The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-03-11
ONE OF TIE TEN PLAQUES.
IwTEMPERANcgT The NATIONS CURSE.
Dr. Talmsge's second Sermon OF the New
series-CiviIizatiOn Thr-atened-rhs
Product of satRn's CaldrOn-In-
difference OF the Church.

DR.. Talmage continued Sunday the series
of sermons he commenced recently on the
''Ten Plaques OF New York and the Adj
jacent Cities" The plague which he
places second on the list is intemperance,
and on that subject he discoursed in the
Academy Of Music, Brooklyn, and at night
in New York At the close of the service
in the New York Academy OF Music DR..
lTalmage went over to the Union Square
theater. where his son, Mr.. Frank De Witt
Talma0e, was holding an overflow meet
ing, and briefly addressed the crowded
house. Both the New York services are
under the auspices OF the Christian Herald,
of which DIT. Talmage is the editor. The
text of the doctors sermOnwas taken from
Genesis, TX, 20, 21: Noah planted vine
yard, and he drank of the wine and was
drunken"
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 to build
an ark-the deluge OF drunkenness. In
my text we hear his staggering steps.
Shem and Jsphet tried to cover up the
disgrace, but there he is, drunk on wine
at time in the history OF the world when,
lto say the least, there was no lack of
,water. Inebriation, having entered the
world, mas not rerreated. Abigail, the
fair and heroic wife, who saved the focks
of Nabal, her husband, from confiscation
by invaders, goes home at night and finds
him 80 intoxicated she cannot tell him
the story of his narrow escape Uriah
came 10 see David, and David got him
drunk, and paved the way for the despoi-
alton of a household. Even the church
bishops needed 10 be charged to be sober
and not given too much wine, and so
familiar were people of bible times with
the staggering and falling motion of the
inebriaie that Isaiah, when he comes to
describe the final disOcation 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 I'M
healthlul stimulants. But the IN oxicants
of the olden time were an innocent
beverage, a harmless orangeade, a quiet
sirup. a peaceful soda water, as compared
with the liquids of modern inebriation,
into which a madness, and fury, and a
gloom, and a ire. and suicide, and a
retribution have mixed and mingled.
Fermentation was always known, but it
was not until 1000 years after Christ that
distillatiOn was invented. While We
must confess that some of the ancient arts
have been lost, the Christian era is SUI
perior to ali others in the bad eminence OF
whisky and rum and gin. The modern
drunk is a hundredfOld worse than the
ancient drunk. Noah in his intoxcation
became imbecile, but the victims of
modern alcObOiiGu have IN With
whole menageTies OF wild beasts and jun
giles of Kissing serpents and peTditions of
disappearing demons An arch fienG
rived in our world, ana he built an invisi-
BILE caldrOn of temptation. He built that
caldron strong and stout for all ages and all
nations. First he squeezed into the cald-
ron the juices OF the forbidden fruit OF
Paradise. Then he gathered for it dis
tillatiOn from the harvest fields and the
orchards OF the hemispheres. Then he
poured into this caldron capsicnm, and
cOpperas, and logwoOd, and deadly night
shade, and assault and battery. and vitriOl,
and opium, and rum, aud murder and
suphuric acid, and theft, and potash, ana
cochineal, and red carrots, ami poverty,
and death and hops. But it was a dry
compound, and It must be mOistened, and
Il must be liquified, and So the archfiend
poured into that caldron the tears of CEN
he poured IN the blood OF 10000 assassina-
tions- And then the archiend took a
shovel that he had brought up from the
furnaces beneath, and he put that shovel
into this gre Z caldrOn and began to stir
and the caldrOn began 10 heave, and rock,
and boil, and sputter, and hiss, and smOka,
and the nations gl hered around with
cups, and tankards, and demi johns, and
kegs, and there was enough for all, and
the archfend cried: Aha champion
fiend am l. Who has done more for collins
and graveyards and prisons and insane
asylums, and the pOpu.ating of the
lost world? And when this caldron is
emptied. III fill it again, and I'll stir it
again, ami il wi | smoke again, and that
smoke will Join anOthe r smoke-the smoke
of a torment that aScendsth forever and
ever. drove fifty ships on the rocks of
Newfoundland and the Skerrirs and the
Goodwins. | have ruined more senators
than gather this winter in the national
councils. / have ruined more lords than
are now gathered in the house OF peers.
The cup out OF which | ordinarily drink is
a bIeached human skull, and the up
holstery OF my palace is so rich a crimson
because il Is dyed in human gore and the
mosaic of my floor is male up of the bones
of children dashed to death by drunken
parents, and my favorite musIc-sweeter
than Te Deum or triumphal march-my
fsvorite music is the cry of daughters
turned out at midnight on the streets be-
cause father has come home from the
carousal, and the 700-voiced shrek of the
sinking steamer, because the captain was
not himself when he put the shin on the
wrong course. Champion fiend am /! l
have kinded more fires, have wrung out
more a9onies. have stretched out more
midnight shadows, | have opened more
Golgothas, have rolled more Juggernauts.
I have damned IN ore sous than any other
emissary OF diabolism. Champion fiend
am III
Drunkenness is the greatest evil of this
nation, and 1t takes no .Ogical processes to
prove 10 this audience that drunken ma
ton can not long be a free nation / call
your attention to the TACT that drunken
ness is not subsiding, certainly that it is
not at a standstill. but that it is on an up
ward march, and it il a doubIe-Quick
There is more rum swallowed in this coun-
try, and of a worse kindSthan 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 drunkards' graves
1t 10 ON the increase. Talk about crooked
whisky-by which men mean the whisky