The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1891-03-04


mons on the "Ten Plaques Of New York
and Adjacent Cities" Rev. t. De Witt
Talmage discoursed last Sunday on the
plague Of intemperance, which he places
second on the list The text OF the doc
tors sermon was taken from Genesis
TX, 2o,21: "Noah planted vineyard.
and he drank of the wine and was
drunken"
This Noah did the best and worst
thing for the world. He built an ark
against the deluge Of water, but intro
duced a 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-
tion, having entered the world, has not
retreated. Abigail, the fair and heroic
wife, who saved the focks of Nabal,
her husband, from confscation by in
vaders, goes home and finds him so in
toxicated she can not tell him the story
Of his narrow escap,. Uriah came to
see David, and David got him drunk and
paved the way for the despoliation Of a
household. Even the church bishops
needed to be charged TO be sober nd
not given too much wine, and so famil-
lar were people of Bible times with the
staggering and falling motion of the in
ebriate, that Isaiah, when he comes to
describe the final dislocation of 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 unhealthful stimulants. But
the intoxicants of the olden time were
an innocent beverage, harmless
orangeade, quiet sirup, q peaceful
soda water, as compared with the
liquids of modern inebriation, into
which madness, and fury, and
gloom, and fire, and a suicide, and a
retribution have mixed and mingled.
Fermentation was always known, but
IT was not until thousand years after
Christ that distillation was invented.
While we must confess that some Of the
ancient arts have been lost, the Chris
tian era is superior to all others in the
bad eminence of whisky and rum and
gin. The modern drunk is hundred
fold worse than an ancient drunk.
Noah in his intoxication became inn
beetle, but the victims OF modern alco-
holism have to struggle with whole
menageries Of wild beasts and jungles
Of serpents and perditions Of blasphem-
ing demons. An arch-fend arrived in
our world, and he built an invisible
cauldron Of temptation. He built that
cauldron strong and stout for all ages
and all nations. First he squeezed into
the cauldron the juices of the for
hidden fruit of paradise. Then he
gathered for 1t distillation from
the harvest fields and the orchards
Of the hemispheres Then he poured
into this cauldron capsieum, and cop
peras, and logwood, and deadly night
shade, and assault and battery, and Wit
riol and opium, and rum, and murder,
and sulphuric acid, and theft, and pot
ash, and cochineal, and red carrots, and
poverty, and death, and hops. But it
was dry compound, and II must be
moistened, and IL must be liquefed, and
80 the,arch-fend poured into that caul-
>dron the tears Of centuries Of orphan
age and widowhood, and he poured in
the blood of twenty thousand assassin
atoms. And then the arch-fend took
Shovel that he had brought up from the
furnace beneath, and heIput that shovel
ipto this great cauldron and began to
stir, aud the cauldron began TO heave, and
rock, and boil, and sputter, and hiss,
and smoke, and the nations gathered
around IL with cups and tankards and
demijohns and kegs, and there was
enough for all, and The arch-fend cried:
"Ahai champion fiend am I. Who has
done more than have for coff!ns and
grave yards and prisons and insane asy-
lums, and the populating Of the lost
world2 And when this cauldron Is
emptied I'll fll II again, and I'll stir IL
again, and IL will smoke again, and that
smoke will Join another smoke-the
smoke of torment that ascendeth for
ever and ever. Idrove fifty ships on the
rocks Of Newfoundland and the Skier
ries and the Goodwins. have ruined
more senators than gether this winter
In the national councils. have ruined
more lords than are now gathered In the
house OF peers. The cup out Of which
I ordinarily drink Is bleached human
skull, and the upholstery Of my palace
Ia 10 rich a crimson because II Is dyed In
human gore. ana the mosaic Of my floors
10 made up Of the bones Of children
dashed 10 death by drunken parents,
and my favorite music-sweeter than
Te Deum or triumphal march-my IA
vorite music is the cry Of daughters
turned out at midnight on the street be-
cause father has come home from the
cArousal, and the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
shrek of the sinking steamer, because
the captain was not himself when he
put the ship on the wrong course.
Champion fend am II have kindled
more fires, ] have wrung out more
agonies, 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 diabolism. Champion
Hend am IT.
Drunkenness is the greatest evil Of
this nation, and II takes no logical pro-
cess TO prove 10 this audience that a
drunken nation can not long be free
nation. call your attention to the fact