Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-10-20
TALMAGE ON RUNS CURSE
TIPPLING DECLARED THE ARCH
FIEND OF NATIONS.


BROOKLYN, n. Y, Oct. 19.-At the
Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning DIR.
Talmage preached on the subject ssThe
Arch-F1end of Nations" Before the SER
mon he read and expounded a chapter in
regard to the destroying angel passing
over Egypt, leaving one dead in every
house. The opening hymn was:
"Before JehOgah's awful throne
Ye nations bow with sacred Joy.
Know that the Lord Is God alone
He can create and He destroy"
The text was Job l., 10: "Awake We
drunkards, and weep and howl We drink
ers of winer DR.. Talmage said:
Noah. the shipbuilder, did the best and
worst thing for the world. He built an ark
against deluge of water, but introduced a
deluge against which the world has ever
since been trying to build an ark-a deluge of
drunkenness. We hear his staggering step in
the opening chapters of Genesis. Shem and
Japheth tried to cover him up, but there he Is
drunk on wine at time in the history of the
world when, to say the least. there was no
lack OF water. Inebriation, once introduced
into Bible times, never retreated. Abigail
the Ialr ana heroic wife, goes home after
saving the 1iocks of her husband Nabal from
conhscatlon by invaders, and finds him too
drunk that night to tell him about his narrow
escape. Urlah came TO see David and David
despollatIon of household. Even the church
Bishops in Pauls time needed charging to be
sober and not given to much drink, and so
familiar was the swaying and falling move
ment of the inebriate that Isaiah, describing
the final dissolution of worlds saws the earth
shall reel to and fro like drunkard. Ever
since apples and grapes and wheat grew the
world has been tempted to excessive stImu-
lants.
But the intoxicant of the ancients was an
innocent beverage, harmless soda water, a
ann n nrtTn
the liquids employed for modern inebriation
into which a madness, fury, a fire. gloom,
a suicide, retributl0n are mixed and melted.
Fermentation was ALWAYS known. but il was
not until about 1000 years after Christ that
distillatIon was invented. And while we
have to confess to many of the ancient arts as
lost, the Christian era surpasses all its pre-
decessors In the bad eminenCe Of whisky, gin,
brandy and rum. The modern drunk is a
hundred fold mightier than the ancient
drunk. Noah's inebratiOu led him to imbe-
cile behavior, but mOiern alcoholism sets Its
victim to struggling with menageries of hiss
ing reptiles and jungles of growing tigers
and perdtiOns of disappearing demons.
An arch fiend has landed in our world and
he has built an invisible caldron of tempta-
ton. He has made it staunch and strong, and
he has filed 1t for all nations and all ages.
First, he squeezed into it the juice of the for
hidden fruit of Paradise. Then he puts into
1t a distlllatlOn from all the harvest fields and
orchards of the hemispheres, then adds to it
larger quanties of capslcum, copperas, mo-
ldSS6B, IOgWOOU, deadly nlgltShaue. assault
and battery, vitriol, tobacco, sulphuric acid,
opium. murder, pokeberry, cOchineal, indigo,
red carrots, potash, poverty and death, and
hops. But still it is a dry mixture land so to
moisten and liquify it he pours into it tie
tears of many centuries of Orphanage and
widowhood, and the blood of 20, 900 assassina-
tions; then he takes his great shovel which he
brought along with him from the neither
world, the shovel once used for filling the fur
naces beneath. And now he begins to stir the
great caldron, and as he stirs it the awful
1quifacation begins to heave, and sputter. and
bo1ls, hiss and smoke, and women gather
around this mammoth caldrOn with cups, and
pitchers, and kegs, and demijohns, and bottles,
and all nations get their share.
And the arch -fend laughs as he SAYS:
"Ha, ha! What champion fiend am | Who
does more for cOffins, and graveyards, and
shipwrecks, and prisons, and insane asylums.
and for pOpulating the neither world than |
do? When this caldrOn is empty L will fill it
again, and stir it again till the smoke OF it
joins the other sm0ke;-'the smoke of the tor
ment that ascendeth forever and ever Ha,
ha! drove 80 ships on the banks of New
fOundland and the GoOdwns. l defeated the
Northern armies at Fredericksburg. | slew
five times as many Senators as will next
winter assemble at the American capitol, and
five times as many Lords as will this season
gather in the House of Peers. My festal cup
Is bleached human skull, and all the up
holstery OF my palace is such rich
crimson because it was dipped in human gore.
