Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1858-05-05

the lawyer for instance, such a,slave to the
bottle that he.neglected his business, lost
his case and ruined his client. The widow
and the orphan have by his cruel neglect
lost their whole living and been sent PEN
niless upon the cold charities of the world.
Jurors under its influence have forfeited
their oaths and rended verdict not accor-
ding to evidence-have condemned the IN
nocent, and acquitted the guilty, have sent
the wanderer loose upon society with all
the atrocity of his crimes unpunished.
We have seen the intemperatephysician
stagger into the room of his patient. With
trembling hand and brain floating in .he
fiery fluid, we have seen him roll The nil.
Death. mysterious
4 and unlookedfor, has followed in the wake
Of such visitations. But there is another
Character that l am ekEsed on TO speakaof.
more than those yet named. Impossible
you may think. What in the wide wide
world can be worse than drunken Doc
tor know that he ranks high in the
army of evil doers and does his master the
devil a singular service that no other man
can do, vet there is another that looks
"OISSs tIIuo6 IItiLh IuC GASES are lSOIdkSuS
| never heard of one until | came out west,
(hope there are numbers here though who
have never yet heard of one.) Ii must be
an Incorporate woman, think YOU have,
| am panied to- say, heard of some females
who drank to excess, this is too bad, but
they are not those yet that we are disposed
to call sinners above all others. 1t is the
incorporate minister Of the gospel. The
preacher of righteousness, he who has
warned us from the sacred desk, he. saved
others, himself he cenld not save. he too in
an evil hour has followed the multitude to
do evil-has yielded to the tempter and
been overcome; so far gone into state of
Bacchic ecstacy that he could show antics
with scoffers and unbelievers the very dregs
of society. What a spectacle!! If there
is sight on earth that makes devils laugh
and angels weep, it Is this. have heard
of borrowing the livery Of heaven to- serve
the devil in. Words fitly spoken Let
such an one take off his sacerdotal robes, he
has forfeited all claims to the priesthood
let him no longer offer sacrifices for the
sins of the people and pray for them-bus
let him put ashes upon his own head and
hunt for scapegoat to bear away into the
wilderness his own sins.
Some of the best men that the world has
ever produced have spent their lives in bat
ting against lntemperance. Philanthro-
| pists, noble, generous specimens of humani-
ty, have devoted their entire energies, en-
ployed all their powers of eloquence in the
! cause. They have done too. vast amount
of good, and their iliustFieus names like thas
of the good samaritan will be handed down
to posterity as benefactors Of their race
! Old Father Matthew, Catholic as he was,
should be cannonized a saint of the highest
order for the good he accomplished for the
Temperance cause-but the tongue of eo-
quence,'in all their lectures. has never yet
depicted anything equal to- the sad reality.
They have failed fully to- describe the
awful and terrible effects of dram-drinking
| the scourge of intemperance. 1t is more
! to be dreaded than war; pestience or fam
inc. 1t combines in itself all the evils of
those calamities, without the Hope of ter
mination. Those things. terrible, mortal
and destructive asthey may be, for the time
being, will come to end; We naturally look
for them to cease sooner or later, and the
hope makes them bearable. But intemper-
{ ance, that fiercest of all judgments that
ever yet visited our world, has never vet
disappeared, even for time Its strange
fires have never gone out; they continue
to burn and consume the people The
Pledge, like the serpent in the wilderness,
has been lifted up and many have been
saved still the fires burn upon the altars
| ofinebriation-thes smoke of the distilleries,
like that Of the bottomless pit, ascend for
ever. The sun does dot rise or set upon a
world ofsobermenatanys season of the year.
f Intcmperance ceaseth not day or night.
? 1t is aperpetual motion invented by satan
t himself, and is the most complicated, mys-
/ terious,. and ingenious contrivance that his
e subtility everplanned, since driven from tho
t garden of Paradise. 1t is the greatest Of
t all his works: We think that the very
t links of his chain were heightened to their
: utmost stretch, when our race was cursed
# with alcoholic liquors. IL was the revenge
be sought for a Paradise lost. No other
r agent Of his ever accomplished half SC
e much. 1t is the most effectual means he
If ever uses to lord it over the souls and bo
e dies OF fallen men,. sthe poisonous LIQUID
/ is taken into the physical system, the evi
III SplliO IuC ANU uWellS IEGTc.-
= The drunken man fer the. time being seems
is to be possessed with TIE devil. He is no
it himself, his reason IS gDne,. he does Jus
s what his master, whom he sersez prompt
e him to do. Sometimes be awakens in hin
e. thirst for blood. We have seen the VIC
p man that had her brains dashed out wit
Ii the bottle her husband had Just drained
is The wretch paid the forfeit of has crime
| upon the gallows. Sometimes very quar-
is rclsome spirit is infused :; a disputeis raise
le which is settled with bowie knife and pisto
k Sometimes the quarrel is with his own lif
en- and the voice of his own blood cTiesirfrcr
e. the ground. | have wondered how th
p vcnder of intoxicatingliqu can feel whe
5; he looks out upon that field of blood c
to carnage which they have produced, hav
IN wondered if he never feels refDorse of cor
re science. or realizes in his own breast wha
re a conspicuous actor he is in the sad dram
TO, Of human woes. We have wondered if b
feels il possible be can stand acquitted a
teI the ban Of Ged-, would not stand in hi
Car Mace for ten Thousands werTls. Before