Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-03-20
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: The Evils of Liquor Drink
ing

thing for the world. He built 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 deluge of drunkenness. In my text
we hear his staggering steps Shem and
Japhet tried to cover up the disgrace, but
there he is drunk on wine at time IN the
history of the world when, to say the least
there was no lack of water. Inebriation,
having entered the world, has not retreated.
Abigail. the fair and heroic wife, who saved
the focks Of Nabal, her husband. from con-
fiscation by invaders, goes home at night
and finds him so intoxicated she cannot ten
him the story of his narrow escape. Crlah
came to see David, and David got him
drunk and paved the way for the despolla-
ton of a household. Even the church bishops
needed to be charged to be sober and not
given to too much wine, and familiar
were people of Bible times with the s5agger
ing and falling motion Of the ineDriate that
Isaiah, when he comes to describe the final
dislocation Of the worlds, says, The earth
shall reel to and fro like a drunkard."
Ever since apples and grapes and wheat grew
the world has been tempted to unhealthful
stmulants. But the intOxlcants OF the Olden
time were an innocent beverage. harmless
orangeade, quiet syrup, peacef soda
water as compared with the liquids OF mod
ern inebriatiOn, into which madness, and
a fury. and gloom, and fire, and suicide,
and a retribution have mixed and mingled
Fermentation was always known, but 1t was
not until a thousand years after Christ
that distillation was invented. While
we must confess that some of the
ancient arts nave been lost the
Christian era is superior to all others in
the bad eminence of whisky and rum and
gin The modern drunk Is a hundredtold
worse than the ancient drunk. Noah In his
intoxiCatiOn became lmbeclle, but the VIC
tins of modern alcoholism have to struggle
with whole menageries of wild beasts, and
jungIes of kissing serpents, and perditions of
Of disappearing demons.
An arch fieud arrived in our world, and
he built an invisible caldron Of temptat ton.
He 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 caldron capsicum and copperas and
lOgwood and deadly nightShade and assault
and battery and vitriol and opium and rum
and murder and sulphuric acid and theft and
potash and cOchineal and red carrots and
poverty and death and hops. But it was
dry compound and it must be moistened, and
it must be lQuefed, and SO the arch hend
poured INTO that caldron the tears Of ceLtu-
ries o. Orphanage and widOwhoOd and he
poured in the blood of twenty thousand as
destinations
And then the arch fiend took shovel that
he had brought up from the furnaces be-
meath, and he put that shovellntO this great
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
cred around it with cups and tankards and
demijo johns and kegs and there was enough
for all and the arch fend cried: AHA!
champion fiend am |! Who has done more
than | have for collins and graveyardS and
prisons and insane asylums, and the pOpulat-
ing of the lost world? And when this caldrOn
is emptied Pn fill it again and PHI stir it
again, and it will smoke again, and that
DO ,,O1or -
a torment that ascendeth for ever and ever
l drove fifty ships on the rocks of New
foundland, and the Skerries, and the Good
wins. | have ruined more senator's
than gather this winter in the
tiOnal councils. | have ruined more lords
than are now gathered in the house
OF peers. The cup out Of which l ordinarily
drink is a bIeached human skull and the
upholstery Of my palace is so rich 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 favorite music-sweeter
than TIE Deum or triumphal march--my
favOrite music is the cry Of daughters turned
out at midnight on the street because father
has come home from the carOusaI, 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 tiend am II | have
kindied more fires have wrung out more
agonieS / have stretched out more mid
night shadows, l have opened more Col
gOthas, l have rolled more JuggernautS, |
have damned more souls than any other
emissary of diabolism. Champion fend
amir
Drunkenness is the greatest evil of this
nation, and it takes no logical process to
prove to this audience that drunken nation
cannot long be a free nation. l call your at
tention to the fact that drunkenness is not
subsiding, certainly that it is not at stand
still but that it is on 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 1t 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 al strong drink is
crooked. Crooked Otard, crooked Cognac,
crooked schnapps, crooked beer, crooked
wine, crooked wnisky-hecause it makes a
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 reSurrec-
ton, and then add to that host all the armies
of living drunkards, five and ten abreast
and then if could have you mount 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 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 il you had voice Stentorian enough to
make them all hear, and you could give the
command, Forward, marchm their first
M III lr %lS -, l.