iW^- D THE OC! OF m A LECTURE —BY— KEY. S. ANNEAR; Delivered ix the Vestky of the Free BAPTrsT Church, Fredericton, February 23rd, 1883. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. PRICE 10 CENTS. SAINT JOHN, N. B. : PaiNTFO AT "CHRISTIAN VI8ITOK" OFFIC'K No. 99 GERMAIN STBKET. THE A LECTURE —BY- REV. S. ANNEAR; Dkliverkd in the Vestry op the Free Baptist Church, Frederictox, February 23rd, 1883. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. PRICE 10 CENTS. SAINT JOHK.K.B.: Printed, AT "t'BnisTiAN Visitor" Office Mo. 99 Germain Strbb7. e. ^— ^z. PREFACE. The author of this lecture is not a physiologist by profession. But havinf; been a student of temperance literature many years, read- ing various works on physiology in its relation to teetotalism, he has put together some of the thoughts collected in the form here present- ed. Much of the matter has been taken from the books and lectures of others. Never, perhaps, was the discussion of the physiological phase of total abstinence more necessary than in these Provinces at the present time. There is more temperance \a\D than seniinteni. Hence tiie comparative failure of the Scoii Acty from which so much was by some expected. Temperance lata must be a crystalization of public aentimentj or it will ever be comparatively inoperative . Convince good men that Alcohol cannot be taken into a healthy body without injury, and they must become abstainers, and aid im spreading temperance, or else compromise their integrity, and stand condemned, both before Heaven, and the tribunal of their own conscience. / In the discussion of this subject, let us consider, FiBST— The Body and its Wants ; Second — Alcchol, in its Mature, and Effects; and Third — Why I should bo a Teetotaler, FiBST, "What is the hijman body? It is a divine instru- ment of action ; an organ of use ; machinery, for doing the work of life. And 1 add, it is the most wonderful organism ; the moBt perfect, as well as complicated machinery, with which we are acquainted. Virtually, within this body of ours, are deposited all the arts, sciences, and mechanism of the world. The progress of art and science is, so to speak, but the unfolding of the mysteries of this living temple. Our first parents were the monarchs of earth. Ti-uly, they wielde4 no golden sceptre, yet, houseless, naked, and weaponless, as they seemed, the author said to them, " Go ye forth from the centre where I have f>laced you to all the habitations of earth, and assert your dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and the cattle upon ten thousand bills. Go ye forth and master the seciets of the world ; bor- row the power and resources of the material realm ; become the priests and the inteipreters; and finally, the masters ol nature. Go ye forth and subdue the earth." The Body is the first natural instrument with which that Divine command is to be wrought out. The body, therefore, is the instrument with i^hich we have formed and fashioned all others. What is the idea of an instrument ? You never knew one made of water ; much less of gas, or vapor. Volatile, liquid, gaseous, or etherial matter, is not the basis of an instru- ment. Soliditv ig at the bottom of all mechanism, and there- 9 PIIYHIOLOOY OF TEET0TALI8M. fore at the bottom of the organ iHm of this body. The body coHHintH of many partH. ail of which are baned upon Kolids. Whorovor tho.o is work done, it is with solid matter as the OHKontial instrument. Therefore, as the law is ''go and 8ub< due the earth,'* so, as essentially connected with that law, is the living body the instrument by which it has to be executed. Consider the bod}' first in its Anatomy, or skeleton. First we have the great pillars of the legs, and the epinal column, crowned with its expanded vertebiw ; and that collateral sceptre of man*s dominion, the royal arm and hand — most cunning instrument of all, upon which volumes might be written, and yot leave the wonder of this master work unex- hausted. 'And then, lastly, the golden roof of the most sacred part, pmtecting the instrument of thought; the golden roof of the Holy of iftolios in this living temple. A «cco/i6/system, is equally necessary. "What doctor ever knew a skeleton walk out of its case in the sr.rgery, and com- pound his physic for him, and thus save him the cost of an ap- prentice ? The skeleton, like the locomotive, and the power- loom, is an instrument for working with; it must be work- ed by something else. It may be illustrated by the <:yrsne beam. By the beam resting on its pivot, and by the drum, the wheel, and the chain, you lift enormous weight to the pinnacles of your public buildings and temples. So it is with the human body. There is an elastic rope, or chain, — it Joes not matter what we call it. or what it is made of. Her* (holding out the arm) we have an elastic instrument called muscle, that directs an extended lever, which inoves upon its pivot. This part of the human system^ the flesh, or techni- cally the muscles, is a system of multitudinbas instruments tied fast to the various bones, and which, by their power of con- traction and expansion, move the bones. Our muscles are the " gearing " that works this living machinery. But then we want a third system. ,^ho, so to speak, works the wheel? It is no use having a i^ain, and a main beam, unless there is a man at the tvheel to work it. Yon must have a servant thei*e. Who is ikud sei'vant ? You s^^ I \ PHYSIOLOGY OP TEET0TALI8M. 7 work it. You are miRtaken. You no more work it, than the proprietor of your foundry on th^ river'H bank, himself a reni- dent on the dintant hill-*, works its machinery. Here are the instinimentb that do the work (pointing to the hands and armn) and I live here, (the hewd) at the west end of the city; high up, far away from the workmen. I must have something which connects myself here, with my servant yonder. Bone is good. Muscle is goo(i. But they, are servants that do not know what to do. For example, they do not know that I am thii*8ty ; though they are willing to obey me when I inform them. Hence 1 must have a road from my residence in this palatial mairsion" of the brains, to every part of my living domain. And I have. From the brain there stream down through the spinal column, and branch off to every organ of the body, beautiful white lines called nerves — the motor nerves ;— the nerves that keep your heart beating, and your lungs breathing, and those also that enable you to do the work of life. They go fiom