The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1889-08-22
Talmage In Montana.

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A Thrilling Sermon from the Taber-
aacle Orator on the Curse Of
Drunkenness.
HELENA, Mont. Aug. 1.-THE Rev. T. De-
Witt Talmage, D. D., preached here today
to q vast congregation. Taking for his
text ''Who slew all these7'-II. Kings, <, 10
-he preached q powerful discourse on
drunkenness, the Nations Curse" Hesaid:
1 see o long row Of baskets coming up to-
ward the palace of King Jehu. I I'm some
what inquisitive to find out what Is in the
baskets. I look in and / find the CORY heads
of seventy slain princes. As the baskets ar
rive at the gate OF the palace 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, CHASTITY
heads of the mastered princes. Looking
on either side the gate he cries out with q
ringing emphasis: "Who slew all these?"
We have, my friends, lived to see a more
fearful massacre. There is no use OF my TAX
ing your time in trying to. give you statis-
tics, about the devastation and ruin and tho
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 $4,000
more men are slain or $4,000 less men are
slain seems to make no positive impression
on the public men. Suffice it to say that
intemperance has slain an innumerable COM
pany Of princes-the children Of Gods royal
family; and at the gate of every neighbor.
hood there are two heaps of the slain; and
at the door of the household there are two
heaps Of the slain; and at the o OF the
legislative hall there are two heaps of the
slain; and al 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 I look upon the desolation l
am almost frantic with the scene, while l
cry out; "Who slew oil these?" I can answer
that question in holt q minute, The minis
tiers OF Christ who have given no warning,
the courts of flaw that have offered the licen-
sure. the women who give strong drink on
IN6W 1euF y Uuy1 III NtuCl II "ooASA
who have rum on the ~sideboard, the hun-
dreds of thousands of Christian men and
women in the land who are stolid in their
indifference on this subject-they slew all
thesel
I propose in this discorse to tell you what
I think are the sorrows and the doom of the
%drunkard, SO that you to whom Ispeak 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 I have in my pocket
now four requests saying. pray for my hus-
band, pray for my son, pray for my brother,
pray for my friend, who is the captive OF
strong drink" I 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 multitudes away
from Christ and heaven, I Ia not be silent,
lest the Lord require their blood at my hands.
l think the subject has been kept back very
much by the merriment people make over
those slain by strong drink. l 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 q sight that changed the
whole subject to me. There was a young
man being led home. He was very much in
toxicated-he w~aseraying with intoxication.
Two young men wore 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. I saw him go mp
stairs. ] heard him shouting, hooting, and
disappearing. He had lost his hat, and the
merrfment increased with the mob until he
came up t0.the door, and rs the door was
opened his mother came put. When l heard
her cry that took all thScomedy away from
the scene. Since that time when l see a man
walking through the street, reeling, the
comedy is all gone and it is q tragedy Of
tears and groans and heartbreaks. Never
make any fun around me about the grotes.
One of these victims said to q Christian
man: ''Sir, if were told that 1 couldn't get
q drink until tomorrow night unless I had
all my fingers cut off I would say: Bring
the Ratchet and cut them off now" / have
O dear friend in Philadelphia whose nephew
came to him one day, and when he was ex.
can't give it up. If there stood a cannon
and it was loaded, and a glass of wine sat on
the mouth of that cannon and l knew that
you would fire it of just al I came up and
took the glass / would start, for l must have
it." Oh, it is o sad thing for a man to wake
up in this life and feel that he is a captive.
but I can't now. might have lived an hon.
orable life and died a Christian death, but
there is no hope for me now; there is no es.
cape for me. Dead, but not buried. I am q
walking corpse. I e am an apparition ofwhat
! once was. / am a Gagged immortal beating
against the wires of my cage in this direction
and in that direction, heating the cage until
there is blood on the wires and blood upon
my soul, yet not able to getout. Destroyed
without remedy"
I go further and say that the inebriats
suffers from the loss of his usefulness. Do
you not recognize the fact that many oil
those who are now captives OF strong
drink only q little while 8 were foremost
in the churches and in reformatory institu.
tions? Do you o know that sometimes
they knelt in the family circle? Do you not
know that they prayed in public, and SOM
of them carried around the holy wine on
sacramental days? Oh, yes. they stood in
the very front rank, but they gradually fell
away. And now what do you suppose is the
feeling Of such q man as that, when he thinks
of his dishonest VOWS n the ~dishonored
sacrament-wheD he thinks of what he might
| have been and what he is now? Do such
men laugh and seem very merry? All, there
is, down in the depths of their soul, a very
| heavy weight. Do not wonder that they
sometimes see strange. things and act very
roughly in the household. You would not
blame them at all if you knew what they
suffer. Do not tell such us that there is nc
future punishment. Do not tell him there il
no such place as hell. He knows there is. He
is there nowl
Igo on, and say that the inebriate suffers
Ii fv0r, <l,o Iooc IF rhvcico1 health The oldo.