Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-03-06
INTEMPERANCE.
pR. TAGMAGE CALLS 1T THE SEC
1ND PLAGUE OF NEW YORK.
What VII Bappe'' so the Nation If
the Evil is Not Sup .pressed.-PO-
Iitical Parties and the Churches
Scored for their Indifference


mage continued today the series CT ssr-
mon. ne commenced last Sunday on the
''Ten Plaques OF New York and Adj cent
Cities" The plague which be laces
second on the list is IntcmperGzee and On
that subject he dscoursed this morning In
the Academy of Music Brooklyn, and
this evening in New York. At the. close
of tho service in the New York Academy
Union Square Theatre, where his sou, Mr..
Frank Dewitt Talmage, was holding an
overflow meeting, and briefly addressed
the crowded house. The text of the Doc
tors sermon was taken from Genesis o.
1921: "Noah planted vineyard; 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 introduced
a 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
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. Inebrlation,
having entered the world, has not re-
treated. Abigail. the fair and heroic wife,
who saved the locks of Nabal, her hus-
band, from coRfscation by invaders, goes
home at night and finds him so intoxicated
she cannot tell him the story of his mar
row escape Uriah came to see David, and
David got him drank, and paved the way
for the despolation Of a household. Even
the church 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 staggering and falling
motion Of the inebriate. that Isaiah, when
he comes to describe the final dslocation
of worlds says: 1.-THE earth shall reel to
and fro like drunkard.'
Drunkenness is the greatest evil Of this
nation, and it takes no logical process TO
prove 10 this audience that a drunken
nation cannot long be free nation. l call
your attention TO the fact that drunkenness
is not subsiding, certainly that it is not at
q standstill, but that it is on an onward
march, and il is double quick. There is
more rum swallowed in this country, and
OF worse kind, than 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 drgnkards' graves. II is
on the increase. Talk about crooked
whiskey-by which men mean the whiskey
that does not pay the tax TO government
tell you all strong drink is crooked.
Crooked Otard, crookei Cognac, crooked
schnapps, crooked beer, crooked wine,
crooked whiskey-because it makes
mans path crooked, and his life crooked,
and his death crooked, and his eternity
crooked.
call attention to the fact that there are
thousands of people born with thirst for
strong drink-a fact too often ignored.
Along some ancestral lines there runs the
river Of temptation. There are children
whose neutrality-suspicious. are torn off the
shroud of death. Many father has made
a will of this sort: "In the name of God,
amen. 1 beaueath 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 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:
''ln the name of disease and appetite and
death, amen. / bequeath to my children
my evil habits, my tarkards shall be
theirs, my winecup shall be theirs, my
destroyed reputation shall be theirs.
Share and share alike Shall they in the
infamy. Hereto / affix my hand and seal
In the presence of all the applauding
harpies Of hell"
II seems TO me it is about tine for the
II, 900, 900 professors of religion in Amer
lea TO take sides. 1t is going to be an out
and-out battle with drunkenness and
sobriety, between heaven and hell, be-
tween God and the devil. Take sides be-
fore there is any further national de-
cadence, take sides before your sons are
sacrificed and the new home of your
daughter goes down under the alcoholism
OF an embruted husband. Take sides
while your voice, your pen, your prayer,
your vote may have any influence in ar
resting the despoliation Of this nation. If
the IL, 900, 600 professors of religion should
take sides on this subject it would not be
very long before the destiny of this nation
would be decided in the right direction.
Is drunkenness state or national evil?
Does it belong 10 the north. or does it be-
long to the south? Does it belong TO the
east, or does it belong TO the west? All!
there Is not an American river into which
it's tears have not fallen, and into which its
suicides have not plunged. What ruined
that southern plantatlon?-every field n
fortune, the proprietor and his family once
the most afluent supporters of summer
watering places. What threw that New
England farm into decay and turned tho
roseate cheeks that bloomed at the foo. of
the Green Mountains into the pallor of
despair? What has smitten every street
of every village, town and city of this con-
tinont with q moral pestilence? Strong
drink
Gather up tho money that the working
classes have spent for rum during the last
thirty years, and / will build for every
workingman house, and lay out for him
q garden and clothe his sons in broadcloth
aud his daughters In silks, and stand at
his front door prancing span of sorrels or
bays, and secure him policy of life insur-
ance 80 that the present home may be well
maintained after he Is dead. The most
persistent most overpowering enemy of
the working classes is intoxicating liquor
1t is the anarchist Of the centuries, and has
boycotted and is now boycottlng the body
and mind and soul Of American labor. IL