Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-12
THE NATIONS CURSE.
DR.. Talmage Shows the Terrible Evils
Arising From Drunkenness. -
THE CAPTIVES OF STRONG DRINK.
Intemperance Drumming the Dead March
Of Immortal Souls.
TORTURES AND LOSSES OF INEBRIATEs

fsPECIAL fELEGHAn 10 THE D1bPATCH.l
HELENA, MONT, August 1.-THE Rev.
T. De Witt Talmsge, ID. D., preached here
to-day to a vast congregation. Taking for
his text, "Who slew all these?" II Kings
Z, 10, he preached powerful discourse on
Drunkenness, the Nations Curse" He
said:
see long row of baskets coming up to-
ward the palace of King Jehu. am some
what inouisitive to find out what is in the
baskets. 1 look in and find the CORY
heads of 20 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 ont, and he looks upon the bleeding,
CHASTITY heads of the massacred princes.
Looking on either side of the gate, he cries
out, with ringing emphasis, "Who slew
all these?"
We have, my friends. lived to see more
fearful massacre. There is no use in 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 81, 900 more
men are slain, or 81, 600 less men are slain,
seems to make no positive impression on the
public mind. Suffice it to say that intem-
perance has slain an ilnumerable company
of princes-the children OF Gods royal fam
lily; and at 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; ana at the door of the legislative
hall there are two heaps of the slain; and at
the door of the university there are two
heaps of the slain; and at the gate Of this
nation there are two
HEAPS OF TUE SLAIN.
When look upon the desolation, am
almost frantic with the scene, while cry
out "Who slew all these?" can answer
that question in half a minute. The min
listers of Christ who have given nc 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
indifference on this subject-they slew all
these!
propose in this discourse to tell you
what think are the sorrows and the doom
of the drunkard, so that you to whom
speak NAV net come to the torment.
Someone says: "You had better let those
subjects alone" Why. my brethren, we
would be glad to let them alone if 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 cap
tive OF strong drink" 1 reply, we are ready
TO let that question alone when it is willing
to let us alone; but when it stands blocking
up the way to heaven, and keeping multi.
tudes away from Christ and heaven, 1 dare
not be silent, lest the Lord require their
blood at my hands.
1 think the subject has been kept back
very much by the merrimeut people make
over those slain by strong drink. used to
be very merry over these things, having q
keen sense OF the ludicrous. There was
something very grOtesque in the gait of a
drunkard. 1t is not so now; for l saw in
one of the streets of Philadelphia a sight
that changed the whole subject to me.
TRAGEDY, NOT COMEDY.
There was a young man being led home.
He was very much intoXicated-he was
raviug with intoxication. Two young men
were leading him along. The boys hoOted
in the street. men laughed, women sneered;
but / happened to be very near the |
door where he went init was the door of
his fathers house. 1 saw him 60 up stairs. |
heard him shouting, hooting and bias |
pheming. 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 1 |
heard her cry that took all the comedy away |
from the scene. Since that time when i see |
a man walking through the street, reeling, |
the comedy is all gone, and it is a tragedy |
Of tears and groans and heartbreaks. Never |
make any fun around me about the gro
tesqueness of q drunkard. Alas for his |
home!
The first suffering of the drunkard is in |
the loss of his good name. God has so ar |
ranged it that no man ever loses his good |
name except through his own act. All the |
hatred OF man and all the assaults of devils |
cannot destroy q mans good name, If he |
really maintains his integrity. If man is |
industrious and pure and Christian, God |
looks after him. Although he may be bonn |
barded for 20 or 80 years, his integrity is
never lost and his good name is never sacri- |
feed. No force on earth or in hell can cap
ture such Gibraltar. But when is is said
of q man, "He drinks, and it can be proved,
then what employer wants him for work.
man? what store wants him for O clerk?
what church wants him for a member? who
will trust him? what dying man would ap-
point him his executor? He may have been
40 years in building up his reputation-it
goes down. Letters of recommendation, the
backing up of business firms
A BRILLIANT ANCESTRY
cannot save him. The world SHES off.
Why? 1t is whispered all through the COM
munity, "He drinks. he drinks" That |
blasts him. When O man loses his reputa- |
ton for sobriety he might as we'll be at the |
bottom 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 your own right arm. Now |
look out that there is no doubt of your So /
briefly. Do not create any suspicion by |
going in and out of immoral places, or by |
any odor of your breath, or by any glare Of |
your eye, 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 suffers |
is that of self-respect. Just as soon as a man
wakes up and finds that he is a captive of
strong drink he feels demeaned. 1 do not
care how reckless he acts. He may say, "I
don't care" he does care. He cannot look |
q pure man in the eye, unless it is with posi-
tive force of resolution Three-fourths Of
his nature is destroyed; his self-sespect gone;
he says things he would not otherwise shy; |
he does things he would not otherwise do.
When a man is nine-tenths gone with strong
drink, the first thing he wants to do is to
persuade you that he can stop any time he
wants to. He cannot. The Philistines have
bound him hand and foot, and shorn his
locks, and put out his eyes, and are making
him grind in the mill of great horror. He