Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1855-07-11
VOL. VI.

Of the appetite which it gra1ifes, is espe-
cially degrading in its influence. It leads
to meanness and groveling; and while
other sinners would at least purchase thei
world for the price Of their souls, the con-
frmed drunkard will sell his Immortality
for the value of cup of liquor And
while drunkenness accompanies, it more
than any other vice stimulates, the action
of all other works of the flesh. 1t excites
in corrupt human nature HATRED, VA
RANCE, EMULATIoNs, wRATH, STRIFE,
ENvYINGs, MURDER. 1t is saying little
Of it to declare that it populat@ our poor !.
subjects for the gallows, and
impels to all conceivable crimes which
overburden the calendars Of our courts Of
justice. But more than this (: it develops
by It's stimulus all the unclean vices Of the
fesh--adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciyiouSness, and other works which the
Apostle says it is shame even to name
among pure-ninded christians.
Such is faint and unequal description
of the spiritual effects of drunkenness such
are the internal sins which this work of the
flesh generates !; such are the external
denominations which it excites men to per-
petrate And if "he that soweth to the
flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption"
drunkenness hurries to maturity the nau-
seous fruits of corruption. Drunkenness
causes men here upon earth to be sickened
by the deadly bitterness of these fruits,
that they may mercifully, while in state
of probation, have foretaste of the neces-
sary consequences of the infraction of the
divine laws, which will be fully developed
only when the sickle shall be put into the
harvest at the final gathering for eternal
judgment. The fact is we'll known, and
it is not at all necessary in this place to COM
ment upon it, that the vice of drunkenness
is the Immediate and exciting cause of nine
tenths of the murders which are committed
in our land-the exciting cause of nearly
every other crime, in the same proportion
; that to the stimulus of intoxicating drink
may be traced every species of public out
rage and private brutality-that wives dis
honored in domestic retirement by vulgar
: vituperation and unmanly blows, disgraced,
, murdered by inches by the slow torture of
modification and shame, as we'll as by phys
, ical suffering, worse than widowed that
children neglected and outcast, dwarfed In
soul and body by i'll treatment, familiar
lied with the most degrading practices, and
exposed to the most fearful temptations,
ruined in soul and body for time and eter
nity-that mothers, bcholding the angel of
f innocence whom they have watched over
in his little cradle with prayers and tears,
, turned into the bloated debauchee, repay
ing their gentleness and love by insults
, and foul mouthed abuse, if not by violence
all can trace their suffering and their woe
, to the exciting cause of drunkenness. The
root of the evil, we know, is in the depra-
we'd nature of fallen man but what shall
e we say of thatindulgence in stimulus which
f forwards and developes the deadly evil
from the root into the full blown blossom,
: the ripened fruits of misery and woe II
, we were credulous as to magic and charms
e might we not believe that witches, and
o hags, and demons from the lowest pit, had
v sung their incantations over the inebriatine
% cup?
,e And you well know, brethren, that thi
"
le fiction and the creations of fancy, but from
- the annals Of your own community, ant
50 from the private history of almost ever,
is neighborhood, | might say almost ever,
ID family in our land o !! who shall writ
st up the long catalogue of hidden and reveal
- ed, of public and family su9erings, tracea
IN bic to the exciting cause of inordinat
at drinking May we not suppose that tn
MS recording angel sufuses with tears tn
nd melancholy account Can we wonder q
nd the agony which was accumulated upon tn
an innocent victim of the sins of the worlC
lst JESUS, who travelled in vain, alas in val
he for many, to redeem them from the de-
sat truction of their own INDUCED passion
av and appetites And we can scarcely me-
re- tion, for the subject would grow into vo
. umes and your patience tonight would
his worn out, we can scarcely mention the weal
he life of physical and mental depressio
be which ensues to those who escape by God
le mercy from the worst consequences of tn
nal awful vice.
wv But now for the remedy | will try
lu be brief, for the remedy is simple and ea
of ly applied. The Gospel of Jesus Christ
w. the only divine and infallible remedy
the all the spiritual and physical ills Of b
md manity. Spiritual and physical, say
the for Jesus is the Redeemer both of soul al
ON body. The Holy Spirit, shed forth thl
put the incarnation, death, resurrection, asce
We ton and intcrcession Of the eternal Son
md Cod the Holy Spirit is the SanctiGer
len the body, soul and spirit cf men, to sa
nav whom Christ Jesus became man, in
sed things tempted like as we, and yet withc
r sin and in that He Himself while up
of earth was tempted in His human natu
can He knows how to succor them that
of tempted. The Immortality of our chang
, Ii. bodies made like unto the glorifed body
son the Son of God, is the revelation of 4
cart Gospel of Christ which confirms the gr
the truth of the Immortality of the soul.
mes our spiritual union with Christ, and by
S of power of His grace, We will be enabled
the mortify our members which are upon
fees earth, in their inordinate concupisccn'
rnal and at the general resurrection Of NOR
the to final judgment, this mortal will put
the immortality this corruption which !
fiery weighs us down, interruption. Jesus sh
Tie Himself to be the divine physician of b
den and soul; manifests in His teachings G.
his remedy for physical ills--for tempera
mat is in the very alphabet of christian gra
RS of There can be no. progress in the divine
/, be without temperance and abstinence, WI