The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1890-08-08
THE CURSE OF DRINK.
STRIkINcLY SToNc SERMON ON IN
TEMPERANCE.

The Evils of Liquor Drinking Earnestly
ures.
The text of DIR. Talmage's Sunday
sermon was: 'It is my sons coat
an evil beast hath dovoured him"
Genesis xxxvii., 33. The following is
the discourse.
Joseph's brethren dipped their
brothers coat in goats blood and
then brought the dabbled garment
to their father, cheating him with
the idea that u ferocious animal had
slain him, and thus hiding their in
famous behavior. But there is no
deception about that which we hold
up to your observation today. A
monster such as never ranged Afri-
can thicket or Hindostan Jungle hath
tracked this land, and with bloody
NAV hath strewn the continent with
the mangled carcasses of whole gen
erations; and there are tens of thous-
ands of fathers and mothers who
could hold up the garment of their
slain boy, truthfully exclaiming, 1T
is my sons coat; an evil beast hath
devoured him" There has in all
ages and climes, been q tendency to
as if disgusted with the prevalence
of water in his time, took to strong
drink. By this vice, Alexander the
Conquorer was conquered. The Ro.
mans at their feasts fell off their seats
with intoxication. Four hundred
millions of our race are opium ea-
ters. India, Turkey and China have
groaned with the desolation: and
by it have been quenched such lights
as HALEY and DeQuincey, One
hundred millions are the victims of
the betelnut, which has specially
blasted the East Indies. Three hun
dred millions chew hashish, and Per-
sia, Brazil and Africa suffer the deli
rum. The Tartars employ murowa
the Me1icans, the agave; the people
at Gunarapo, an Intoxicating quail
ty taken from sugur cane; while a
great multitude. that no man can
number, are the disciples of alco Its
To it's trenches they fall. On
ghastly holocaust they burn. Gould
the muster roll of this great, army, .
called, and they could endure the
reeling, fostering putrefection and
be4stliness, what heart could en-
dure the groan of agony?
Drunkenness: Does it not jingle
the burglars key! Does it not whet
the assassins knife? Does it not
cock the highwayman's pistol? Does
it not wave the incendiary's torch!
Has it not sent the physician reeling
into the sick room; and the minister,
with his tongue thick, into the pull
pit? Did not an exquisite poet, from
the very top of his frame, fall a glib
boring sot into the gutter, on his way
to be married to one of the fairest
daughters of New England, and the
very hour the bride was decking her
self for the altar; and did he not die
of delirium tremens, almost unatten-
ded, in q hospital! Tamerlane asked
for one hundred and sixty thousand
skulls with which to build q pyramid
But If the bones of all those who
have fallen as q prey to dissipation
could be piled up, it would make a
vaster pyramid. =.
The Sabbath has yeen sacrificed to
the rum trafic. To many of our peo-
pie, this day of the week is the worst.
Bakers must keep their shops closed
ON the Sabbath. It is dangerous to
have loaves of bread going out on
Sunday. The shoe store is closed;
severe penalty will attack the man
who sells boots on the Sabbath. But
down with the window shutters of
the grog shops! Our laws shall con-
fer particular honor upon the rum
traffckers. ALI other trades must
stand aside for these Let our citi-
zens who have disgraced themselves
by trading in clothing, and hosiery,
take oil their FATS 1t"hsy |" thhsy ra&syesl and sSal
elected to particular honor It is un-
safe for any other class of men to b e
allowed license for Sunday work But
swing out your sighs, o we traffic
kers in the peace of families, and in
the souls of immortal men! Let the
corks fly, and the bear foam, and the
rum go tearing down the half-con-
sumed throat of the inebriate. God
does not see! Does he? Judgment
will never come! Will it?
do not know but that God is de-
termined to let drunkenness triumph
and the husbands AVID sous of thous-
ands our best families be destroyed
by this vice, in order that our people.
amazed and indignant, may rise up
and demand the determination of
this municipal crime. There is way
spf driving down the hoops of a bar
rel 80 tight they break. We have, in
this country, at various times tried to
regulate this evil by a tax on whiskey.
You might as well try to regulate
the Asiatic cholera or the small -pox
by taxation. The men who distil
liquors are, for the most part, unscu-
pulous, and the higher the tax, the
more inducement to illicit distilla-
ton.
Oh! the folly of trying to restrain
an evil by government tariff! If every
gallon of whisky made-if every flask
of wine produced, should be taxed q
thousand dollars, it would not be
enough to pay for the tears it has
wrung from the eyes of widows and
orphans, nor for the blood it has