Sharp County record., 1891-03-19
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage Discourses
on the Plague Of Intemperance.
A Vice that is Gradually Sapplng the Life
Blood of the Nation by Making
Slaves of Its People-The Duty
of the Church.

The second discourse of the series on
the "Ten Plaques of New York Clty
and the Adjacent Cities" was delivered
by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage in Brook
lyn and New York City. The text was:
Noah planted vineyard; and he drank of
the wine and was drunken.-Geness tx. 2O,2L
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 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 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 flocks of Nabal, her
husband from confscation by invaders,
goes home at night and finds him so in
toxicated she can not tell him the story
of his narrow escape. Uriah came to
see David, and David got him drunk,
and paved the way for the despoliation
of a'household. Even the church bish-
ops need to be charged to be sober and
not given to too much wine, and so ia
miliar were people of Bible times with
the staggering and falling motion of the
inebriate, that Isaiah, when he comes to
describe the final dislocation of worlds,
says: "The earth shall reel to and fro
like drunkard."
Drunkenness is the greatest evil of
this nation, and it takes no logical
processes to prove to this audience that
a drunken nation can not long be free
nation. / call your attention to the fact
that drunkenness is not subsiding, GER
tainly that it is not at a standstill, but
that it is on an onward march, and it is
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 drunk
en- 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 whis-
ky that does not pay the government
Il tell you all strong drink is crooked.
Crooked Otard, crooked Cognac, crooked
schnapps, crooked beer, crooked wine,
crooked whisky-because it makes
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
resurrection, and then add to that host
all the armies of living drunkards, five
and ten abreast, and then if I could
have you mount horse and ride along
that line for review, you would ride that
horse until he dropped from exhaustion,
and you would mount anotherhorse 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 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 tremble. I do
not care which way you look in the
community to-day, the evil is increas-
ing.
l call attention to the fact that there
are thousands of people born with
thirst for strong drinl--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: "ln the name of God, amen.
bequeath to my children my houses and
lands and estates; share and share shall
they alike. Hereto / aflix my hand and
seal in the presence Of witnesses" And
yet perhaps that very man has made
another will that the people have never
read, and that has not been proved in
the courts. That will put in writing
would read something like this: "In the
name of disease, and appetite, and
death, amen. | bequeath to my chill
dren my evil habits, my tankards shall
be theirs, my destroyed reputation
shall be theirs. Share and share alike
shall they in the infamy. Hereto I
aflix my hand and seal in the presence
Of all the applauding harpies of hell"
Is drunkenness a state or national
evilp Does 1t belong to the north, or
does 1t belong to the south? Does IL be-
long to the east, or does II belong TO the
west9 Ali there is not an American
river into which It's tears have not fallen
and into which It's suicides have not
plunged. What ruined that southern
plantation? every field fortune, the
proprietor and his family once the most
aflluent supporters Of summer watering
places What threw that New England
farm into decay and turned the roseate
checks that bloomed at the foot of the
Green mountains into the pallor Of de-
spar? What has smtten every street of
every village, town and city Of this
continent with moral pestilcnce?