate stan 's
on the eminence of to-day, and views the Past from
the standpoint of the Present, he not only realizes
what he has been, but there flits before his agonized
vision the shivering shadow of a wasted life, with its
undeveloped and unredeemable possibilities. In his
ears there rings in those "saddest words of tongue
or pen," the solemn, doleful “might have been." The
great ledger of his life is filled with the dark record
of unworthiness, and he wonders if there is no ave-
nue of escape from the visions of the irredeemable
past-some means of relief from an almost intolera-
ble burden of shame and regret. The question is,
how is this indebtedness to be canceled, how to solace
and silence the voice of an exasperated Conscience.
There is not a moment that has gone into the Past,
bearing the record of sin, which can by any possi-
bility be recalled. A man cannot obliterate its dread
testimony against him. There is no power on earth
or in heaven given to man, or belonging to God,
which can make a thing to be and not to be at the
same moment of time. There is no power in the uni-
verse that can make the vice, falsehood, and unright-
eousness of a man's life, stand for virtue, truth and
righteousness.
If conscience cannot be satisfied, the moral affec-
314.
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
tions cannot be made to exercise their force in resist-
ing that evil which has been practiced and indorsed.
How then can we satisfactorily answer to conscience,
as "Minister Plenipotentiary" from the Court of
Heaven? There is but one way that I know of, and
that is infallibly sure, and I should not be true to my-
self, or to God, if I did not, in love and candor speak
of this way which is providentially opened up for the
escape of all men. Here we all meet on common
ground, for "all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God."
The remedy is not for this man or that, but for the
least and the greatest, the best and the worst, those
who have done little or nothing that the eye of man
can censure, and those who have wandered farthest
astray. It is a remedy which no one is so virtuous
that he can dispense with it, and no one so bad that
in his case it becomes inefficacious. The center of
the physical universe, and the moral, is the Cross.
Upon whatever segment of the ever-widening, mul-
tiplying, and extending segments of truth we may
travel in thought and research, we discover all the
facts, events, laws, forces and results of the physical
and moral realms in harmonious adjustment around
a common center-the Cross.
•
From the Cross of eighteen centuries ago, we
trace the luminous path of this symbol of God's love
and man's hope, back through all its types, represen-
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
315
tations, adumbrations, until, leaving it-undergirding
and overarching all forms of animate and inanimate
existence, as well as moral and spiritual life, we find
it before the world was made, new-born and cradled
in the creative conception of God. As the Apostle
puts it, "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery,
even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before
the world unto our glory."
Without the Cross there would have been no cre-
ation. They are twin thoughts in the mind of God.
Not only were man's physical necessities considered
and supplied in the creation of the physical world,
but his moral wants were also anticipated and pro-
vided for. Turning to the First Epistle of Peter,
Chapter I, verses 18-22 inclusive, we read, "For as
much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with
corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain
conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot; who verily was
foreordained before the foundation of the world, but
was manifest in these last times for you. Who by
Him do believe in God, that raised him from the dead,
and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might
be in God."
These verses clearly show that in the councils of
Jehovah, "before the foundation of the world," the
great and comprehensive scheme of redemption was
316
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
considered and adopted. The great question before
the triune and heavenly council was, "How can a
being be created that can appreciate, revere, love,
worship and obey God?" Such a being must possess
intellectual faculties and a moral nature. Without
the former man could not know God, and without
the latter he could not love Him. The moral nature
supplies the power of distinguishing between right
and wrong, and the possession of free intellectual activ-
ities constitutes him a free moral agent with the power
to do, or not to do.
Man is left thus unrestricted in the exercise of an
intellectual and moral nature; for there is no virtue
either in a fixed character or forced conduct. Hence
man must be created with the power of volition, or
the power to obey and disobey God. God could not
in justice create wrong in the concrete, but as all
principles of quality, character and state exist in du-
ality, and are by the law of correlation, individually
and reciprocally dependent for their existence upon
each other, it was impossible for Him to create a free
moral agent, without providing for the existence of
Wrong in the abstract.
God, therefore, created man with the ability to
do wrong as well as to do right, while, at the same
time, faithfully warning him of the terrible conse-
quences of wrong doing. Thus, good and evil are
the two foci of the ellipse of the moral universe.
NARCOTICS—THE REMEDY.
317
But God, foreseeing that man through inexperience
and temptation would be led by the exercise of this
power of volition and free moral agency to his own
destruction, instituted, co-incident with His creation,
a means of remedy-a scheme of salvation, one which
transcends the power of human language to charac-
terize, as it would have transcended the heart of man
to conceive in its sublimity-its height, and depth,
and length, and breadth.
In the scheme of salvation we can recognize, al-
though we cannot hope to fathom or measure, "the
depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowl-
edge of God," who is "unsearchable in his judg
ments, and His ways past finding out." This Divine
Plan, so to speak of it, is represented to the world
under the type and symbol of the Cross. Hence,
Holy Scriptures declare that Christ is "as a lamb
slain from the foundation of the world.”
Again, God seeing that man, endowed with his
royal prerogative of free moral agency, with the al-
ternative of good and evil presented to him, would
yield to temptation, and use the forces that He had
invested him with, against his own happiness and
well-being, put into operation the remedial influences
of the great plan of the Atonement.
Thus, every emergency and necessity in man's
destiny was provided for at his creation, and he was
placed in the world, which was made for the devel-
318
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
opment of his Soul Life, that there might issue from
him a race to love, honor, serve and worship God.
As God sees all effects in their primal cause, so he
reads man's history in his creation, and he inaugu-
rated a remedial scheme commensurate with the pos-
sible evil, and co-existent and co-extensive with the
race.
No element, however, in such a scheme must in-
volve the slightest departure from the unbending, in-
exorable and eternal principles of God's nature, God's
system, and God's government. Such a scheme must
be no unnatural one coming into the system of God,
but a normal part, existing and proceeding in its de-
velopment according to laws as eternal and unchange-
able as God himself. And such was the scheme.
Long before man was made, it was. "We speak the
wisdom of God in a mystery, which God ordained
before the world, unto our glory."
CHAPTER XX.
SIN A VIOLATION OF A RIGHTEOUS
LAW-THE GARDEN OF EDEN-
MAN A FREE AGENT — TIE TEMPTER APPEARS-EVE AND ADAM
YIELDED, AND THE RACE WAS LOST-MAN'S EXTREMITY, GOD'S
OPPORTUNITY-THROUGH THE CROSS THE RACE IS SAVED-EXAM-
PLES GIVEN OF THE POWER OF THE CROSS TO SAVE-APPLICA-
TION OF THE SCALE-THE ONLY TIME ALLOTTED 10 MÅN IS
THE NOW TIME-PROCRASTINATION IS THE THIEF OF TIME-A
MOMENT LOST IS LOST FOREVER,
God's universal system is a unity; man is an es-
sential part of that unity. Sin is a violation of a
righteous law; law is the basis of all order; there-
fore, sin is essentially disorganizing. Man, by his sin,
thus has disturbed his relations to the universal system,
and badly impaired the unity of the whole. Sin is a
foreign element in the system of God, and, like the
action of any foreign substance, when introduced
into an organized unity, it subverts and destroys the
unity.
After man's creation God placed him in the most
beautiful and luxurious portion of that earth pre-
viously prepared for his residence. Eden was so
adapted in Geography and Geology and temperature,
as well as in its collection of animals, plants, flowers,
(319)
320
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
and trees, as to make innocent beings happy,-it was
called the Garden of Eden. The breath of God
cooled its fountains, and the fanning of seraphic pin-
ions ventilated its blooming bowers. Dwelling
among its superb beauties were the first man and the
first woman, sublime in their loveliness, bearing the
impress of Divinity upon their brows, and the stamp
of God's image upon their hearts. God walked with
them and talked with them, and loved them, for he
had created them in his own image, and of all ani-
mate creatures they only could look through nature
and love, admire and adore the Creator. They were
good, therefore happy.
