TEMPERANCE

Annie M. Knott

In reading St. Paul's epistles one is impressed by his references to temperance, although his meaning is quite different from the rather narrow sense in which this word is used by many to-day. One of his most impressive statements follows a reference to some of the Greek athletic contests, and he says. "Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things." St. Peter also urges us to add temperance to faith, virtue, and knowledge, and he goes on, "He that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off." While it is well known that Christian Scientists eschew the use of intoxicants, this is but one step in the right direction, as temperance is a Christian virtue which springs from spirituality and indicates the control of man's entire being by divine Principle.

A very interesting meeting was held in Boston a few days ago for the purpose of discussing the "no-license" question. A number of prominent educators and others took part, and their statements showed the great change which has come with respect to the use of stimulants. Among other things President Charles W. Eliot of Harvard said, —

As a result of experience it is a fact that men who are to be exposed to cold or heat or hardships of any sort are not prepared or braced for such encounters by any form of alcohol. You know it was considered essential that a sailor in the merchant marine, or in the navy, should be braced for his arduous work by grog every day; that was really and simply considered as a necessity. Now grog has been abolished in our navy absolutely, and is no longer served in well conducted ships of the merchant marine, and the result is a demonstration that the rough, hard life was not really helped by alcohol, but hindered. No captain of an ocean liner ever supports himself now against the terrible exposures of the bridge by means of alcohol. . . . It is so in regard to most intellectual labors. It was not expected that anybody encountering the labours of the prime minister of England, in his office every night and during the long hours of the day, could do the work without being supported by one or two bottles of port a day; and many famous men have lived through that sort of life under those conditions. That view is now absolutely abandoned. It is well known that alcohol, even if moderately used, does not quicken the action of the mind or enable one to support mental labor.

Thus do we witness the passing of the belief that stimulants give health, strength, or happiness. It was at one time thought that they did, and yet individual experience has always proved in the end that this belief was merely a delusion, and a very dangerous one. Men reasoned that God gave them intoxicants to minister to their needs, hence intoxicants must be good, and yet results showed that the devil could not have devised a more cruel snare for the unwary than the desire for stimulants, for the pretended servant soon became a relentless tyrant from which there seemed to be no escape. The human will had no power to break its self-imposed fetters, and it seemed almost inconsistent to appeal to the God who, according to material belief, instituted the law which had brought about the deplorable condition of bondage to intemperance.

Now Christian Scientists have never undertaken a temperance crusade by any of the usual methods, but it is safe to say that a large number of hopeless sufferers from the error of intemperance have been set free by the teachings of Christian Science, and in many of these cases the beneficent results have been gained through the study of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. From its teachings they learn that the real man neither needs nor desires stimulants of any kind; then health, strength, and happiness come from the realization of the truth that man finds all good in God, divine Mind. The great Teacher once said, that to the one who accepts it, the truth is "in him" — not outside — "a well of water springing up into everlasting life," and such an one would of necessity be "temperate in all things."

Annie M. Knott.

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