The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1891-03-07
THE SECOND PLAGUE.
Or. 'Talmage on the Evil of Strong
Drink.
Liquors Severely Denounced-An Appeal
to christian People to TAKE sides Against
the Monster-The Great Foe of tho
Working Glasses.

planted a vineyard; and he drama of the
wine and was drunken" The preacher
said;
This Noah did the best and worst
ching for the world. He built an ark
against the deluge of water, but intro
duced a deluge against which the
trrniau race has ever since been
tryiag to build an ark-the deluge
Ipf drunkenness. In my text we
hear his staggering steps. Shem and
Japerh tried to cover up the disgrace,
but there he is, drunk on wine at a time
in the history of the world when, to say
the lspst, there was no lack of water.
knetl'iation, having entered the world,
has not retreated. Abigail, the fair and
heroic wife, who saved the floeks of
Sabsl her husband, from confiscation
by invaders, goes home at night and
ENDS him so intoxicated she can not
tell him the story of his narrow es-
cape. Uriah came to see David, and
David got him drunk, and paved tho
way for the despoliation of a household.
Even the church bishops needed to be
charged to be sober and not given to too
muck wine, and so familiar were people
MI JAtilC tlnCb WIN biiG SLdRRCIlnB ulAl
falltag motion of the inebriate that
lsninis when he comes to desribe tho
tnal dislocation of worlds, says; '"The
earth shall reel to and fro like n drunk
ard.
Ever since apples and grapes ana
k5wheat grew the world has been tempted
70 untsealthful stimulants. But the in.
toxieants of the olden time were an in.
Aucent beverage, q harmless orangeade,
& qriet sirup, a peaceful soda water as
compared with the liquids of moder,,
inebflation, into which a madness, amt
n furry, and a gloom. and a fire, and g
suicide, and a retribution have mixed
and mingled. Fermentation was al.
yyay1iI known, but it was not ur.
tn o thousand years after Christ that
eistj1lation was invented. While we
must confess that some of the ancient
Erts have been lost, the Christian era il
superior TO all others in the bad emil
neneeo of whisky and rum and gin. The
modern drunk is a hundred fold worse
than the ancient drunk. Noah in his
tntoxieation became imbecile, but the
Victims of modern alcoholism have to
struggle with whole menageries of wild
beasts and jungles of kissing serpents
snd psrditions of disappearing demons.
An arch fend arrived in our
world. and he built an invisible
cnuIdeon of temptation. He built thRe
eanldion strong and stout for all ageu
ard all nations. First he squeezed into
The cattldron the juices of the forbidden
fruit or paradise. Then he gathered for
II a. L1s.k.1I.A.~- g. A. u.A a .ll.
and the orchards of the hemispheres.
Tlief ne poured into this cauldron cap
Adcur,, and copperas, and logwood, and
deadly nightshade, and assault and bat
t11yt and vitriol, and opium, and rum
and raurder. and sulphuric acid, ami
thefts and potash, and cochineal, and
red carrots, and poverty, and death and
hops. But it was a dry compound, and
il NEST be moistened, and it must be
lpouiasd, and so the arch hend poured
iAto chat cauldron the tears of centuries
~ cflhanage and w~idowhood, and he
pepses7 in the blood of twenty thousand
iESts1sS5hations. And then the arch flend
a55tf< 81 shovel that he had brought up
.NttnEtbe furnaces beneath, and he pug
ef;kh hiEoyel into this great cauldron and
tEgaplto stir. and the cauldron began to
.ksave and rock, and boil, and sputter,
EEEii hiss, and smoke, and the nations
:yathaIed around it with cups and tank
strds and demijohns and kegs, and therp
wns enough for all, and the arch henJ
ssiets
ssAaai champion fiend ain !. Who
,lias done more than / have for coffin;
md ~ErAveyards and prisons and insane
Elsylunis, and the populating of the lost
worlds And when this cauldron Il
essnpaisd, Ill Eli it again, and I'll stir K
S4gyains and it will smoke again, and thai
efnol.e. will join another smolKe-the
srnoke7of q torment that ascendeth for
eyer asld ever. I drove fifty ships on
tile roSks of Newfoundland and the
Syxerrtss and the Goodwins. 1 have
faiued more senators than gather this
tpfiitGsIin the national councils, l have
rHinexflfnore lords than are now gath
cred ts the house of peers. The CUP out
DE- whiea / ordinarily drink is a bleached
htsnan skull, and the upholstery of my
~paIacesis so rich a crimson because it is
died Il human gore, and the mosaic OF
My fecrs Is made up of the bones of
childrsn dashed 10 death by drunken
parents. and my favorite music-sweeter
than TS Deum or triumphal march-my
fAvorSte music Is the cry of daughters
turnld out at midnight on the
street because father has come home
frsjmstie carousal, and the ~700-voiced
sttriei Of the sinking steamer,
hecauss the captain was not himself
when De put the ship on the wrong
eearsssf Champion fend an i! l nave
kindl6d more fires, I have wrung out
more akonies, l have stretched out mora
miitlnseSst shadows, / have opened mora
Gclgafltas, Ihave rolled more Juggep
nEutss I have damned more souls than
any ether emissary of diabolism. Cham.
pEJ1 aend am II"
-Drpnzenness is the greatest evil OF
tbs nation, and IL takes no logical pro
cess tpi prove to this audience hat q
dran&eu nation cannot long be a free
nation I call your attention to the
fisst TINT drunkenness is not ~subsiding,
Certainty that it is not at u standrtill,
bnt tssat it Is on an onward march, and
fills adsuble quick. There is more rum
sseaI1dned In this country, and of a
worse kind, than was ever swallowed
since the first distillery began its work
oEdeitth.
eallEattention to the fact that there
are thousands of people born with
tya.sS fnr strong drink-a fact too Otter
ifsnorea. Along some ancestral lineI
there Funs the river of temptation
There are children whose swaddlinG
clothestare torn off the shroud of death
Many. father has made O will of thi
sort: AtIn the name Of God, amen, l be
qreathfto my children my houses ar
lands aod real estates; share and sharI
shall they alike. Hereto I afix ml
hand acd seal in the presence of wit
nesses.f, And yet perhaps that yer,
niasi bias made another will that tn
people have never read, and hat hai
not Eeen proved in the courts. Tha
wiz tsut IN writing would read some
tlang IKE this: SIN the name of dis
ealsa ard appetite and death, amen,
beqncath TO nay children my evil habits
my tankards shall be theirs, my vim
cslp siskll be theirs, my destroyed repu
~tafiorses5all be theirs. Share and shar'
alike shall they In the infamy."
F1,om the multitude Of those wit
hlrse tie evil habit born with then
tlfs arpey is being augmented. And
art gosf7 to say that a great many O.
tEe drug stores are abetting this evil
ard aleehol Is sold under the name O,
biEAsrssB
~ seems to me tits about time for tho
1900, 0,D professors Of religion in Amer
IAN 81 <0i,a af1aa IL Ia 1oiuo IN ba ar