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STEVENSON, M.D., OF VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Delivered in Philluir manic Hall., March 26fh, 1884. Should be read by everyone who would know the whole truth on the " Liquor Question." It is original, and replete with information new to the Caucasian race. "Thou phalt not d'ink intoxicating liquor.'— Z?Mdd/ia. " Obey God iind oi ey the ApoBtle and abstain." — Mahomet. Drink " in, remem France of me." —Christ. VICTORIA, B.C.: COHEN A SAIAION, BOOK AND JOB PRINTBBS. 1885. M 9(! Entered according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year 1«85, by Eady Stevenson, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture. U. 8. Copyright, 1885, by Eady Stevenson. THE LECTURE. Fellow Caucasians,— I am about to deliver a lec- ture, the like of which I claim has never greeted Caucasian ears. It is not to my pecuniary interest to do so. It is unfortunate that many who profess to be guided by higher teachings resort to more than ques- tionable acts when they fail to meet the arguments of an opponent. The Christian religion does not appear to advantage in the enquiry I am about to institute; but, I think, I should not be held accountable for this fact. Perhaps someone will show that it is otherwise; that any essential statement I make is not true. I invite him to do so. I will join his church and turn my not very rheumatic pen in the interests of the " true religion." Yea, I will preach it while a corporal's guard attends to hear, if he succeeds. But i^it cannot be shown that I am wrong, I demand in the Interests of common decency that church members at least shall not ply the arts of the assassin. The great mass of our race has been kept in ignorance in regard to the nearly universal sobriety prevailing outside of Christendom. I think I will in due course make the reason apparent. The history i>f the use of alcoholic drinks and the history of religion have often been interwoven. Alcoholic drinks have been forbidden by three at least of the great existing religions, because it is the great crime or sin-producer. It is thus distinguished from every other substance. I therefore divide the religions of the world into the Alcoholic and the Prohibitive. In the evolution of religions all the Alcoholic religions, excepting the Christian, have perished. The religions to which I will refer are the Aryan, the Hindoo or Brahminical, the Persian, the Buddhic, the Confucian, the Hebrew, the Greek, the Eomnu, 15731)7 the Scandinaviar, the Christian, and the Mohammedan. The field is seemingly very lari^e, but with these religions I have but little to do, only in so far as they have influenced the use of intoxicating liquors. To properly understand the matter I must very briefly refer to a scrap of history wiiich has recently been unveiled. It is exceedingly interesting in that it has revealed to us some relatives hitherto unknown. The acquaintance has been made through philology, or the science of language. THE ARYANS AND HINDUS. I refer to the Aryans. These Aryans are supposed to have lived in Central Asia, possibly, it is thought, in Armenia. Another tlieory and quite plausible is that they lived in Atlantis, the lost continent, des- cribed by an Egyptian Priest to Solon, as related by Plato, and existing beyond the Pillars of Hercules, or Straits of Gibraltar, up to 11,500 years ago. However that there were Aryans, that they migrated from their ancient home, some to India, some to Persia, the balance to Europe, is a fact. In short, that they were the ancestors of the Hindus, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Teutons, Slavs and Celts. It is said also that before their separation, they were in a highly civilized state. Amongst other things, they had intoxicating liqnor. We know the Hindus had it at least 1500 B. C. We know the plant first used in making intoxicating liquor by our Aryan race, it is the Soma plant The Hindus worshipped this plant as a god and drank and offered its juice to the spirits of their ancestors. The Hindus claimed that it conferred immortality. It has been identified with the nectar of the ancient Greeks, and the Greek god Bacchus with the Hindu sod, Deva Nahusha {Dionysus) To strike alcohol for the first time would be like striking " ile," only the enthusiasm would be unbounded. The Hindus called on the spirits of their ancestors to join them daily in drinking the fermented juice of the Soma plant. Liston to thi.s invocation from tho Hindoo Bi])lo. The following is a portion of one of tlio liymnH of the Rig Veda: "May the Soma loving fathers, the lowest, the high- est and the middle arise. Mm y the gentle and righteous fathers, who have come to life again, protect ns in those invocations." ^ " I invite the wise fathers to-day; may they ccmie hither quickly, and sitting on the grass, rt^adily par- take of the poured out draught." (Max Muller). This extract is from a long hymn in the same strain. In another we find this: We've quaffed the Soma bright And are inimiu'tal grown; We've entered int(^ light. And all the gods have known. What mortal now can harm, Or foeman vex us more? Through thee, beyond jrlarm, Immortal God we soar. AVe have here a record (^f great significance. But we lack direct evidence tliat the Hindus were victims of drunkenness. They lived at the time their sacred scriptures were written in the valleys of the Indus, from 3000 to 5000 years ago. From then to the time of Herodotus, and a century l-ater, of Alexander the Great, but little is known of their history. BUDDHISM. Within the present century, however, the record of the life and labors of Gautama Buddha, the great Hindoo Reformer, has emerged from the obscurity of centuries, tc^ dazzle the eyes of the Christian world. The history of this wonderful man throws great light on the condition of his countrymen and contem- poraries in regard to sobriety. Our knowledge also of the drunken habits of the other members of the Aryan race, Greeks, Romans Persians, etc., throws light from a remote past. The religions of all these peoples was alcoholic. And 6 unless the Hindus were an exception, they were the victims of dissolute drunken habits, and excepting the Hindus and Persians, are the victims of alcohol to this day. The axicient Persian religion was similar to that of the Hindus. T)iey had the Soma mania and the sacrament. Our information, however, is direct that th^ were drunken and diL'solute. As will be seen later, it was whipped out of them by Mahomet, and they have been sober for 1200 years. We find this hero, Gautama Buddha, whom I affirm most deliberately to have been the greatest benefactor of mankind who ever set foot on earth becoming the leader of the Hindoo Reformation. Would that I could do him justice, even after the lapse of twenty-five centuries. He was the first and greatest /yrohihitiouist. I must only i)ity the awful ignorance of the masses in Christendom on this subject. W< had a temper- ance " orator" here a few months ago, lauded to the skies from Christian pulpits, who spoke of prohibition commencing in Maine, and referred to Kansas and Iowa. I refer to Miss Willard. And we had another recently, Mr. Leland, who had " been in the temperance field for 40 years," and he spoke of prohibition com- mencing in Maine, and alluded also to Kansas, etc. I invited him to my ho ise, and out of sheer charity enlightened him. These events in themselves are small matters, but when we realize that this is about all that is known by the masses throughout Christendom on the subject of prohibition, and when you learn what I now announce to you, that the illustrious Gautama Buddha, by a com- mandment, has preserved nearly half mankind from the horrors of intemperance for nearly 2000 years, what can we feel but commiseralion for the hundreds of millions within the boundaries of Christendor^ ? Nearly a year ago I was invited by the PresidetJ. '..f the B. R. Club to speak at one of their meetinj?.?. I said that if I did I would hurt somebody's feelings. He said tlie platform was free. I spoke accordingly, hvx I soon found that I had mashed a whole lot of Meth- oro the ting the 1 to this r to that md the Hct that Bii later, 1(1 they I affirm lefactor ling the that I nty-five iliouisf. masses temper- to the hibition id Iowa, another perance 3n com- sas, etc. charity ers, but own by bject of mounce a com- id from 3 years, mdreds sndor^ ? ideni >..L njr?. I g3. He y. hvx I MeLh-- odist corns. (Laughter). They expected an old- fashioned temperani;e speech. A sort of minstrel per formance, you know, tmtertaining, horrors of Mron drink, etc. If the heathen were temperate, hai prohibition and all that, they did not want it known. If the only drunkards were Christians, that > ight to be kept secret. An orthodox Christian must Uave an orthodox heathen. To reveal the fact of heatiien so- briety might spoil the next missiouciy meeting, reducing (!?t contributions. Th"t crowd, or the few sectarians who are luiining it, has never forgiven me, for that speech. Tiiey have not wanted to hear any more about prohibition, commencing its history earlier than Maine ; although, to give its history as commen ing in Maine, is liko commencing the history of England with the war against Arabi Pasha. They are afraid it might hurt their religion to let it be known that