Permanent temperance documents of the American Temperance Society. Vol. I.

Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Permanent temperance documents of the American Temperance Society. Vol. I. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    565] quired no small degree of resolution and firm'ness, was to ex- clude it from my family, and no longer to provide it for labor- ers or visitants. Still I continued the occasional use of wine, especially after the labors of the Sabbath, thinking that I must take something of the kind, to prevent exhaustion and secure permanent health. But 1 soon found myself as much mistak- en in this, as in the other case ; for the effect of wine was in a great measure the same as that of distilled liquor. And be- ing more and more sensible that I was better without it, and having a growing conviction that it was unnecessary and inju- rious, I gave up wine also, first in ordinary cases, and then wholly. Both before and after this, I made long trial, in various ways, of the effect of other fermented liquors, as cider, ale, and por- ter. And though they were urged upon me by respectable and pious men, and though I was able, to bear up under the moder- ate use of them occasionally ; yet the lesson which my own experience and observation taught me, was the same here as in the other cases, that is, that all such drinks are both unne- cessary and hurtful. And I have now for a long time, and with a most decided improvement of my health, acted on the prin- ciple of total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks. So that the pledge unanimously adopted of late by the officers and stu- dents of the institutions in this place, and so extensively favor- ed in this country, has required no change in my practice. I have said, that I abstain from all intoxicating drinks from a full conviction, resulting from long experience and careful ob- servation, that they are unnecessary and hurtful. But had I not so full a conviction of this, and did I think the use of wine and other fermented liquors of some real benefit to me, I should still feel myself under obligations to abstain, on other grounds. Ever since the American Temperance Society was formed, it has been evident to me, as I know it has to you, and to all oth- ers particularly enlisted in the cause, that the use of ferment- ed liquors, especially wine, by those who have abandoned dis- tilled liquors, is a hurtful snare to multitudes in the common walks of life, and a very great hindrance to the progress of re- formation through the whole community. After the most seri- ous consideration of the subject, I have therefore been com- pelled to renounce the opinion which in common with many others, I. was once rather inclined to adopt, and have become fully persuaded, that the cause of temperance cannot prevail and triumph, without the abandonment of fermented as well as distilled liquors. Here then I am brought under the obligation of the law of love. And on this ground, I should feel it to be a sacred duty to give up wine and other fermented liquors