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P. H. SWIFT, D.D., Chicago, Ill.

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METHODIST REVIEW.

JANUARY, 1899.

ART. I.-ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE. THE war against the liquor traffic is not ended. There are many indications that it is about to be renewed with greater vigor than ever before. It will not end until the traffic is overthrown with all its evil influence upon individuals and the State. How soon this victory shall come no one can tell. Of one thing we may be sure, it will come through God's use of human instruments. The various religious organizations, and especially organizations of Christian young people, will be among these instruments, and many individual young men and women will have an important part to play.

There is peculiar appropriateness in Methodists, and especially Methodist young people, leading in the temperance movement; for, while there have been many eminent temperance reformers, John Wesley was the greatest, and he was the first prohibitionist. In January, 1773, Mr. Wesley, in a letter on the terrible suffering of the poor of England caused by the scarcity of provisions, wrote: "What remedy is there for this sore evil—many thousand poor people are starving? . . . How can the price of wheat and barley be reduced? By prohibiting forever, by making a full end of that bane of health, that destroyer of strength, of life, and of virtue-distilling." During Wesley's lifetime, and as a result chiefly of his efforts, there was a very great decrease in the consumption of liquor. After his death his followers, in England particularly, grew so indifferent to the evils of intemperance that even their ministers were accustomed to drink liquors. But there has been a marked change in the Wesleyan Church in England in recent 1-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. XV.

years. Most of its ministers are now total abstainers, while in the United States the sentiment is such that no minister, not even a bishop, can use intoxicating liquors as a beverage and remain a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

But, while we who are followers of John Wesley may be inspired to greater zeal for the overthrow of intemperance by his words and works, there are many upon whom no words of his or any other religious reformer would make the slightest impression. There is, however, one name which will always command the respect of every American, even of the saloon keeper and those politicians who fear the political power of the saloon keeper more than they fear the wrath of God-the name of Abraham Lincoln. This great leader was always, by word and act, a temperance man. He never used liquor in any form, and he frequently sought to persuade others not to use it. He often preached what he called a sermon to his boys. It was: "Don't drink, don't smoke, don't chew, don't swear, don't gamble, don't lie, don't cheat. Love your fellowmen and love God. Love truth, love virtue, and be happy." He frequently spoke to young men whom he saw were in danger from the use of liquor, and not a few, no doubt, owe their moral and perhaps spiritual salvation to his kindly words of warning. A certain well-known class leader in one of our prominent Western churches relates that after Mr. Lincoln's speech at Leavenworth, Kan., in the winter of 1859, Mr. Lincoln and friends-among whom was the narrator of the incident, then a young man-were invited to the home of Judge Delahay, where Mr. Lincoln was entertained. The refreshments included wine, of which nearly everyone except Mr. Lincoln partook. The witness adds:

The next day we escorted him back to the train, and to my dying day I shall never forget our parting. I was only twenty-two years old. Mr. Lincoln bade each one good-bye, and gave each a hearty grasp of the hand. He bade me good-bye last, and, as he took my hand in both of his and stood there towering above me, he looked down into my eyes with that sad, kindly look of his, and said, "My young friend, do not put an enemy in your mouth to steal away your brains."

Mr. Lincoln was a temperance man not from an impulse due to the enthusiasm aroused by some temperance orator.

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