Crayon and Character: Truth Made Clear Through Eye and Ear: Or, Ten-Minute Talks with Colored Chalks — John Shaqi
Crayon and Character: Truth Made Clear Through Eye and Ear: Or, Ten-Minute Talks with Colored ChalksGriswold, B. J. (Bert Joseph)
Religion
Crayon and Character: Truth Made Clear Through Eye and Ear: Or, Ten-Minute Talks with Colored Chalks
Griswold, B. J. (Bert Joseph)
Chalk-talks; Moral education; Religious education
[Illustration: Fig. 12]
"Let us see for a moment what this key does. It locks the door to
health and opens the door to disease. Sir Andrew Clark, one of
England's greatest physicians, says: 'I am speaking solemnly and
carefully in the presence of truth, and I will tell you that I am
considerably within the mark when I say to you that, going the round
of my hospital wards today, _seven out of every ten_ owed their
ill-health to strong drink.'
"And again: This key bars and locks the way to good positions, where
men may earn the money needed to keep themselves and their families
provided with the necessities of life. Many of the great corporations
are refusing to hire men who drink. Whiskey has locked the door to
opportunity for them. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, operating one
of the greatest systems in the world, has issued a statement to the
men who run the trains on its lines which includes these words:
'Taking one drink of intoxicating liquor is like running passed the
red light. It is unsafe. The possible line between safety and danger
in the use of alcoholic drink is dangerously unstable. _Safety_
lies back of _total abstinence_. The normal man has no legitimate
use for alcohol as a beverage, and he has no right to render himself
abnormal by its use when lives are dependent upon his efficiency.
None but normal men should run railway trains. The traveling public
has unqualified right to demand and expect none less safe.' This
statement deals, not with the moral side, but with the fact that a man
who drinks unfits himself for any position of responsibility,
especially if entrusted with human life.
"This key also locks and bars the way to a life of purity and
honor. Says the chaplain of the Ohio penitentiary, Dr. Starr: "The
records show that 1,250 persons have been received into this
institution during eighteen months; of these, 930 acknowledged
themselves to have been intemperate.' And the Massachusetts Bureau of
Labor adds the statement that of 27,000 crimes committed in that
state, eight out of every ten were due to intemperate habits, or
occurred while the criminal was under the influence of liquor.
"We need not go further to show that this key is truly the key to
failure--failure in the attempt to attain to anything pure, right and
honorable.
"No one knows this better than the manufacturer of strong drink. 'The
handwriting is on the wall,' says T.M. Gilmore, president of the Model
License League. 'Our trade today is on trial before the bar of public
sentiment, and unless it can be successfully defended before that bar,
I want to see it go down forever.'
"In no better way can we help to bring this victorious end than by
lending our every influence to cause the world to turn to the true
Christian life, for then follows 'love out of a pure heart and a good
conscience and faith unfeigned.' Paul does not say, 'Shun that which
is evil;' he says _abhor_ it. May this ever be our attitude
toward this giant evil."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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