The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1878-05-15
cAsos rAHRAn ON rrmrEnAscE.

The following is the closing portion of Dir.
Farrar's famous temperance sermon, entitled
"The Vow of tho Rechabites.p
Now, all this being so, what will you do ?
Oh, / believe that there are thousands Of good
men and good women, who, if they knew
about this subject all they might know would
at least not do certain things. They would
not look on coldly and indiiferenrly while 9TH
ers struggle. They would not think the
drunkard a iit subject for q smile or JEST
They would not oppose any legislative eli
deayor to diminish for the nottingham his
worst and fatalest seduction. They would
not meet the arguments of temperance by
those feeble superstitions and exploded fash
ions Of Scriptural reasoning which have been
used ere now to kindlc the fagot of the inquis-
tor and rivct the fetter Of the slave. They
would not supply to the cause of intemper-
anee the shallow sophism or the ensnaring ep-
gram But what they would do would be TO
join hand in hand in a holy crusade against
this curse of nations /; this worst stumbling
block on the path of moral, intellectual, and
religious progress. And if they did not see
their way to do, as n simple and much needed
progress what thousands, thank God, of our
clergy have done land have done not only
without injury to health, but with positive adj
vantage to it--not only without diminution of
strength, but with decided increase Of it's
namely abstain from all intoxicating drinks
from their brethrcn's sake, if not for their
own /; if they did not make this cheap and
beneficial sacrifice yet at least, in order that
the next generation may be partially deliver
cd from that which is the bitter curse of this
they would train up their children, when any
fermented liquor is set before them, to say
with the children of Jonadab, the son of Re-
chab, Sc We drink it not, for our father COM
manded us, saying, Drink it not ;" Oh,
what generation that would be, how healthy,
how wealthy, how clear of intellect, how
strong of arm, how fertile in resources, how
rich in hope, TO which drink would be un-
known The blessing to Jonadab, the son of
Rechab was that he should not want man
to stand before God forever and il, as a ma
ton we continue in this sin unchecked, If the
more we earn the moro we see the people sat
urating soul and body with this destructive
liquid fire, what shall, what must, be the
curse to US? Shall it not must it not, be that
ON the walls of the banquet houses of our lux
ury, shall come forth the fingers of a man
hand and write, Meme, Meme Iekel, tFphar-
SIN, :" Numbered numbered, weighed, and
they shall divide? " must it not be that for us
as for the drunkards of Ephraim, our glorious
beauty shall be q fading flower that our
pleasant vices shall be made an instrument to
punish us that the sceptre of our imperial
dominion shall drop out of the nerveless grasp
which our seflshness has relaxed that the
crown shall fall from our heads, for we have
sinned Which fate, the fate-because Of
their sins--of SO many sinful nations before
us, on our repentance, may God avert ! But
If we repent not, then as Assyria fell for her
pride, and Babylon for her cruelty, and Per-
STA for her efleminancy, and Athens for her
lust, and Spain for her avarice ; So in turn,
must England fall for her drunkenness and
the axe is in the air, and the fiat shall go
forth -" a good tree bringeth not forth evil
fruit, neither can corrupt tree bring forth
good fruit" Every tree that bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and east into
the fire."