Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-03-06
REV. DR.. 7ALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine'S Sun
day Sermon.
subiecn The Evils of Liquor Dr,nking

NF'NNr rNNNN
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 a deluge against which the human
race has ever since been trying to build an
ark-the deiuge of drunkenness. In my text
we hear his staggering steps. Shem and
Japhet tried to cover uD 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. lnebriation,
having entered the world, has not retreated.
Abigail, the fair and heroic wife, who savet
the hockS Of Nabsl, her husband. from con-
tiscatiOn by invaders, goes home at night
ami fms him 50 intoxicated she cannot tell
him the story of his narrow escape. Uriah
came to see David, and David got him
drunk aud paved the way for the deSpolia-
ton OF a household Even the church bishops
nesdel 10 be charged TO be sober and not
given to too much wine and so familiar
were people o. Bible times with the stagger-
ing and falling motion of the inebriate that
Isaiah, when he comes 70 describe the final
diSlocatiOn OF the worlds, says, The earth
shall reel TO and fro like drunkard.'
Ever since apples and grapes and wheat grew
the world has been tempted to unhealthtul
stimuants But the intOXcants of the olden
time We're an innocent beverage, harmless
orangeade, quiet syrup, peaceful soda
water as compared with the liquids of mod
ern ine5riaiion, into which madness, and
a fury. and a gloom, and fire. and suicide
and retrlbUuon have mixed and mingled
Fermentation was always known, but 1t was
not unIii thousand years after Christ
that distlllatiOn was invented. While
we must confess that some of the
ancient arts have been lost the
Christian era is superior to all Others IN
Al Of rylaae nd ~
gin The modern drunk is a hundredtold
worse than the ancient drunk. Noah in his
intOxication became imbecile, but the vic
tins of modern alcoholism have TO struggle
with whole menageries of wild beasts, and
iungles of kissing serpentS, and perdltlons oil
of biaspheming demons.
An arch fieud arrived in our world, and
he built an invisible caldron OF temptation.
lie built that caldrOn strong and stout for
/ all ages and nations. First he squeezed into
the caldron the juices of the FORBIDDEN fruit
OF Paradise. Then he gathered for 1t dis
tillatiOn from the harvest fields and the
orchards Of the hemisphereS. Then he poured
into this ca!dron capsicum and cOpperas and
logwood aud deadly nightshade and assault
and battery ami vitriol an opium aud rum
aud murder AMI Suiphuric acid and theft and
potash and cOchineal and rel carrots and
poverty AMI death ami hops. But 1t was
dry compound aud it must be moiStened, and
it must De liquefied, and 50 the arch fend
poured INTO that caldron the tears OF ceLtu-
ries OF orphanage and wildwood, and he
poured in the blood Of twenty thousand as
sassiDatODs.
And then the arch fiend took a shovel that
be had brought up from the furnaces be-
meath, and he put taat shOvelintO this great
caldron and began 10 stir, and the caldrOn
began to hesve aud rock and boil and sput-
ter and hiss and smoke, and the nations gath
cred arouni it with cups and tankards and
demiiohns and kegs, ana there was enough
for all, ami the arch fen cried: Aha
champion fiend am |. Who has done more
than have for collins and graveyards and
prisons and insane asyiumS, aud the pOpulat-
ing of the lost worldy And when this caldrOn
is emptied I'll fill it again and I'll STIR 1t
again. and it will snose again. and that
smoke will Join another smoke, the smoke OF
torment that aScendeth for ever and ever.
/ drove fifty ships on the rocks OF New
foundand, and the Skerries, and the Good
wins | have ruined more senator's
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 crimson,
because il is dye in human gore, and the
mosaic of my floors is made up Of the bones
OF children dashed 20 death by drunken
parents. and my favOrite music-sweeter
than TIE Deum or triumphal march--my
favorite music is the cry OF lighters turned
out at midnight on the street because father
has come home from the carOusal, and the
seven hundred voiced shrek of the sinking
steamer, because the captain was not him
self when he put the ship on the wrong
course. Champion fiend am l! | have
kindled more fires, ] have wrung out more
aconies | have stretched out more mid
night shadows, | have opened more Col
gothas. | have rolled more JuggernautS,
have damned more souls than any other
emissary Of diabohsm. Champion fieni
am t.
Drunkenness is the greatest evil Of this
nation, and il takes no logical process to
prove to this audience that a drunken nation
cannot long be a free nation. call your at
teution to the fact that drunkenness is not
subsiding, certainly that it is not at stand
still. 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 drunken home there are ten
drunken homes Where there was one
drunkard'S grave there are twenty drunk
ards graves Ii is on the increase. Talk
about crooked whisky-by which men mean
the whisky that does not pay the tax to gov
ernment-I tell you all strong drink Is
crooked. Crooked Otard, crooked Cognac,
crooked schnappS crooked beer, crooked
wine crooked whisxy-AecauSe 1t makes
mans path crooked, and his lie crooked and
bis death crooked AMI his eternity crooked.
If could gather all the armies OF the dead
druukards and have them come 70 resurrec-
ton and then add to that host all the armies
of living drunbards five and ten abreast,
and then if | could have you mount a horse
and ride along that line for review, you
would ride that horse till he dropped from
exhaustion. and YOU would mount another
horse and ride until he fell from xhaustiOn,
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, march, their first
tramp would make the earth tremole. do
not care which way you look in the commun-
ity to day the evil is Increasing
call attention to the fact that there are
thousands OF people born with a thirst for
strong drink-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. in the name of Col,
amen. bequeath tony children my house.
and lands aud estates; share and share shall
they alike. Hereto afix my hand and sea-
in the presence Of witnesses" And yet per
haps that very man has made another vii
that the people have never read, and that
has not been proved in the courts That vii
put in writing would read something liz
this "In the name Of disease and appetite
and DEATH amen. bequeath TO my children
nv evil habits, my tankards shall be theirs
my wine cup shall be theirs, my destroyer
reputation shall be theirs. Share and share
alike shall they in the infamy Hereto | af
fix my hand and seal in the presence of al
the applauding harpies Of hell"
From the multitude of those who have
the evil habit born with them this army is be
ing augmented. And am sorry to say that I
great many of the drug stores are abettini
this evil, and alcohol is sold under the nam'
of bitters 1t is bitters for this and bitter
for that and bitters for some other thing
ami good men deceived. not knowing tier
Is any tbralldOm OF alcoholism coming from
that source, are going down, and some day
a man sits with the bottle Of blacS bitters Oh
his table. and the cork dies out, and after Il
flies fend ard clutches the man 10y hi