Now, amid the prodigal profusion, the great abun-
dance of everything necessary to satisfy the most
exacting and fastidious tastes, there existed two trees
in this Garden, "the tree of life," and the "tree of
knowledge of good and evil." Upon the eating of the
fruit of the one, man's life seems to have depended,
whilst upon the eating of the fruit of the other, he
forever forfeited his life. Then came the Divine dec-
laration, "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou
shalt surely die." These two trees represented the
two antipodal principles,-good and evil,—and at the
same time the two conditions resulting from them,-
life and death.
Man was placed in this condition of trial, with
the ability to obey or disobey God, in order that his
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
321
character might not be the necessary results of his
creation, but that of his own voluntary choice and
action,—without which man could not be said to have
any character at all. God, therefore, subjected his
work to the voluntary indorsement, or rejection, of
man's moral agency, and made the perpetuity of his
life depend upon conditions.
The source, then, of man's spiritual life was out-
side of himself, and being outside of his constitution,
as represented by the Tree of Life, he might be sep-
arated,—and this is spiritual death. As the sun is
the center of our solar system, so God is the center
of the moral universe, around which all moral beings
were created to move according to as real and unal-
terable laws as the laws governing the revolution of
the planets.
Man's individuality constituted the centrifugal
force, and his love the centripetal force. Both forces
were properly equalized and man moved around God
as his natural center. Man's relations to God were
at perfect harmony. His Will, the controlling prin-
ciple in his nature, was free, but in the exercise of the
high prerogative of its inherent freedom, it chose
harmony with the Will of God as the noblest end of
human liberty. So harmoniously perfect were man's
relations to the Deity, that he walked and talked with
God in the cool of the evening, and held sweet com-
munion with Him every moment of those blissful
21
322
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
hours of his innocence. Oh, this was spiritual life.
It was under these circumstances that the Tempter
appeared to Eve. He accosted her. She was not
afraid of the shining scales of the sinuous monster,
for she was innocent and could know no fear. She
talks with the Tempter, and he begins to stir and
arouse the fires of her emotions, and plays upon her
appetite. She had eaten of the other fruit, and it
was pleasant to the taste. The wily Tempter, with
a guile deep and damning, stirred her self-love and
ambition. He insinuated that God did not want
them to eat the fruit of "the Tree of knowledge of
Good and Evil," because He was afraid that they
would know too much, "and become as God."
Now, up to this time they were the fit compan-
ions of angels, and the favorites of the skies. Inhal-
ing the pure atmosphere of their innocent home, they
stood in the dignity of their unsullied nature, with
the earth around them blooming in the freshness of
its green beauty, the heavens above them radiant
with the Creator's smile-no ominous clouds to
darken the background of their young history, and
a wide vision of coming bliss stretching out in long
perspective before them. They stood, too, in the
undimmed luster of priceless purity, the richest
crown jewel in the kingdom of God. But the insid-
ious Tempter, big with hate and guided through his
task by a deadly strategy, thus approached and
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
323
praised and fanned ambition's fires, and they bartered
the
gem for-Knowledge. Oh, Heavens !—Knowledge,
when authorized and hallowed, the patrimony of an-
gels, but when forbidden and profaned, the curse of
archangels! ruined! Knowledge was falsely tendered
as the tempting equivalent of purity and obedience.
Sin
Eve lifted up her hand and plucked the fruit, ate
of it, and gave to Adam. Oh, upon what small ac-
tions eternal issues do sometimes hang! By that act
the fiendish Tempter triumphed, and a beggared,
blasted and expatriated race, lived to date their crime
and fall from Paradise. Eternal death hung suspended
like the sword of Damocles over a ruined race.
severed the bond of union which bound man to God,
and upon which his spiritual life depended. It de-
stroyed the attractive power of love, the centripetal
force which held man to God, his center, and his in-
dividuality, the centrifugal force, no longer counter-
vailed by love, flung him from his orbit and sent him
traveling far out into the regions of night and death,
a blasted, dark and frozen orb, doomed and cursed,
to wander in outer darkness beyond order's circle and
Heaven's smile.
Separated from God, the source and resource of
spiritual life, man was dead; lust and passion held
unlimited control; moral decay commenced its dread-
ful ravages; hellish desires burned in the moral wreck
of man's ruined nature, and a fetid monster grew
324
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
upon the damp walls of God's desecrated and de
serted sanctuary in the human soul.
Separated from God,, the source of all light, as
well as His life, man's mental and moral powers were
darkened. Created to be a receiver and not a source
of light, every power of man's nature was plunged
into midnight darkness by the fall.
Man was now deprived of the image of God,
robbed of his nobility, and brought under the au-
thority of Satan by his own act.
Every chord of harmony thus sundered, was
bleeding and suffering with pain, his mind was ach-
ing with bitter memories of lost blessings; the nobler
faculties were writhing with anguish in their lost
struggles; remorse was gnawing with its fiery fangs
every sensitive chord of man's conscious being; and
despair fixed its penetrating talons in the sinner's
soul, and with its raven wings shut out the cheering
light of hopeful day. This was spiritual death.
Man thought all was lost, and as far as his own
power to save himself was concerned, it was the case
-he was lost beyond all recovery. But "man's ex-
tremity is God's opportunity," and, as man was being
hurled in consequence of sin, by the awful energies
of God's perfect system, down the chilly slopes of
death, mercy-still lingering over the doom of the
rebel, and taxing the infinite resources of Almighty
Goodness to avert his final fate and despoil the evil
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
325
Tempter of his prey-prevailed, and God, pursuant to
the original plan, ordered the same power which was
working man's destruction, to expel and destroy the
sin, but save the sinner.
Redemption's scheme then leaped into active
being, springing from man's guilt and gloom, and
commenced its mission of pardon and power in the
salvation of a lost and guilty race. The work of re-
demption, long conceived, is now for the first time.
being executed, and man stands in the twilight of
splendor between the two luminous points of the
world's history-the Cross in figure, and the Cross in
fact; its promise and its power.
And finally, in the lapse of time, the great scheme
for whose development all principles, beings, causes,
effects and events, with completed action worked for
thousands of years, was completed, and stood forth
in commanding and wondrous grandeur, a structure
rising to heaven.
See! "Coming up from Edom with dyed gar-
ments from Bozrah, glorious in his apparel, traveling
in the greatness of his strength, One mighty to save."
This "One mighty to save," in accordance with the
foreknowledge and foreordination of God, appeared
in due time girded with his Omnipotence, and entered
upon his grand and glorious mission. By the Cross
he enters the dark river of death, levels its towering
waves, and then opens a safe passage across death's
326
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
dark gulf. Angels shouted in joyous wonder as the
mighty Saviour went. His feet retrod the way of
man's retreat, and ascended to Paradise. He emptied
sacrificial blood from the urn of redemption upon the
flaming sword, extinguished and sheathed it, removed
the guarding Cherubim, unbolted the gate, opened
the way to the "Tree of Life"- and His Life's blood,
streaming from pierced wounds, demonstrates the
mighty magic of the central figure and fact in salva-
tion's scheme-the crimson Cross of a crucified
Saviour.
Noah's Ark, Jacob's Ladder, the tabernacle, the
temple, the ark of the covenant, the mercy seat, the
altar, the golden candlestick, the brazen laver, the
manna, the brazen serpent, the rock of Horeb, the
cities of Refuge, the Tree of Life, in some sense,
were all types of Christ and His Cross, and are sym-
bolized in the existence, the nature, and the agree-
ment of all the facts, principles and agencies involved
in the atonement.
The Cross represents the only hope of the world.
It exerts an influence upon the character and destiny
of man that does not belong to any other system. This
is the only haven unvisited by wreck and ruin, to
which we can repair in the great shipwrecks of life.
It is man's only resource, and it nerves and sustains
him in the renunciation of sin, the practice of vir-
tue, and in reverence and affection for God. It is
almighty to succor and support.
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
327
No discouragement or calamity can appał when
we cling to the Cross. Hither the weak, disconsolate
and hopeless inebriate and slave of narcotics can look
with confidence, with surety, and with absolute suc-
cess. Here, when these periodical spells overtake
him, and drive him, contrary to his better judgment,
sense of right, the approbation of conscience and his
moral affections, back to his cups, he will find ample
strength to help him to overcome the fiercest and most
intense fires raging in his burning appetite. Here,
when father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children,
and society forsake him, is a mighty power, that will
more than recompense him for all these. For the
power of the Cross goes where they cannot go, down
into the deep chambers of the soul, reconstructs the
moral faculties, frees a man from the curse and effects
of strong drink; restores to him his lost manhood,
and wins back again for him the love, esteem and
confidence of those who had forsaken him.
