The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1882-11-09
Sermon Preached in Brooklyn Tabernacle
by Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, ID. d., ON
Sunday, Oct. 10, 1882.
SUBJECT: 1.-THE Red Dragon"

SUBJECT: "The Red Dragon"
| TExT-Revelations, Kill, 8: "Behold, great rec
dragon having heads and ten horns, and sever
crowns on his heads. And his tail drew the third
part of the stars of heaven.r
Some Interpreters take this red dragon of the text
be thing and another, and as there seems
wide difference of opinion feel at liberty to take
as suggestive of the great of intemperance
Wide jawed and iron hoofed, fiery, all devouring
with least horns to hook and pierce and wound
and by taking possession of many 1t may
be said to have crowns. and by the number OF
Kings and Queens, and orators and poets and other
illustrfous persons whom it has brought down from
the armament of power it may be said to have drawn
the third part of the stars of heaven after it. Aco
| hoism! Worst of all red dragons. In my sermon of
last Sabbath while reprehendng the political parties
of this day for their present degradation said that
the great political parties had done their work and
| that should before long have new party. The
Republican party formed to kill slavery Slavery
| is dead and damned The Republican party having
achieved what 1t started for had better pass out of eX
| istence. The Democratic party was founded by
Thomas Jefferson to oppose the adoption of laws of
primogentiture by which the oldest got all the
inheritance, and drive out of the land all foreign
titles, and to give equal rights to all classes of the
people. Having fully accomplished that work its
| mission seems ended We are now ready for party
organized for particularly supreme, God-given
work. showed you last Sabbath that such party
must first of all acknowledge God in its Platforms in
its ensgns its plans and purposes; that it must
also the foe national wastefuness and the friend
of national economy. to say that it needs
not only to whisper but to thunder against the curse
of curses the abomination of abomfnations the IN
fernalsm of infernalisms-the intemperance of the
land and by national prohibition forth to slay the
red dragon of alcoholism If you think that the tri
umph ofprohibition in Iowa and Wisconsin and Kan
is fanatical paroxysm you greatly mistaken.
In six years the Prohibition party will hold the bal
ance power in every State of the American Union
not perhaps, having majority of votes, but the bal
ance of power, that man can be Governor or
Lieutenant Governor Secretary of State or Judge
of the Court of Appeals, until he be pronounced
against the red dragon; and in twelve years it Will
have its President in the White House. No party
rapidly this party is rising. The Anti
Slavery party, which finally rose from under noun
tain of and contempt till it took possession of
the Presidential chair and both Houses of Congress-
made not the spread of this antirum
sade. Why slavery was pet lamb compared with
this red dragon.
All the families which have by intemperance been
robbed of fathers and brothers, and all the
States which have had their mightiest men despoiled
by this nquity and the churches of God which have
found the chief obstacle to their advancement in this
awful habit of strong drink and all the intelligence
and all the virtue, and all the enthusiasm of the con-
tinent, will pack themselves into an avalanche that
shall crushing down upon the greatest evil that
cursed the nation. Now, give the politicians
of America fair warning of what is coming. Better
lead off than in afterward among the sragglers
prominent men OF D0th parties, Morrill, Soutn, EaSI
and West oresee the rising tide of this great refor
nation, and they getting ready to fight the red
dragon. There may be many defeats before the day
of victory, but victory will come as sure as
God lives, and this land not intended for one
great drunkery. nominate for President and Vice
President in 1854, caring not which is the first or
which the second the ticket, although one is
Republican and the other Democrat, the one
Western man and the other Southern man, two pro-
nounced Prohibitionsts Governor st. John, of Kan
sas and Governor Colquitt, of Georgia. 1t is high
time that the Far West were honored with such an
Office and that the war is all oyer, let us show
that realize it is all over by calling to the highest
next to the highest Office the illusrious Georgian
o my Lord and my God, what country this would be
