PLAIN TALK ON TEMPERANCE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 135, 3 December 1875, Page 13

PLAIN TALK ON TEMPERANCE.

HOW TIPPLER CAN DO IT. What Tippler wants to do is to make a man of himself. No doubt he thinks he is about 'as good a man as there is going. We know very well that he is most profanely positive when he's very drunk that he's as good as, if not better than, any one else, and just then he is most undoubtedly as good as, if not better than, any other brute. Only brutes generally know how to take care of themselves, and when Tippler's drunk he don't. But he's mistaken in thinking he's altogether a man. Tippler, who is drunk into ugliness, idiocy, and criminality so often, whose drunkenness has driven all love or care for him from his wife's heart, and led his children to disregard his commands and make him a butt for their ridicule, -who loses the respect of his friends and all his own selfrespect every time he gets drunk, is not a man in the real sense of the term. Tippler, really and truly described, is a slave, a willing slave, to whiskey. If he was a man, worthy of his Maker, he would •walk in the path of Christian perfection, lead his children after him until hLs footsteps fj,ltor on the verge of the grave and a happy eternity, be to his wife what he promised |to be at the altar, and make himself the central figure of a happy home. Tippler cannot be such a man while he drinks whiskey; but he c«,n if he gives it up. An interesting and instructive story is that of the printer in one of our large cities who one day took a notion to give up drink-

ing "beer, which had previously been his principal friend and comfort, and put his beer money in Ms pocket. His f ellow-workmen were all beer drinkers, and, like too many of their craft, indulged in copious libations. The reformed typo bore with their jests and jeers occasioned by his "reform," struggled "bravely and successfully against the temptation to take to the 'old habit again, and kept continually adding to the beer money in his '.pocket until it was respectably large enough to place in the bank. In the past, ten dollars a week had been the average expense, drinking and other extravagant habits growing out of it had entailed, he had saved absolutely nothing, and was continually pushed to the extremity of borrowing. Under the new system the order of things was reversed. Every week ten dollars were placed to his credit in the bank, being sober and steady he was enabled to earn more than heretofore, and he was better dressed, better looking, better liked by his employer and friends than ever before. At the end of five years he bought out the office in which he worked. Of his fellow workmen two had died from hard living, two were confirmed sots, doing jobs whenever they could get them and drinking -what little they earned, one was in prison awaiting trial for a serious offence committed while drunk, while two more had managed to pull up in time and take the right road to the fingerpost on which is inscribed the legend " Temperance." Tippler will allow that this is a very interesting story, especially since it is every word true. Will it be to him an instructive one ? He is at present earning fifteen dollars a week, and of that it is not all the time that ten dollars are given, to Mrs. Tippler for the support of the house. The other five dollars, that is a good average, go every week into the drawer of the liquor dealer, and their equivalent — we will not say their full or honest equivalent — goes into the stomachs of Tippler and his choice boou companions. Sixpposing Tippler followed the printer's example, supposing he acts the part of a man for five minutes, and says to himself : " I won't drink anything for the next three months." And then let him go do nn on his knees and pray to God to vouchsafe him grace to keep his resolution. It may seem strange to him, for he has spent little time in praying during the last few years, but if he put his whole heart into his prayer, God will listen to him, and he will find the battle against temptation much easier and the victory within his grasp. If he can pluck up courage to tell Mrs. Tippler immediately of his intention, and get her to join him in his effort, as she gladly! would, why all the better ; but he probably won't have the courage at first. Her prayers, however, would, be a powerful auxiliary. On the next Saturday night let him put five dollars away, and thank God that it isn't the liquor-seller that has to put it away. Lest it should be a source of temptation, let him put the money in the bank, so that it may begin to draw interest right away. We would strongly advise him also to perform the various religious duties he has neglected so long. This will be a very important moans towards an all-important end. It will give him new strength to persevere in the right path and widen the gap between him and the dark past. A short talk with Mrs. Tippler — supplemented by the present of a new dress and by coming home five nights in succession at seven o'clock and sober — will gain her company in the new road. The children will notice the change, and a little management will work in them also a change. Everything will come out right, be assured Mr. Tippler, if you only say that you won't be a- slave any longer, but a man as God made you, and stick to your word. Only a matter of a few seconds and a few words, but the effect will be to make you contented, happy, and prosperous on earth, and, very probably, a sharer of the joys of heaven. — ' Irish World.'