Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1876-03-09
Temperance Address.
The following address was deliv-
cred before Gallipolis Division No. 80
of the Sons of Temperance, by

of the Sons of Temperance, by
F. A. GUTHRIE,
and is published by special request:
WORTHY PATRIARCH AND BRETH-
REN:-Believing that every good re
solve leading to better life requires
some sacrifice, as a pledge of good
faith, prompts me to humble myself
before you in the acknowledgment OF
my sin. In the language OF David
of old: "Let my prayer come before
thee; incline thine ear unto my cry;
for my soul was tull of trouble; /
was as man that had no strength
/ was laid in the lowest pit; was
shut up and could not come forth. >
For earthly assistance | appealed to
you, dear Brethren, the friends and
advocates of temperance and reform
for =Dirins L appealed -t~2 al. - c.,
of David. In me you behold one
who was bound and fettered by the
demon of intemperance, that fiend
incarnate, which is fostered, nour-
ished and cherished, in this 10Th CEN
tury, in this civilized and christian
land. Licensed and sanctioned by
legislative enactments and upheld by
the popular voice of the people of
this enlightened age. Its effects are
damning, its harvests richer in spoils.
desolation and death, than the raw
ages of the mightiest conquering
army, or the most dreaded pestilence
that ever cursed this fair earth. 1t
is marching on in its course of de-
struction apparently as resistless as
the oceans storm. or as the light
ning's bolt driven in anger from the
clouds of heaven. Insatiate, demand
ing and collecting tribute from every
rank and station of life. Daily and
hourly destroying the best intellect of
our land. Annually it fills thousands
upon thousands of graves with poor,
frail, wrecked mortals, who go down
to death in the fearful maelstrom of
intemperance, unwept and unhonored.
Would to God that we could here
lower the curtain and forever con
ceal from sight of mortnl man the
blasting effects of the demons reign; !;
but it is not yet to be. The thou
sands of orphans, and the tens of
thousands of worse than orphaned
children, in their squallid misery;
the desolate widows, the heartbroken
wives, the fond and loving parents,
whose gray hairs have been brought
in sorrow to the grave, all attest in
grief and lamentation to the awful
truth of the monsters power. The
galIows, the prisons, the insane asy-
lums. the poor-houses and the pot
ters field, are silent witnesses of its
mighty powers of destruction. Hor
rors untold; murder, rapiae and
atrocities too fearful for belief are he
offsprings of intemperance. He who
falls a victim is hencefortll Il slave
his days are days of misery and re
morse; his nights bring him no rest
in all their blessed hours. He closes
those wild, distorted eyes and the
phantom devil comes and murders
sleep, whispers words of horror in his
ear. and breeds n fierce thirst which
no watars can allay. His brain is
crazed, his honor and manhood for
feited to the demon Of intemperance
forsaken by friends, God have mercy
on him. And now, | appeal to you,
the friends of temperance, of moral
ity and reform; and to you, my
brethren, who may have been in bon
dage cursed, what shall be the battle
cry for the centennial year of 1875?
Shall it not be temperance and re-
form? Will you help to raise us up
in might and power, to overthrow this
demon dire, or shall we, the poor be-
sotted throng, in accents wild, in
bachanalian song, repeat the chorus
so often sung-"we're marching on,
one hundred thousand more, to fill
those drunkard's graves and join the
myriads of drunken comrades who
have gone beforeY' Heaven forbid
We implore you TO join your strength
to our weakness, and our weakness
shall become as a mighty pillar oi
strength, and from strength to
strength my brethren and sisters
first by an exercise of the will and
watchfulness and then by definite
resistance, will we proceed from
strength to strength, laying aside ey-
cry weight and stunning every temp
tation which does so easily beset us,
will we with patience and courage
fight the battles for our emancipation.
Oh, my brethren and sisters, what a
noble, what a God-likc life, a life
which adds faith to virtue, and to vir-
tue knowledge. and to knowledge
temperance, and to temperance broth
erly kindness and charity. In the
language of one inspired, this is the
ladder which reaches from earth tC
Heaven, and thus may we follow ii
the footsteps of that bright redeem
ing spirit who suffered persecution
and death that we might be delivered
from temptation and death eternal
We should not neglect the least eff
fort, the meanest sacrifice, or the
smallest victory, in this holy crusade
We must not despise the day ol
small things, powerful as the enemy
NAV be. even as the raging breakers
of the ocean; yet, as in the midst OF
the tossing and treacherous waves
the coral islet rises in spite OF such
billows as would crush and shatter a
rock of granite, the coral islet which
is built by the weak, and tiny, and
ephemerai insects of the mighty
deep, requiring the incessant toll OF
countless ages, until it first reached
the surface of the sea and then the
chance wreck, the victim of the
oceans wrath, guided by hands di
vine, was cast upon it, and the sea
birds built their nests upon it, and
the winds of heaven waited to II
some scattered seed, and the little
island grew and was clothed in yer
dure green; it spread out its domain