The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-01-22
no place clean" Drunkenness was
seen in it's most disgusting outward
nhase its beastliness. it's sWinishness.

More than that, it was making idiots
Of the men who ought to have coun-
selled and guided the nation-"they
err in vision, they stumble in judg-
ment." The ship Of State was under
guidance Of drunken prohigates, who
were steering her to ruin, like enid
dleton's drunken Parliament" so well
known in Scottish Covenanting his
tory. What a comment on the remark
we often hear, that the drunkard is
only his own enemy 1t is seldom
that the drunkard fails to ruin his
own body and soul, as well as the
peace and we'll being of his family
here were men Offering still costlier
sacrifice to Bacchus, driving their
country with powerful enemy at its
gates to ruin, giving over all its ma
terial treasure and all its moral glory
to the spoiler and the despot.
But even this is not the worst.
Isaiah has far more serious arraign-
ment of the drink sin, and those who
practiced it, when the kingdom Of
Judah is more specially in his view.
In his fifth chapter he hurls a series
Of six fiery woes (the seventh is in
chapter 10: y against the scandalous
sinners of Judah and Jerusalem, and
two Of these woes, the second and the
sixth, are hurled against the drunkard.
"Woe unto them that rise up early in
the morning that they may follow
strong drink, that continue until night,
till wine infame them And the
harp and the viol, the tabret and pipe,
and wine are in their feasts" Chapter
5: II, 12.) Again it is the wealthy
class that are specially in view, and a
portion of them are so besotten that
the whole day is spent in drinking,
while the evening is wound up with a
sort of musical carnival of sensual
delights. One might suppose that at
bedtime they would be so sated that
the very smell Of drink would repel
them if it is so, it is but for an
hour; the morning finds them more
thirsty than ever, and the only fluid
they can think Of is the fiery poison
that is driving them to hell
The prophet enumerates four fruits
of their madness:
1. ''They regard not the work of
the Lord, neither consider the opera
tion of his hands," All thought of
God and all fear of God is blotted out
of their hearts. God is amere cipher,
mere nothing (; a word to swear by,
nothing more. Drink makes men
atheists, as we'll as brutes and idiots.
2. Their senselessness drives God 8
people into captivity, makes them vic
Tins of the vilest insults and the most
grinding cruelty; yes, through the
drunkenness Of the rulers, the people
of God are robbed of their sacred heri-
tage, and become proverb and a
byword to the heatheu.
3. All classes are involved in the
wreck and ruin-''their honorable
men are famished, and their multitude
dried up with thirst" ]" The unexam-
pied horrors Of famine prostrate every
class.
4. Last, but not least, ''Hell hath
enlarged herself and opened her mouth
without measure, and their glory and
their multitude, and their pomp, and
he that rejoiceth, shall descend into
it." Think only what that figure Of
speech means-'hell hath enlarged
herself and opened her mouth. It
means that the wanton recklessness Of
these drunkards has caused hell to
cherish enlarged expectations of what
she will get through their madness
she looks for more than she could have
dreamed of formerly she therefore
enlarges her internal mouth, "and
their glory, and their multitude, and
their pomp, and he that rejoiceth"
come tumbling in. Even che that
rejoiceth !" the man Of pleasure; the
man that was restrained by no fear Of
God from the pursuit Of. pleasure; the
man who seemed so full of jollity and
glee; when she sees him and al his
jovial camaraderie, hell enlarges her
mouth and sucks them all in. For
drunkenness is so prolific of wanton
wickedness, so incredibly base and
cruel to wife and to child, so utterly
reckless Of all consequences, that hell
gets a better chance than could have
been looked for; incredible is the
ruin that is scattered on every side:
Thus drunkenness was principal
cause of the ruin of the Kingdoms of
Israel and Judah-the desolation of
the glorious heritage that had been
built up at such cost by David and his
successors. With the captivity Of
Ephraim, and afterward of Judah, all
the toll and all the glory of more than
a thousand years, from the days Of
Moses, seemed lost and swallowed up.
Like mighty conAagration consum-
ing gorgeous palace aud all its con-
tents, his sin brought destruction to
the nation. Are we quite sure, either
in Great Britain or in the United
States, that history will not repeat
itself Z?
One qualifying thought there is in
the study of the Hebrew people: the
captivity seems to have to great de-
gree cured them of this sin. Idolatry
and drunkenness are the two national
sins that do not reappear in the New
Testament. But at what cost was
the cure effected What years Of
misery must have passed when the
country lay in ruins and even after
it was restored, what memories of its
degradation have ever since filled the
hearts of the ancient people, in whose
horizon the dark night of sin and sor-
row has never yet been scattered by
the morning of joy PROF. W. Gar
den Bzaihie, D. d., L. L. d., in Chris
tian Observer.
- Each of us has his OF her place
in the world, and no one else can ill
it.
- Taking the whole land surface Of
the globe into consideration, there are
224 acres for each inhabitant on this
planet.
"A couple of young women were
making their way along the street
.LsL III .o;n ond ,,,rd whan