Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-08-23
CURSE OF THE NATION.
REV. DIR. TALMAGE SAYS THAT 1T
is DRUNKENNESS.
His Text III Kings x, 10: "Who Slew All
These?"-A More Fearful Massacre Is
Now Going on, He Says, Than in the
Old Days.

The Rev. i. De Witt Talmage, recently
preached at Helena, Mont, to vast
congregation. Taking for his text,
Who slew all these?' II Kings x, 10, he
preached powerful discourse on
drunkenness the Nations Curse" He
said:
see n long row of baskets coming up
toward the palace of King Jehu. / am
somewhat inquisitive to find out what is
| in the baskets. look in and find the
CORY heads of seventy slain princes. AS
the baskets arrive at the gate of the
palace, the heads are thrown into two
heaps, one on either side of the gate.
In the morning the king comes out. and
he looks upon the bleeding, CHASTITY
heads of the massacred princes. Look
ing on either side the gate, he cries
out, with ringing emphasis, Who
slew all these?"
We have, my friends, lived to see q
more fearful massacre. There is no use
of my taking your time in trying to give
you statistics about the devastation and
ruin and the death which strong drink
has wrought in this country. Statistics
do not seem to mean anything. We are
so hardened under these statistics that
the fact that fifty thousand more men
are slain, seems to make no positive i'm
preston on the public mind Suffice it
to say, that intemperance has slain an
innumerable company of princes-the
children of Gods royal family: and ut
the gate of every neighborhood there
are two heaps of the slain; and at the
door of the household there are two
heaps of the slam; and at the door Of
the legislative hall there are two
heaps of the slain: and at the door
pf ha i+x,% bo-a ora two l,oo,c n e
the slain; and at the gate of this nation
there are two heaps Of the slam. When
! look upon the desolation, am almost
frantic with the scene, while | cry out.
who slew all these?" l can answer
that question in half minute. The
ministers of Christ who have given no
warning, the courts of law that have
offered the licensure, the women who
give strong drink on New Years day,
the fathers and mothers who have rum
on the sideboard, the hundreds of
thousands of Christian men and women
in the land who are stolid in their in
difference on this subject-they slew all
these!
l propose in this discourse to tell you
what | think are the sorrows and doom
of the drunkard, SO that you to whom l
speak may not come to the torment.
Some one says: You had better let
those subjects alone" Why, my breth-
rem, we would be glad to let them alone
it they would let us alone; but when /
have in my pocket now four requests
saying; Pray for my husband, pray for
my son, pray for my brother, pray for
my friend, who is the captive Of strong
drink, reply, weare readyto let that
question alone when it is willing to let
| us alone; but when it stands blocking
up the way to Heaven, and keeping null
titudes away from Christ and Heaven, 1
dare not be silent, lest the Lord require
their blood at my hands.
think the subject has been kept back
very much by the merriment people
| l used to be very merry over these
things, having a keen sense of the ludi-
crous. There was something very gro
tesque in the gait of drunkard.i II is
not SO now; for I saw in one of the
streets of Philadelphia a sight that
changed the whole subject to me-. There
was young man being led home. He
was very much intoxicated-he was raw
ing with intoxication. Two young men
We're leading him along The boys
hooted IN the street, men laughed, wo-
men sneered; but happened to be very
near the door where he went init was
the door of his fathers house. 1 saw
him go up stairs. l heard him shouting,
hooting, and DISAPPEARING. He had lost
his hat, and the merriment increased
with the mob until he came up to the
/ door. and as the door was opened his
mother came out. When I heard her
cry that took all the comedy away from
the scene. Since that time when l see
a man walking through the street, reel
ing, the comedy is all gone, and it is a
tragedy OF tears and groans and heart
breaks. Never make any fun around me
about the grotesqueness of drunkard.
Alas for his home!
The first suffering of the drunkard is
IN the loss of his good name God has
SO arranged it that no man ever loses
ms good name except through his own
act. An the hatred of men and all the
assaults OF devils cannot DESTROY man
good name, if he really maintains his
integrity. If q man is industrious and
pure and Christian, God looks after
nm: Although he may be bombarded
Tor twenty OF thirty years, his integrity
is never lost and his good name is never
sacrltced. No force on earth or in hell
can capture such Gibraltar But when
1t is said of a man: He drinks" and it
can be proved, then what EMPLOYER
wants him for workman? what store
wants MIN 1or clerk? what church
wants him for member? who will trust
him? what dying man would appoint
him his executor? He NAV have been
forty years in building up his reputation
1T goes down. Letters Of recomme n d.
ton: the backing up Of business firms,
a, brilliant ancestry cannot save him.
The world SHES off Why? 1t is wins.
pered all through the community, Gle
drinks; he drinks" That blasts him.
| When a man loses his reputation for
sobriety he might as well be at the bot
tom of the sea. There are men here
who have their good name as their only
capital. You are now achieving your
own livelihood. under God, by yonr own
right arm Now look out that there is
no doubt Of your sobriety. Do not
create any suspicion by going in and
out Of immoral places, or by any odor of
your breath, OF by any glare ofvour eve.
or by any unnatural flush of YOUR cheek.
You cannot afford to do it, for your GOOD
name is your only capital, and When
that is blasted with the reputation of
taking strong drink, all is gone.
Another loss which the inebriate auf-
fers is that of self-respect. just az soon
as a man wakes up and finds that he is
the captive of strong drink he feels de-
m IL