One Minute Testimonials: Charrington Gave Up Six Million Dollars

There died at the age of eighty-five a man who was well-known in London and throughout Great Britain as an apostle of temperance, partly because he gave up a fortune of six million dollars for conscience’ sake and for the sake of his fellow man.

Frederick N. Charrington was out one evening making a night of it with a group of friends. Strolling down one of London’s most notorious streets, a woman, ragged and pale, reeled out, her frail frame convulsed with sobs. She was clinging to a ruffian who was trying to shake her loose. “For God’s sake,” she cried, “give me a copper. I’m hungry, and the children are starving.” But the man clenched his fist and struck her to the ground.

Young Charrington and his friends rushed in to intervene and protect the woman. After the police had taken the couple away he happened to glance up at the illuminated sign over the saloon door, and there he read in letters of gold his own name—“Drink Charrington beer.”

“The message,” afterward wrote this young man, “came to me then as it had come to the Apostle Paul. Here was the source of my family wealth. Then and there I raised my hands to heaven, that not another penny of that tainted money should come to me, and that henceforth I would devote my life to fighting the drink traffic.”