1. There is a lamentable lack of unity, both of principle and action, among the advocates of the Temperance Reform. Moral or legal suasion, reform of the drunkard, or the education of the young-neither of these are temperance war cries, and serve only to emphasize differences. There needs to be more unity. Success will not be won till there is. It can come only through greater toleration of others' methods and a willingness to work with another, no matter if his method be different; or, through deeper investigation of the conditions of the question, leading to the abandonment of methods not suitable.

2. The Church, though fervent in the good work, has not done all it might and ought. As a member of the Christian church we claim a right to criticise her work in this regard. At the same time let us say that there is much flippant criticism of the church by people whose right we do not recognize at all. Those outside the church have no right to find fault with it, because by finding fault they imply its power for doing good, and are by that implication shown to be inconsistent in their position. If the church be the organization to do the work, and by their criticism they admit it, why are they outside of it? The church is too much like a herbarium, i. e., it is filled with dried and preserved specimens of Christians. Each is saved, and that is all he thinks needful. The Church ought to be such an organization that any one desiring to work for the good of men should find oppor tunity within it. And not only that, but it should be inspired and prompted to that sort of labor and furnished with

it.

3. It is said that hypocrisy is the tribute which vice pays to virtue. Hence no cause is so good that hypocrites, evilhearted men, those who care nothing for the cause, but much for the loaves and fishes, are not among its public advocates. A good cause is thus greatly injured, for people are apt to judge a cause by its advocates; and here not by its most worthy, but by its least worthy. The advance of the temperance cause because of this has been retarded. Temperance,

people have apparently been ready to condone any offence if the evil-doer were a temperance advocate. Men, and women too, of questionable, not to say vile life, are still travelling over the country speaking upon this question, finding their way into our pulpits, and receiving entertainment in our houses. Such is their self-assurance that if one has the good sense to turn his back upon them, they accuse him of enmity to the Let us close our churches, our houses, our purses and our hearts to all who do not come endorsed by wellknown good and true men.

cause.

4. Many would-be friends of temperance are disgusted or disheartened by injudicious utterances of public representatives of this reform. For instance, a fierce assault is made upon physicians by those who have had no medical training at all. Not long ago the writer heard an address upon the temperance question by one who declared that doctors were divisible into two classes: those ignorant of the effect of alcohol, who prescribed it because it was the custom; and those who aware of its ever-injurious effects, prescribed it that their patients might be longer sick, and their fees the larger. Such charges aside from their utter falseness harm the cause of temperance.

It ought also to be said that some advocates of temperance smite the cause in the face by sweeping and unjust criticisms of methods and principles. In criticising methods adopted in any reform one needs to be very judicious for if not, he will do more harm than good. A case in point is " A Calm View of the Temperance Question," by Dr. Howard Crosby. Without doubt some of the Chancellor's criticisms are just and needed; possibly also the sentiments of those addressed may fit the latitude of New York city; but it is very evident thatTM the tendency of the whole address, both because of its sentiments and its fault-finding spirit, is to dishearten the friends and to aid and encourage the enemies of this reform.

5. We have doubtless made mistakes in our methods. Mistakes here may well nigh be fatal. It is to this point that we wish to call attention more at length, for mistakes in

methods, or incompleteness of method will account more fully for our failure than any other cause. Let us look at this point by the light of a parallel case.

When a true physician, i. e., one who is fitted by nature and study for his work, is called to a case of sickness, he first cares for the immediate needs of his patient. After making him comfortable he proceeds to inquire into the circumstances of his sickness, his habits, surroundings, the places he has frequented, the food he has eaten, his past health, &c. The physician is aware that disease has a cause. If he discovers the cause, his course is clear. He destroys the cause or neutralizes its evil power by the removal of the patient from its reach. He then goes with his remedies to the seat of the disease. It is just here that mistakes are made. A deep seated disease may appear on the surface, and the remedy be applied there. A tonic might be taken to cure the nervousness caused by evil living. The pain may be masked by an anodyne, and the sick man lulled to a fatal security while the disease is steadily progressing. It may be that a disease of the system, as diseases frequently do, shall manifest itself in a particular organ. The remedy may be applied at the place where the disease manifests itself, not at its seat; or at the least the disease may be treated as a local affection, and not as a trouble of the whole system.

