Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-08-24
7HE NATIONS CURSE
Rev. Talmage's Sunday Ser
mon at Helena, Mont.
The Brooklyn Divine breaches
q Powerful Discourse on
drunkenness the Ma
tons Curse"

T. De Witt Talmage, ID, preached
here today to q vast congregation.
Taking for his text, "Who slew all
these?" III Kings x, 10, be preached a
powerful discourse on drunkenness the
Nations Curse" He said:
| 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 | find the
CORY heads of seventy slain princes. AS
the basket arrive at the gate Of the pal
ace, the heads are thrown into two heaps,
one on either side the gate. In the
morning the king comes out, and he
looks upon the bleeding, ghastly heads of
the massacred princes. Looking on
either side the gate, he cries out, with a
ringing emphasis, "Who slew all theseY'
We have, my friends lived to see a
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 so, 900 more men are slain,
or so, 600 less men are slain, seems TO
make no positive impression on the
public mind. Suffice it TO say, that
intemperance has slain an lnnumer
able company Of princes-the children
Of Gods royal family; and al the gate of
every ne~ighborhood there are two heaps
Of the slain; and at the door Of the house
hold there are two heaps Of the slain
and 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 the slaiD.
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 ministers of Christ, who have given
no warning, the courts Of law that
have offered the li~censure, the women
who give strong drink on New Years
day, the fathers and mothers who nave
rum on the sideboard, the hundreds of
thousands Of Christian men and women
in the land who are stolid in their indif-
ference on this subject-they slew all
these
| propose in this discourse to tell you
what | think are the sorrows and the
Ioon, ~r tha lr,plorJ ca that un,, ~
whom l speak may not come to the tor
ment.
Some one says: You had better let
those subjects alone" Why, my breth-
rem, we would be glad to let them alone
if they would let us alone; but when /
have ia 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 when it stands blocking up
the way to heaven, and keeping multi
tudes away frcm Christ and heaven, |
care 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
make over those slain by strong drink.
| used TO be very merry over these
things, having a keen sense Of the ludi
crous. There was something very gro
tesuue in the gait of a drunkard. 1t is
not SO now; for | saw in n Of the
streets of Philadelphia a sight that
changed the whole subject to me. There
was a yeung man being led home. He
was very much intoxicated-he was raw
ing with intoxication. Two young men
were leading him along. The boys
hcoted in the streets, men laughed, wo-
men sneered; but | happened to be very
near the door where he went int was
the door Of his fathers house. saw
him &c UP the stairs. l heard him 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 ont. When | heard her cry that
took ell the comedy away from thes scene.
Since that time when / see a man walk
ing through the street, Keeling, 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 g~rotesquenees of 3 drunkard. Alas
for his home.
The FIRST suffering of the drunkard is
in the loss Of his good name. GOD has
80 arranged it that no man ever loses his
good name except through his own act.
All the hated If men and all the assaults
of devils cannot destroy a mans good
name. il he really maintains his integrity.
If a man is industrious and pure and
Christian, Good looks after him.
Although he may be bombarded for
twenty or thirty years, his integrity is
never lost and his good name is never
sacrificed. No force on earth or in hell
can capture such a Gibraltar. But when
il is said of man. 'He drinks" and it
can be proved, then what employer wants
him for workman? what store wants him
for a clerk? what church wants him for
q member? who will trust kim2 what
diving man will appoint him his executor?
He may have been forty yearsiG building
up his reputation 1T goes down. Letters
of recommendation, the backing up of
business firms a brilliant ancestry cannot
awe him. The world shies of. Why?
II IL whispered ell through the com
munity, 'He drinks; he drinke." That
blasts him. When G man loses his repu'
tation for sobriety he might as well be at
the bottom of the ses. There are men
here who have their good name as their
only capital. You are now achieving
r..I:l.oI ,.Iar EaI hu w.,