The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-03-02
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G0THAMS TEN PLAQUES.
NOAHS vINEYAsD A BAD THING
FOR THE WORLD.

WIN toe MoueTh Jersey lightning.
The Evils of Intemp srance.
NEW YORK, March DIR. Talmage con-
tinued to-day the series of sermons he COM
menced last Sunday on the "Ten Plaques OF
New York and the Adjacent Cities.n The
plague which he places second on the list is
intemperance, and on that subject he dis
coursed this morning in the Academy Of
Music, Brooklyn, and this evening in New
York. At the close Of the service in the
New York Academy Of Music, DIR. Talmage
went over to the Union square theater,
where his son, Frank Dewitt Talmage, was
holding an overflow meeting, and briefly
addressed the crowded house. Both the
New York services are under the auspices
OF the Christian Herald, Of which DR..
Talmage is editor. The text Of the doctors
sermon was taken from Genesis tx, 20, 81:
'Noah planted vineyard: and he drank of
the wine and was drunken
This Noah did the best and the worst
thing for the world. He built an ark
against the deluRe of water, but introduced
deluge against which tho human race has
ever since been trying TO build an ark-the
deluge OF drunkenness In my text we hear
his staggering steps. Shem and Japhet
tried to cover up the disgrace, but there he
IL, drunk on wine at time in the history Of
the world when, to say the least, there was
no lack of water. Inebriation, having en-
tered the world, has not retreated Abigail,
the fair and heroic wife, who saved the
fiocks OF Nabal, her husband, from
coafiscation by invaders, goes home at
night and finds him SO intoxicated that she
cannot tell him the story of his narrow
escape Uriah came to see David. and
Qyth rot htFV1d dF.stn as,d
for the despolation Of a household. Even
the church bishops needed to be charged
TO be sober and not given to too much wine,
and 30 familiar were people Of Bible times
with the staggering and falling motion of
the inebriate, that Isaiah, when he comes
to describe the hnal dislocation of worlds
says: "The earth shall reel to and fro like
a drunkard.n
Ever since apples and grapes, and wheat
grew the world has been tempted to un-
healthful stimulants. But the intoxicants
OF the olden time were an innocent bev-
erage. a harmless orangeade, a quiet syrup,
a peaceful soda water, as compared with the
liquids Of modern inebriation, into which a
madness aud fury, and a gloom and fire,
and q suicide and retribution have mixed
and mingled. Fermentation was always
known, but it was not until thousand
years after Christ that distillation was in
vented. While We must confess that some
of the ancient arts have been lost, the
christian era is superior TO all others in the
bad eminence Of whisky and rum, and
gin. The modern drunk is
hundredfold worse than the ancient
drunk. Noah in his intoxication became
imoecile, but tho victims of modern alcohol
ism have TO struggle with whole menag-
cries of wild beasts and iungles Of Kissing
serpents and perditlons of blaspheming de-
mons. An arch-hend arrived in our world,
and he built an invisIL 10 caldron Of tempt
alton. He built that caldron strong and
stout for all ages and all nations. First he
squeezed into the caldron the juices of the
forbidden fruit Of Paradise. Then be gath
cred for it distillation from the harvest
fields and the orchards Of the hemispheres.
Then he poured into this oauldron
capsicum and copperas and logwood
and deadly nightshade aud assault
and battery and vitriol and
opium, and rum, and murder, and sulphurio
acid. and theft, and potash, and cochineal,
and red carroJs, and poverty and death and
hops. But 1t was dry compound, and it
must be moistencd, and it musJ be liquehed,
and so the arch-hend poured into that
caldron the tears of centuries of orphanage
and widowhood, and he poured in the
blood Of twenty thousand assaxsinations
And then the arch-fend took a shovel that
he had brought, up from the furnace
beneath, aud he put that shovel
into this great caldron and began to stir,
and the oaldron began to heaye, and rock,
and boil, and sputter., and hiss,
and smoke, and the nations
gathered around it with cups and taLkards
and demijohns and kegs, and there was
enough for all, and the arch-fend cried
"Ahal champion fiend am /. Who has
done more than / have for coffins and grave
yards and prisons and insane asylums, and
IaNf ~ LIT
this caldron is emptied, pll fill it again,
aud I'll stir it again, and 1t will smoke
again, and that smoke will join
another smoke-the smoke of q tor-
ment that asoendeth for ever and
ever / drove fifty ships on the
rocks OF Newfoundland and the Skerries
aud the Goodwins. 1 have ruined more
senators than gather this winter in the ma
tional councils. | have ruined more lords
than are now gathered in the House of
Peers. The cup out of which ] ordinarily
drink is a bleached human skull, and the
upholstery OF my palace is 50 rich q crimson
because it is dyed in human gore, and the
mosaic OF my floors is made up of the bones
OF children dashed to death by drunken
parents, and my favorlte music--sweeter
than TIE Deum or triumnhal march-my
favorite music is the cry of daughters
turned out at midnight on the street
because father has come home from the
carousal. and the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
shrek Of the sinking steamer, because the
captain wGs not himself when he put the
ship on the wrong course. Champion lend
am |! ! have kindled more fires, / have
wrung out more agonies, / have stretched
out more midnight shadows, have opened
more Golgothas. | have rolled more Jugger-
nauts, have damned more souls than any
other emissary OF diabolism. Champion
fend am I'
Drunkenness is the greatest evil of this
nation, and it takes no logical process to
prove to this audience that a drunken ma
tion cannot long be free nation. | call
your attention to the fact that drunken
ness is not subsiding, certainly that it is not
at standstill, but that it is on an onward
march, and it is double-quick There is
more rum swallowed in this country, and
of worse kind, than was ever swallowed
since the first distillery began its work of
death. Where there was one drunken
home there are ten drunken homes. Where
there was one drunkard's grave there are
twenty drunkards' graves. It is on the in
crease Talk about crooked whisky-by
which men mean the whisky that does not
pay the tax to government tell you all
trong drink is crooked. Crooked oterd.
crooked Cognac, crooked schnapps, crooked
beer, crooked wine, crooked whisky--be-
causs 1t makes mans path crooked, and
his life crooked, and his death crooked, and
his eternity crooked. If | could gather all
the armies Of the dead drunkards and have
them come to resurrection. and then add to
n.