The great difficulty is, that the inebriate subverts
the plan of God. When his passions rise in opposi
tion to his better moral nature, he goes to the god of
Bacchus and drinks from the fountain flowing from
his altar, which only temporarily relieves his burning
thirst to increase it with greater intensity; instead of
going to the Cross, where he may drink of living
waters and never thirst again.
The power of Christ to save all that come unto
328
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
1
God by Him, has been amply demonstrated. It was
in Christ, the Saviour, that God, before the Advent,
as well as after it, helped and exalted men who re-
vered and trusted Him. We see His hand in the
history of Joseph, tempted, imprisoned, and raised
finally to be the Prime Minister of Egypt; in the de-
livery of the children of Israel from Pharaoh and
his hosts, in their passage through the Red Sea, and
their wanderings in the Wilderness. "Moses ..
esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than
the treasures of Egypt."
"The time would fail to tell of Gideon and
of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah; of Da-
vid also, and of Samuel, and of the Prophets." As
the seven-fold heat of Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace
was rendered harmless to the three servants of
God, so Daniel was preserved in safety in the lion's
den. John the Baptist preferred the loss of his life
to a virtual compromise with royal crime; "for he
endured as seeing Him that is invisible."
But how unspeakably tender and inviting is the
attitude of Jesus Christ himself toward us! Could
any invitation be more complete and comprehensive
than his? He asks all who feel this need of more
than human help simply to come to Him, and he
says,-needing then, surely, to say no more, that
"Whosoever cometh " He "will in no wise cast out."
What influence He had with the poor, the oppressed,
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
329
and the sin-burdened. "He did not break the
bruised reed or quench the smoking flax." The chil-
dren found in Him a friend; the outcast met the
warmest sympathy; all who, like the Publican in the
parable, had the prayer in their hearts, "God be
merciful to me a sinner," had his cheering commen-
dation,
こ
​The woman taken in adultery must have heard
with an overwhelming revulsion of feeling His com-
passionate words, "Neither do I condemn thee. Go,
and sin no more." What a wonderful scene that
was, where the woman that was a sinner, brought an
alabaster box of ointment, and having washed the
feet of Jesus with her tears, in token of her regret.
and repentance, and wiped them with the hairs of her
head,—her hair, which St. Paul calls "the glory of
woman "—anointed them with the precious ointment,
and in which she said that all which she had was hence-
forth his! What had he done or said? He must
have spoken some such gracious, forgiving, hopeful
words to her, and her crushed and frozen heart, made
living warm once more, had reasserted itself. "Oh,
my God," she might have said, "I thought I was
lost, lost, forever lost! The world looked at me as
if all hope for me was dead; but now I have hope,
I have joy, for the Beloved has spoken! The world
still looks the same, still shuns and despises me, my
very touch is dreaded, but He is a thousand worlds.
330
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
to me, and the other nothing." This is something of
what she, no doubt, felt, but only something, for, for-
tunately, it is not given to many of us to know what
it is to be cast down into the very pit of despair by
the unfeeling attitude of those around us.
Religion in Christ Jesus puts off the gorgeous
robe to don a workman's dress; left the Doctors in
the temple to seek the highways and hedges; turned
from Dives to speak to Lazarus; from the self-right-
eous Pharisee to the repentant Publican; it relin-
quished the scribe's subtleties and learned discussions,
and came down to the cottage to tell a fireside story.
To emphasize this, Christ seems rather to turn his
back on riches, greatness, and even religious respect-
ability. The language of His whole career is this,
"Here is a man, here is a woman, here, then, is the
possibility of everlasting, happy life." And, in His
teaching, how distinctly this comes out! There is
the parable of the Good Samaritan and that of the
one lost sheep. What wonderful words are these,
"I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in
heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than
over ninety-and-nine just persons that need no re-
pentance.
Perhaps, most of all, the story of the Prodigal Son
illustrates the infinite hope that there is for every
one who has gone far astray. There is not one hu-
man being living, the very chief of sinners, to whom
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
331
the words may not, if he but say from his heart, "I
will arise and go to my father," become applicable.
"This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost,
and is found.”
finite power.
There is only one thing that equals the infinite
tenderness and passion of Christ, and that is His in-
"In whom we have redemption
through His blood, even the forgiveness of our sins;
who is the image of the invisible God, the first born
of every creature; for by Him were all things cre-
ated, that are in heaven, and that are in earth,
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or do-
minions or principalities or powers; all things were
created by Him and for Him; and he is before all
things, and by Him all things consist."
Through all ages there are countless witnesses to
the power of Christ to save to the uttermost. Paul
was forgiven and converted, although a zealous per-
secutor of Christ's followers, and was sustained at
Rome in the presence of Nero, the cruelest tyrant
the world ever saw. He, as "Paul the aged," speaks
of "the glorious gospel of the blessed God," and de-
clares, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all
acccptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am chief." The humblest
m n became heroes, and the weakest women hero-
ines, in the endurance of martyrdom for the truth.
The great reformers found their strength in Him,
332
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
-the Bohemian Heuss; the Italian Savanarola: the
German Luther, the English Tyndale and Wickliffe;
the Scotch Knox. Through belief in Him dissolute
lives have been converted into notable benefactors of
mankind, as St. Augustine, who had plunged head-
long into licentiousness, but became, in answer to the
prayers of his mother, Monnica, a glorious light to his
own age, and of all ages, and of whom Longfellow
sings,
(6
Saint Augustine, well hast thou said
That of our vices we may frame
A ladder, if we will but tread
Under our feet each deed of shame."
John Bunyan, who, rescued from a profligate life,
lived to write the deathless "Pilgrim's Progress.
John Newton, once a drunken sailor, who shocked
his careless companions by his awful blasphemy, en-
gaged on a "slaver "in abducting poor Africans from
their homes and carrying them with horrible brutal-
ity of treatment to the shores of our Continent to be
sold into slavery, became an eminent minister of God,
the companion of the gentle Cowper in the writing of
the Olney hymns, and whose lines these are that we
often sing:
"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
•
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see."
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
333
The power of Christ armed Wesley and Whitfield
with a torch that set all England in a blaze, and it has
inspired the Christian fortitude, the missionary zeal
that has planted this sacred standard of our faith and
religion not only amid the encircling splendors of the
free skies of the West, the shores of European civil-
ization, the pagodas of the East and the Arctic sever-
ities of the North, but also amid the miasma and ap-
palling dangers of the Hindoo jungle, the African
desert and forest. It is almighty to renew.
Though we may be dead to all sense of right,
with conscience seared, the moral affections over-
come, and the animal disposition and passions in the
ascendancy, in other words, "dead in trespasses and
sins," yet if we will come to the Cross, its mighty
magnetism will thrill through us, startling us into a
perfect surprise of conscious awakening, dissipating
the illusions of sense and delusions of sin, and make
the pulse of Immortality to beat once more within
the breast.
The promise is that " He that putteth his trust in
the Lord, shall never be confounded." If we will
cling to the Cross, we will be not only sustained amid
the trials and the tears of life, but also supported
amid the gathering shadows of death, in that event-
ful hour, amid the uncertain light of receding earth
and approaching heaven, when the heart's conscious
possession of the promise and power of a victory
334
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
over sin, death and hell, will be of more value than
all the world can yield besides.
Reader, as we close this all-important subject, let
us for a moment look back along the line (See Scale)
of the past, and standing as we do, upon the present-
point, see how perfectly impossible it is for us to
touch a moment that has passed the present, or ever
to use it again. It is beyond our reach--gone for-
ever. Standing on the same present-point, no more
can we reach forward and grasp a moment, before it
comes to the present. Hence, no future moment can
be said to be ours. Yesterday, never, never is ours;
it never comes back. It is yesterday forever. So,
too, to-morrow never comes to us, and never can be
ours. It is to-morrow forever.
