The Penn's Grove record., 1897-06-04
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Improvidence and Alcoholism Arraigned
Most overpowering Enemy of the
Working People Is Strong Drink-A
Plea for Earnest Christian Prudence,

IN Persia, under the reign of Darius
Hystaspess, the people did not prosper.
Ihey made money, but did not keep it.
They. were like people who have a sack in
which they put money, not knowing that
the sack is torn or eaten of moths, or in
some way made incapable OF holding valu-
abies.. As fast as the coin was put in one
END OF the sack 1t dropped out OF the 9th
wages they got, for they lost them. HE
that earneth wages earneth wages to put 1t
into a bag with holes"
What has become OF the billions and
billions OF dollars In this country paid to
the working ~classes7 Some Of these mon
eys have gone for house rent, or the
purchase OF homesteads, or wardrobe, or
family expenses, or the necessities of life,
or to provide comforts in old age. What
has become Of other billions2' Wasted In
foolish outlay. Wasted at the gaming ia
BILE. Wasted in intoxicants. Put into q
bag with 100 holes.
Gather up the money that the working
classes have spent for drink during the last
thirty years, and I will build for every
w~orkingman q house and lay out for him q
garden, and clothe HIS sons in broadcloth
and his daughters in silks, and place at his
front door a pranefng span OF sorrels or
bays, and secure him a policy of life insur-
ance, so that the present home may be well
maintained after he is dead The most per-
sistent, most oyerpowering enemy of the
WOlhiHH CiuSdt5 ID luLDAicdJluR DuuOE. IL
Is the anarchist of the centuries n has
boycQtted and Is now boycotting the body
and mind n soul of American labor. 1t
Is to 1t a worse foe than monopoly and
worse than associated capital.
1t annually swindlcs industry out of o
large percentage of earnings. 1t holds out
its hastings solicitations to the mechanic
or operative on his way to work, and at the
noon spell, and on his way home at even
tide; on Saturday, when the wages are paid,
1t snatches o large part Of the money that
might come into the family and sacrifices it
among the saloon keepers. stand the sa-
looms of this country side by side, and it Is
carefully estimated that they would reach
from New York to Chicago. Forward
march" says the drink power, land take
possession Of the American Nation"
The drink business Is pouring its vitriolic
and damnable liquids down the throats of
hundreds Of thousands Of laborers, and
while the ordinary strikes are ruinous both
to employers and employees, l proclaim o
strike universal against strong drink,
which, II kept up, will be the relief of the
working classes and the salvation OF the
Nation. l will undertake to say that there
Is not q healthy laborer In the United States
who within the next ten years, il he will re-
fuse all intoxicating beverages and be saw
ing, may not become q capitalist on a small
SCALE. Our country in o year spends ST.
800, $50. 900 for drink. or course the work
ing classes do a great deal of this expendi-
ture. Careful statistics show that the
wage earning classes of Great Britain ex-
pend In liquors f100, DOC, 900 900 or $780,
900, 900 a year. Sit down and calculate, oh,
workingmen, how much you have ex-
pended in these directions. Add it all up.
d up what your ~neighbors have ex-
pended and realize that instead of answer
Ing the beck Of other people You might
have been your own capitalist, When you
deplete n ~workingman's physical energy,
| Won daptpta htq nanitnl The stimulated
workman gives out before the unstimulated
workman. My father said: II became O
temperance man in early life, because !
noticed In the harvest field that though l
was physically weaker than other work
men, l could hold out longer than they.
