The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1891-04-18
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLN DIVINE'S SUNDAY
SERMON.
Subject: 1.-THE Evils of Liquor Drink
ing"


duced deluge against which the huma
race has ever since been trying to build a
ark-the deluge Of drunkenness. In my te,
we hear his staggering steps. Shem an
Japhet tried to cover up the disgrace, bl
there he is, drunk on wine at a time in I'll
history of the world when, to say the leas
there was no lack of water. 1nebriatior
having entered the world, has not retreatec
Abigail, the fair and heroic wife who save
|. the flocks Of Nsbal, her husband. from cor
hscation by invaders, goes homo CT nis.h
and finds him 30 intoxicated she cannot te
him the story of his narrow escape. Uria
came to see David, and David got hiu
drunk and paved the way for the despolia
ton of a household. Even the church bishop
needed to be charged to be sober and no
gwen TO too much wine, and so familia
were people of Bible times with the stagyer
ing and falling motion of the inebriate tina
Isaiah, when lie comes to describe the fina
dislocation of the worlds, SAYS, 1.-THE eartl
shall reel TO and fro like a drunkard.n
Ever since apples and grapes and wheat grew
the world has been tempted to unhealthfu
sthnulants. But the intoxicants of the Older
time were an innocent beverage a harmless
orangeade, quiet syrup, a peaceful soda
water as compared with the liquids of mod.
ern lnebriation, into which a madness. and
Jury, and gloom, and fire, and a suicide,
- NeAicuNi'h nave llAel ana mingled.
Fermentation was always known. but it was
not until a thousand years after Chris,
That distillation was invented. While
We must confess that some of the
ancient arts have been lost. the
Christian era is superior to all others in
tine 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 the vic
nj mo
with whole menagerieS of wild beasts, and
Jungles Of kissing serpents, and perditions of
OF disappearing demons.
An arch nend arrived in our world and
he built an invisible caldron of Temptation.
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 it dis
tlllation from the harvest fields and the
orchards OF the hemispheres. Then he poured
INTO TINS caldron capSlcum and copperas and
ioSwood and deadly nightshade and assault
and battery and vitriol and opium and rum
ami murder and sulphuric acid and theft and
potash and cochineal and red carrots and
poverty and death and hops. But it was a
dry compound and it must be moistened and
It must be hquefied, and so the arch fiend
poured into that caldron the tears of certu-
ries OF orphanage and widowhood. and he
poured 40 the blood OF twenty thousand as
And then the arch 6end took a shovel that
ne had brought up from the furnaces be-
meath, and he put tnat shovel into this great
'aiIron and began to STIR and the caliron
Jegan to heave and rock and boil and snut
er and hiss and smoke, and the nations gath
red around 1t with cups and tankards and
iemlJohns and kegs and there was enough
or all, and the arch tient cried: "Ahnr
IN tippI
nan have for collins and graveyar,is and
'risons and insane asyiums, and the populat-
ny Oh the lost world. And when this caldron
; emptled III fill 1T again and I'll stir it
gam, ana IL VIII smoke again, and that
moke will JOIN another smoke, the smoke of
torment that ascendeth for ever and ever.
drove fifty ships on the rocks of New.
oundiand, and the Skerries, and the Good
ms. l have ruined more senators
han gather this winter in the ma
onal councils. | have ruined more lords
nan are now gathered in the house
peers. The cup out of which | ordinarily |
rink Is bleached human skull, and the |
OF my palace is SO -ich crimson |
scause 1t Is dyed In human gore and the |
losalc OF my floors is made up of the bones
[ children dashed to death by drunken
arentS, and my favOrite music-sweeter
nan lie Deum or triumphal march-mv
>
ut at midnight on the street because father
rs come home from the carousal. and the
wen hundred voiced shrek of the sinking
Gamer, because the captain was not HIM
III when he put the ship on the wrong
lurse. Champion fiend am 1! 1 have
ndled more fires, have wrung out more
COMES, l have stretched out more mid
ght shadows, l have opened more Col
Dthas, l have rolled more Juygernauts I
ave damned more souls than any other
nissary OF diabolism. Champion fiend
III
drunkenness is the greatest evil of this
atom, and 1t takes no logical process to
'ove to this audience that a drunken nation
'--@t .snS = frae nation call vo.,r -.
ntlon to the fact that drunkenness is not
6siding, certainly that it is not at a stand
III, but that 1t IS on an onward march, and
Is double quick. There is more rum
'allowed in this country, and of a worse
nd than was ever swallowed since the first
stlllery began its work of death Where
ere was one drunken home there are ten |
unken homes. Where there was one
unkard's grave there are twenty drunk
DIS graves. 1t is on the increase. Talk
out crooked whisky-by which men mean
9 whisky that does not pay the tax to gov
nment-l tell you all strong drink is
Doked. Crooked Otard, crooked Cognac.
|
ne, crooked whisky-because it makes a
ans path crooked, and his life crooked, and
, death crooked and his eternity crooked.
Ii could gather all the armies of the dead
and have them come to resurrec-
N, and then add to that host all the armies
living drunkards, five and ten abreast
then II L could have you mount q horse
ride along that line for review, you
uld ride that horse till he dropped from
and you would mount another
rise and ride until he fell from exhaustion.
1 you would take another and another.
! You would ride along hour after hour
day after day. Great host, in regiments,
brigades. Great armies of them. And
m if you had voice stentorian enough to
Ike them all hear, and you could give the ,
nmand. Forward, march, their first ,
mp would make the earth tremble. / do !
care which way you look in the commun- :
to day the evil is increasing.
call aAN