The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1854-09-01
Rev. DIR. Ueechcr aud the Traffic.


The following are the sentiments of the
Rev. DR.. Beecher, upon the subject of Traffic
in intoxicating Drinks, and, for eloquence
and expression, and fidelity to truth, will never
be surpassed. Let every friend of the Pro.
hibitory Law READ, and be strengthened ia
his resolution to perse, ere in his pursuit o
that Remedy.
HAS not God connected with all lawful nv.
ocations the welfare of that which now is, and
that which isl come; & canw lawfully amass
property by course of trade which fills the
land with beggars, aud widows, and orphans
and crimes; which peoples the grave yard with
Premature mortality and the world ofwoe with
victims Ct despair! Could all the forms Of
evil produced in land by intemperance, come
upon us in one horrd array, it would appel
the nation, and put an end to the traffic. II
in every dwelling built by blood, the stone
from the wall sho'd utter all the cries which the
bloody traffic exorts--and the beam of the
timber should echo them back--icho lrouid
build such house? and ,Cho d,reH in IL! What,
if in every part of dwelling from the cellar
upwards, thro' all the halls and chambers--bab-
bling and contentious, and vice, and groans,
and shrieks, and wailng were heard by day
and by night! What, if the cold blood oozed
out and stood upon the walls and by prefer
natural art, all the skulls and bones of the
victims destroyed by intemperance, should
stand upon the walls, in horrd sculpture,
within and without the bulding!-Uho uould
rear such a building! What, if at eventde
and at midnight, the airy forms of men de-
stroyed BY intemperance, were dimy seen
haunting the distileries and stores whore
they received the bane-following the track
of the ship engaged in ommerce-walking
upon the waves-iltting athwart the deck
sitting upon the rigging and sending up from
the hold within, and from the waves without,
groans and loud laments and wailngs! who
arouLd attend such stores! ,cho ,could labor in
such diStiierieS! who uoud naUiqaie such ships!
Oh! when the sky over our heads, one great
whispering gallery, brings down upon us all
the lamentations and woe which inemper-
anCe creates, and the firm earth, one sonorouS
medium of sound, sends up from beneath the
wailines Of those the commerce of ardent
spun "Nu SC"S tHttHtIJ LhtSC lltHltHuoNS IT,
alities. assaling our sense, 1r0uH inUigordtc
CONSCIENCE, anil give decision to or purpose o(
reformation. But these evils are as real, us
if the stones did cry out of the wall, and the
beam answered it--as real US if, day and night,
wailiugs were heard in every part of the
dweline--and blood and skeletons were seen
upon every wall as real, as if the ghostly
f'rn!s Of departed victims fitted about the
ship as she passed over the pillows and show
ed themselves nightly about stores and distiI-
leres, (and we may add breweries) and with
unearthly voices screamed in our ears loud la
ment They are as real as if the sky over our
heads collected and brought down about us
all the notes of sorrow in the land-and the
firm earth should open n passage for the wall
ing of despair to come up from beneath"