Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1860-11-14
This Is The Fad To He'll y

Az q
'swhiskcy led me to bad coppanv
that has brought me TO the gaIiows' The y H.lskey
OF the Whisky shop led me astray. Yes. M Hpt4aon
and now, IL was able. / would have printsJ 70 Hell
door OF every whiskey shop in the STATE anSS'e the
HILL" ~ ho 10 ID ROAD TO
Such was the honest confession If
culprit on the gallows. charged with tbo
der Of a fellow immortal. What a record,
Yet it is as true as it is melancholy III
poor man felt and saw more fully than eyer
before, what every dying inebriate feels and
what every honest philanthropist mnst Gel
that the miserable grog shop, or store. Or
loon where intoxicating liquors are sold 81
tie road to hell"
What an appropriate designation or
for all those vending shops, is the one sng-
gested by the dying man. How trutbf,lv
does it indicate the results, if not the dosion
OF these establishments And yet what man
who has a conscience thinks of it, when he
begins the trafic' How few stop to consider
the crime and the consequences of the vo-
cation!
1t is almost hazardous nowadays to sns,L
OF this horrid business. 1t has become 50 In
crative-so profitable a vocation-so MANY
men of position, responsibility and wealth.
have become the manufacturers the venders
the drinkers, the apologists of alcohol and of
the traffic, -society has become so oyerpow-
cred by its influences. so modest in its cen
sures if not so apologize in fact society has
become so rotten in its social and moral est
mates of mankind, that q man jeopards his
social position, his pecuniary interests, if not
his character and person, to speak of it as it
deserves to be.
Nevertheless, we must speak. Our COM
miseration of human suffering; our utter hor-
ror of the ruin which it is bringing on our
coun'rymen; our contempt for the miserable,
d%riveling apologies and pleas set up for it;
our responsibilities to the public and the ac-
count W. must render to God. force us to
speak out.
The dying culprit spoke the truth and moth
ing but the truth, when he said, the achisFey
shop as the road to he'll. He might have said.
the nearest road thither. And who doubts
it, who has an eye to see the beginnings and
the endings of that business. The law NAV
legalize it-society may give its sanction to it
men of honor may patronize it, but the wa.
tiers of ocean cannot wash it of its blackness.
its corruption and moral stencil. Human law
cannot make a wrong per se,-a wrong deter
mined to be such by mems moral sense.-a
wrong so denounced by God himself, to be
right. Were all the legislatures and the
courts of the world, to give their sanction TO
the manufacture, the sale of Intoxicating IL
quors and their consequences, they could not
make it right. These legal decisions added
to the indulgence, might blunt and bli nd the
consclences and throw over it a dark pail al
most impenetrable, yet if God stir that con-
science and wake it up-if He shed the
f%aintest ray of light athwart the gloom, that
conscience would at once attest its condem-
nation. What God determines to be rro10
notnlng can make ii right. And that He has
SO determined in this case, is as clear as noon.
day.
Let US be understood. We are neitbo, o
monmanlac nor a fanatic. We do NOT hold i
10 De a crime to make, to sell or to use If f,,.
any Pu'pose, under all circumstances. Far
from it. There are legitimate uses and mr.
poses, to which if confined, it might be made
a blessing to man. But the grand design Of
money mating, ~ithout regard TO conseouen-
eeS, which is now the universal prompter 70
us manufacture and sale, and the inducement
which leads to its indulgence as a beverage
are all bad-are evil without any mixture Of
good-continually evil without cessation
This is the Road to He'll" is the nrcror
designation of the place as well as the mr.
pose OF Its manufacture, sale or impropcru sc
Alas how many have found it 50. If has
been the road thither to many a maker, sci
Ter and drlnker, and to their children after
tnem, Reader are You in that road if Won
would escape hell, cave it at once. Younp
man, just on the point of entering If he ad
monlshed, and shun it. Have nothing 70 do
with it. For remember, the man who was
brought to the gallows by it, saws, seTH1s Is
THE WAY TO HE'LL"