They took stimulants. Itook none" A brick
maker in England gives his experience In
regard to this matter among men in his
employ. He says, after Investigator:
1.-The beer drinker who made the fewest
bricks made SIS, 600, and the abstainer who
made the fewest bricks 100000. The dif-
ference in behalf of the abstainer over the
induiger, $1,000"
Ihave no sympathy for skinflint saving,
but I plead for Christian prudence. You
say it Is Impossible now to lay up anything
for a rainy day. l know it, but we are at
the daybreak of National prosperity. Some
people think it is mean to turn the gas low
when they go out of the parlor. They feel
embarrassed II the doorbell rings before
Tthey have the hall lighted. They apologize
for the plain meal, If you surprise them at
the table. Well, it is mean If 1t ia only. TO
pile up a misery board. But If 1T be to edu-
cate your children, il it be to give more
help to your wife when she does not feel
strong, II it be to keep your funeral day
from being horrible beyond all endurance,
because 1t is to be the disruption and an
utilization of the domestic circle-ifit be
for that, then 1t Is magnificent.
There are those who are kept In poverty
because OF their own fault. They might
nave been well of, but they smoked OF
chewed up their earnings, or they lived be-
yond their means, while others on the same
wages and on the same salaries went on tc
competency. I Know a mar who is all the
time complaining of his poverty and.cryine
out against rich men while he himself keeps
two dogs and chews n smokes and Is fui
to the chin with whisky and beer. Wilkihs
Micawber said to David Copperleld: Cop
perfeld. my boy, FL income, expenses, eos
ca; result, misery. But, Copperield, my
bow. FL income; expenses, lbs. 3D.; result
happiness But, o workingman, takt
your morning dram, n your noon dram
and your Ieyening dram, and spend every
thing you nave over for tobacco and excuf
sions. and You insure poverty for yoursel
and your children foreyerl -,
If by some generous fet OF the capl
taIists Of this country or by a new law Q
the Government of the United state
| fWpnfV-nVo DtI ctuts OE my Pc NNANs -
100 per cent. were added to the wages Q
the working classes OF America, 1t wouit
he no advantage to hundreds of Thousands
Of them unless they stopped strong drink
Ave. until they quit that evil habit the NOR
money the more ruin, the more WaSes w
more holes in the bag.
NV nlea IA to those working people VIII
are In a discipleship to the whisky bottle
the beer Jug and the wine flask. Ana VIVA
I say to them will not be mora appropriate
to the working classes than to the bushes
classes and the literary classes anu tne pro
fe~ssional classes and oil classes, no
with the people Of one age more than OF al
ages. Take one good square look at IN
suffering of the man whom strong arm
has ~enthralied and remember that toWsr
that goal multitudes are running, IN
disciple of alcoholism suffers the loss Q
self resneet. just as soon as a ma
wakes up and inds that he is the cap
five OF strong drink, he feels demeanec
/ do not care how recklessly he acts ii
MAY say, II don't care;" ne does care
He cannot look a pure man IN the ~ w
IL 1t Is with positive force OF resoiutloi
Three-fourths of his nature is destroyed
bis self-respect is gone; he says things h
would not otherwise say; he does tnlhS
he would not otherwise dc. When a ma
Is nine-tenths gone with strong drink, IA
first thing he wants to 40 isto persuau
Won that he can stop any time he wants tS
lie cannot. The Philistines have boun
him hand and foot, and shorn his locks,an
nut out his eyes, and are making him grin
In the mill of a great horror. he eann'
ston. I will prove it. He knows that h
course is bringing ruin upon himself. Il
loves himself. II he could stop, ne woniI
He knows his course is bringing ruin upo
his family. He loves them. He would ste
II he could. He cannot Perhaps he e9ul
three months or a year age; not now; Jal
ask him to stop for a month, He cannot
he Knows he cannot, so he does not try:
God only knows what the drunkal
suffers. Pain flies on every nerve, an
hone and burns with every flame, an
sings with every poison, and pulls at hi
with every torture: What iS,d reptiles p ! s era
~ ia midnight pillow. What groans tel
ia ear, What horrors shiyer through b
soul. Talk Of the rack. talk Of the ngn !,
Z n -JugeernauI-he feels them all
once Have you ever been in the ward
the hospital where these inebriates are d
~ $500 Nn4- ANNaAG riN