The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1897-10-30
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Tho Three Taverns on the Road to
Romo.
'nsscourso Applied to the Designations OF
the Dsy-Modern Taverns on the
Road OF Life-A Tribute
to Weformers.

lowing sermon, In unique way uls-
cusses the designations of the day, and
sulogizes the great reformers, past and
present. His text is:
They came to meet US as far as April Forum
and the Three Taverns-Acts xviii, Is
Seventeen miles south Of Rome,
Italy, there was village of unfortu-
nate name. A tavern is place OF en-
tertainment, and, in our time, part OF
the entertainment is n provision OF
intoxicants. One such place you would
think would have been enough for
that Italian vi ilage. No! There were
three of them, with doors open for en-
tertainmeut and obfuscation. The
world has never lacked stimulating
drinks. You remember the condition
OF Noah on one occasion, aud OF Abb
gals husband, Nabal, and the story OF
Be!shazzars feast, and Benhadad, and
the new wine in old bottles, and whole
paragraphs on prohibition enactment
thousands of years before Neal Dow
was born; and no doubt there were
whole shelves of innammatory liquid
in those hotels which gave the name
TO the village where PauPs friends
came to meet him, namely the Three
Taverns. In vain / search an
Client geography for some salts
flying account of that village. Two
roads came from the seacoast TO that
place; the one from Actium, and the
other from Puteoli, the last road being
the one which Paul travelled There
wcrc, no doubt, in that village houses
OF merchandise and mechanics shops,
and professional offices, but nothing is
known OF them. All we know of that
village is that it had profusion of
inns--the Three Taverns. Paul DID
not choose any one OF these taverns as
She place 10 meet his friends. lie GER
tainjy was very absteminous, but they
madc the selection. He had enlarged
about keeping the body under, though
once he prescribed for young the
ological student stimulating cordial
for stomuchic disorder; but he told
him 10 take only a small dose--'a lit
tie wine for thy stomach's sake"
One of the worst things about these
Three Taverns was that they had
especial temptation for those who had
just come ashore. People who had just
landed at Actium or Puteoli were soon
tempted by these three hotels, which
were only little way up from the
beach. Those who are disordered of
the sea (for it is physical disorgan-
izer), instead of waiting for the gradual
return of physical equipose, arc apt to
take artificial means to brace up. OF
the one million sailors now on the sea,
now few of them coming ashore will
escape the Three Taverns. After sur
viviug hurricanes, cyclones, icebergs,
collisions, many of them are wrecked
in harbor. l warrant that if u calcu-
lation were made of the comparative
number of sailors lost ut sea and lost
ashore, those drowned by the crimson
wave Of dissipation would far outnum-
Der those drowned by the salt water.
Alas. that the large majority of
those who go down to the sea in ships
should have twice to pass the Three
Taverns, namely, before they go out,
and after they come in. That fact
was what aroused Father Taylor, the
great sailors preacher, at the Sailors
Bethel, Boston, and at public meet
ing ut Charlestown he said: "All the
machinery of the drunliard- making,
sOu.-destroying business is in perfect
running order, from the low grog
ho!eS,on the docks, kept open to ruin
any poor sailor boys, To the great es-
taLlishments in Still House square,
and when we ask men what is to be
done about it they say you can't help
it" aud yet there is Bunker Hill! and
you say you can't stop it, and up there
are Lexington and Concord" We
might answer Father Taylor's remark
by saying: "The~lrouble is not that
we can't stop it, but that we won't
stop it," We must have more
generations slain before the world will
fully wake up to the evil. That which
tempted the travellers of old who came
up from the seaports of Actium and
Puteoli is now the ruin of seafar-
ing men as they come up from the
coasts of all the countinen ts-name-
Iy, the Three Taverns. In the au-
tumn, about this time, in the year
1887, the steamship Home went out
from New York for Charleston. There
were about 100 passengers, some of
them widely known. Some of them
had been summering ut the northern
their way south, all expectant of
hearty greetings by their friends on
the wharves of Charleston. But lit
tie more than two days out the ship
struck the rocks. A lifeboat was
launched, but sunk with all its passen-
gers. A mother was seen standing on
the deck Of the steamer with her child
in her arms. A wave wrenched the
child from the mothers arms and
rolled it into the sea, and the mother
leaped after it. The sailors rushed to
the bar of the boat and drank them
selves drunk. Ninety-fve human be :
ings went down, never to rise, or to be
Aoated upon the beach amid the frag-
ments OF the wreck. What was the
cause of the disaster? A drunken sea
captain. But not until the Judgment
day, when the sea shall give up its
dead, and the story of earthly disasters
shall be fully told, will it be known
how many yachts, steamers, brigan-
tines, men.of-war and ocean grey