three-fourths of mankind are free through prohibition. But fear results from a consciouSiiess of weakness. If their religion is sound on this temperance question, they have nothing to fear. If unsound, the sooner it is abandoned the better. But, I have determined, that the people shall have the wool, which for eighteen centuries has been kept over their eyes, in this matter removed. To return to Buddha,I can only refer to a few points in his history. He was born on the borders of Nepaul, on the 25th of December, about 020 B. C. About the time the Egyptian Priest astonished Solon in reference to Atlantis, that Belshazzar had his drunken feast, that Daniel demonstrated the superiority of water over wine, about the time that Nebuchadnezzar was (tarred featliered) clawed, and sent to grass. THE VIRGIN MAYA. Bu.ddha was a son of the Virgin Maya. "In the P»addhic Gospel of the Infancy," Bays Moncure D. Conway, writing from Ceylon, " there is the pre-existent Buddha in heaven, with heavenly beings kneeling to implore him to lay aside his 8 celestial glory and descend to earth for the salvation of mankind. There is the little white elephant, in whose form his mother dreamed that the heavenly being entered her bide, — there is a picture of the mother, beautiful Maya, holding on to a blossoming bough, beneath which the child is born. There is the holy babe, who walked at birth ; beneath his feet, the lotus, which flowered whenever his feet touched the earth. The earth is said to have clothed itself with blossoms when Buddha was born. And flowers are the only ofiPerings to his memory. (What a con- trast with intoxicating liquor.) Buddhism impresses on its believers the virtues and graces of charity, purity, mercy, unselfishness and the need of a personal inward religious experience, in a word, a change of heart. It is a religion which never persecuted an unbeliever or shed a drop of blood." His religion has ten commandments ; one is : ''Thou shalt not drink intoxicating liquor." He discounted Moses in the decalogue business. No use, thought he, to say " Thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not kill," without saying also, " Thou shalt not drink strong drinks." Robbery, murder, etc., are sure to follow in the alcoholic train. The first five commandments he designed for general application; the other five for those who set themselves apart to lead a holy life. There is more wickedness in London or New York, says Mr. Conway, in a week, than in this country (Ceylon) in a year. A PART OF THE BUDDHIC DECALOGUE. I give the first five commandments as versified by Mathew Arnold : — " Kill not for pity sake, and lest ye slay, " The meanest thing on its upward way. " Give freely and receive, but take from none '' By greed, or force, or fraud, what is his own. " Bear not false witness, slander not nor lie, " Truth is the speech of inward purity. nlvation )haiit, in leavenly of the ssoming ["bore is his feet, touched )d itself flowers it a coii- ipl-esses charity, personal lange of uted an 3ne 57 is: He ss. No fil; thou lalt not 3tc., are first five lication; apart to London 1 in this ified by ae wn. 9 " Shun drugs and drinks which work the wit's abuse " Clear minds, clean bodies need no Soma juice. " Touch not thy neighbor's wife, neither commit " Sins of the flesh, unlawful or unfit." There are the Buddhic Beatitudes, with Prohibit ion in them also. In consequence, temperance reigns all over India, Burmah, Anam, Siam, Corea,* Thibet, Tartary, and China. Where are Maine, Kansas and the temperance orators now? And where is Christianity? The com- mand not to kill includes war. Buddha was the real " Prince of Peace." Buddhism has all the gems of moral evolution plus Temperance and Peace. But I must leave Buddha and his commandment with the remark that the commandment is conclusive evidence of the existence of drunkenness amongst the Hindus before his time. Indeed, all the alcoholic ills must have abounded to have caused Buddha to put a commandment against it in his decalogue. It was put there for the same reason that thou snalt not kill was embodied, and although Buddhism is no longer the religion of India, temperance reigns. CONFUCIUS. Nearly contemporary with Buddha was Confucius, the Chinese Moral Philosopher. I had not met in my readings of Confucius that he had discouraged the use of alcoholic drinks, but I have the authority of Canon Farrar that he did. A Chinese merchant here, also, says Confucius warned against their use. Our sobriety, said he, is owing to our religions. Buddl ic missionaries were in China as early as the 2nd century of our era. Buddhism is one of the three state religions of China. Taoism and Confucianism are the others. Between Buddha and Confucius the Chinese are tomperate. 435 millions is a big credit * The American Legation, Just returned from Corea, reports that " drunkenness is rare and opium smoking tabooed." — May, 1885. 10 to place to the names of two prohibitionists in one country. But I must pass Confucius briefly. He, too, acquired his great influence by the sublimity of his morality. The Vedic or Hindoo religion looked for- ward to life in another world, regarding this life as something of a delusion. Buddha looked on this life as a curse. Confucius put a check on eastern transcendentalism. He believed in the idea of one world at a time. Instead of a heaven above, he determined to bring heaven down upon earth by a rigid code of morals. Inculcating the Golden Rule and putting his foot firmly down on alcohol were excellent moves in that direction. The Golden Rule, I may mention is also found in the Hindu Bible. See the red and bloated faces and the distorted bodies and mentalities and moralities of our people, and look at the sobriety of tlie Chinese ; and when you think of opium, think of England's shame in forcing it upon them. If there is an Associated Press reporter present, I want him to do me a favor. I want him to send it over Christendom that while I agree that the Chinese must go or we must go, one reason why they must go has been suppressed. It is that they are too sober for us. They have prohibition in their religion, and we have'nt, THE JEWISH RELIGION is an alcoholic religion, but unlike others, it is not so unqualifiedly, or without at least quasi-prohibition. In Numbers XV : 7 we read — " And for a drink offering thou shalt offer the third part of a hin of wine for a sweet savor unto the Lord." Think of this. Fancy the Great Spirit of the Universe giving such directions as that! And any doubts which may arise as to being in earnest are removed when we read in Jeremiah VII and 18 as follows in the latter part of the verse, where, with other charges, is this one: — "And to pour out drink m one ie, too, of his ked for- life as this life eastern of one ove, he th by a 3n Rule ol were n Rule, le. See [ bodies md look think of it upon reporter t him to that the i^hy they r are too in their is not so )ition. a drink 1 of wine t of the ■^nd any nest are id 18 as ere, with mt drink 11 offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger." It is evident the Jews thought that this act would provoke the Almighty to anger, giving the wine to somebody else. These and other passages represent the little god the Jews of that remote period had made in their own image, as being extremely fond of wine. You will be told that the wine referred to here was mere grape juice. I wil refer to that apology later. The Jews still offer wine to their Deity with a view probably to being on the safe side. But the solemn warning of Solomon, whose exper- ience with wine may have been as great as with the women, and the more emphatic one of Habakkuk " Woe unto him who giveth his neighbor to drink," etc., has had great weight with the Jews. It would seem as if by this time tlie Jews had another Deity altogether, or that the old one had put on the blue ribbon. And the experience of the Jews when, on the point of perishing of thirst in the wilderness has not been forgotten. I refer to the excellent performance of Moses at Horeb. In an emergency the Almighty gave them water instead of whiskey. The Jews, too, have rejected the New Testament, and like all others who have done so, or know it not, are temperate, and of course moral. You rarely see one " keeping bar." It is a very rare thing to see or hear of a Jew being arraigned in a Court of Justice. Life insurance statistics, too, prove what we would expect, that the average life and health of the Jews is much greater than that of their intemperate perse- cutors. The Christian need but draw his head a little out of the sand to see the truth in this matter, and realize that he is seen and pitied by hundreds of millions of sober people. GREEK, liOMAN AND SCANDINAVIAN RELIGION. Let us nov/ take a glance at the Greek, Roman and Scandinavian religions. We are amongst our own I i ii':. 