True physicians feel it their duty to teach sanitary science, to destroy the causes of disease, and to cure it when it has been induced. Certainly if the destruction of disease be the object of medical science, then the physician who does not accomplish this is not faithful to the possibilities of his work. It is equally certain that disease will not be destroyed if doctors limit themselves to the treatment of diseases in the places or organs in which they manifest themselves.

Temperance effort has been mostly directed to the suppression of the traffic in liquors, and to the circulation of the pledge. Now these are both needful, for by these we are caring for the immediate needs of the sick man, i. ይ.. the drunkBut more than this ought to be done. We must not

ard.

be content with these as many seem to be; but we must search out the causes of intemperance and destroy them. We must lay bare the real seat of the disease, and apply our remedies there. As it is, however, many are satisfied if they apply remedies to the form of the disease as it manifests itself in the evil habit. Thus the physician of the soul follows the pernicious example of the physician of the body who expects by excision of the tubercles of the lungs to cure consumption; or treats locally a case of tetanus caused by nervous ex

haustion.

If these things be true, the need of the hour in the temperance cause is the seeking and finding of the causes of intemperance. It is only in this way that we shall discover the seat of the trouble, and learn where to apply our remedies. We do not say that these things have been altogether ignored; but the great bulk of temperance efforts have been in other directions. While, then, this enumeration of the causes of intemperance will seem to some a mess of mere truisms, still it is needful to recall these causes if we are to do our work thoroughly. Let us proceed then to give what seem to be some of the more important proximate causes of intemper

ance.

1. Here is the terrible fact of inherited tendency. This may sometimes take the form of an innate craving for alcoholic stimulants. It may sometimes take other forms of physical weakness or irregularity (possibly of mental or moral) whose tendency is to lead the man thus cursed into the power of the drink demon.

2. Overwork or toil under disadvantageous circumstances may develop an unnatural appetite for drink. For illustration, the miner at work in darkness; foul air and heat will inevitably develop an unnatural condition of his system and a craving for stimulants. Work under those circumstances depresses the body so that food does not seem so readily to raise it to its normal condition. This is true of many other employments which we have not the room to enumerate.

3. Some habits, not so harmful in themselves, have more

or less power to develop that other very harmful habit of drinking ardent spirits. It is believed by many who have studied this matter that the use of tobacco leads more or less inevitably to the creation of an unnatural thirst or craving, for the satisfaction of which liquors offer the readiest means of gratification.

4. It is a well-known fact that food of certain kinds must be supplied to the soil if crops are to be continuously raised. If the soil is to produce certain crops, fertilizers containg certain ingredients must be fed to it. There can be no doubt that this is substantially true of man. His food must vary somewhat with the amount and kind of labor he is engaged in. Not only this, but whatever be his work, his system must be supplied with certain elements if his body is to continue in normal condition and have only normal appetites; for we are told that if the food a person consumes be deficient in amount, variety, or badly cooked, he will n t be satisfied and a craving will result. Look now at the large number of people whose circumstances do not permit them to have a sufficiency of food, or limit them to a very small variety. To be sure their extravagant habits in other directions, their false idea that alcohol is better than food, may lead to this condition.

Think also of the many others who by their pernicious methods of cooking destroy what there was good and nutritious in the food. A writer in a recent number of Lippincott speaks of a visit to a tenement house in New York. A meal of victuals was prepared in his presence. The steak was allowed to fry for a long period in hot fat, and the tea to boil for an equal length of time. The writer of the article in question remarks to himself as he leaves the house that "fried bootheel" would be more nutritious than steak thus cooked, and "boiled boot-heel" more palatable than tea thus made, and that if he was compelled to live in such way, he too, would drink. We are afraid that this final remark would hold true of many a man who to-day is a total abstainer.

Now the causes so far enumerated have one thing in com