Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1860-10-10


thousand-who has been distilline and ta-
king his moderate drink tillhis head is bleach
ed by the dews of four-score years and his
body bowed down by age, that has never
been known to stagger. He looks across the
graves of a thousand of the fallen, to one that
has escaped, and takes him for his guide; but
that guide is the guide to death. Go to the
inSuperabie dram-drinker and ask him where
are your sons? Where? And he shrinks from
the question. ,GniijSSRff 3pnes aslmhe Go thef.
to the hills ofthe uehd ;; ask the cold grave
Grave who slumbers here:' And searching
glance to years gone by, marshals them on
the visions of the mind; for they were the.
acquantances of your youth. You saw them
take the first drink, profered by their fatll-
er's hand, and that dram gave them the first
impulse of shame. You see that the fathers
example led them to death, and plunged them
into dishonored graves. Yes, you distinctly
remember them, who they were, when
they died, and hoao. The mortal part was
buried here, but where is the immortal
that part that never, never dies ? Have your
thoughts ever wandered beyond the troubled
sea OF death to the inebriate's darker world
Has revelation ever directed them there, and
told you in language that cannot be mis-
taken, that no drunkard shall enter the
AluSuoHu Ol heaven !!
These were the happy, promising youths,
Us thousands are now. Their father once
looked upon them with pride, and even look
ed far in advance of time, when they should
De stay and comfort to him in declining
yeas. But the father has out-liyed the sons
that father that oace boasted that he could
learn his sons to drink moderately, and at the
same time, guide them from the sinks of
md ho4
take Look at him now, standing on the
verge of the grave as he mourns for his lost
sons-mourns but finds none to comfort
him; for he has made his house desolate. See
him! see the look of agony that convulses
his face as he remembers, ma habits lured
them down to the chambers of death. Who
would wish to be like him Who would wish
to see the faces of their now blooming BOYS
distorted with drink, in reeling procession
on their way to drunkards' graves! And
Who would wish that when their trembling
spirits shall pierce the land ofdeepest shades
to be greeted by their lost sons with the
charge, your example brought me herer-
Then why persist in course that will ineyi-
tably lead to those results?
Who can deny that the first dram is the
first step In the march to drunkard's grave?
Ii any deny it, let him look once more to the
past, to those now sleeping irS death, on whom
memory still fingers, Fessl i' 'i e''i 1''u
to the present. on the s reens I. host now .svs res
20 me future and jsdge it by the past. What
has been, nlay-saagain. That which ruined
others may ruin you and yours. Their doom
may be yours and the doom of your sons.-
That which is so dimly seen in the future
will soon burst forth full on the vision. That
which is scarcely audible will soon thunder
in deafening peals when dissolution's trump
shall wake the dead, and hells dark waves
turn up the lost, that curse their God, and
that curse their fathers whose example led
them there How strange that so many will
continue the commission of a sin, that is sc
corrupting and blighting in its effects, when
such an overwhelming weight of testimony
is registered against it, that speaks in groans
and tears and blood But the father still
clings to the bowl, though it overhowed te
! the ruin of his sons. The son returns from
| his fathers funeral, who died the drunkard'
death, to drink yet a deeper draugbt. Tn
brother staggers by the grave of his brother
that fell victim to strong drink, and hug
still closer to his breast the destroyer Of tn
companion Of his youthful sports. Tens Q
thousands of moderate drinkers take no warn
ing from as many confirmed drunkards tha
|
their united groans of woe sound The alarl
in their farewell address to the world.
The voice of Him whose habitation is a
space and whose lifetime is eternal, point
the dram -drinker to perditidn's burning eel
as the end of his race, and he is warned J.
Listen o, infatuated man to the curse pr
nounced against the dram-drinkers of ant
guilty, and let the cup of overfowing woe
dashed from your lips forever: 'Wo un
: them that rise up early in the morning, tn
they may follow strong drink; that continl
until night till wine infame them! Thcr
fore hell hath enlarged herself, and opcne
her mouth without measure Wo unto the
that are mighty to drink wine, and men
strength to mingle strong dlink which jus
fly the wicked for reward, and take away t
= righteousness of the righteous from him !
: Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubb
u and the flame consumeth the chaff, SO til,
, root shall be as rottenness, and their biz
som shall go up as dust; because they ha
cast away the law of the Lord Of hosts, a
despised the word of the Holy One of Isra
;, ISAIAH 5: IL, IA, %, g. "a.
i But the moderate dlinker 'offends ths
little ones'-even bis own off-spring-and
T. were better for him that milestone We
y hanged about his neck and that he we
r. drowned in thesdepth of the sea. .'-MATn
6. Hear again the denunciation of G
.e ,e against all who cause others to transgres
II And the man of thine, whom | shall |
r. cut off from my altar, shall be to consu
- thine eyes and to grieve thine heart and
. the increase of thine house shall die in
+ flower Of their age a
n How many hearts are now grieved n
Sc many mothers eyes are consumed with we
IL ing How many, in the flower of their a
an who little while ago were moderate dri
IN ers, are now nodding to their fallp w
or vast multidudes of confirmed drunkards
ba now on the earth! In a few heetine We
Of where will they be? All! where De
ts will have cisbanded that host, almost re;
Il. now to throng the gate of death. If
sc whole mass were marshaled in one field v
f,r all there attendant miseries, what heart
o.. would quail at the sight? Who could /
sot S to see thousands hanging to the gallows t
ss and as many more lying in the clasp of de
.th covered with gore? But this would be o
>, the lightest shade of a representation of
no wretchedness there for close by would
zen seen many thousands lying hugged in
wv inebriate's sleep, and few hundred tn
Id and starving, half naked children, with t
ce. drops falling fast, shrinking from the to
YER of their beastly sires. Their mothers hu
their children together, and cast gla
ler- only few short years, to the happy
and when they received vows of love at the
ith riage altar; but how fallen i-yeta mott
ing ,oVe kIndies IN their oreas's the last hnge
and nope, when dlrects them 10 tue I3ture,
Did they find nothing there to hang it on
Al L Il