12 people again. We found that the branch of the Aryan race which located in India, evolved a Buddha, who put an end to their drinking customs by his famous commandment. The other Aryans, excepting the Persians, found their way to Europe, bringing their drinking habits with them. The Greek god, Bacchus, like all sun gods, was bom on the 25th of December, the birthday of the sun, when in the sign of the Virgin. It is significant that the mysical three letters I. H. S. is the monogram of Bacchus, {Inman, Ancient Faiths) and was to be seen on the coins f the Mahrajah of Cashmere, (Bonwick, Egyptian Belief). Bacchus is rep- resented as discovering the -wine-making qualities of the grape, and as travelling extensively, proclaiming the good news. lie had been struck again amid great enthusiasm. (Applause.) The Greek Olympus contained nectar which, as already stated, has been identified with Soma wine. Bacchus was worshipped, the people competing in wine drinking. This worship was introdudced into Eome in the second century B. C. I need say but little of the well- known Bacchanalian orgies of Greeks and Bomans. We have here another example of an alcoholic religion and its results. I have not time to more than refer briefly to the (Condition of the other branches of the Aryan stock in Europe. Prohibition was non- existent on the whole continent Prohibition has never existed in Europe, excepting in Spain during the Mohammedan occupation (of which I will speak soon) and European Turkey. The Scandinavian religion had both wine and beer in it. Wine and beer was in the Scandinavian Heaven, and history does not record a blacker pa^e of drunkenness, and all the catalogue of alcoholic ills than this Scandinavian race exhibited. Our custom of "drinking (and destroying) healths" originated with them and is very ancient. n 13 e Aryan ha, who famous Qg the ig their ds, was of the Dificant nogram LS to be shmere, s rep- lities of laiming id great lympus as been ihipped, in the he well- iomans. Icoholic )re than iches of 7as non- ion has during 11 speak nd beer Eeaven, page of olic ills custom iginated THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Let us retrace our steps to Asia, to the Judean- Eoman Empire. Now is the time some of you had better take a good grip of your seats if you propose to hear me through. Long brooding on one subject begets insanity. It is known as monomania. The isolated farmer's wife, from the perpetual round of dish- washing and cooking, is in danger of the asylum. A quarrel with some neighboring woman or faltiily often by its variety saves her. I must discuss the merits of a religion, or a phase of it, which you have had drummed into you from your youth up. You are not quite sane, I fear, on the subject, and will not bear to hear it criticized with the same equanimity as the others, but I only propose, of course, criticizing it in its bearing on the use of intoxicating liquors. There- fore, only in so far as you may consider its parts inseparable, with regard to soundness of doctrine or tissue, can you consider me as arraigning the whole structure. But, in speaking of the Christian religion, I must insist on the above limitation of criticism and meaning, as indeed anything farther would be foreign to my subject. I attack oi- V one, and I think its worst excrc '^nce, a feature which has done enough harm to far more than offset all the good of the moral teachings which it has in common with some other religions. But if, in removing this excresence another falls also, all the better. Let us first survey from the walls of Jerusalem the condition of the world in relation to temperance 20 centuries ago. Prohibition had existed in Asia for nearly six cen- turies. It was the prohibition of Confucius and Buddha. India, China, and probably other vast populations were temperate or were becoming so. Buddhism had been the state religion of India for three centuries. But the influence of a religion extends beyond the limits of its votaries. There can be but little doubt 14 w % M that the prohibitory note of warning had sped to the confines of Palestine and into Europe. Herodotus knew of India and its customs. The lieutenants of Alexander the Great kept a record of his famous campaign to India,* and we know nowadays that the philosophy of Aristotle and the Fables of Maop ar6 mainly Buddhic. More than that, we know that the jewels of the Christian doctrine are Buddhic — Charity*, Purity, Mercy and Conversion, or the change of hea«fc, etc., already mentioned. "Come unto me," says Buddha, " and I will give you rest." When the Catholic missionaries first met the Buddhists in Thibet, they thought that the devil had inspired them to mock their own religion. Suffice it to say that, standing on the walls of Jerusalem and facing north and west, and speaking very generally, all was prohibitioia and pro- gressing temperance behind, and all alcohol and drunkenness before and around us. The Roman- Pagan influence had continued the ancient drunken- ness and Bacchanalian orgies. A great gap remained unclosed. It included Europe and the Roman Empire in Asia and Africa. America was unknown. We find a new religion springing up. It surrounded a personality. The Jews, like all Asiatics, had a tra- dition concerning the advent of a great man amongst them. A man, of the name of Joseph, was in trouble. The cause of his trouble was in a manger in a stable. He threatened to put somebody away. A man, by the name of Herod, in deep sympathy, ofPered to kill the baby. I pass over much more with which you are familiar. It is the worst constructed of all the personated myths of the birth of the Sun in the constellation of the Virgin .f In course of time we * It is asserted by calm thinkers, like Dean Mansel, that within two generations from the time of Alexander the Great the missionaries of Buddha made their appearance at Alexan- dria. — Buddha and Early Buddhism, by Arthub Tillib. I The sign of the Celestial Virgin rises above the horizon at the moment in which we fix the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. — BoNwicK, op. cti . 'H.iGGisB, Anacalyjwis. 1 to the rodotus lants of famous ;hat the sop arS ;hat the harity*, mge of bo me," lien the Thibet, l;o mock iding on Mst, and md pro- hol and Roman- runken- Europe America rounded ad a tra- amongst trouble, a stable, n, by the ) kill the you are all the I in the time we nsel, that the Great it Alexan- LUE. lorizon at us Christ. ^ 15 find the founder of Christianity invited to a wedding. It was the marriage at Cana. There are some things I would like to know, con- cerning this celebrated marriage. There ave other things that are very patent. I mean patent to the eyes of sane readers. Six water pots of two or three firkins apiece, mean from 108 to 162 gallons. A firkin is nine ale gallons. When filled to the brim, there would be no doubt much more. It is not likely that there were a larger number of guests than gallons of wine. Supposing there were twice as many, there would be a half a gallon each. But they had been drinking before the coming of the hero of the story. There wa3 more than enough to make the whole crowd drunk. I would like to know the details. I would like to know whether the reporter, St. John, was not so much affected by the food wine that he was unable to give the particulars, would like to know how many people were lying about under the table and benches next morning. I would like to know how many black eyes had been inflicted. I would like to know how many husbands went home and boat their wives. I would like to know how many lodged in the gutters. I would like to know how many of the heroes of the occasion were taken to the lock-up. Depending upon your insanity, your parson may tell you that it was not wine that was made; that it was grape- juice. They will tell you that the customs of Judea were temperate at that time. That grape- juice only was drank. They will not hesitate to con- tradict the plain statement of the record ; to contradict what we have been told all our lives, and told the world for centuries; to contradict the ruler of the feast. To contradict Peter, who said that a certain crowd were not drunken because it was too early in the morning. To contradict Christ himself, who said no man putteth new wine into old bottles, else the bottles burst and the wine is spilled. Grape-juice would not burst anything. Besides, grape-juice would be a far f I Hit lill i' Hi 16 worse beverage than wine. It is composed mainly of tartaric acid and grape sugar. The teeth would be mined by being converted into tartrate of lime, and dysi)epsia and disease of the kidneys would be produced if taken as directed by St. Paul. It would be better to be drunk occasionally, than to have neither kidneys nor teeth. Besides, the following is to the point: "We, the undersigned missionaries and residents in Syria, having been repeatedly requested to make a distinct statement on the subject, hereby declare, that during the whole time of our residence and travelling in the Holy Land, we have never seen or heard of an unfer- mented wine, nor have we found among Jews, Chris Jans or Mohammedans any traditions of such a wine having existed in the country." Signed by Rev. W. H. Thomson, D. D., Rev. S. H. Calhoun, Rev. Jas. Robertson and other residents of from nine to forty- one years and in one instance a long life time. If further evidence is needed, the testimony of Dr. Adler, the chief Rabbi in London is to the point. ' This testimony was in response to inquiries made by Canon Hopkins. It is as follows. " (1.) There is no precept whatever bidding us use other than fer- mented wine for the Passover and other religions ceremonies. The prohibitions relating to leaven are taken by all our interpreters to apply only to the fermentation of grain and flour produced from