with red blood in their veins, are contagious. The heaviest blow that
you can strike at the kingdom of evil is just to follow the advice which
the dying Sir Walter Scott gave to his son-in-law, Lockhart: "Be a good
man." And if you want to know how, there is but one perfect and supreme
example,--the life of Him who not only did no evil but went about doing
good.

Now take that thought of fighting evil with good and apply it to our
world and to ourselves.

Here are monstrous evils and vices in society. Let intemperance be the
type of them all, because so many of the others are its children.
Drunkenness ruins more homes and wrecks more lives than war. How shall
we oppose it? I do not say that we shall not pass resolutions and make
laws against it. But I do say that we can never really conquer the evil
in this way. I hold with Phillips Brooks that "all prohibitory measures
are negative. That they have their uses no one can doubt. That they have
their limits is just as clear."

The stronghold of intemperance lies in the vacancy and despair of men's
minds. The way to attack it is to make the sober life beautiful and
happy and full of interest. Teach your boys how to work, how to read,
how to play, you fathers, before you send them to college, if you want
to guard them against the temptations of strong drink and the many
shames and sorrows that go with it. Make the life of your community
cheerful and pleasant and interesting, you reformers, provide men with
recreation which will not harm them, if you want to take away the power
of the gilded saloon and the grimy boozing-ken. Parks and play-grounds,
libraries and music-rooms, clean homes and cheerful churches,--these
are the efficient foes of intemperance. And the same thing is true of