Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1884-12-24
DRUNKENNESS.
A Sermon by Bishop Ullathorne.

What is drunkard? A christian is
one who follows and practices the virtues
OF Christ. An angel is a pure creature
that contemplates and enjoys God. A
man is a person that thinks and reasons.
A brute is creature that follows his ap,,
petite, but never goes to excuses beyond
the bounds of order. What is drunk
ard? have gone through the whole OF
creation that lives, and find nothing in
it like the drunkard. He enjoys no hap
ing himself like the Christian; he does
not his appetite within the bounds OF ma
ture, like brute. What then is the
drunkard? There is no other thing in
nature to which he can he likened:
This is not subject on which we can
be allowed to soften down the truth in
our words until it becomes falsehood.
The drunkard is a self made wretch, who
has depraved, and has gratitied the de-
PRAYED cravings of the throat Of his body
until he has sunk his soul so far that it is
lost in his flesh, and has sunk his very
flesh lower down beyond comparison than
that of the animals which serve him. lie
is self-degraded creature, whose degra-
dation is made manifest to every one but
himself; self-made miserable being,
who, whilst he is insensible to his own
misery, af1lcts every one around him or
belonging to him with misery. He diff
fers from the mailman only in this: that
the mailman has not caused his own GALA
nifty, whilst this man has; that the mad
man is innocent, whilst this man is guilty.
The mailman is an object for pity and
compassion, and all the cares of human
ity; whilst the drunkard is an object of
ridicule, scorn, contempt; q butt for the
world to play its follies at; stock for
the worlds laughter; ball for it's game
of mockery; tool for the knaves cheat
cry and the harlot's wilery; an instlu-
ment in the hands of he]Ps malignity.
The mailman is placed in security; he can
be guarded against injuring himself or
others. The drunkard is let loose upon
mankind, like some foul, illboding and
noxious animal, to poster, torment. and
whilst the curse Of God hangs over his
place, and the gates of-heaven are closed
against him. "Be not deceived, says the
apostle; neither fornicators, nor idola-
tors, nor drunkards shall possess the
kingdom of heaven" It is not |, it is st.
Paul, who classes the drunkard in this
company, and shuts the gates Of heaven
against him. An Outcast; the woes OF
heaven fall thick and fast upon him.
who hath woe?" asks Solomon, whose
father hath woe? who hath contentious!
who falls into pits? who hath wounds
without cause? who hath redness of eyes!
Surely they that pass their time in
wine, and study to drink up their
cups" "Woe to you" says Isaias, "woe
to you that rise up early in the morning
to follow drunkenness, and to drink un-
til the evening to be inflamed. Woe to
you that are mighty to drink wine, and
are stout men at drunkenness. Woe to
the crown of pride, to the drunkenness
of Ephra m the drunkenness of Ephraim
shall be trodden under foot" Are not
those written on the face of the drunk
| ard? Are they not heard in all his acts!
| Knows he what he says or what he says
not? Has not prudence left the guard OF
his tongue? Is there any gate to his
mouth or any bar to his lips? Are moi
the secrets OF the past, the follies of the
present, the foetid fumes of the liquor
and the foul thoughts from the temptel
mingled together and poured out upon
all around him? The very animal powers
sink under drunkenness. 1t darkens the
senses as well as the soul, and deadens
the feelings as we'll as the mind; weak
ems. stupeties, sickens, skaters the frame
of the rational man; deprives him of God
deprivcs him of heaven, deprives him o.
honor, cuts him off from human respect
casts him away from the friendship o.
men, DESTROYS his fortune, ruins his fami
ly, deprives him OF himself, kills all hi:
good here, and all his hope hereafter, ant
bloats his body with premature diseases
to fatten the worms and enrich the rank
ness of the graveyard.
See the druntzard begin, but watch hin
till he ends his career of intoxication
He has sat at table; he has filled his cups
he has invoked the companions of hi
guilty JOY. His mirth has maddened in
to riot, then fevered into criminal passion
then lowered in obscene drivel, then SUM
into stupor. He has uttered folly, an(
thought it wisdom; he has profusec
curses, when he should have uttered bles
sings; he has poured out filth, and mis-
taken it for wit; the Christian has nov
left the scene, and human nature is fas
following him; reason fades away as folly
grows more boisterous; the madness O.
folly glides off too, and stupidity remain!
the only companion of drunken insanity
The room reels: the table moves; the mar
has fallen away, and the beast lies in hi
place And even this brute is dead, al
but the throat and belly, and these art
sickly. Like the banquet of Sisera. i
ends with driving a nail through thu
mans head. The very infidel who in ole
times wrote against Christianity, coule
say this much Of drunkenness-"That i
knocks down the man, and nails him t@
the sensual intermiXtures OF tho body.
| low to no HocricQH9 Which
of you will endure patiently the contemp
of another man? And yet every drunk
ard crowns his head with mighty scorn
Putting himself beneath the lowest, de
grading himself under the meanest. Thu
boys laugh at him, children boot him
and The. criminal scorn him as he is lee
home like the cripple, lisping the imper
feet noises of an infant, or babbllng will
a thick and spongy tongue, an empty
head, foolish heart Woe and alas
God of heaven dare I appeal to thee
from amidst such scene? Thy Great
ures, too Whittier has thy image de
parted from them? To see a sensible
man dishonor himself like the foolish
disgrace his friends like the impious, i'm
poverish his family like the unjust, bring
degradation on those who are dearest tC
him like the hcartfess, cast reproach or
religion like the profane, destroy his
body like the murderer and his soul like
the infidel, become an appellation o.
scorn and scene of derision to all men
and of forgetfulpess to himself. Where
O God, is Thy image in this man? Where
Divine Lord, are the marks of his bap
tism? Where sacred heavens, are the
features of your child? Call yourself
still Christian? Name you yourself YET
a man? Where then are the commands
of the Gospel? Where the precepts Of
the Church? Where even the laws of ma
ture, the ties Of humanity, and the in
stincts of self-preservation.
You have not gone so far, you are per
haps ready to tell me. You have not
| come to these excuses; nor are you sc
abandoned, the heavens forbid it in
your vice. No; but you have made be
ginning; you have already gone to a Ger.
tain extent-you feel yourself going fur
Their. And where and when did the
drunkard ever stop and say, mo further
will I go" and did not go further unless
death, in compassion, destroyed him in
the flower before he had ripened into all
those fruits which l have described?
Drunkenness is a vice which the more il
| is INDUCED the less the appetite enjoys
| the more the palate sickens and anguish