it. (2.) Such wine 7s produced in the usual way. From the notices in the Talmud, however, it is apparent that the wine was invariably mixed with water to prevent its having an intoxicating effect. Nov was the wine partaken of in sufficient quantity to induce excess." Finally the rebuke administered by St. Paul to the Corinthian church (1 Cor. XI, 20-22) plainly infers the use of intoxicnnts at the Agapae and " Holj; Communion," and his advice to the Ephesians: "Be not drunken with wine " points in the same direction, at least not in the direction of grape-juice, which will have commenced to ferment in half an hour in a climate like Palestine. fiinly of mined spei)sia if taken r to be eys nor ' We, 1 8yria. distinct during? g in the 1 iinfer- Jews, : such a by Rev. ev. Jas. o torty- y of Dr. e point. Qade by ^here is ban fer- eligions ven are to the rom it. From ent that prevent le wine excess." il to the r infers " Ho]> s: "Be rection, Lch vnW r in a 17 Our Methodist friends, who are teaching and practicing to the contrary, had better get back into the alcoholic traces at once, or quit business altogether. The latter is the proper course. The case is clear against them and Adam Clark too, and in any event water was given the " black eye " at Cana. Wine was directly endorsed as superior as a beverage. There is nothing superior. The Creator has pro- claimed this in His works. The Jews said Christ was a " wine bibber," but then, you know, the Jews are considered bad authority as regards Christ. His living amongst them, you know, disqualified them from knowing his habits. Any insane person can see that. The Fiji Islanders, of course, would be better authority in regard to the character of the Mayor of this City, for instance, than yourselves. We find the founder of Christianity in his teachings was apt to draw his figures and illustrations from the vine. " I am the true vine," says he, and when it was not vine it was vineyard or wine and bottles. And at the close of his life, with the shadow of the cross upon him, and his apostles gathered around him, what was the burden of his will to them ? About what they should teach and preach, about right conduct, about the solemn realities of life and death, about mortal- ity and immortality? No! No! It was about wine and when he would drink with them again. It would have been as much to the point and less harmful if he had referred to arsenic, and when he would eat it with them again. It would have been far less harmful to have commanded the use of any other poison. No other poison impels a man to crime. Arsenic gives the appearance of health too, while it destroys internal organs. " I say unto you," said he, " I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it with you in my Father's kingdom." The intimation that he would not drink again with them implies that they had been drinking at their meetings. But why 18 is the fact that there is wine in the Christian's heaven suppressed? It would form a high incentive to join the Church amongst a peojjle whose sentiment is so thorougldy corrupted. Not one word do we find uttered by the founder of Judaic Christianity against intemperance. His precept and example, wns di- rectly in the opposite direction. And those who, like the Eeverend Cook, demanding $500 to come to Victoria from Puget Sound, imagine they are his fol- lowers, are acting in defiance of his teachings in advocating •' total" abstinence. These are the " blas- phemers." Paul alone incidenidly fulminates against the drunkard (who is comparatively harmless). No drunkard, says he, "shall inherit the kingdom of Heaven." But as there is wine in the Christian's heaven, it is likely drunkards are there also ; besides, Paul by his advice to Timothy to " drink no more water but take a little wine for thine often infirmities," more than neutralizes his anathema against the drunkard. That was a bad prescription, and only worse if he meant grape-juice. It has made millions of drunkards. It will make people " ready to perish" and full of " misery," hardly needing King Lemuel's prescription to finish them. (Applause.) It must be that the doctors rely on St. Paul for their authority in pre- scribing stimulants. But most medical men are '' infidels." There is no solid ground in science or experience. Alcohol reduces temperature, not, as supposed, judging from the sensation of heat. And I know of 800() physicians (homeopathic) who do not use it and the mortality attending their practice is no more than half of that attending the practice of those who rely on alcohol. John the Baptist is the only temperance man of the lot. He doubtless felt how small his influence was when he said " He must increase but I must decrease," John III :XXX. The fact that the birthday of John the Baptist is the 24th of June, when the sun begins to decrease, is significant, and his statement was also prophetic of the cause of temperance, and the waning sun a symbol. s heaven re to join ent is so we find y against was di- )se who, come to e his fol- hings in le " blas- >s against iss). No gdom of liristian's besides, ore water es," more [runkard. rse if he runkards. ,d full of iiS^iption that the Y in pre- men are eience or , not, as at. And lo do not tice is no i of those ) man of lence was ecrease," r of John m begins lent was and the •1 19 Is it any wonder that witli Prohibition in all the other great religions and consequent sobriety of their followers, that the boundaries of intemperance and the boundaries of Christendom should be one and the same. In speaking of such vast masses of mankind, it does not invalidate any statem.ont concerning the sobriety of the Orientals that exce])tions even if amounting to a few millions, exist. Is this religion likely to close the awful gap still unclosed? Is it likely to continue the glorious achievements of Buddha and Confucius? Is it not likely to undo what they have done ; to lay down the last bar to universal intemperance and crime ? Such would very i^robably have been the result, but for the advent of another of mankind's true Saviours, making up the great Trinity of human Redeemers. (From a temperance stand-point.) Nearly six centuries have come and gone. Chris- tianity had spread itself over a large part of the Roman world. Divisions and sub-divisions had occurred in the Christian ranks. Amongst a countless host of disputants, says Draper, I mention the Ariens, Basilidians, Carpocratians, Collyridians, Eutychians, Gnostics, Marcionites, Marionites and Nestorians. Of these, the Marionites regarded the Trinity as consisting of God the Father, God the Son, and God* the Virgin Mary. The Nestorians were followers of Nestor, Bishop of Antioch, who denied that God had a mother. He and his followers insisting on the plain inference of the last verse of the first chapter of Matthew, and the 55th and 56th verses of the 13th of the same Gospel, denied also the perpetual Virginity of the Queen of Heaven. (Draper. ) For entertaining these views, Nestor was eventually expelled to an Egyptian Oasis. The din of the disputing Christian sects was loud and deep. It is loud and deep still, in the same countries too. They tore their opponents to pieces, as did a mob incited by Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, Hypatia a rival Pagan preacher. 20 ! 1 i '. MOHAMMEDANISM. t Meanwhile A. D. 571, another great prohibitioniBt waH born in Mecca, Arabifi. It was Mahomet. Unlike the Founder of ChriHtianity, wedlock was honored by hi:-< being born in it. I must omit much of his history. Mahomet, says Draper, was taught by the Monk Bahira, the tenets of the Nestorians. Mohammedanism is a product and protest against Christianity. In due course of time Mahomet considered himself called of God to annihilate the idolatry of both lloman and Christian as well as of his own Arabia. With the idolatry, he resolved that the liquor should go also, and within fifty years he or his successors achieved success. He concluded it was useless to reason with such a Babel of discordants, and his followers took up arms and defeated the Roman armies. The Emperor Heraclius "' took the cross," and escaped to Byzan- tium. Neither idolatry or intemperance have existed there since. Such of the Persians as had escaped the prohibition of Buddha were whipped into temperance by the Mohammedans. Millions of men lost their lives in vain to recover for Christianity its " Holy Land." Temperance is universal there now and all over Asia and the greater part of Africa also. If Palestine was "Holy Land," eighteen centuries ago, it is holier now through the Koran. Mohammed bravely attempted to close tlie awful gap, and would have succeeded, hut for Christianity. It cannot be very consoling to the advocates of " Gospel Temperance " to know that but for their " Gospel " intemperance would have been banished from the earth. The issue was decided at the batUe of Poitiers in the eighth century. That was the decisive struggle, lasting seven days, against temperance. Had the Saracens triumphed, temperance would have been universal. Gospel temperance indeed. What ignor- ance ! Turkey is Mohammedan, and is the only tem- perance country in Europe. Cross the Christian it 21 bitionist t. Ock WftH lit mucli le Monk edaiiism In due 'ailed of nan and iVith the go also. achieved son with 1 took up E no per or ) Byzan- e existed ohibitiou > by the r lives in f Land." )ver Asia itine was )lier now ttempted sded, hut ng to the that bid we been hitlers in struggle, aad the ,ve been at ignor- nly tem- ^hristian frontier anywhere, and intemperance is left behind. Surely the Christian missionaries must have noticed this ; and noticed that intemperance follows in their own wake. I charge them with fraud, therefore, in failing to tell us the truth on this subject, even if it should spoil the missionary game. What a splendid, overwhelming argument in favor of prohibition has thus been suppressed. On them and the Church rests this responsibility. But Christianity found more congenial soil in Europe. It has wine in its heaven. So had the Scandinavians, whose blood is in every European nation. The Scandinavians had beer also in tlieir heaven, which they were to drink out of the skulls of their enemies. Says Longfellow of the Christian King Olaf of Norway : O'er his drinking horn the sign He made of the Cross Divine. CHRISTIANITY VS. M0HAMMEDI8M IN THE MIDDLE AGES. Draper, referring to Mohammedan influence in Spain during the gloom of the middle ages, says: " Europe, at the present day, does not offer more taste, more refinement more elegance, than might have been seen in the Capitals of the Spanish Arabs. Instead of the gluttinous and wassail orgies of their Northern neighbors, the feasts of the Saracens were marked by sobriety. Wine was iorbidden." During the same period, our Anglo Saxon ancestors presented, according to William c " Malmsbury, this picture under Christian auspices : " L inking day and night was the common pursuit, anu vices, the companions of inebriety, followed, effeminating the manly mind." The contrast to-day between Chr'stian and Moham- medan lands is as vivid, notwithstanding four centuries of Protestantism. Indeed, the latter made matters worse. Even the bloodshot Roman Christian's eyes could not fail to see the change effected by Moham- 1573;r/ 22 medan Prohibition, and the church cejsed dealing tlie intoxicating draughts from the sacred bars. But Protestantism more mindful of the command than consequences revived the corrupting practice and clings to it still. The Episcopal church expressly stipulates that the " cup must not be denied to the laity. Art. 30." The Greek church also deals out the wine to the laity, mixed with water. As a consequence, there is not a tenth of the drunkenness in Italy that exists in England. Drunkenness is much more common in Russia, England and America than in Catholic countries, excepting Ireland. Everywhere it is seen that the degree of intemperance of a people is directly proportionate to the degree of recognition of alcohol in their religion. Milner, in his Archaeology, says this : " Christianity did not at all contribute towards the abolition of the Pagan drinking customs, but, on the contrary, it gave them a religious aspect." " You have," said Faustus, to St. Augustine, " substituted your agapse for the sacri- jfices of the Pagans, for their idols your martyrs. You appease the shades of the dead with wine and feasts." But Mohammed proclaimed to them this: There is one God, the God of Abraham and Moses, cleanse yourselves, drink no intoxicating drink and engage in prayer. " Travellers," says Mr. Clodd, in current literature, " tell us that the gain is great when a tribe casts away its idols and embraces Islam. Filth and drunkenness flee away." On the contrary for a tribe to embrace Christianity is to invite extermination. The proof is met with everywhere. I asked a Catholic priest whether, if we had had the Mohammedan religion, we would have been free from intemperance. He said, yes, but we would have had other evils. Exceptinj> boycotting this is the first best and only response that I have had to my charges. I remarked that this would make Christianity only a choice of evils. He then descended to personalities, when I went my way. I am considering the merits of I I I i Baling the command practice expressly ) the laity. the wine sequence, Italy that ich more than in •ywhere it people is gniiion of iristianity on of the •y, it gave ^austns, to the sacri- l^rs. You id feasts." There is 3, cleanse d engage literature, asts away inkenness embrace B proof is d had the free from have had the first ' charges. ity only a Qualities, merits of 28 these religions from an exclusively fewpcrancc stand- point, and not as religions at all. I request the reader to keep this continually in mind. The question what sort of a figure from an exclusively iemperance stand- point does Christianity cut in comparison with any other existing religion is the question which confounds and annihilates my opponents. It is the question with which I confronted and confounded the " Reverend " Joseph Cook, of Boston, who got as far as Victoria on a theatrical "gospel " champion money- making tour. He could not but admit that in making his trip round the world, that when he left Christendom, he left saloons and drunkenness behind. I enjoy standing such frauds (I speak deliberately) on their head. But I warn the reader before he asks this question of a " Christian " to see to it that he is independently rich, for the parson and his friends may withdrav' their patronage if he be in business. The Romish church now claims that the wine is not necessary at all to the sacrament, referring to St. John VI, 51-57, Douay Ver., Luke, 24, 30, 31, Acts II, 42, 46, and 20 7. 1 Cor. 10-17. This is an indirect admission of the evil influence of the recog- nition of the wine. The Catholic church, too, constantly recognizes water as being " Holy " under certain cirumstances, at least. And it is not the mere use of wine, but using it in celebrating, and the direct teaching at Cana of its use as a beverage and the absence of prohibition combined^ that has worked the world-wide ruin. Said a very sincere Catholic lady to me recently: " Our church has proscribed * round dances.' " " Why has it not proscribed keeping a saloon ? " said I. She could not say why the lesser evil was attacked and the greater unheeded. But the latter cannot br disallowed without flying in the face of the most positive scriptural injunctions. But this does not deter certain of both Protestants and Catholics in the least, nor will it deter them from speaking ill of the writer for telling ther : so. They forget all the Buddhic features of their religion, when an opponent is i m ! 24 encountered. The same laiy informed me that she would have sent for me long ago (as a physician), only "for those letters of yours, on Christianity, in the papers. You are a totally different person from what I thought you must be." Expected to see horns, I suppose. Slanderous thoughts at least were indulged. Outspoken sceptics are at a heavy discount. The patronage oi the church is the premium for hypocrites. Mahomet's prohibition. The following is Mahomet's famous prohibition which I have copied from the Koran : " O true believers, surely wine and gambling and idolatry and divining arrows are an abomination and thfe work of Satan ; therefore avoid them, that ye may prosper. Sat'^n seeketh to sow dis. jnsion and hatred amongst you by means of wine and gambling, and to divert you from God and prayer. Will ye not, there- fore, abstain from them ? Obey God, and obey the Apostle, and take heed to yourselves." I think this sounds quite as well as the Cana affair, and Mahomet never claimed to be more than a man. The sun-myth loes not surround his history. CHRISTIANITY AGAIN, Not less than 200 millions of people are free from alcoholic woe through Mohammedan prohibition. Con^aoius, Buddha and Mahomet have secured Asia and most of Africa witliin the temperance fold. Let us come down the stream of time a few centuries. Spain is Christianized. The bar-keepers of the sacred bars have been reinstated and have undone what M.oh8LmmedQ,n prohibition had done. America is dis- covered. The people of North and South America know nothing of the ravages of alcohol. Mexico was a rich, populous, happy, temperate 3ountry before the Spaniards, under Cortez, invaded it. He tortured, robbed and otherwise abused them, introducing strong drink, and in a short period reduced their numbers by two millions. All this was repeated in Peru. I i e that she ;cian),onIy ity, in the from what )e horns, I 6 indulged, mnt. The bypocrites. prohibition ibling and nation and hat ye may and hatred ing, and to not, there- l obey the ana affair, an a man. y- free from rohibition. jured Asia fold. Let centuries, the sacred one what ica is dis- America exico was before the tortured, ing strong numbers *eru. 25 The other Christian nations introduced " fire-water " wherever in the new world they went, until intemper- ance everywhere exists from the extreme North to Cape Horn. Had America been colonized by any others than Christians, it would have been free from ; the alcoholic curse. Wherever there is a Christian colony, there intem- perance is also, and noi elsewhere. The people of two continents. North and South America, have been nearly destroyed, but for prohibitory legislation there would be but few left. Savage nations everywhere have been and are being exterminated. First the sacred bar-keeper, then the other bar-keeper. Cetewayo, the Zulu chief, says the : danger to his people of intemperance lies on his ,; Christian frontier. The Hottentots were