Hence all the time that God has given, or ever
will give to a human soul to use, is the present moment
—the now moment. As every past moment was once
the future moment, and the future moment must pass
through the present-point to reach the past, oh, how
solemn the thought that every future moment that
we have let pass over the present-point, unimproved,
or used in wrong-doing, has gone into the deep
bosom of the past, beyond our reach; and, from the
fact that we should have improved and used the mo-
ment in right doing, when we used it in wrong doing,
it is placed upon the debtor's side of the great Led-
ger of Eternity, entirely beyond the possibility of
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
335
ourselves ever canceling it! Then it follows that
there must be some remedy outside of ourselves, pro-
vided by God, or we are lost, and lost forever. Un-
less this moral disease created by strong drink can be
removed, there is no hope for the reformation or sal-
vation of the drunkard.
Now, Reader, you can realize why in this chapter
I have devoted so much space to the subject of the
Cross. This load of guilt must be lifted from the
soul; this moral disease must be removed by some
power above and beyond that of the inebriate him-
self, or there is no hope of his reformation, and I
know of no other power but that of the Cross that
can do it. In the Cross there is a potent and sure
remedy, a provision of mercy and justice, whereby
this indebtedness can be canceled, these sins removed,
and the man reformed.
Periodical drunkards may stop drinking for
months and even years, but from the experience of
over forty years, I am convinced that the only thor-
cugh, permanent reformation is through the Cross.
Alcohol-per se-so wrecks the moral nature, strikes
down the better judgment and sense of right, that no
power but the power of the Cross can accomplish
perfect reconstruction, and give them the control of
the craving, gnawing, burning appetite of their inor-
dinate desires. When the love of God, emanating
from the Cross (See Chart), enters the hidden cham-
336
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
bers of the emotions and desires, and changes them so
that they become consonant with the moral affections,
then the will of the man becomes the will of God,
hence, a renewed man loves what God loves, and hates
what God hates, and thus the power of the appetite.
for narcotics is subdued and controlled, and so long
as the love of God is retained in these emotions and
desires, he cannot crave intoxicants.
The indebtedness of the wrong-doing of the past
being canceled by the atoning blood of Christ, how
is the inebriate to use the means so as to meet suc-
cessfully the exigencies of the coming future? He
can do it only by using right the present moment.
As each successive moment comes to the present one
by one, use it right, and thus make right the future
line of life. Oh, how easy thus to live right, if we
willingly use the now moment properly! The diffi-
culty is, that we are always promising ourselves that
we will commence and live right, when some partic-
ular future point being taken, as is represented on
the Scale comes along down to the present, forgetting
that the intervening moments passing over the present,
all being used in doing wrong, will make us so much
the weaker morally to do the right. Hence, if we had
not the moral strength to commence doing the right
then, how true it is, when we have weakened our mora.
nature thus, that we cannot do the right when that
future point comes to the present. It is a true say-
NARCOTICS-THE REMEDY.
337
ing that "procrastination is the thief of time." Pro-
crastination is the rock upon which the millions are
wrecked.
Now with the dark and dreary past canceled by
the Cross, we stand in the pregnant present. Oh,
how careful should we be as to the manner in which
we utilize these flying moments! They not only de-
termine our present character, but they will decide
our future condition. While we cannot seize or de-
tain them, they seize us, our thoughts, feelings, emo-
tions and desires, and carry the record to judgment.
Time was, is past,
Thou canst not it recall;
Time is, thou hast,
Employ the portion small.
Time future may never be,
Time present is the only time for thee."
Reader, ponder well these thoughts and words,
and may they be in thy life, "As apples of gold in
pictures of silver."
22
CHAPTER XXI.
IS INEBRIETY A PHYSICAL OR MORAL DISEASE?-THE AGENT USED IS
ALCOHOL-A UNIVERSAL DESIRE FOR NARCOTICS—ANCIENT PHIL-
OSOPHERS SOUGHT, BUT FAILED TO FIND, A REMEDY-DR. N. S.
DAVIS' OPINION
DO CHILDREN OF DRUNKARDS BECOME SLAVES TO
INTOXICANTS MORE THAN THE CHILDREN OF PARENTS WHO DO NOT
DRINK?-REFORMATORY INSTITUTIONS-WHAT IS THE TESTIMONY
OF FIFTY YEARS AGO?—INEBRIETY A MORAL DISEASE, AND THE
AGENT USED THE NARCOTICS, AND THE INORDINATE DESIRES THE
CAUSE, AND THE WRECK OF THE PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL AND
MORAL NATURES THE EFFECTS OF THE CAUSE.
Perhaps there is no question fraught with such
intense interest, and at the same time so little under-
stood at the present day, as—What is inebriety? Is
it a physical or a moral disease? The position gen-
erally assumed by the medical men of the past and
present age is, that it is a physical disease. It is
proper, in the discussion of this subject, to clearly
define, What is inebriety?
Here is a man, at the age of thirty, who has be-
come a slave to the use of a narcotic. He resolves
that he will use it no more, and is true to this resolve
for thirty years.
We now call him a thoroughly re-
formed man. He has proved it by thirty years of
sobriety. He is, to all appearance, as strong and
!
(338)
INEBRIETY-NOT A PHYSICAL DISEASE.
339
healthy physically, morally and mentally as he was
when he took the first glass of brandy or the first
grain of opium. He could use it, or let it alone, at
the pleasure of his will, when he first commenced;
but when he has become a slave to it and then stops
its use, it matters not whether it be thirty, forty, or
more years, let him but take the first glass of an intox-
icant, or the first grain of opium, it is only a
short time before he is just as much a slave to the
narcotic as he was when he stopped its use, thirty or
forty years before.
Q
Now, the condition of the man, by which the old
fires of his appetite may be aroused by the narcotic
so that he has no more control over himself than
when he stopped taking it, years before, is what is
defined as inebriety. Is this condition located in the
physical body, or in the intellectual faculties, or in the
moral affections, or in the will, or in the sensibilities?
There is no difference of belief in regard to the ef-
fects. All agree that the effects are produced by the
narcotic, but whether the condition, which we call
inebriety or drunkenness, which forces the reformed
man back into the gutter, so quickly, after years of
total abstinence, is located in the physical body or in
the soul of man, is the great question upon which
the many are divided.
A close study of the preceding chapters throws
some light on this subject; but it is of such mo-
340
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
mentous interest to, and so closely identified with,
the grand work of reform, and that upon which its
permanent success depends, that I have felt com-
pelled to add a few more thoughts on this subject.
Is it a fact that inebriety is a physical disease, in-
herited and handed down from father to son through
the ages? If we go back, where shall we find its
commencement, and upon whom shall we place the
responsibility? God created the bodies of our first
parents, undoubtedly, free from all disease or natural
tendency to it. They were created pure and holy,
and, of course, in that condition could have had no
sorrow, no suffering, and no pain. Hence, they must
have been free from physical or spiritual disease
when first created. In that lovely paradise they
walked and talked with God, fearing nothing, for
they knew no evil, hence they could have no fear, no
suffering, for being created in the image of God, their
wills must have been perfectly consonant with the
will of their Creator. But when they yielded to the
Tempter, plucked and ate the forbidden fruit, and by
so doing disobeyed God, their pure and holy emo-
tions and desires became inordinate, opposed to their
moral nature, and opposed to their God. Thus, hav-
ing lost the favor of God, they felt and realized their
dreadful fall and sin. Then fear, sorrow, shame, des-
pair and suffering became their inheritance.
Since the fall of man from his primeval state of
1
INEBRIETY-NOT A PHYSICAL DISEASE.
341
purity, innocence and love, the history of the race in
its development has shown a universal desire or hank-
ering for something to mitigate and satiate man's
evil inclinations and propensities. He seeks for rest
and relief, in the indulgence of the very appetite and
desires which make a demand for this rest and relief.
This demand is general, in some more, in others less.
It is most strongly developed in warm-hearted, socia-
ble, and excitable persons. Such individuals long
continually for something to satisfy this craving of
their natures; happy, seemingly, yet discontented,
always receiving and still always wanting.
