Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1877 — An Essay on Intemperance. [ARTICLE]

An Essay on Intemperance.

BY MISS ELLA PARKISON.

“Touch not, taste not, handle not,” are expressions which we h avc all heard, but alas! how many of us let them pass by without giving them one moment's thought. It seems to me if we would give them more thought the world would be a great deal better off, for this in view there would be less drinking, less murder, and less gambling. How many of us would have the “courage to say no” if when sin stares us in our faces we could hear those words, “Touch not, taste not, handle not,” whispesed in our ears. If when a glass of wine ie presented to us we would stop and read what is written in the bottom of that cup , how many of us would be saved from a drunkard’s grave, and reach that bright beautiful home where there are no temptations to resist. But let us see what is in the bottom of the cup. First, we see the word “Bar,” and when we see it we know that thousands have proved it io be aTai to respectabnity', a bar to honor, a bar to happiness, a bar to Christianity, and a bar to heaven’s gate; that every day it leads to a degraded life, a drunkard’s lifif a drunkard’s home, a gambler’s life, and to many other miserable things, and at last it lifads us to the gate of hell. This is only a little of what we see in wine, but it is enough to know that this saying is true; — “Deware of your first drink” and you will never be a drunkard, for wine is a mocker, strong in raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise,” and lastly, “ it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder”. Tis true that all who taste wine do not fill a drunkard’s grave, but remember it leads from bad to worse, and that a great deal oLevil results from this one bad habit.