sober before ^ the advent of the man with the Cana story and the bottles of wine offered them in the name of God. Since then, strong drink from Christian hands is exterminating them. The Hawaiian Islands, where I have lived, had prohibition ; the prohibition of the native chiefs before Christianity. In 1881 the king made a tour of the world in search of new subjects. Statutory prohibition for a time at least delayed results, but that too has been removed. The mission- aries, for whom we used to scrape up the pennies, are rolling in wealth, and boycott everyone who fails to support the church. This is notorious. Joining the church is Considered a good business move anywhere. No wonder it is full of hypocrites. In the case of the Hawaiians, other causes as leprosy have however contributed to bring about their approaching extermination. We are continually sending out men in the name of God with bottles of wine to save the temperate nations from sohriefij, thus undoing, so far as we are allowed, the glorious works of Buddha, Con- ,fucius and Mahomet. They succeeded in ridding themselves of the infernal business by eliminating alcohol from their religions ; and now we are insisting at the point of the bayonet that they adopt another 26 alcoholic religion. (It is said some Hindus and the Parsees use the soma yet.) It .is simply hellish. We have heard of the terrible sufferings of missionaries. I am only sorry that everyone of them has not been killed. Think of it. India has been free from the alcoholic curse for nearly 2000 years. And now her own Aryan brethren with soma juice evoluted to fancy drinks are coming amongst them in the name of God and of the devil, to debauch and corrupt them again. One fourth the Hindus are Mohammedans. Can you wonder that the old temperate nations should be alarmed at the sight of the man with the sacred wine? I demand that these men be called home and kept there. They can do but little more harm amongst ourselves. Our debasement is complete, but they might be put in the asylums or hung. (Applause.) England's greed and shame. Captain O' Grady, a British ex-official, says :" The British Government is doing a shameful thing in turning the natives of India from a sober race to a nation of drunkards and for pure greed. Drinking is becoming more and more prevalent. What the accursed opium traffic, fenced on China, is to that unhappy country, the government sale of liquor is likely to become to India. The outside domestics in European families usually get to be terrible drunk- ards. . . . Everybody drinks. . . . bishops, chaplains, freshly imported boarding-school girls and all." (Quoted in " Isis Unveiled.") Why has not the British Government tried some of these tricks on the Canadians ? Opium for instance. The morality of the thing would be the same. The reason is plain enough. But the "heathen" are considered fair game by all Christian nations. The fame, however, is learning to defend itself, as the 'rench have recently ascertained in China. Captain O'Grady says that the religion of India or Brahman- ism has a controlling influence over intemperance. Certain drinks, I know, are proscribed ; the alcoholic i iiii 3us and the sllish. We issionaries. IS not been e from the id now her ted to fancy ime of God hem again. Can you should be icred wine? ? and kept m amongst , but they Applause.) says: "The I thing in 3r race to a drinking is What the is to that f liquor is domestics ible drunk- bishops, ►1 girls and ed some of r instance, ime. The then" are ons. The 3lf, as the Captain Brahman- mperance. 3 alcoholic i 27 are probably included. Buddhism, once the religion of the country, may have left this much of a legacy. But what must we think of a religion which pulls down the greater Chinese wall wherever it goes? CHRISTIANIZING THE CHINESE. A recommendation was forwarded East by the Methodist conference at its last meeting to establish a Chinese Mission in Victoria. The Chinamen have been taught by Confucius to practice virtue for its own sake instead of for a reward. On the doors and walls of his Buddhic temples is the inscription : " No wine or meat must enter herey Christianity, therefore, which holds out pay as the motive to good conduct and deals out intoxicating liquor in its churches, is in bad odor with him. Besides, it was stated at our last anti-Chinese meeting by Rev. Karris of San Francisco that it " is easier to convert ten Chinese in China than one on the Pacific Coast." A similar thing was stated by the chairman at a recent lecture on India, by a returned missionary. The reason of this was carefully passed over. Following the Christian missionary to his home, where the results of more than a thousand years of his religion are manifest, enlightens the Oriental. He sees intemperance and all its woes on every hand. We have the right to exclude the China- men from our shores, bat we have no right to debase him with our liquor religion. It is well if we cannot. But to attempt it is fiendish. The Methodists, however, are best qualified for the business. " Patronize one another," is inscribed in their book of discipline. This is eminently Chinese, but the Chinese Methodists might not patronize their white brethren and sisters, and thus trouble would surely follow. The Chinese have been influenced by Buddhism about as long as our race have been influenced by Christianity. The teachings of these religions are the same, excepting that which refers to s&ong drink. I have observed the thousands on the Pacific Coast, said to be the scum of their country (from the " treaty " ports), for nearly :i ' r J8 a quarter of a cenhiry and have not seen one drunk or in the liquor business. It was this that led me to this investigation. The money spent in foreign missions too is needed at home, to clothe the naked and feed the hungry. Many thousands of children might be redeemed from pauperism and crime out of the slums of the great cities. Would that other Oriental nations would follow the example of Japan, and send a commission to investigate the practical results of Christianity, with a view of making it the state religion of Japan. The Japanese Government did this in 1880-81. The commission reported adversely, " on accou*^ . of its lack of control over intemperance." The sacred idea has proved a terrible pit-fall for humanity. Very many things are considered sacred. In ancient Egypt cats and beetles were sacred. Sacred wine corrupts sentiment at its fountain. It implies the sanction of God. What but that could induce our City Councils to grant indulgences to individuals to debase their fellows? What but that could induce the belief that in moderation even it is a good thing in the face of the fact that the criminals come from the ranks of the moderate drinkers, to say nothing of the dreadful railway accidents so called due to moderate drinking, and that all drunkards were once moderate drinkers. AVhat but that could blind a whole race to its own awful condition while surrounded by the light of Oriental sobriety, morality and prohibition. (Applause.) It is only in recent times, it would seem, that drunkenness has not been considered the normal condition. The saloon bar-keepers should appoint a committee to wait upon the sacred bar- keepers and protest against discord in the profession, and only request that the drinks in the churches should be charged for as an act of simple justice. But even this should not be insisted upon, as indirectly the sacred bar-keeper has thrown back many a man into the saloons, who has tried to escape from them by joining the church. 3n one drunk l:hat led me to too is needed the liungry. deemed from of the great ^tions would I commission Christianity, ion of Japan. ^80-81. The C5COU-. of its e sacred idea anity. Very ncient Egypt ine corrupts ) sanction of 'ity Councils debase their te belief that le face of the ranks of the he dreadful ite drinking, de drinkers. to its own he light of prohibition. ;vould seem, the normal I committee nd protest ily request charged for should not bar-keeper iloons, who he church. 