Morning journal and courier., 1888-10-08

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. A Strong Temperance Address by Rev.
 MT. WO0leY Last Evening.
 A large audience gathered to hear Hon. John G.Wooley deliver his address on ''Wine is mocker" at the First Presbyterian church
 Sunday evening. Rev. John G. Rodger, the
 pastor, opened the meeting with prayer, ,after
 which MT. Wooley sang very effectively
 Eternity" The speaker of the evening then
 took up his subject and held the attention of
 the audience for three-quarters of an hour
 with one of the grandest oratorical temper
 ance efforts that the New Haven public has
 ever heard.
 ''Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging,
 and whosoever is deceived thereby in not
 wise" What is winei It is a a composition
 of alcohol and water. What is weterl When
 we look around us we see it on every hand.
 We see the springs and wells, the pools and
 lakes, the rivulets running down the hillside,
 emptying into the rivers, which in turn empty
 their volume into the wide expanse of ocean.
 What is alcoholg It Is e composition of hy-
 drogen, nitrogen and carbon. What Is alco-
 hol forf It is to aid man in his researches
 into science. Alcohol is not mocker; water
 is not @ mocker. Wine is 8 mixture of aleo-
 hol and water. It Is for men to drink. It
 is wine that is 8 mocker. What is a mockera
 One who initiates contemptuously. To ask 8
 man to sign 8 pledge and keep it in his own
 strength is 8 mockery. The strength to keep
 him must be greater than his own. "And
 when they had plated a crown of thorns
 they put it upon his head and 6 reed in
 his right hand; and they bowed the knee be.
 fore him and mocked him, saying: Hail
 king of the Jews." The chemist will tell you
 that alcohol has great refractory powers. The astronomer in looking at distant star does not seemingly point his telescope for that
 very star, but to blank space in the heavens probably, or it may be to another star, be- cause the ray of light he will tell you that comes from that star to you is refracted. And so the light which comes to man in the ordinary way is refracted by alcohol. Alco- hol has refracted and sundered more hearts than all other causes combined. Alcoholics home and it will put out the fires on the hearth, it will put out the light in the win dow, it will queneh the love which should be the very light and life of that home. Alcohel- ize a woman and she falls from her high pedestal of beauty and honor which she oth- erwise would occupy, and she becomes only fit for the gutter. Alcoholic 0 nation and will tell you that alcohol has @ great affinity for water. Yes, and it has great affinity for civilization. It corrupts civilization, it demoralizes civilization. It Is 6 mocker. Alcohol is great solvent power. A great many of the resinous gums are only soluble | in alcohol. There is nothing that will dis solve the veracity of e man quicker than al- cohoI It is a great antiseptic. The anato- mist preserves toads, snakes and other ani- mals in alcohol-dead bodies of animals. But ! the mimic power of alcohol preserves vices. and preserves them alive. It preserves filth, islander, lying, stealing. Did you ever know a drunken thief to become an honest man without giving up his driuk alsof If to wine you add alcohol or take away water you have strong drink. Wine is the velvet paw, strong drink the paw with claws that tear. The devilish record of strong drink is aw- ful. Mormonism is dreadful scourge, but the reason we hear so much about 1t is be- cause it is @ lump in Utah. Spread it over the whole country and we would hear noth- ing about it. If the effects of the wine city were shown in lamp we would readily see how 6 hundred thousand times more it was national blight on our civilization than mormonism. Mormonism is national ques- tion. Prohibition should also be 6 national question. My dear friends, the saloon is going-it must go. The church has been liv- l ing in it's embrace as long as it can. The nation has been looking on carelessly while this cancer has been eating into its very
 vitals. Your political party nor my political party, your church nor my church may have all the same. And if, with it's last gasp, ii would cry out "another hundred millions of money for revenue for another single minute of life, would put my foot on its throat. and pressing 1t down with all my might would say ffnol down, down to hell and tell them sent thee hither."