The philosopher's stone is the goal sought, but
never attained. Plato, Socrates and many other an-
cient and Oriental philosophers labored with all the
energy and ability they possessed, to discover a code
of rules of actions, and proclaim it to the world,
whereby these longings could be met, these desires
satiated and the race lifted from the moral and phys-
ical degradation into which it is plunged, but all to no
effect. Plato, in one of his discussions upon this very
subject, seeing that all his efforts were futile, cries
out in language something like the following: "Who
knows but what the gods will send a messenger from
the skies who will bring a code of rules that will
lift the world up to the happiness and rest?" In
these inclinations, these propensities, these longings,
to me, is found the cause of inebriety, the great sub-
stratum upon which drunkenness rests.
342
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
t
Man early learned that intoxicants, for the time
being, satiated these longings, calmed these turbulent
feelings of his being, and gave him temporary relief.
If they would give him permanent relief, grand in-
deed would have been the discovery, but these intox-
icants satiate only to increase the undying longings
of these propensities, and at the same time produce
an undying demand for themselves.
Man is so constituted that through much toil he
becomes weary, through great adversity and disap-
pointment, he becomes anxious and discouraged;
from bodily suffering, and mental pain and melan-
choly, he demands relief; from continued excitement,
nervous prostration and weakness, he must have rest.
Thus we are forced to conclude that anything which
would relieve men in this condition, in whole or in
part, would be grasped with intense eagerness, not
from a physical disease produced by intoxicants, but
from the fact that the use of these intoxicants would
relieve it, if only temporary. This admitted, it would
follow as a sequence, that those in whom these de-
sires and emotions are the strongest, would the most
easily and naturally indulge in these intoxicants.
Facts from the beginning substantiate this posi
tion, not that man is naturally an inebriate, or that
even he has inherited an appetite or demand for alco-
holic drinks from his parents, but that by the use of
intoxicants he creates this appetite or demand. If it
INEBRIETY-NOT A PHYSICAL DISEASE.
343
is hereditary then it is not acquired, and facts go to
show that the appetite or demand for intoxicants is
formed by the habitual use of alcoholic beverages.
Dr. N. S. Davis, one of the most learned and emi-
nent physicians of this country, as also an author of
great repute, and an undisputed authority in the med-
ical profession, says:
((
If we should say that man is so constituted that
he is capable of feeling weary, restless, despondent
and anxious, and that he instinctively desires to be
relieved of these unpleasant feelings, we should as-
sert a self-evident fact. And we should thereby
assert all the instinct or natural impulse there is in
this matter. It is simply a desire to be relieved from
unpleasant feelings, and does not in the slightest de-
gree indicate or suggest any particular remedy. It
no more actually suggests the idea of alcohol or
opium than of bread and water. But if by accident,
or by the experience of others the individual has
learned that his unpleasant feelings can be relieved,
for the time being by alcohol, opium, or any other
exhilarant, he not only uses the remedy himself, but
perpetuates a knowledge of the same to others. It
is in this way and this only, that most of the nations
and tribes of our race have, much to their detri-
ment, found a knowledge of some kind of intoxicants.
"The same explanation is applicable to the sup-
posed 'constitutional susceptibility, as a primary
344
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
cause of intemperance. That some persons inherit a
greater degree of nervous and organic susceptibili-
ties than others, and are in consequence more readily
affected by a given quantity of any kind of narcotic,
anææsthetic or intoxicant, is undoubtedly true. And
that such will more readily become drunkards if they
once commence to use intoxicating drinks, is also
true. But that such persons, or any others, have the
slightest inherent or constitutional taste or any long-
ing for intoxicants until they have acquired such
taste or longing by actual use, we find no reliable.
truth.
"It is true that statistics appear to show that a
larger proportion of the children of drunkards be-
come themselves drunkards than of children born of
total abstainers. And hence the conclusion has been
drawn that such children inherited the constitutional
tendency to inebriation. But before we are justified
in adopting such a conclusion, several other important
facts must be ascertained.
"First: We must know whether the mother, while
nursing, used more or less constantly some kind of
alcoholic beverage, by which the alcohol might have
impregnated the milk in her breasts, and thereby made
its early impression on the tastes and longings of the
child.
"Second: We must know whether the intemperate
parents were in the habit of giving alcoholic prepa-
INEBRIETY-NOT A PHYSICAL DISEASE.
345
rations to the children, either to relieve temporary
ailments, or for the same reason that they drank it
themselves. I am constrained to say, that from my
own observation, extending over a period of forty
years, and a field by no means limited, I am satisfied
that nineteen out of every twenty persons who have
been regarded as hereditary inebriates have simply
acquired the disposition to drink by one or both of
the methods just mentioned, after birth."
But is it an absolute fact that children of inebriates
become drunkards more than those of temperate par-
ents? True, the children of poor, ignorant, wicked
and criminal inebriates may frequently become drunk-
ards, for they are educated, and in many instances,
forced to drink, but the children of those who are
otherwise moral, only accustomed to drink, generally
have mothers that are temperate, and the sufferings
they endure and the degradation to which they are
subjected, make them the most positive, efficient, and
thorough temperance men and workers in the
country.
While on the other hand, the children of temper-
ate and Christian parents know nothing of the suffer-
ings, feel not the degradation, and when they leave.
the favorable and restraining influences of home and
go out for themselves, they are not prepared to meet
the wiles of the deceptive serpent of the still and are
easily led astray to become faithful devotees at the
shrine of the altars of Bacchus.
346
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
The record of the reformatory institution of
which the author is the superintendent, shows that of
6,315 admitted from January 1, 1877, to January 1,
1887, only seventy-seven would admit upon examina-
tion that they inherited their appetite or demand for
liquor from their parents. From these facts it is sub-
mitted that men drink intoxicants not from any hered-
itary desire for them, more than for anything else,
but from an acquired appetite or demand resulting
from the longings which spring from the inordinate
emotions and desires of man's fallen nature.
In the State where the author lived, when a boy,
it was considered right to drink intoxicants. These
liquors were found in every home. Mothers, when
sick, used them, and infants were fed them when first
born. Intoxicants, bleeding and calomel were the
three, and almost only, remedies of that day for the
cure of all diseases. Ministers calling upon their
parishioners, after the shaking of the hand, the next
thing in order was-the decanters of the different
liquors always being found upon the sideboard—
"What will you have?" The intoxicants were used
upon the farm, in the shop, in all gatherings, when
men collected together to raise a building, to mow a
meadow, to roll up the logs, to burn and clear off the
land; in short, men, women and children used them,
and it was believed they could not be healthy with-
out them.
INEBRIETY-NOT A PHYSICAL DISEASE. 347
Notwithstanding their general use in those days,
the author of this work lived to be thirty-five years
of age before he ever saw a woman drunk. Now if
inebriety is a physical disease, inherited from parents
or grandparents, why did not the women become
drunkards as well as the men, fifty or sixty years ago?
If you will carefully examine the records of our
reformatory institutions and insane asylums, com
mencing half a century back, you will find that the
number of inebriates of drinking parents grows less
and less, as you approximate the present time.. In
the reformatory in which I am engaged, I have been
very much astonished as I have frequently asked the
inmates the question if their parents used intoxi-
cants, to have the response, almost unanimously, No,
and by inquiry further, to learn that the vast majority
of them came from good Christian homes.
Theoretically, they had been educated not to use
the intoxicants, but as the years advanced and they
left their homes, and the genial, Christian, restraining
influences were left behind, learning that many of the
leading men in church and state and in all depart-
ments of business, as a rule, indulged in these narcot-
ics, and especially almost all in the political field, and
that there was no success without their indulgence;
and never having had the sad and withering experi-
ence with a drunken father or mother, or both, is it
strange that these noble boys, from these intelligent,
348
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
1
temperate and Christian homes, should become the
drunkards of the nation?
I am aware that children of drunken parents
reared in filthy, squalid, ignorant and poverty-stricken
homes, will be more easily led into all kinds of bad
habits and crimes, but that they will have a desire to
use these intoxicants more than the desire to rush
into all kinds of other vices and sin, I deny. Under
such circumstances, the physical system will not only
be weaker and suffer, but the intellectual and moral
natures will be inadequate to restrain their inordi-
nate desires from leading them into the highways of
wrong-doing.
