Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1885-05-15
THE BIBLE AND TEMPERANCE.
Sermon preached by Rev. A. G.
Biddle of the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church.
Who is the Saloon Keepers Friend9

| -"
| "WOe unto them that are mighty TO drink
winc and men Of strength to mingle strong
drink lisa j:22.
come now, in the course of my
pulpit work, to speak to subject
that demands more attention at the
hands of American citizens than all
the other questions, social orpolitical,
now before the people. | mean the
temperance question. The election
Of President, his Inauguration on
the 4th Of March, and the appoint
ment of his cabinet, were all matters
of very grave interest to the average
American; but as a citizen of the
republic point YOU to an issue which
in interest rises infinitely above these.
When the great eastern plague reaches
our shores, and the yellow flag is
hOisted in Savannah, Charleston, or
in New Orleans, and we read OF the
suffering and the sorrow, the dying
and the dead, how the whole nation
seems to shrink back appalled, at the
terrible rayages of death but there is
plague already among US, coming,
not from the shores of Asia, but from
the regions OF eternal fire and damned
spirits-a plague whose sign is not the
yellow flag, but the "red light" and
the "greeI blind"-whose death-roll
out-nuInbers 5 10 | the work Of yellow
fever or of cholera. Collect all the
work of this plague into the columns
of one daily, and you might rad
ca III morning the tragedy OF over 200
deaths for every morning Of the year.
So steadily has this awful ulcer been
growing upon The body polite
through heyears, that to-day it costs
more 10 take care OF the sore than the
body upon which it grows. 1t yearly
destroys more lives than we have
employed In both army and navy.
The annual drink bill of the [. 5. is
700 millions Of dollars, 81 millions
more than the cost of all the Tread
aud meat consumed by the nation.
] he direct and indirect cost Of its H.
quor would pay for the nliJl's Trad,
las meat, It's wooden and cJtton goods,
its boots aud shoes, its public schools,
aud leave over 20 millions still in the
pockets of the people. 1t would pay
of your National debt in one year.
The total wealth of the.U. ). il less
than 80 billions of dollars. In %
years the drink of the nation will
nave drowned every farm, every II. r.,
every shop, every factory, aud every
church in the land. DO you wonder
at hard times! DO you wonder at
the scarcity of money? | wonder,
rather, that the nation lives at all
with such drain upon its vitality.
II we so on at this rate, our living
must become race of paupers, land our
dead die drunkards. Here is terrible
wrong, aud some one is 10 blame and
| here charge those in authority over
us with aiding and abetling in the
theft of nearly 2OO0 million dollars
annually from the people; and the
national government with high trca-
son in creating and fostering scheme
which deirauds us of every dollar Of
our inheritance four times in cen
tury. Hard times? Business failures? !?
Bad debts? Higher taxes ? Increase
of crime ? No wonder!
But leaving out the drunkard and
his immediate family, there are two
classes of people suffering more from
the liquor curse than any other. |
speak of the saloon-kceper and the
Taxpayer. For the present | will
devote myself TO plea for the bar
tender, leaving temperance and the
Taxpayer for future consideration.
BUT what pleas can temperance man
make for the saloon keeper? | know
| am conscientious when | answer,
they are many and strong. In the
first place this class makes no little
figure in our table of statistics. In
California, a State with population
of less than G00,000, there are 1900
saloon-keepers and in the States and
Territories of our land there stands
behind the decanter an army Of over
100000! OF this vast army Of men l
wish to speak tonight; of these 3OO,-
600 men who are beset on every hand
as no other men on earth who are
viliiied,an bemeaned, and harnessed
with all the shame and degradation
Of the traffic, while those to whom
they sell and for whom they sell, go
unscathed, or, worse still, are pilied
and condoled as having been inveigled
by the saloon-keeper into his den.
The pulpit and the temperance lee
turer have both made sad mistake.
They have represented the saloon
keeper as a great spider spreading
his net for the takingof the unwary
fly; but this is not right. The fly is
already caught behind the green blind
and the appetites of hundred men,
and his own greed for gold will keep
him there. In our dealings with the
saloon-keeper we have all made the
sad mistake of considering him a
criminal | tell you he is not a criminal,
lie is a citizen, and as citizen is en-
titled to the rights of a free man
But as a fact, lie enjoys few of the
higher privileges of citizenship. lie
is relegated to the catalogue of Grim.
inals, he is placed under the ban OF
social ostracism by man his brother
and under fearful curse by God his
creator. And whatever else man may
do, God never Furnishes man with
out having given him sufficient warn
ing. The saloon-keeper has a righ
IN hear the laW-the divine fiat-anC
to know the penalty for its violation
And that is why Ispeak tonight. L
is his right to be saved and not t'
suffer.
AT the fifth chapter of Isaiah, be
ginning at the twenty-second verse
there is a woe pronounced upon tive
classes of men THOSE who drink I
great deal and those who mix tn,
drink for them. Uearit "Woe mt