Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-09-02
WGtllpEfal1Ee.
The Nation'S Curse.

from q temperance sermon by DR..
Talmage. His text was from II.
Kings 10: 10.
| see a 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 I find the CORY heads of several
slain princes. AS the baskets ar
rived 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
looks npon the bleeding, CHASTITY
heads of the massacred princes.
Looking on either side the gate, he
cries out, with ringing emphasis.
"Who slew all these?''
We have my friends, lived to see
a more fearful massacre. There is
no use of my taking your time in try
ing 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 hard
ened under these statistics that the
fact that fifty thousand more men
are slain, or fifty thousand less men
are slain, seems to make no positive
impression on the public mind.
Suffice it to say, that intemperance
has slain an innumerable company of
princes-the children of Gods royal
family; and at the gate of every
neigh borhood there are two heaps of
the slain; and at the door of the
household there are two heaps of the
slain; and at the door of the Ggisla-
tive hall there are two heaps of 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 the slain. When l look up
on the desolation, am almost fran
tic with the scene, while | cry out,
"Who slew all these?" / can an
swer that question in half a minute.
The ministers of Christ who have
given no warning, the courts of law
that have offered the license, the wo-
men 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!
I Propose in this discourse to tell
you what think are the sorrows and
the doom of the drunkard, so that
you to whom I speak may not come
to the torment.
Some one 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 l 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, we are ready to let that
question alone when it is willing to
let us alone; but it stands blocking
up the way to heaven, and keeping
multitudes away from Christ and hea-
ven, / dare not be silent, lest the
Lord require their blood at my hands.
l think the subject has been kept |
back very much by the merrime Mt
people make over those slain by
strong drink. | used to be very
merry over these things, having a
keen sense of the ludicrous. There
was something very grotesque in the
gait of a drunkard. 1t is not so
now for | saw in one of the streets
of Philadelphia a sight that changed
the whole subject to me. There was
a young man being led home. He |
was very much intoxicated-he was
raving with intoXication. Two young
men were leading him along. The
boys hooted in the streets, men
laughed women Snoered but T ham |
pened to be very near the door where
he went init was the door of his |
fathers house. / saw him go up
stairs. | heard him shouting, boot
ing 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 | heard |
her cry that took all the comedy
away from the scene. Since that |
time when ] see man walking
through the street, reeling, the COM
edy is all gone, and it is a tragedy
of tears and groans and heartbreaks.
Never make any fun around me
about the grotesqueness of drunk
ard. Alas for his home
Valuable Testimony.
Not MANY wears AGO some very