29 The first glass at the sacred bar has often done it. Besides, the sacred bar-keeper is the ^noneer of the profession. His operations on virgin temperance soil are very often successful. They both appeal tc the same sacred record to justify their calling. If the Christian religion is true, the saloon men have nothing to fear. If it is true, prohibition is blasj^hemy. No- where does it say aught against moderate drinking, the high way to drunkenness. Harmony, therefore, should prevail. But the sacred bar-keepers are beginning to act as though they felt theirs was a corrupting business. They are trying to get rid of the intoxicating draught and to divert attention by attacking the saloon men. Hence the grape juice, raisin wine, dish water theory. I have discussed that pious fraud already. But is it not suificiently plain condemnation that the Christian church cannot dispense pure tcater instead of intoxicating liquor? That alone should condemn it. The Almighty never gave His sanction to the use of alcohol as a beverage. The idea that he did is false — a lie! Man is made nearly altogether of water. A man weighing 145 pounds has 109 pounds of water, three-fourths of man's physical structure is waieVy and not one drop of alcohol that the Almighty put there. Why does not the church obey the command about feet- washing? It would be innocent and useful pastime for the parson, to wash the believer's feet. It would be a recognition too of water in some way. The command is emphatic. But one sacred bar-keeper will d( more to corrupt sentiment, than a thousand bar-keepers outside the church. A spoonful of liquor in a religion means a lake of whiskey amoiigst the people. Nearly 200,000 men and women, it is said, are going into drunkard's graces annually in Britain and America. Not less than half a million every year in Chri«tendom, to say nothing of those worse than dead. In the Oriental temperance countries (they are all temperance countries) the mortality is little more than one-third of ours. I m l|i"!':;'"'| r 'WW I lMlili|lH' ill i M ,11 80 have the official health report of Japan for 1876-77 to prove it. Our Christian religion outdoes all others in its endorsement of intoxicating liquor. In no other do we find its founder condemning water and recommen- ding strong drink as a hrvcrage or commanding that his memory be celebrated by it. The world has had a large number of " Saviours " and sacraments, all of them antedating our Christianity. Bread and wine were oflPered in the worship of nearly all these " Saviours." But in some of them, at least, the bread was merely a symbol of matter and wine of spirit. The " Saviours " were mere impersonations of the sun, the real saviour of mankind. They were all born on the 25th of Decem- ber, the birthday of the sun, and like him, bring light and life to the world. I am writing this on Sunday. the " Lord's day," an p vrful desecration, the deluded reader will think. It was Constantine, a sun worshiper who made it the holy day of the Christians. Amongst the world's " Saviours " I may mention Chrishna, Soma and Buddha of India. Mithra the Persian, whose sacrament is so like our Christian, that the latter is thought to be a copy. Serapis Horus and Osiris the Egyptians, Bacchus the Greek, and Prometheus and others of the " sons of Jove," and many more including Quetzacoatle of Mexico. I take the Cana affair to be a sun-myth impersonated. The sun, acting on the grape-vine and grape-juice apparently converts water into wine. But the inter- pretation has been literal. I might say much on the evils of a literal interpretation of " sacred " books. Truly " the letter killeth. " But I must bring my discourse to an end. Leaving Jerusalem, let us come home to Victoria. AVe have left a country, whose strongest drink is coffee. It has been free from the alcoholic curse, ever since the Christians and Romans were kicked out of it by Mahomet, 1200 years ago. The Jerusalem town council is not disputing or having I 31 for 1876-77 aught to do with liquor indulgences. Such a question thers in its no other do [ recommen- andiug that " Saviours " lating our ered in the But in some . symbol of Durs " were saviour of I of Decem- bring light on Sunday, he deluded le, a sun Christians. y mention Mithra the listian, that ipis Horus jrreek, and rove," and CO. 3ersonated. ? rape- juice the inter- much on " sacred " it I must ) Victoria. fc drink is olic curse, are kicked go. The or having never comes up m non-Christian countries. Sentiment is no longer debased there. The Moham- medan God, too, is also the God of the Bible. But .they understand that He has forbidden the use of I alcohol as a beverage. We understand that He came f down from Heaven to earth, manufactured liquor by wholesale for a convivial gathering, and that He dirccfed thai His memory he celebraied by the use of infoxicxding liquor. That He commanded it. With sane people that would settle the matter. With the insane it will be regarded as proof of the divinity of the Christian religion. Would that there was less I " divinity " :.nd more sobriety. But we are in the I land of debauched sentiment and indulgences again. " Standing on this Pacific shore, and facing westward all is temperance before us and all intemperance behind us again. What have we learned? Firstly, that the Christian world is in the darkness of absolute ignorance on the liquor problem. Secondly, that the history of prohibition does not commence in Maine. Thirdly, that prohibition, when in a religion, is the only bulwark wliich has withstood the lashings of the alcoholic waves. Fourthly, that two-thirds and more of mankind are free from intemperance through ^ prohibition. Fifthly, that Christianity is the only f surviving alcoholic religion, and that Christians are I the only surviving victims of alcohol. No " Bands of Hope " or hopeless bands required outside Christian- ity. Sixthly, that we are blindly corrupting the temperate nations, but thanks to the trinity of temperance heroes, Buddha, Confucius and Mahomet, our efforts, excepting savage' peoples, have resulted in glorious failures. Seventhly, that we have extermin- ated and are exterminating many savage nations. Eighthly, that intemperance being the cause of nine- tenths of the crime amongst us, as often stated from pulpit and platform, it follows that the so-called heathen have only one-tenth as much crime as we ha\ J. " Capital sentences, says Max Muller, are one 32 in 10,000 of tha populntion in England, and only one in 1,000,000 in Bengal." Crime and sin are nearly convertible terms. So you see from whom the missionaries should come — from the Oriental nations to us. Now grip yonr seats again. I will knock your idol oflP the platform of toleration altogether. Brought forth into the light with Buddha, Confucius and Mahomet and their teeming millions of Asia and Africa, sober through their gJorious works, the Christian idol (/. c. the sun-impersonation) cuts a pitiable figure with Europe and America, drunken through his failure to prohihii. Not only for what he did but for what he left undone do I arraign and convict this idol. And not only is Judaic Christianity responsible for Caucasian intemperance by its failure to prohibit, but for standing in the way of a religion (the Mohammedan) which wanted to control and would have controlled it. No wonder our people are ignorant of prohibition, and talk of Maine. Surely no one will have the effrontery to claim that there is prohibition in the Christian religion. But I am prepared to hear anything from those who deny that it was wine that Christ made at Cana or that he gave to his apostles. A priest told me that it is blasphemy to say it was not wine. I admired his honesty. It is a pitiable spectacle, after 18 centuries of liquor dealing from millions of sacred bars, to see pious frauds splitting hairs about grape-juice, when arraigned on the charge of corru] ting mankind. But it is of no consequence now what was given to the apostles. We know positively what has been and what is being given to the people and endorsed as of God by the church. "Don't forget this when your parson talks to you about the Almighty endorsing tartaric acid. As to prohibition, our profound ignorance of it and desperate attempts to get it into civil law, are proof enough that it does not exist in the Christian religion. Talk no more of the " mistakes of Moses." I have " grand discounted " Ingersoll. Moses' mistakes were & t M u 88 comparatively harmless. But the mistake of putting of putting ((Jcohol, the great crime producer^ into a religion, instead of prohibition, the great crime pre- venTer, is overwhelming in disastrous consequences. Whole races of mankind have been and are being exterminated in consequence. But for this mistake the glorious works of Buddha, Confucius and Ma- homet would have been continued and finished, and temperance would have been universal. Now that the ruinous nature of the business of the sacred bar keepers is exposed, it is hoped that they will drop it. To continue it, is a crime against humanity. Every person, too, who drinks at these sacred bars, is accessory after the fact to the crimes which are being and have been committed in consequence, and accessory before the fact for the crimes which are to follow. The awful blasphemous falsehood that the Almighty has set his seal of approval upon alcohol as being superior to water is thus endorsed. These are intemperance meetings beside which the Bacchanalian orgies of Greece and Rome are insipid because sober, solemn and deliberate. But the small quantity usually taken has no foundation in scripture. Nowhere is a small quantity indicated, excepting where it is to be taken " often." That temperance people should engage in or countenance them is only another example of the blinding power of religion. There should be little wonder that temperance efforts are in vain. The cause should now be clear to any person of sound mind. The present Blue Ribbon and W. C. T. U. move- ments are in direct opposition to the teachings of our Christianity. This is so obvious from what I have said already as only to require mention. They fly to the Jewish scriptures instinctively for support. But there is no prohibition there. " Give strong drink ' ' says King Lemuel " unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his misery no more." Prov. XXXI : 6-7. The only solid ground for prohibition is ,% I 84 in the experience of the Orientals. But our Blue Ribboners have been kept in ignorance on the subject, and now when enlightened are ashamed to refer to it, ashamed to give the whole history of prohibition. Besides, they