Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-05-13
ExrRAc CTS FROM THE OK SERMON.
by REV. DAVID MERRILL.


Among the laws given by the Divine
Lawgiver through Moses to the Jews,
was the following: ST an OK gore a
man or woman that they die, then the
OK shall be stoned-but the owner shall
be quiet. But if the OK ,oere a0ont to
push with his horn in time past, and it
hath been testified to his owner, and he
hath not kept him in, but he hath killed
a man or woman, the OK shall be ston-
ed, and his owner also shall be put 10
death. .''-Esdoas, XXI, 28, 20.
The principle of this law is very
plain one-and very broad one--here
applied in a specific case, but extending
to ten thousand others. 1t is this. Eve
ry man is responsible to God for the evils
which result from his selfshness, or his
indifference to the welfare of others.
The principle of common sense.
Every man is responsible for evils which
result from his own selfshness or indif-
ference to the lives of men. In other
words, to make man responsible for re-
sults, it is not necessary TO prove that he
has malice, or that he intended the re-
suits. The highwayman had no malice
against him, he robs and murders, nor
dose he desire his death, but his money,
and if he can get the money be does not
care. And he robs and murders because
he loves himself and does not care for
others; acting in different way. but on
the same selfish principle with the owner
of the OK, and on the very same princi-
pie is he held responsible.
In the trial Of the owner Of the OK,
the only questions to be asked were these
two: Was the OK scont to push with his
horn in time past? Did the owner knotc
it when he let him loose? If both these
questions we're answered in the aiiirma-
tive, the owner was responsible for all the
consequences. This is rule which God
himself has established.
l. Is Intoxicating Liquor wont to pro
duce misery, and wretchedness, and
death =? Has this been testified to those
who make and deal in it as beverage ?
If these two things can be established,
the inference is inevitable--they are res
ponsible on principle perfectly intellig-
ible, principle recognised and proclaim
ed, and acted upon by God himself.
Turn then your attention to these two
facts:
l. Intoxicating liquor is wont to pro-
duce misery.
2. Those who make or traffic in it
know this.
The greatest wretchedness which hu-
man nature in the world is called to en-
dure, is connected with the use OF ines
briating drink. There is nothing else
that degrades and debases man like it
nothing SO mean that drunkard will not
stoop to it-nothing too base for him to
do 10 obtain his favorite drink. Nothing
else so sinks the whole man-so com
pletely destroys, not only all moral prin-
ciple, but all self-respect, all regard to
character, all shame, all human feeling.
The drunkard can break out from every
kind of endearing connection and break
over every kind of restraint; so COM
pletely extinct is human feeling, that be
can be drunk at the funeral Of his dear
est relative, and call for drink in the last
accents of expiring nature.
Now look at a human being, whom
God has made for noble purposes and
endowed with noble faculties, degraded,
disgraced, polluted, unfit for heaven, and
a nuisance on earth. He is the centre
of circle-count up his influence in his
family and his neighborhood-the wretch
edness he endures, and the wretchedness
be causss-count up the trears of a
wretched wife who curses the day Of her
espousals, and of wretched children who
curse the day Of their birth. To all this