The stronger the emotions and desires emanating
from them, the stronger must be the moral affections.
to control them. Since alcohol, per se, always weak-
ens the moral affections, and as these weaken the animal
desires become the stronger, it follows as a sequence,
that children, possessing the strongest animal desires
will go to the greatest excess in the use of these nar-
cotics to satiate or relieve them, hence, the children
with the strongest animal desires will become the
greatest slaves to the narcotics.
How frequently strong, emotional men of the
highest business qualifications become so avaricious
to increase their capital, that they will labor night
and day at the expense of rest and sleep, until
their nervous systems become so prostrated, their
INEBRIETY-NOT A PHYSICAL DISEASE.
349
moral natures so depleted, that they fail to hold in
subjection their animal emotions and desires, and to
assuage these they will resort to some narcotic, and
this, continued for a season, makes them slaves to its
power! This explains why men engaged in night
work, generally are drinking men, and so many of
them become inebriates; they deprive themselves of
the requisite rest, which is absolutely necessary for
the functions of secretion to replace in the brain the
waste produced by mental and moral action, and
physical labor and exertion.
Such are the relations and connective forces ex-
isting between the spiritual and physical man, that
physical nervous prostration weakens his moral na-
ture and strengthens his animal nature, and, since it
is the nature of alcohol and the other narcotics, ac-
cording to their strength, to weaken the moral
forces and strengthen the animal passions also, it fol-
lows, that the two combined act as a double force in
the weakening of the control of the moral over the
animal man. From the fact that physical nervous
prostration, caused by the effects of alcohol and the
want of rest and sleep, weakens the control of the
moral affections over the animal emotions and desires,
has, to a great extent, originated the belief so preva-
lent that drunkenness is a physical disease, handed
down from generation to generation. This is making
the effects of drunkenness the cause of drunkenness,
350
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
instead of making drunkenness or inebriety, produced
by the inordinate desires, through the agency of the
narcotics, the cause of the effects.
Too much mental and physical exercise, produc-
ing an abnormal waste of physical tissue, and the
want of sleep and rest to replace it, also so arouse the
emotional suffering and the inordinate desire of relief,
that the moral affections yield to them, and the vic-
tim, under their control, rushes to the narcotic for
relief; and while it assuages, soothes and removes the
suffering for a season, it undermines the nervous sys-
tem, renders more weak the moral man, and the ani-
mal desires and emotions increase in strength every
time he yields, and, thus repeating the process, it is
only a matter of time when, under the reign of these
desires, he becomes a slave to the anesthetic effects
of the narcotic.
Persons of the strongest emotions and desires are
the very ones who, over-exercising, rushing headlong
into wrong-doing, becoming melancholy and sad,
looking upon the dark side of life, and going without
sleep and rest, make up the great army of inebriates
in the world.
These grand, inspiring Emotions and Desires,
when controlled, as God designed, by the moral man,
which are a part of the Soul's unit, and without
which the soul would be disrobed of much of the
beautiful, the sublime and the grand,-the golden
INEBRIETY-NOT A PHYSICAL DISEASE.
351
connecting-chain that links to Soul Life all the beau-
ties of the physical universe of God,-in these emo-
tions and desires, so pure and holy at first, but through
disobedience made impure, unholy and inordinate,—is
found the cause of inebriety. The cause is located in
the deep chambers of the sensibilities of the soul, be-
yond the reach of the medicine of the skillful physi-
cian, and its only permanent reformation is found in
moral power and the grace of God. It is a moral, not
a physical disease, and it must be treated morally. It
is the legitimate fruit of the inordinate emotions and
desires, and its only permanent remedy is, I repeat
it, moral power and the grace of God.
In my experience with inebriates, just as long as
they feel that they are not responsible for what they
call their appetite for the narcotics, but believe that
they have inherited it from their parents or grand-
parents, there is no hope of their success in a perma-
nent reformation. As long as they believe that it is
an inherited physical disease, you may teach them
that they ought to control and subdue their appetite,
yet, when trouble, physical pain and suffering come,
knowing, as well they do, that the intoxicant will
mitigate and temporarily relieve the suffering, from
the fact that they believe that they are not responsi-
ble themselves for this appetite or disease, they will
resort to the cup and throw the blame on others.
I have known a few persons belonging to the dif
$
352
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
ferent churches that believed this appetite was a
physical disease, who never retired to rest at night
or arose in the morning, unless they were so intoxi-
cated that they did not know what they were about,
without kneeling and imploring God to help them
and keep them from drinking, and then go directly
from their devotions to the saloon. They individ-
ually reasoned thus: "I am not to blame for this
appetite, and God knows it; my parents must assume
this responsibility. I am not beholden; they, not me,
must take the entire responsibility, and although it
injures and wrecks my body and makes me miserable,
and on this account I ought not to drink, yet I will
drink and relieve myself of this terrible appetite."
The longings for the exhilarating and ecstatic emo-
tions, aroused by the anæsthetic effects of the intoxi-
cant, are stronger than the inebriate's reason, his
moral affections, his conscience, and his faith in God,
and over all these forces he rushes after the inebriat-
ing cup for relief.
In short, he will grasp with avidity the most flimsy
excuse to ease his conscience and then fly to his pan-
acea-drink. Hence, my course has been as soon as
possible to remove the idea from the inebriate, that
this demand or appetite which drives him to the in-
toxicants, is a physical disease, but rather that it is a
moral disease, and that he only, not his parents or his
grand or great grandparents, is responsible for his
INEBRIETY-NOT A PHYSICAL disease.
353
appetite for strong drink. And when you can make
an inebriate really feel that he has acquired this appe-
tite himself, and that he alone is responsible to God
for it, then he can be brought fully to see the neces-
sity of working for a thorough reformation, and
thousands thus educated have made a grand and
noble success.
I never have been able to solve the great question,
how an infinitely wise, pure, holy and merciful God
would ever confer upon parents the ability to entail
upon their posterity an inherited physical disease or
appetite for nai cotics, for which they are entirely
irresponsible, and in the indulgence of which all the
intellectual and moral forces which bind and unite
them to their Creator and make them happy in Him,
are destroyed, and they are left to drift away into the
wily ways of sin, misery and moral death.
For nearly a half century the author of this book
has been closely identified with the temperance work.
He early was taught that inebriety was a physical
disease, transmitted from father to son, and up to the
time that he assumed the superintendency of The
Washingtonian Home in Chicago, nearly thirteen
years since, he took it for granted that it was true.
But personal efforts during these years directly with
inebriates, and an earnest desire to help them out of
the awful condition into which they had fallen, com-
pelled him to investigate this subject more thoroughly
354
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
than ever before. And from an intimate and daily ob-
servation, and experience with thousands of these
men, and seeing continually the direct and terrible
effects of alcohol upon their physical, intellectual,
moral and emotional natures, and finding that these
means only have proven adequate to a complete and
thorough reformation from these effects, as has been
demonstrated in the case of thousands, the author
has been absolutely driven to the conclusions arrived
at in the preceding chapters of this book.
Experience is said to be the best testimony in the
world; and the testimony, as given by the victims of
intoxicants, is almost unanimously against the phys-
ical disease theory. Inebriates when free from the
anesthetic effects of alcohol, with hardly an excep-
tion, believe that they did not inherit the appetite for
stimulants from others, but by continued indulgence
in the use of them they have acquired the appetite,
and are themselves entirely responsible for it.
Reader, in conclusion, to give the solution of this
momentous problem in a few brief sentences, we
must commence with the beginning of the race. As
our first parents were created pure and holy, their
emotions and desires were perfectly consonant with
their moral natures, hence their wills must have been
in unison with the will of God.
In this primeval condition they could have had no
suffering for there was nothing in their souls or phys
?
INEBRIETY-NOT A PHYSICAL DISEASE. 355
ical nature to produce it, and as a sequence, there
could have been no demand in their being for any-
thing to be assuaged or relieved, hence there could
have been no desire for a narcotic.
But when their desires and emotions were so
aroused by the wily artifice of the Tempter, as to
lead them to disobey their Maker, contrary to the
dictates of their moral affections and the approbation
of conscience, they inherited the evil nature of the
arch Deceiver, and the result was, that the inordinate
desires were begotten in the race, the way was opened
to physical disease, and the great battle between the
moral and animal man commenced, and has raged
ever since.