know it is too late to put it in their religion. Putting it in civil law is only an experiment. But the sacred wine should be included in the prohibition and the sacred bars closed. They should feel profound humiliation that the " human " religions discount, yea, bankrupt their " divine " religion in so important a matter. A REMARKABLE CONFESSION. I give the following explicit confession in regard to the Oriental religions and the corrupting influence of Christianity, by one of the highest dignitaries of the church. In a recent sermon in Westminster Abbey, Canon Farrar, after referring to the awful fact that there are 600,000 drunkards m England alone, and to the frightful state of affairs in some parts of London, thus : — " Formerly the wife was the victim of her husband's brutishness, now she is his partner. Threats and blows resound on the curse-laden air, and the miser- able children, ragged nnC half starved, huddle together in the cellar ov )u the chimney, or hide under rotten heaps of straw or rags, till the storm is passed. In many large towns there are whole streets and districts of such drunkards, the disgrace of our civilization and Christianity," admits this: — " We have destroyed and exterminated races of mankind by introducing the vice ivhose ramifications extend everywhere.'''' (Italics are mine). " The sobriety of China is due to Confucius, that of India and Burmah to Buddha, and that of vast regions of Asia and Africa to Mahomet, and behold, a greater than these is here." " A greater what ? " I would ask the Archdeacon. How stupid ! If the " heathen " were drunken and Christians sober, and the " founder " of Christianity t'v f\ 35 t'v fx had forbiddon the use of stronp; drink, mid Confucius, Buddha and Maliomet had endorsed aleoholio liquors as a beverajjje, the Archdeacon would not be so blind. Perhaps a big salary has a blinding influence. The matter, therefore, is beyond argument. But perhaps someone will attempt to show that prohibition is a bad thing in a religion, and instance the sobriety of the Oriental nations. Perhaps it will l)e under- taken to show that attending a convivial gathering and becoming a wholesale manufacturer of liquor for the occasion ..nd directing that his memory bo cele- brated by intoxicating liquor are far better actions on the part of a great religious leader than prohibiting the use of intoxicating liquor. Perhaps it will be shown that the inscription on the door of a church (Buddhic) : No wiiw or lueaf muni enter here, tends to immorality, and that dealing out strong drinks from church altars conserves moralitj^. Perhaps it will be shown that sobriety is a bad thing, and that drunken- ness, incendiarism and murder are good things. But as it is quite unlikely that any of these things will be done, the question comes up : Can we longer aiford to support the Christian religion as at present taught? Think of the army of sacred bar keejjers to support, and of the hopeless host annually going down to drunkards' graves. And think of the wail of the millions of worse than widowed wives and worse than orphaned children, of the hundreds of millions in premature graves, of the pauperism and crime, and of the thousands on the scaffold, saying with their last breath, " it was liquor did it." More than this, I ask whether, in the light of this new revelation, to give support to the Christian religion is not a crime. In conclusion, I think, I may fairly claim to have discounted not only Ingersoll, but other critics also ; not in rhetorical pyrotechnics, but in the size of the hole made in the enemy's bottom. Others have charged that Christianity is unhistorical, unreasonable, ridiculous, impossible ; T have convicted it as a crim- inal, whose progress should be promptly arrested. l;A^ 5 86 To show that my statements or charges are false is impossible ; to do anything else is like beating the wind. EPILOGUE. A synopsis of ihp lecture was published on the fol- lowing morning by the local press. The best response was as indicated in the text, /. e. that the other religions had evils also, which is equal to a plea of guilty. A claim I had made, of being the pioneer temper- ance lecturer of British Columbia, was disputed by a reverend gentleman, but he could only refer to the clergy as antedating me. I responded that I did not recognize as temperance advocates those who said on Sunday that intoxicating liquor was of God and on Monday that it was of the devil. Church parasites have been amazed at my impru- dence, and intimate that Christians will regard me as an enemy and show their love ("love > our enemies") by boycotting, and no one knows better what the " Christian " will do than the parasite. How best to run a church, is the study of his life, the great business problem of the age. Paying pew rent is said [to be a good plan, no attendance being neccdyary ; and buying sociability at " Socials " and "Fairs," where pious gambling is practised, is very popular. A veteran trickster will even drink at the sacred bar. It is hoped that some noted parasite will write a book on the subject, and that it will be placed in the schools. All other accomplishments are often in vain without this one, indeed superfluous. There are some adepts. I have known a medical man so expert in this particular as to run a large portion of the con- gregation into the ground. $ /K V % 37 Eecent enquiry amongst the Chinese develops as a fact that Lao Kiun, the virgin-born founder of Taoism, added his influence to that of Buddha and Confucius in favor of sobrioty. Taoism is a monotheism, and Lao Kiun ascended bodily into paradise. Well done, Lao Kiun ! The pious reader may be consoled to learn that not one word of criticism in my lecture necessarily applies to Jesus of Nazareth. Of the score or more of "Saviours," i.e. sun-impersonations, Buddha alone, so far as accredited, put prohibition in his Christianity. How Judaic Christianity missed it, seeing it has so much that is Buddhic, I leave others to decide. Future revisers may discover prohibition, may find that pre- scription means proscription. Hell is now only Sheol and wine is not wine. Perhaps the wrong books were selected. The fact that these books contradict one another settles the matter, I think, clearly in favor of this theory. A very pointed illustration of this is that St. John denies the story of the synoptic gospels concerning the sacrament, by stating that Christ was crucified before the passover, and substitutes the char- ming feet washing seance. And St. John is probably right, for the sacrament as already intimated is not Judaic Christian at all, it belongs to Christianities ex- isting centuries before our era; therefore Christ could not have instituted it. In the Bacchic Mysteries a consecrated cup of wine was passed around after supper, called the cup of the Agath ^dsemon, or Good Divinity, and throughout the whole ceremony the name of the Ijovd was frequently repeated." * The sacrament was a part of the Elusinian Mysteries and the worship of nearly all the sun-gods. In a word, both Christianity and the Eucharist are as old as history, as old as fermented soma juice. Saviour was a common title of the sun-gods of antiquity ,t some of whom were born of a virgin, Maya, Myrrha, Maria * See Diinlap's Spiritual History and Isis Unveiled. t Walcfi Plialliam in Ancient Reli{?ions, p. 55. s w. 38 or Mary. They all had (sun) rays of gloiy surround- ing their heads, or the equivalent long golden hair. * The name Samson means the sun ; Samson, shorn of his locks, is the sun at night or in winter. The Cana affair is a part of the sur-myth added to the history of Jesus of Nazareth ; therefore he is not the hero of that (^vhen viewed literally) debasing story. I am proud to be the first (?) to vindicate him in this matter. Bacchus transformed water into wine.f Bacchus was a name of the sun. The sun is CvOntin- ually turning " water " into wine, and indeed monopo- lizes the business. This and thp peculiar effects of wine explains its use in the worship of the sun-gods and its connection with religion. Like the many others, Bacchus was called the Saviour, J tlie Sin-bearer ,§ the Redeemer, II the Only Begotten Son. IH8 was not only a monogram oi Bacchus, but of the sun, and is now of Christ. What I have said of John the Baptist also refers to the literal interpretation. John the Baptist, born on 24th Jane, is the waniog sun, indicating waning wine making power, and baptism by rain or water. He was preceded and followed (see John 1 : 15) by the increasing sun, indicating wine making i^ower and baptism by " fire." Baptism, or purification by water, was a ceremony common to all religions of antiquity.*!] Ah I easy fools to think tha^a whole flood Of water e'er can purge the stain of blood. Ovid. Not, I would say, if it ?s,as now, applied externally Regeneration of our white race can come from the "flood" of water inside and keeping the flood of alcohol outside. But Christian literalism carefully directs that the alcohol be put inside and the w iter kept outside. — ( — — — ■ * * Manv Authorities. t '. ~>upiii8, Origin of Religions Belief, and Anacalypsis, by Godfrey Higgins, F.R.S., F.RA. S. t Ibid., and Knight, Ancient Art and Mythology. § Bon vie, Egyptian Belief, p. 169. || Dupnis, op. cit. ^ Bell's Pantheon, Vol. 2, p. 201, quoted in "Bible Myths." i iy r v*.. -M i W