On some of the medico-legal relations of the habit of intemperance / by Robert Christison.

  • Christison, Robert, Sir, 1797-1882.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On some of the medico-legal relations of the habit of intemperance / by Robert Christison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    is not too soon now: to say that it is too late, is not merely to impute error to the apostles, on a matter which they made of first-rate moral importance, but is to say, that those whom Peter calls ungodly scoffers, walking after their own lusts— were right, and he was wrong, on the very point for which he thus vituperated them. The importance of this doctrine is, that it totally forbids all working for earthly objects distant in time: and here the Irish clergyman threw into the same scale the entire weight of his character. For instance; if a youth had a natural aptitude for mathematics, and he asked, ought he to give himself to the study, in hope that he might diffuse a serviceable know- ledge of it, or possibly even enlarge the boundaries of the science? my friend would have replied, that such a purpose was very proper, if entertained by a worldly man. Let the dead bury their dead; and let the world study the things of the world: they know no better, and they are of use to the Church, who may borrow and use the jewels of the Egyptians. But such studies cannot be eagerly followed by the Christian, except when he yields to unbelief. In fact, what would it avail even to become a second La Place after thirty years' study, if in five and thirty years the Lord descended from heaven, snatched up all his saints to meet him, and burned to ashes all the works of the earth? Then all the mathemati- cian's work would have perished, and he would grieve over his unwisdom, in laying up store which could not stand the fire of the Lord. Clearly; if we are bound to act as though the end of all earthly concerns may come, at cockcrowing or at midday, then to work for distant earthly objects is the part of a fool or of an unbeliever, I found a wonderful dulness in many persons on this im- portant subject. Wholly careless to ask what was the true apostolic doctrine, they insisted that Death is to us practi- cally the coming of the Lord, and were amazed at my seeing so much emphasis in the other view. This comes of the abominable selfishness preached as religion. If I were to labour at some useful work for ten years,—say, at clearing forest land, laying out a farm, and building a house,—and were then to die, I should leave my work to my successors, and it would not be lost. Some men work for higher, some for lower, earthly ends; ( in a great house there are many vessels, &c.;) but all the results are valuable, if there is a chance of transmitting them to those who follow us. But if