The mosaies of nv floor are the bones of
children whose life drunken parents dashed
Duenl or triumphal march, is the cry of
daughters turned out at midnight on the
street because father has got home from the
Carousal and the seven hundred voiced
shrek of a sunken steamer because the Cap
tain was not himself when he put the ship on
the wrong course. Ha, ha! Let me thrust
the shovel again into the caldrOn and stir it
again and make it smoke again! Champion
iend am [! have kindled more fires, wrung
out more agonies, stretched ont more mid
night shadows, lifted nOre Golgothas, rolled
M
than any other of the brotherhood dIabolic." /
The ghastliest evil of America to-day is
drunkenness; the immediate cause of it, the
rum traffic. The two great political parties
stand before 1t dumb. The Democratic party
declares it unconstitutional and un- American
to prohibit the evil, and the Republican party
Is too cowardly to touch it lest theV lose the
German vote. If 1 never preach again, /
will declare the whole counsel Of God on this
subject.
The first remark have to make is that the
evil is not subsidlng. Not on the stand still,
but on the forward march. Beginning close
by, remark that l have seen more drunken
people in Brooklyp and New York within six
weeks than have seen in any wear of NV
lifetime. There is in this country more liquor
drank, and that of worst kind, than since
the first distillery began its devastatlons.
Where there was one groggery there are five |
groggeries; Where there was one ruined |
house there are ten demolished. |
Where, according to governmental figures,
there were 2300O,0Oo gallons of beer |
4sO
in 1888, and the 100000 gallons of wine have
become 25, 100000. Moreover notice that the |
evil is as thoroughly organized as was ever |
any army, with commander-in~chlef and |
staff officers and infantry and cavalry and |
batteries and advanced guards and standards,
And every man who heresfter runs for office |
will be compelled to commit himself either as |
the friend or foe of the liquor traffic.
hold in my hand a circular OF a brewers |
association which has been sent or will be sent /
20 every candidate for office. All the present /
nominees for the Presidency and Vice-Presi- /
dency have already received 1T. Its first reso-
luton reads as follows:
"ResOLUed, That as members Of a craft which /
In all enlightened countries is considered a /
needfEl and beneficial branch of industry and |
one which contributes to the force and vigor /
of mankind by producing a cheering and /
rourishlng drink food, we recognize the dig |
nifty ana usefulness OF our calling and are de- /
slrous of confirming it still more in the good /
humane"
In this circular the candidate for office is
called upon to fill a blank, declaring himself i
friendly to the liquor traffic. If he DO not I'LL
II Alright and sign t, he is doomed, so far as
the to breWerE, association can doom him. and /
taken for negative.
The evil of the time advances, and the 49, /
600 600 ehurch members in America will have /
TO take slaes IN this conflict. 1t is going to be
an out and out battle between rum and So
briefly, between heaven and hell, between God
and the devil. Better take sides before we
nave any further national decadence. Better !
take sloes before your own sons are sacrificed. I
or HcSsr daughters new home gOaa down under /
the alcoholism Of an 2mlfuted husband. Bet
ter take sides while your voice and your vote |
ana your pen may render an e1fectual service
The way the 1900, 900 male and female mem /
bers of the American church conclude &c
throw their influence will decide our national |
destiny.
But reformers in both political parties say:
I'm national elections we only throw our vote I
away If we by that vote express our particu- |
lar sentiments en- the subject of inebriation.' - /
MY reply is that no man ever throws his vote /
a way II ne vote Alright, for every conscientious
vote is not only an expression OF opinion but i
a prayer to God, and the Lord makes record
OF 1t and Will answer it in time to come, mass /
ing the separate snow1akes of individual suf- /
q fEage INTO an avalanche enough to crush all /
the allied powers of darkness. Beside that /
your vote Is for 1883 or 1892 and will not affect
November, 1884, for this year the election will |
be swept by majority such as has not been |
seen since the year when American politics |
sacrificed on its cruel altar my personal /
Irlend ana grandest Of American citizens. /
Horace Greeley.
In SSTJeaKing, as / said would, in this brief /
course OF Sabbath morning sermons, ABOUT the |
things that threaten the destruction OF Amer1- /
can Institutions could compass the subject |
without speaking Of drunkenness. Is 1t /
State evil or a national eVllt Does 1t DelonS /
to the East or to the West, to the North or to /
the South? Alas, me! There is not river OF |
America in which its tears do not flow, and /
its suicides have not plunged. What ruined /
that Southern plantation, once its every Held
a fortune, the proprietor and his FAMILY few /
years ago the most afiuent guests OF the sum-
mer watering placesf What sent into decay |
that New England farm, the roseate cheeks /
that bloemed at the foot OF the Green Noun
tains turned into the pallor OF dfudges |
What hath smitten every street of every town
o1d aff of wit fnQ Al rloct