the brain. They are the paths and instruments for carrying messages, and thus we see that a telegraph is no new thing. They go from the office here, to every servant of the system ; lo shoulder, to Arm, to hand, and they say **do," and the servant does. The /owr/A part of the system, you see at once, is the brain, or telegraph office, where the master lives, or where by nature is appointed to live — though he is sometimes from home. He lives here purposely to legislate ; but before he can legislate wisely, he must get instructed in the college of life; must learn to know, and to think, so that he may act wisely, and well. Such is the function of the brain. And then we must have a fifth system, that which instructs, or Mucates the brain. This i? another system of nerves, diviner telegraphH than those others. They carry your messages, but these the messages of Heaven. " The firmament showeth His handi- work." The stars blaze in glory, the moon illumines like a lamp by night, and the sun irradiates and vivifies our globe by day. But how do we know these works of God. Becauso He sends His lights which as the herald of His will, passes «. 8 . PHYSIOLOGY OF TEETOTALISM. into the telescope of the eye, leaves its pictorial impression upon the retina, and the nerve telegraphs the message to the brain within, so that the soul, before dark, is lit up with beauty and glory. Thus the body of man is composed of bones, the mechan- ical power, the basis of our organic life; of muscle, or flesh, that works the bone, and directs it to its ends ; of efferent nerve, that m )ves the muscles ; of brain, thtt instructed directorate, which directs the nerves to move the muscles, and accomplish outward action ; and thesentinet nerves, which connected with the gateway of knowledge, the Ave senses, and the general muscular sense, take the material of knowledge conveyed, and concentrates it as an idea upon the brain itself. To this point, we have said nothing of the essential difference between the body and the machine : between the bodily house, and the house made with hands. We proceed to this now, and say of every atom of bone, muscle, nerve, and tissue, within us : it is a vital machme; it is a living house; what does living mean ? Is it a thing, or a state ? A state, not an entity. You can get me the being thai lives, but not the life. Now what is the attribute of life ? We all know. Our proverbs, and the proverbs of every people say, " Warm as life ; Cold as death." ''Quick (or moving) as life; still as death." Warmth and movement are the everlasting attributes of vital organ- ism. Where there is no warmth, there is no life. Where there is no warmth, there is no movement. Where you have life in the animal, you must have heat. What is the law of heat ? This, it radiates. If is here now, gone the next moment. It radiates from solids, and " evaporates " as we say, from fluids ; passes from the condition of real heat, into another form of force, which we call latent heat. The water you boil, will not keep hot, it grows cold. The hot iron will not remain at a white heat, it grows black and frigid. In like manner, our bodies are always losing heat, and there- fore, like the iron and water, would always be growing cold, had provision not been made to keep up a fresh and due sup- PHY8I0L0GT OF TEET0TALI8U. 9 ply of heat, and, therefore, keep up as before, the ordinary condition of vitality. Let us go to the second attribute of life, movement. What is the attribute of movement ? Change. All mortal thingtDe drink, which He has rightly called the " Water of Life," and therefore the type, and symbol, of the higher life, and of that truth which is the higher vehicle of spiritual life. W^e, at any rate, are not ungrateful in rejecting this, but take it as God has sent it, pure and soft, as it springs and bubbles up from the fountains of the earth, or dashes in crystal cataracts from the lofty hills ; and, in so doing, we again vin- dicate the ways of providence, and justify our claim to act in accordance with the manifestations of eternal wisdom, and Almighty goodness. ^ .» Perhaps we cannot more appropriately close, than by re- peating Paul Benton's apostrophe to water, who, when awked by a lover of sti-ong drink for the supei'ior liquor he had prom- ised at the party, answered in notes of thunder — pointing with his fingers direct towards a matchless double spring, gushing up in two strong columns with a sound like a shout of joy, bursting from th« bosom of the earth, — "There," h*^ repeated with a loot terril^le aM the lightning, " there is the liquor which ' God the Eternal bi-ews for all His children 1 Not in the sim- mering still, over smoky fires, choked by poisonous gasses. and surrounded with the stench of sickening odors and rank corruption, doth your Father in Heaven prepare this precious essence of life, the pure cold water ; but in the green glade PHYSIOLOGY OF TKET0TALI8M, and grassy dell, where the red deer wanders, and child loves to pla}" — there God brews it; and down, low down in the deep- est valleys, where the fountains murmur, and the rills sing; and high on the tall mountain tops, where the naked granite glitters like gold in the sun ; where the storm cloud broods, and the thunder storms crash ; and away far out on the wide wild sea, where the hurricanes howl music, and the big waves roar the chorus, sweeping the march ot\:od, — there He brews it — that beverage of health, life-giving water ! And every- where it is a thing of beauty ; gleaming in the dew drop ; sing- ing in the summer rain ; shining in the ice germ, till all the trees seem turned to living jewels; spreading a golden veil over the setting sun, or a white gauze around the midnight moon; sporting in the cataract; sleeping in the glacier; dancing in the hail showers ; folding its bright snow curtains .softly about the wintry world; and weaving the many-colored I'ainbow — that seraph zone of the sky, whose warp is the rain drop of earth, and whose woof is the sunbeam of heaven, chequered over with celestial flowers by the mystic hand of i-efraction ! It is always beautiful, that blessed life-water. No poison bubbles on its brink. It brings not madness nor mur- der. No blood stains its liquid glass. Pale widows and starv- ing orphans weep no bitter tears in its depths. And no drunkard from the grave curses it in words of despair, but would gladly, when too late, supplicate one drop to cool his burning tongue." 5V s!l *» -^fA • » V » i.v < *<■