The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-05-07
THE NATIONS CURSE.
Rev. 7. Dewitt TaImage Discourses
on the Plague of Intemperance.
A Vice that is Gradually Sapping the Life
Blood of the Nation by Making
Slaves of Its PeopIe-The Duty
of the Church.


and the Adjacent Cities was delivered
by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage in Brook
lyn and New York City. The text was:
Noah planted a vineyard; and he drank of
the wine and was drunken.-Genesis tx. 20,2l
This Noah did the best and the worst
thing for the world. He built an ark
against the deluge of water, but intro
duced deluge against which the hui
man race has ever since been trying to
build an ark-the deluge of drunken
ness. In my text we hear his stagger-
ing steps. Shem and Japhet 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 least,
there was no lack of water. Inebria
ton, having entered the world, has not
reiterated. Abigail, the fair and heroic
wife, who saved the 1ocks of Nabal, her
husband from confscation by invaders,
goes home at night and finds him so in
toXicated she can not tell him the story
of his narrow escape. Uriah came to
see David, and David got him drunk,
and paved the way for the despoliation
of household. Even the church bish-
ops need to be charged to be sober and
not given to too much wine, and so IA
miliar were people of Bible times with
the staggering and falling motion of the
inebriate, that Isaiah, when he comes to
describe the final dislocation of worlds,
says: ''The earth shall reel to and fro
like drunkard."
Drunkenness is the greatest evil of
this nation, and it takes no logical
processes to prove to this audience that
a drunken nation can not long be free
nation. / call your attention to the fact
that drunkenness is not Subsiding, GER
tainly that it is not at standstill, but
that it is on an onward march, and it is
a double-quick There is more rum
swallowed in this country, and of a
worse kind, than was ever swallowed
since the first distillery began its work
of death. Where there was one drunk
en- home there arc ten drunken homes.
Where there was one drunkard's grave
there are twenty drunk ards graves. It
is on the increase. Talk about crooked
whisky-by which men mean the whis-
ky that does not pay the government
Il tell you all strong drink is crooked.
Crooked Otard, crooked Cognac, crooked
schnapps, crooked beer, crooked wine,
crooked whisl1y-because it makes q
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 that host
all the armies of living drunkards, five
and ten abreast, and then if 1 could
have you mount horse and ride along
that line for review, you would ride that
horse until he dropped from exhaustion,
and you would mount another horse and
ride until he fell from exhaustion, and
you would take another and another,
and you would ride along hour after
hour, and day after day. Great host, in
regiments, in brigades. Great armies
of them. And then if you had voice
stentorian enough to make them all
hear, and you could give the command,
Forward, marchp their first tramp
Fould make the earth tremble. 1 do
bot care which way you look in the
community to-day, the evil is increas-
ing
/ call attention to the fact that there
are thousands of people born with a
thirst for strong drinl1-a fact too often
ignored. Along some ancestral lines
there runs the river of temptation.
There are children whose swaddling-
clothes are torn off the shroud of death.
Many father has made will of this
sort: SIN the name of God, amen. ]
bequeath to my children my houses and
lands and estates; share and share shall
they alike. Hereto I affix my hand and
seal in the presence of witnesses" And
yet perhaps that very man has made
another will that the people have never
read, and that has not been proved in
the courts. That will put in writing
would read something like this: 'sIn the
name of disease, and appetite, and
death, amen. l bequeath to my chill
dren my evil habits, my tankards shall
be theirs, my destroyed reputation
shall be theirs. Share and share alike
shall they in the infamy. Hereto ]
affix my hand and seal in the presence
of all the applauding harpies of hell"
Is drunkenness a state or national
evil? Does it belong to the north. OF
does it belong to the south? Does it be
long to the east, or does it belong to the
west? All! there is not an American
river into which its tears have not faller
and into which its suicides have not
plunged. What ruined that southern
plantation? every field fortune, the
proprietor and his family once the most
affiuent supporters of summer watering
places. What threw that New England
farm into decay and turned the roseate
cheeks that bloomed at the foot of the
Green mountains into the pallor Of de
spair? What has smitten every street OF
every village, town and city of this
continent with a moral pestilence;
Strong drink.
To prove that this is national evil
call up two states in opposite directions
Maine and Georgia. Let them testify
in regard to this. State of Maine saws
ut is so great an evil up here we have
mathematical it as state" State Of
Georgia says: ut is so great an evil
down here that ninety counties of thi.
~{o%a hara v,aada &ba l., -