with dram-shops in it! In Thy great mercy has
ten it, No dram shops, then no jatls, and no poor
houses. Few desolate home-steads, few broken
hearts. No women brought up in elegance afterward
married to who sat them with pale cheeks and
shriveled arms and consuming lung and hollow eye
fainting strength fight back the wolf whose
trils thrust through the broken windowpane, snufs
for the blood of her helpless babes Let the temper
societies of the land quarreling and the
10000 members of these societies in this State of
NeWYork join the hundreds of thousands of members
temperance other States and the mill
ions of people in the United States, who, not belong
ing to temperance society, still feel that some
thing must be done for the sobriety and disenthral
ment of this nation, and in one-half the time that
have spoken of necessary for the achievement the
work will be done. We want, first of all, to demand
amendment to the Constitution of the United
States passed of the States direct
ed in the Constitution forbiddlng the manufacture
and sale Of alcoholic liquors, except for medicinal
scientific artistic mechanical purposes, in all the
States and territories and forbdding the importa-
tion of all foreign liquors, except for the aforesaid
purposes. Next year, or the year after let great
convention be called to demand such an amendment
and to nominate national officers. As last winter at
great temperance meeting held in this house Cover
nor Colquitt and Governor st. John addressed the
people, invite the holding of such convention
in this city and in this house. Mere State enactment
is not enough. Drive the evil out of State YOU
may driveit into another. Make it national enact
ment and you drive it into the Atlantic on one side
and into the Pacific the other. Let there be no
from the Canadas to the gulf and from sea to sea
for the feet of the red dragon. ..E rE
That the individual States have all constitutional
right prohibit the manufacture and sale OF alcohol
established by the opinion of Judge Mclean of
the United States Supreme Court, Judge Woodbury.,
Judge Grier, Judge Daniels, Justice Catron Chief
Justice Shaw of Massachusetts,, Chief Justice Har-
rngton of Delaware, Chief Justice Mason of Nebras
ka and after Daniel Webster and Rufus Choate had
argued the before the Supreme Court of the Uni
ted States, the highest tribunal OF the land Justice
Taey, supported by all the Judges of the Court, rem
dered this decision: 81 nothing in the Federal
Constitution laws of Congress to prohibit State
Legislature from prohibiting the traffic altogether"
The right of State to extrpate this evil is settled,
the boldness and the persistence and the
aggregate force OF all the SOOu people OF
States to demand amendment to the Constitution
of the United States. That amendment passed the
would helped by the stronger States,
the cities by the country districts, and you and
would live the day when it would be as unusual
to see destroyed by drunkenness as case of
suicide by taking parisgreen. Do you tell me that
the Government of the United States can not afford
such proh because of the large revenue the Ii
quor traffic pays the Government! 1 answer that
where it pays the Government one dollar 1t steals ten
in theproperty destroyed the criminal trials it makes
necessary, the penitentiares and the asylunls ana
amshouses that necessary to support Its victims
The Government :makes much out of this revenue
rs you would merchant make if you sold knife
to a man for dollar and, after having paid you
the money thrust its blade through the heart of
your child if selling box of matches he handed
you money, and then with the first match struck
he set fire to your dwelling. There are 100000
drunkards in the United States today 10000 of the
people annually die drunkards; 000men and women
annually sent prison through this iniquity 100000
children thrown the charity of the world by alco-
holism. Judge Allison says that fully four-ffths Of
the crime committed in this country Is committed
under the influence of strongdrink. In Canada, out
of $3.50 commitments to JAIL 236 committed their
crime under the influence of strong drink. DIR. Har-
inspector of the prisons in New York State says
that per of all the crime is the result of intem-
perance There 900 maniacs and idiots in this
country now as a result of intemperance. England
paws yearly for alcoholic insane paupers Mrs
Comstock, the Quaker missionary, says that out of
1OOO prisoners 900 incarcerated by their In
temperance. 1t is estimated that ninety-nine one