Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1856-06-11
Drunkenness increasing.

IT has been said that there is more drum
ness now than there was a few years ago
We have reason to fear that there is truth
of this recently in sections once renowned
for adherence to temperance principles
Why is this There has been a steady effort
made for the last twenty five years to sup
press this vice-some have grown grey in
the service-much has been said and written
every honorable means has been employed
to induce men to be sober, and still, as time
comes and goes, it seems that the evil widens
and deepens its black channel of death and
every year swallows up more and more of
the beauty, strength and virtue of manhood.
Why is it, and what is to be done
For years we have been an anxious obser-
yer of the progress of the temperance cause,
and have watched with solicitude what might
be the effect of the temperance star in the
moral sky and we have long since become
convinced that if the glorious principles of
temperance are ever universally acknowl-
edged-if drunkenness is ever banished, it
AHoSS w ~ obIN NLDll I'D lBdl u III lkO-
lated society having in view that one object.
We concede that much has been done and
much viii yet be done by the different tenn
perance organizations, Lut if their mission
is ever fulfilled, it must be by the aid of the
different religious denominations of the land.
Temperance must again be accorded Its legi-
innate position in the Gospel, and be faith
fully held forth as on of the cardinal princi-
pies in the illustrious scheme for the saliva
ton of men. Drunkenness must be con-
demned by "the ambassadors of Christi as a
sin, and the making of men drunken must
? also be proclaimed as a sin, before the public
will give ear to this great moral question:
1t IS OF little avail that speakers and writers,
ont Of the pulpit, depict TIE moral degrade.
. ton Of the sot, the sorrow Of the widowed
2 mother and the guilt Of the spirit Yender,
d while drunkenness and its dark .%retinue Of
attending evils receive sacerdotal sanction.
I Although, as a people, we are comparatively
free from priestly domination, yet any mind,
the least Gbservant, cannot have failed to no.
tlce that the masses are controlled, or at
least biased, in their estimation Of right and
wrong by the tone Of the pulpit. Hence
while those who occupy the pulpit as teach
a ers Of moral ethics fail to represent drunken
ness in its true colors of sin-while they
slide around, or over, or under tie traffic
of while they simply .int at Noah's inebriation
al and fatter themselves that they have made a
u terrible onslaught among the hosts Of rum,
we may reasonably expect drunkenness to be
rk found on the increase and all manner of
wickedness Astounding.
In order for the pulpit to perform its part
in this great work it is essential that it should
y! be general and universal. For one denomi-
ur nation alone, or a few c~Iergymcn in one or
i'll several denominations to attempt to effect a
y. great work, is altogether futile. Such a
i'll course would call down denunciation from
IS, certain quarters, aud ecclesiastical tapsters
he would wag their heads at the temerity of
clergymen teaching strange doctrine" and
g. promulgating strange Gods" But more
in of this hereafter.