Now as there can be no inordinate desire without
sin, and no sin without suffering, and at first, no phys-
ical disease without disobedience, it is readily seen
why, since the Fall, there is such a universal demand
in the race for the narcotics to relieve from the suffer-
ing produced by sin and physical disease. As in Adamm
and Eve, when the moral yielded to the animal emo-
tions and desires, it weakened, and the animal tri-
umphed, so in their posterity, whenever the animal
passions overcome the moral nature, the moral wanes
and becomes enfeebled, and the animal becomes the
victor.
Since the strength of the desires of relief is in pro-
portion to the strength of the emotions, it follows
356
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
that persons possessing the strongest emotions of suf-
fering will rush into the greatest excess in the use of
narcotics to relieve them. Hence such individuals
will become slaves to them.
This is not only true of individuals but of nations.
Now if at first the inordinate desires originated sin,
and opened the highway to the physical and moral
diseases of the race, and from these two sources have
since come all the sufferings which have led the na-
tions of the earth into the use of these narcotics for
the relief of these sufferings, it follows that the inor-
dinate desires are the cause of inebriety.
The saddest thought of all is, that while the nar-
cotics assuage and soothe temporarily the suffering,
they excite and create stronger the inordinate desires,
and their victims, innocently and unconsciously, be-
come the basest slaves to their anæsthetic power.
There are two things which combine to enslave
the man. First, alcohol, which, per se, bewilders and
undermines his intellectual faculties and weakens and
destroys his moral nature so that the inordinate de-
sires take possession of and control him.
Secondly, the weakening of the moral nature by
the inordinate desires trespassing upon its rights,
through actual transgressing of God's holy law, and
thus giving these inordinate desires the control of the
will and of the acts of the individual.
This shows why slaves to the narcotics, so easily
INEBRIETY-NOT A PHYSICAL DISEASE.
357
and quickly lose all moral restraint and rush so reck-
lessly down into shame and moral death.
The Inordinate Desires are the cause of Inebriety
-the Narcotics are the Agents used-the Effects-
the wreck of the intellectual, moral and physical man.
CHAPTER XXII.
LOVE OF MONEY HAS MUCH TO DO WITII INEBRIETY-THE SALOON-
SCHOOLS FILL THE TREASURIES OF THE DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS
OF THE GOVERNMENT-PREAMBLE OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE
UNITED STATES - NARCOTICS DEGRADE THE MORALS AND RENDER
POVERTY-STRICKEN THE WORKING CLASSES-OPPOSED TO TRUE LIB-
ΤΟ
ERTY
EXTRACTS FROM SOME OF THE SPEECHES OF THE FOUNDERS
OF OUR NATION-INEBRIATES COME FROM THE GREAT ARMY OF MOD-
ERATE DRINKERS-THE FIRST GLASS THE MOST RESPONSIBLE ONE-
EDUCATE THE CHILDREN, AND SAVE THE NATION,
Reader, the love of money has much to do with
this drink question. How can I make money? How
can I increase my capital? are the great problems
being solved by the present age. In our schools and
colleges and in our domestic circles, the minds of the
rising generation are turned into the great highways
of accumulating wealth. The love of money, the
avaricious desires for gain, are the powerful forces
that enter deepest into the heart of humanity, con-
trol the activities of the business world, and decide
the destinies of the race. "John, where did you get
that knife?" asks the loving father. "I traded mine
for it." "Let me see it." He looks at it, and asks,
"How did you trade?"
"Even?" "Yes, even."
("
Even," the boy replies.
"Did you not pay boot?"
(358)
LOVE OF MONEY FOSTERS INEBRIETY.
359
"(
No, father, not anything." He pats his ambitious
boy upon the head, and says, "John, you made a good
bargain; this knife is worth much more than yours.
That is right, my son; you played the sharp on him.”
Now, instead of sending him back with the knife, in-
structing him to say to his playmate, "Your knife is
worth more than mine, and I do not wish to keep it ;
take it back," his course not only strengthens the de-
sire of gain, but he educates his boy to make money
at the sacrifice of conscience and his moral affections
—that is, to make money dishonestly.
This avaricious desire belongs to the sensibilities
-the animal side of our nature; hence, the child
should be taught to curb and control it, not to
give it free license and strengthen it. "The love of
money is the root of all evil." And, because money
is the means necessary to satiate the animal desires,
men ardently strive for it, and the education of the
race should be to subject it to the moral man, and
not make it the ruler of him.
In order to increase the wealth of the municipal-
ities of our Country, and augment the gold and silver
in our State and National treasuries, is it not true that
the saloons-these schools of vice-are established by
law, and the children and youths of our affections
are early led into the highways of dissipation, gam-
bling, sin, moral obloquy and death? Are not our
loved ones torn away from the sacred sanctuaries of
360
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
home and church, to satiate this greed of gain, the
love of money? Are not the highest interests of the
young being sacrificed upon the altars of this avari-
cious god, and the hopes of the stability and per-
petuity of our free institutions fast dying away? In
a Republican form of government, where all men are
equal before the law, and all have the same rights and
privileges, there is no safety, and no security only in
the moral strength and virtue of its subjects.
The preamble of the Constitution of the United
States, adopted in 1787, is one of the most able and
wisest instruments ever developed by man: "We the
people of the United States, in order to form a more
perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tran-
quility, provide for the common defense, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty
to ourselves and our posterity; do ordain and estab-
lish this Constitution for the United States of Amer-
ica." Does the use of narcotics foster, strengthen and
perpetuate these grand and noble principles? Or
rather, do they not wither, weaken, and will finally
destroy them? Do they strengthen and render "more
perfect the Union; establish and maintain justice;
insure domestic tranquility; provide for the common
defense; promote the general welfare; and tend to
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our
posterity"? ·
On the other hand, do they not militate against
LOVE OF MONEY FOSTERS INEBRIETY. 361
the strength of the Union, defy and weaken justice,
enter the citadel of the moral affections, and destroy
all domestic tranquility, 'undermine and weaken the
common defense of our country, crush out all move-
ments calculated to promote the general welfare of
the people, and render more unstable the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity? Do not these
narcotics, through the schools of the saloons, rob the
laboring classes of their money, their homes, their
health, their intellect, their moral nature, in short, of
everything calculated to make them good, honest,
upright, prosperous and happy citizens?
Let the money which they spend and prostitute
for the use of the narcotics, be judiciously expended
in the support of themselves and families, would
there be any necessity for strikes, or riots, but rather,
would not all be comfortable and happy? The mill-
ions expended for narcotics would place every one in
this country beyond want, and the increase in health,
morality, virtue and intelligence would be beyond
the comprehension of any one.
What mother's
What family is not affected?
heart is not more or less wrung with sorrow,
what home not desolated by the devotees of narcot-
ics? Where is the true and uncompromising patri-
otism which inspired our forefathers to go forth to
battle against oppression, and who, in the conscious-
ness of the right, and with their faith in an overruling
362
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
Providence, bared their breasts to the storm of bul-
lets, to plant in the wilds of this Western Continent
a nation of freemen? Shall this heritage, thus costly
secured, sink beneath the waves of national intoxica-
tion, where the Republics of the past have gone?
Does it not follow as sure as cause produces effect, that
the course persistently pursued by the intelligent,
influential and wealthy citizens of our country in the
establishment, fostering and supporting of saloon-
schools all over the land, will ere long produce a
reckless, ignorant, immoral class of citizens, sufficient
in numbers to enact such laws as will render the prop-
erty of these now ruling moral and intelligent classes
worthless?
Capital unprotected by wise, virtuous and whole-
some laws only adds anxiety and misery to its pos-
sessor. In this policy of protecting by law such a
vast number of liquor schools to educate the throng-
ing masses that come from other lands, and the great
numbers of our own citizens who are filling these
schools of drink to their utmost capacity, ere long
will it not, like the farmer, who found a serpent
almost frozen to death, picking it up and putting it
into his bosom, and when he had warmed and re-
stored it to life, it turned upon its benefactor and
stung him to death, turn upon the wealthy classes,
strip them of their possessions, and anarchy and ruin
will follow, and our noble escutcheon of liberty, our
LOVE OF MONEY FOSTERS INEBRIETY.
