Since running the risk of being a moderate drinker is so great, I commend to the young people before me the caution of the Scotch minister, who, when called upon to marry a couple, said:  “My young friends, marriage is a blessing to a great many persons; it’s a curse to some; it’s a risk for everybody; will you take the venture?” I presume they did.  I do not believe the use of intoxicating liquor as a beverage is a benefit to anyone, yet for argument’s sake I will permit one who drinks to say:  “Moderate drinking is a benefit to a few persons; it’s a curse to a great many; it’s a risk for everybody; let’s take a drink!” Against this I affirm that total abstinence is a blessing to millions; it’s a curse to nobody; it’s safe and right for everybody; then let’s take the pledge and God helping us, let’s keep it.

A very comforting reply to the infidel who claims there will be no hereafter is the inscription on the tomb of a faithful Christian: 

  “If there’s another world, he’s in bliss;
  If not, he’s made the best of this.”

If there is no hereafter, to say the least the Christian is even with the infidel, while if there is a hereafter it’s bad for the infidel.  If a moderate drinker has sufficient self-control to escape being a drunkard, the total abstainer is equally safe; but if the moderate drinker loses his self-control and becomes a drunkard his doom is sealed.  The safe definition of temperance is:  “Moderation in regard to things useful and right, total-abstinence in regard to things hurtful and wrong.”  Is alcoholic liquor as a beverage hurtful and wrong?  It’s the source of more misery, cruelty and crime than any other evil of the world!

Some years ago after a lecture along this line, a doubting Thomas said to me:  “What answer have you for the scholar who claims your very word ‘temperance’ is the offspring of a word that signifies moderation?” I said:  “The same I would give to a Darwinian if he were to tell me I am a descendant of the ape; and that is, I rejoice to know I’m an improvement on my ancestor.  To one who charges me with being a distant relative of the chimpanzee, I give the reply of Henry Ward Beecher:  ’I don’t care how far distant.’” I acknowledge my ignorance of the derivation of the word temperance, but I do know drunkenness comes from drinking intoxicating liquor, therefore I favor total-abstinence and recommend it as the safe side of life for young men.

While, by quoting isolated passages of the Bible, advocates of moderation have succeeded in filling the air with dust of doubt about the teaching of the Scriptures on the wine question, there is one thing about which there is no question, and that is the consent of the Bible to total-abstinence for anyone who desires and “dares to be a Daniel.”  I would rather search my Bible for permission to give up that over which my brother may stumble into ruin, than to see how far I can go in the use of it without committing sin.  Marriage feasts in Cana of Galilee two thousand years ago do not concern me so much as the social feasts of the present age where “wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging,” and many are “deceived thereby.”