Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1891-03-13
REV. DR.. TAlMkGf.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT, "THE EVILS OF LIQUOR
DRINKISG."

frrr: "Noah planted vineyard, and As
xrunk Of the toine and tods drunken ~
Genesis tx, 90, 81.
This Noah did the best and the worst
thing for tho world. He built an ark
against the delugs OF water but intro
duced o deluge against which the human
race has ever since been trying to baild 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, 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 focks Of Nabal, her husband. from con-
fscation by invaders, goes home at night
and finds him no 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 household. Even the chuSch bishops
needed to be charged to be sober and not
given to too much wine, and so familiar
were people OF Bible times with the stagger-
ing and falling motion OF the inebriate that
Isaiah, when he comes to describe the final
dislocation OF the worlds says The earth
shall reel to and fro like a drunkari"
Ever since apples and grapes and wheat grew
the world has been tempted 10 Cnhealthtul
Dul Jub lNtNAlCuuIs OI LHB OIueu
time were an innocent beverage, a harmless
orangeads, quiet syrup a peaceful soda
water as compared with the liquids of mod
ern inebriation, into which madness. AMI
fury, and gloom, and a fire and a suicide,
and retributiOn have mixed and mingled /.
Fermentation WAS always known, but it vas
not until a THOUSAND years after Christ
that distillaiion was invented. While
we must confess that some OF the
Christian era Is superior TO all Others in
tho bad eminence OF whisky and rum and
gin. The modern drunk is a hundredfold
worse than the ancient drunk. Noah in his
intoxication became imbecile, but tde vic
tins Of modern alcoholism have To struggle
with whole meuageTics OF wild beasts, and
jungies Of Kissing serpsnts, and perditions Of
Of blaspheming demons.
An arch feud arrived in our world, and
be built an invisible caliron OF temptation.
He built that caldrun strong and stout for
all ages and nations First he squeezed into
the caldron the juices NJ the forbidden fruit
OF Paradise. Then he gathered for it dis
tillation from the harvest fields and the
orchards OF the hemlsphercs. Then he poured
Into this caidron capslCum and copperas and
log wood and deadly nightshade and assault
and battery and vitriol and opium and rum
and murder and sulphuric acid and theft and
pOsstsu anu tbNuHlthl anu Etl CdfTUIs anu
poverty and death and hops But il was a
dry compound and It must be moistened and
II must be liquctied, and the arch tiend
poured INTO that cal.lron the tears OF ceLtu-
ries OF orphanage ani widowhood, aud he
poured in the blood Of twenty thousand as
sassipatonS
And then the arch fend took a shovel that
he had brought up from the furnaces be-
meath, and he put tnat shovel into this great
csldron and began 10 stir, and tine caIdron
began to heave md rock and boil and sput-
ter and hiss ana smoke, and the nations gath
cred around 1t with cups and tankaI Is and
demi johns and kegs, and there was enough
for all, aud the arch fienI cried: AHA
champion fend am l. Who has done more
than have for collins and graveyards and
prisons and insane asyiums, aud the populat-
Ing OF the lost worldS And when this caldron
Is emptied I'll fill it again, and I'll stir it
again, and it will smoke again, and II It
smoke will join another smoke, the smoke OF
torment that ascendeth for ever and ever.
/ drove fifty ships on the rocks of New
foundland, and q = Skerries, and the Good
wins. | have ruined more senator's
than gather Is 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 hleached human skull and tho
VI lldldCe IN ~ IlCu u
because it is dYet in human gore and the
mosaic of my floors is made up of tho bones
Of children dashed to death by drunken
parents, and my favorite music-sweeter
than To Deum or triumphal march-nny
favurite music is the cry OF daughters turned
out at midnight on the street because father
has come home from the carousal, and the
>even hundred voiced shrek of the sinking
aeamer, because the captain was not him
k.,, h.. 81.
course Champion fiend AMI II l have
kindled more fires, have wrung out more
agonies, | have stretched out more mid
night shadows 1 have opened more Col
gothas, / have rolled more Juggernauts
have damned more souls than any other
emissary OF diabolism. Champion fend
amir
Drunkenness Is the greatest ev,i Of this
nation, and it takes no logical process to
prove to this audience that drunken nation
cannot long be free nation. | call your at
tention to the fact that drunkenness Is not
subsiding, certainly that IL Is not at stand
still, but that it is on an onward march, and
1t is a double quick. There Is more rum
swallowed in this country, and OF a worse
kind than was ever swallowed since the first
distiilery began its work OF death. Where
there was one drunken home there are ten
drunken hou''N Where there was one
| uIunkdTub grave tnSEe tfo JhcnUY uTulik-
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 all strong drink n
crooked. Crooked Otard. crooked Cognac,
crooked schnappS crooked beer, crooked
wine, crooked whisky-because it makes a
mans path crooked, and his life crooked, and
his death crooked and his eternity crooked.
II / could gather all the armies OF the dead
| 4
ton, and then add to that host all the armies
Of living drunkards five and ten abreast,
and then II l could havo 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 stentorisn enough To
make them ali hear, and you could give the
command. Forward, march' their first
tramp would make the earth tremble. l do
not care which way you look In the commun-
itY to day the evil 70 increasing.
| call attention TO the fact that there are
thousands OF peu,.c born with a thirst for
strong drink-a fact too often ignored.
Along some ancestral lines there runs the
| river OF temptation. lhere are Chlldren
whose swaddiing clothes are torn Off the
shroud of death. Many father has made
will Of this sort In the name OF God,
amen. / Ibequeath to my children my houses
and lands and estates; share and share shall
they alike, Hereto affix my hand and seal
In the presence Of witnesses And yet per
hapS that very man has made another will
that the people have never read, and thai
has not been proved In the courts. That will
put In writing would read something lik'
this: I'm the name Of disease and appetit,
and death, amen. Ibequeath to my children
my evil habits, my tankards shall be theirs
my wine cup shall be theirs, my destroyet
reputation shall be theirs. Share and shar,
alike shall they In tho infamy. Hereto af
fix my hand and seal In the presence Of al
the applauding harpies Of he'll"
From the. multitude of those who hav
the evil habit born with them this army Is be
| l.. s.l - Al