363
free institutions and our Republican form of govern-
ment cease to exist, and our nation be numbered
among those that were? No Republican government
can possibly withstand many years the wreck and
moral degradation resulting from the excessive use
of these narcotics. The waves of dissipation and
intoxication will sooner or later sweep over and bury
it forever.
A few extracts from the speeches of the founders
of this nation will show the moral and religious basis
upon which they placed the stability and permanency
of our free institutions, and our Republican form of
government.
Washington's farewell address: "Of all the dis-
positions and habits which lead to the political pros-
perity-religion and morality are indispensable sup-
ports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of
patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great
pillars of human happiness—these firmest props of the
duties of men and citizens. The mere politician,
equally with the pious man, ought to respect and
cherish them. A volume could not place all their
connections with private and public felicity. Let it
simply be asked, where is the security for property,
for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obli-
gation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of
investigation in courts of justice? And let us with
caution indulge the supposition that morality can be
ļ
364
THE CURSE OF THE World.
maintained without religion. Whatever may be con-
ceded to the influence of refined education on minds
of peculiar structure, reason and experience both for-
bid us to expect that national morality can prevail in
exclusion of religious principles."
"En-
Jefferson's first inaugural speech, 1801:
lightened by benign religion, professed indeed and
practiced in various forms, yet all of them including
honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude and the love
of man, acknowledging and adoring an overruling
Providence, which by all His dispensations, proves
that he delights in the happiness of man here and his
greater happiness hereafter; with all these blessings,
what is necessary to make a happy and prosperous
people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens-a wise
and frugal government which shall restrain men from
injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free
to regulate their own pursuits of industry and im-
provement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor
the bread that it has earned. This is the sum of good
government, and this is necessary to close the circle
of our felicity."
Jefferson's special message, January 28, 1802:
"These people (the Indians) are becoming very sen-
sible of the lawful effects produced on their morals,
their health and existence, by the abuse of ardent
spirits, and some of them earnestly desire a prohibi-
tion of that article from being carried among them.
LOVE OF MONEY FOSTERS INEBRIETY.
365
"The legislature will consider whether the effect-
ing that desire would not be in the spirit of benevolence
and liberality which they have hitherto practiced
toward these, our neighbors, and which has had so
happily an effect toward conciliating their friendship.
It has been found too, in experience, that the same
abuse gave frequent rise to incidents tending much
to commit our peace with the Indians."
Monroe's first annual message, December 3, 1817:
“For advantages so numerous and highly important,
it is our duty to unite in grateful acknowledgments
to that Omnipotent Being, from whom they are de-
rived, and in unceasing prayer that He will endow
us with virtue and strength to maintain and hand
them down, in their utmost purity, to our latest
posterity."
Again he says at the close of his second message,
November 17, 1818: "When we view the great
blessings with which our country has been favored,
those which we now enjoy and the means which we
possess of handing them down unimpaired to our
latest posterity, our attention is irresistibly drawn to
the source from whence they flow-let us then unite
in offering our most grateful acknowledgments for
these blessings to the Divine Author of all good."
Madison's inaugural, March 4, 1809: “To avoid
the slightest interference with the rights of conscience
or the function of religion so wisely exempted from
366
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
civil jurisdiction. Recollecting always that, for every
advantage which may contribute to distinguish our
lot from that to which others are doomed by the un-
happy spirit of the times, we are indebted to that
Divine Providence whose goodness has been so re-
markably extended to this rising nation, it becomes
us to cherish a devout gratitude, and to implore the
same Omnipotent source for a blessing on the consul-
tations and measures about to be undertaken for the
welfare of our beloved country."
(6
Extract from message of Madison, May 25, 1813:
And finally, to the sacred obligation of transmitting
entire to future generations, that precious patrimony
of national rights and independence which is held in
trust by the present, from the goodness of Divine
Providence."
Jackson's inaugural speech, March 4, 1829: "And
a firm reliance on the goodness of that power whose
providence mercifully protected our national infancy,
and has since upheld our liberties in various vicissi-
tudes, encourages me to offer up my ardent supplica-
tion that He will continue to make our beloved coun-
try the object of his divine and gracious benediction.”
Jackson's proclamation, December 11, 1832: In
closing, he says: "May the great Ruler of Nations
grant that the signal blessings with which He has fa-
vored ours, may not by the madness of party or per-
sonal ambition be disregarded and lost; and may His
LOVE OF MONEY FOSTERS INEBRIETY.
367
wise providence bring those who produced this crisis
(Referring to Nullification in South Carolina) to see
the folly before they feel the misery, of civil strife;
and inspire a returning veneration for that Union
which, if we may dare to penetrate His designs, he
has chosen as the only means of attaining the high
destinies to which we may reasonably aspire."
Jackson's farewell address: "May He, who holds
in His hand the destinies of Nations, make you worthy
of the favors He has bestowed, and enable you with
pure hearts and pure hands, and sleepless vigilance to
guard and defend to the end of time, the great charge
He has committed to your keeping.”
Another conclusion reached in the investigation of
this work is, that the great army of inebriates come
from the moderate drinkers. Just as fast as the
ranks of inebriates are depleted, moderate drinkers
step in and fill their places. What an army! Who
can tell their numbers? Were you to approach one
of these and ask him if he could see any danger ahead,
the response would be quickly and emphatically,
"No. I never will be a drunkard. I am a man; I
know that I will never be conquered by alcohol, and
become a miserable slave to drink! I am so very
different from drunkards that I can never be over-
come by intoxicants." Those of the strongest emo-
tions are the surest in their belief of safety. The
trouble is, they look out of alcoholic eyes, which be-
368
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
+
come more and more abnormal as they progress in
drinking, and they fear the danger less and less until
it is too late.
The effects of alcohol upon the individual will be
in accordance to the strength of his emotions. If
these are weak, he may never become a drunkard,
but nevertheless, he will suffer injury. Alcohol is a
terrible poison, and always wrecks more or less the
functions of digestion and assimilation, and the intel-
lectual and moral nature, and these will be affected
according to the amount drank. Men who never
become inebriates, fail in business, lose in health,
wreck their moral natures, and never have the least
idea why it is so. It was the narcotics that did it.
The idea that it is right to use these narcotics as
a beverage, provided that they are not used to excess,
is the alluring fatal charm, the deadly ignus fatuus
which at first decoys and then rushes the deluded
victim down into the abyss of inebriety. No mod-
erate drinker ever expects to be a drunkard, and if
he will let the first glass alone there is no danger, but
this taken, he can little realize what will follow.
When the first glass is received, his moral affections
are the strongest to resist, and from the fact that it is
the nature of alcohol to weaken these moral affections,
and undermine the keen, discriminating power of
conscience, all the moral power he has to help him to
LOVE OF MONEY FOSTERS INEBRIETY
369
refuse the second glass is inadequate, hence the great
sin must be in taking the first one, for it is this glass
that opens the gateway into the highway that leads
to intoxication.
The great battle in behalf of total abstinence, must
be fought in the field of moderate drinking. This
field furnishes and supplies the saloons, and contin-
ually fills up the thinned ranks of the great army of
drunkards.
If the position assumed and advocated in this
work is true, that the children of the strongest emo-
tions and desires, if they use the narcotics, become
the inebriates of the land, how ominous and potent
the fact that a momentous responsibility rests upon
parents and those who have the education of the
children and youth of our country. How early in
life the little ones should be taught to control their
animal emotions and desires. Their emotions and
desires are developed at birth, and increase in strength
with age and experience; but the intellectual and
moral faculties can only be developed by others at
home, in the school, and in all the departments of
business.
Let the whole power of the church of God, of the
temperance men and women, and of the moral and
philanthropic of our land, all combine and concen-
trate their money and their efforts upon the children
of the land, educate and instill into their minds thor-
370
THE CURSE OF THE WORLD.
oughly, the terrible destructive effects of alcohol and
the other narcotics upon the physical, intellcctual,
and moral man, and, in a quarter of a century, our
Nation would be relieved of and redeemed from THE
GREAT CURSE OF THE WORLD.
вия

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