The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1891-03-05
CURSE UPON CURSE.
oR. TALMAoEs SUNDAY SERMON.
IN. Heritage of the Slave to the Wine
Cup.


Genesis tx, 20, 81.
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 human
race has ever since been trying 10 build an
ark-the deluge of drunkenness. In my text
we hear his staggering steps. Shem and
iJaphet tried TO cover up the disgrace, but
there he is, drunk on wine at q time In the
history OF the world when, to say the least,
there was no lack Of water. 1nebriation,
having entered the world, has not retreated.
Abigail, the fair and heroic wife, who saved
the fiocks OF Nabal her husband, from con-
fiscation by invaders, goes home at night
and finds him 50 intoxicated she cannot tell
him the story of his narrow escape. Uriah
came to see David, and David got him
drunk and paved the way for the despolia-
ton Of q household. Even the church bishops
needed to be charged to be sober and not
given to too much wine, and 20 familiar
were people OF Bible times with the stageer-
ing and falling motion OF the inebriate that
Isaiah, when he comes to describe the final
dslocation OF the worlds, says, 'Tho earth
shall reel to and fro like drunkardr
Ever since apples and grapes and wheat grew
the world has been tempted TO unhealthful
stimulants. But the intoxicants OF the olden
time were an innocent beverage harmless
orangeade, quiet syrup, peaceful soda
water as compared with the LIQUIDS OF mol
~
q fury, and gloom, and fire, and suicide,
and a retribution have mixed and mingled.
Fermentation was Always known, but 10 vas
not until thousand years after Christ
that distillation was invented. While
we must confess that some of the
ancient arts have been lost tho
Christian era is superior to all others in
the bad eminence OF whisky and rum and
gin. The modern drunk Is a hundredfod
worse than the ancient drunk. Noah In his
iptoxication became imbecile, but the vic
tins OF modern alcoholism have to struggle
\ with whole menageries of wild beasts, and
jungles OF kissing serpents, and perditions OF
Of disappearing demons.
An arch fend arrived in our world, and
A he built an invisible caldron OF temptation.
i He built that caldron strong and stout for
h all ages and nations. First he squeezed into
the caldron the juices OF the forbidden fruit
OF Paradise. Then he gathered for IL dis
4 tillation from the harvest fields and the
4 orchards of the hemisphcres. Then he poured
4 into this caldron capsicum and copperas and
logwood and deacly nightshade and assault
n and battery and vitriol and opium and rum
b and murder and sulphuric acid and theft and
4 potash and cochneal and red carrots and
4 poverty and death and hops. But II was a
4 dry compound and IL must DO moistoned and
1t must be liquetied, and 80 the arch flend
poured INTO that caldron the tears OF ceEtu-
q ries OF orphanage and widowhood, and he
poured in the blood Of twenty thousand as.
a sassinations
N And then the arch flend took a shovel that
he had brought up from the furnaces be-
meath, and he put that shovel into this great
81 caldron and began to stir, and the caldron
began to heave and rock and boil and sput-
ter and hiss and smoke, and the nations gath
u cred around IL with cups and tankards and
demijohns and kegs, and there was enough
~ for all, and the arch fend cried: "Aha
champion fiend am II Who has done more
han haxya for L. a
r prisons and insane asylums, and the populat-
ing OF the lost worldf And when this caldron
- Is emptied Pll fill II again and I'll stir IL
again, and II will smoke again, and that
smoke will join another smoke, the smoke of
etormenf, that -asrendeth for ever and ever.
! drove fifty ships on the rocks Of New
foundland, and the Skerries, and the Good
wins. / have ruined more senator's
thon 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 bleached human skull and the
upholstery OF my palace Is so rich crimson,
4because 1t Is dyed in human gore, and tho
]mosaic OF my floors is made up OF the bones
@pf children dashed TO death by drunken
parents, and my favorite music-sweeter
Than Te Deum or triumphal march--my
8ayorite music is the cry of daughters turned
put at midnight on the street because father
pas come home from the carousal, and the
beven hundred voiced shrek of the sinking
pteamer, because the captain was not him
pelf when he put the ship on the wrong
Pourse. Champion hend am III / have
tindled more fires, / have wrung out more
Bgonies, l have stretched out more mid
light shadows, l have opened more Col
tothas, | have rolled more Juggernauts
4ave damned more souls than any other
1missary of diabolism. Champion hend
nmIm
Drunkenness is the greatest evil of this
ation, and 1t takes no logical process to
prove 20 this audience that n drunken nation
hnnot long be free nation. / call your at
ention TO the fact that drunkenness is not
nbsiding certainly that IL Is not at stand
ill, but that it is on an onward march, and
Is double quick. There Is more rum
wallowed in this country, and of a worse
Ind than was ever swallowed since the first
stillery began its work OF death. Where
here was one drunken home there are ten
runken homes. Where there was one
funkards grave there nre twenty drunk.
tds graves. IL Is ON the increase. Talk
S bout crooked whisky--by which men mean
be whisky that does not pay the tax to gov
'nment-l tell you all strong drink is
ooked. Crooked Otard, crooked Cognac,
ooked schnapps, crooked beer, crooked
',= 3ne, crooked whsky-beaause il makes a
pms path crooked, and bis life crooked, and
death crooked and his eternity crooked.
y could gather all the armies of the dead
II ankards and have them come to resurrec-
n, and then add'to that host all the armies
lie'ng drunkards, five and ten abreast,
then II could have you mount horse
ride along that line for review, you
tlid ride that horse till he dropped from
hustion. and you would mount another
Dc and ride until ne fell from exhaustion,
4 you would take another and another,
- you would ride along hour after hour
~ play after day. Great host, in regiments,
Wigades. Great armies OF them And
II you had voice stentorian enough 70
rkn them all hear, and you could give the
<~Hmand. Forward march, their first
Wp would make the earth tremble l dc
4@Wre which way you look In the commun.
- day the evil Is increasing.
<Ai attention 10 the fact that there ar,
= 9Qlnnds OF people born with thirst foi
ID 4uE drink-a fact too often ignored
;, some ancestral lines there runs Tn,
y W.of temptation. There are children
~ e swaddling clothes are torn Off tn
eoQ44 OF death. Many a father has mad,
W4 OF this sort. "In the name of God