The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1883-03-08
Wine Is a MockeY."

On Sunday night the Reverend
Luther Broaddus preached an interest
| ing sermon on the text, "Wine is 6
mocker, strong drink is raging; and
whosoever is deceived thereby is moi
wise" He said ne was not there to
utter TRADE against intemperance OF
to abuse and denounce those who drink
and sell whiskey. There are worse
men in Newberry than the drunkard
!! or the whiskey-seller. ''The love OF
money is the root OF all kinds of evil
And while he has pity for the man
whose circumstances force him to sell
; whiskey, and for the man who is too
weak to resist the destinations Of the
wine cup, he has the profoundest con-
tempt for the narrow little soul that
measures the circumference of the
world by the circumference Of sill
YER dollar. Wine quickens the wits,
heightens the Imagination, and for the
time strengthens the intellectual pow
ers. No man who has heart and
brain is altogether proof against its
destinations.
The preacher said he did not intend
to give an array of statistics showing
the immense sums of money and the
vast quantity of grain wasted and
squandered; he did not even know the
number of bar-rooms in Newberry and
he did not care to know; he had no
taste for statistics Of that kind. He
intended simply to talk about the sub
iect in scriptural way. The words
of the text were written thousands Of
years ago, and since that time men
and manners have greatly changed,
but the text is up to the times as fit
description of the spirit and power Of
strong drink.
Wine deceives men CU by causing
them to believe that it has no fascina-
ton for them; ~ by leading them to
overestimate their powers of resis-
tance; (3) by its stealthy and grad
ual progress in fastening upon mans
appetite (4 by coming in the guise OF
a friend. Say what we may, wine has
been a benefactor as every physician
knows. But the man who is deceived
thereby is not wise in our blunt
American way OF speaking, he is a
fool.
What is the remedy? What are we
going to do about the evil2 1t cannot
be cured by abuse and denunciation,
or by fanatical extravaganza, or by ex-
aggerating its effects. No man was ever
reformed by abuse. II you are going
to extend the helping hand to an un-
fortunate brother, do not call him
'dog in the gutter" before you help
him. Temperance societies are not
the remedy. They have done great
good, they are on the outer edges
blasting off fragments of the rock here
and there but they do not reach the
great mass.
Prohibitory laws do not furnish the
remedy. He believes that the laws
are coming and will reach us. But
while they may be made necessary by
the stupendous proportions of the evil
to be corrected, they are not the rem
edy. At best, they are a desperate
expedient.
What is the remedy? It is found in
the gospel OF the Son of God, and di-
vine grace nowhere else. The relig-
ion Of Christ must go with its sancti-
flying and elevating influences to all
men. In this alone is the remedy.
The sermon which we have imper-
fectly outlined, was free from abuse,
denunciation, fanaticism and the other
usual accompaniments of sermons on
this subject F; and it was such as is cal
culated to cause reflection among SEN
sible men.