The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-18
A SERMON FOR REF0RMERS.
DIR. TALMAGE EULOGIZES THOSE
OF THE PAST AND PRESENT.

Appi Forum and the Three TaV-
erns"-The SHARES and Tempta-
lions of the Three Taverns of His
Text the Same as Those Confront
ing SeaGaring Men of TO-dny-Eu-
Iosy of Neal DOw-Departed He
roes VIII Do other Things Than
sing Psalms and Play Harps-A
Unique sermon of the Great
Preacher.
Washington, Oct. lin a unique way
DR.. Talmage here discusses the dissipa-
tons of the day. and eulogizes the great
reformers of the past and present. His
text is Acts 2S15 They came to meet
us as far as Apph Forum and the Three
Taverns"
Seventeen miles south of Rome, Italy,
there was a village of unfortunate name.
A tavern is a place Of entertainment, and,
in our time part of the entertainment is
a provision of intoxicants. One such place
you would think would have been enough
for that Italian village. No! There were
three Of them, with doors open for enter
tainment and obfuscation. The world
has never lacked stimulating drinks. You
remember the condition of Noah on one
occasion. and of AbigaiTs husband, Ma
bal, and the story of Belshazzar's feast,
and Benhadad, and the new wine in old
bottles, and whole paragraphs on prohibi-
ton enactment thousands of years before
Neal Dow was born; and no doubt there
were whole shelves of infiammatOry liquid
in those hotels which gave the name TO
the village where Pauls friends came TO
meet him, namely, the Three Taverns.
In vain I search ancient geography for
some satisfying account of that village.
Two roads came from the sea coast to that
place; the one from Actium, and the
other from Puteol the last road being
the one which Paul Travelled. There were,
no doubt, in that village houses of mer-
chandise and mechanics shops, and pro.
fessional offices, but nothing is known of
them. All we know of that village is that
1t had profusion of inns-the Three Tav-
ems. Paul did not choose any one of these
taverns as the place to meet his friends.
He certainly was very abstemious, but
they made the selection. He had en-
Iarged about keeping the body under.
though once he prescribed for a youns
theological student stimulating cordial
for a stomachic disorder; but he told him
TO take only small dose-"a little vino
for thy stomachs 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 We're only little
way up from the beach. Those who are
disordered of the sea (for it is a physical
disorganizer), instead of waiting for the
gradual return of physical equipose, are
apt to take artificial means to brace up.
OF the one million sailors now on the sea,
how few of them coming ashore win
cape the Three Tavernsi After surviving
hurricanes, cyclones, ice-bergs, collisions.
many of them are wrecked in harbOr. l
warrant that If a calculation We're made
of the imperative number of sailors lost
at sea, and lost ashore. those drowned by
the crimson wave of dissipation would far
outnumber 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 arous-
ed Father Taylor. the great sailors
preacher, at the Sailors Bethel, Boston,
and at a public meeting at Charlestown
he said "All the machinery of the
drunkard making, soul destroying bust
ness is in perfect running order, from the
low grog holes on the docks kept open to
ruin my poor sailor boys, to the great
establishments In Still House Square, and
when we ask men what is to be done
about 1t, they say you can't help it, and
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 1.-THE trouble
is not that We can't stop il, but that we
won't stop it," We must have more gen.
erations slain before the world will fully
wake up to the evil. That which tempt
ed the travellers of old who came
up from the sea ports of Actium
and Puteoli, is now the ruin of sea-faring
men as they come up from the coasts of
all the continents, namely, the Three Tav-
ems In the autumn, about this time, In
the year 1887, the steamship Home went
out from New York for Charleston. There
were about one hundred passengers, some
of them widely known. Some of them
had been summering at the northern wa
tering places, and they were on their way
SOUTH all eXpectant of hearty greeting by
their friends on the wharves of Charles
ton. But little more than two days out
the ship struck the rocks. A life boat was
launched, but sank 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 1t into the
sea, and the mother leaped after 1t. The
sailors rushed to the bar of the boat and
drank themselves drunk. Ninety-fiVe hu-
man beings went down never to rise, or
to be ioated upon the beach amid the
fragments of the wreck. What was the
cause of the disaster? A drunken sea-cap-
tain. But not until the judgment day
when the sea shall give up its dead, and
the story of earthly disasters shall be full
~ told, will it be known how many yachts
steamers, brigantnes, men-ot-war and
ocean greyhounds have been lost through
captain and crew made incompetent by
alcoholic dethronement. Admiral Farra-
gut had proper appreciation of what the
fiery stimulus was to a man in the navy.
An officer of the warship said to him.
admiral. won't you consent to give Jack
a glass of grog in the morning. Not
enough to make him drunk, but enough to
make him fight cheerfully." The admiral
answered, 4 have been TO sea considera-
bly,, and have seen battle or two, but I
never found that l needed rum to enable
me to do my duty. / will order two cups OF