The record-union., 1898-12-13
MODERN DEVIL DESCRIBED.
MANS WORST ENEMY IS THE
DEMON oF DRINK.
Rev. j. b. SiIcox breaches a Strong
Sermon on the Up-to-Date
Arch Fiend.

At the Congregational Church on
Sunday evening the pastor, Rev. J. b
Silcox, delivered an address on lne
Modern Devil taking for his text:
'Woe unto him that giveth his neigh
Dor drink, that puttest thy bottie 70 MN
and makeSt him drunken also. -11dopd-
Every inordinate cup is uhblessed. and
the ingredient a devil. vil."-Shakespeare.
Some one has said that the preacher
should read the Bible to know what
to say, and read Shakespeare to know
how to say it. These two books stand
related to one another as mother ano
child The greatest genius OF the lit
erary world owes much of his genius
to the Bible, and in turn he has Illus
trated with unparalleled splendor many
of its deepest lessons. Tonight L Sc
1ect my text from these two DOCKS.
Habbakuk and Shakespeare are two
thousand five hundred years apart in
time, but they are together in their
conclusions regarding the traffic In
drink
The prophet waited on the watch
tower to know what God would have
him say. AS he waited for a message,
the Lord came to him and said: Write
the vision, and make it plain upon ta-
bles, that he may run that readeth it. "
Among the things he must make plain
were four woes: 'Woe unto him that
increaseth that which is not his Woe
unto him that getteth an evil gain for
his house. Woe unto him that build
eth a town by blood. Woe unto him
that givest his neighbor drink and
makest him drunken"
This fourfold woe of God is in re-
Rlity one. The entire four are gath
cred up and concentrated in the last.
When you ask who is. it that ''increas-
eth that which is not his: that
''getteth an evil gain" and "buildeth
a town by blood the answer is, it is
he that ''givest his neighbor drink and
makest him drunken" That this in
depreciation is the true one is con-
H1rmed by the fifth and following
verses: Wine is a treacherous dealer
- who enlargeth his desire as
hell and cannot be satisfied" Then
follow the four woes. Every one of
these woes is a woe upon wine, for
wine is personified; it is spoken of as
a person, a treacherous dealer,
naughty man, who enlargeth his de-
sire as hell and cannot be satisfied
ct is this treacherous dealer Wine that
'increaseth that. which IS not his, "
''getteth an evil gain ''buildeth a city
by blood" ''givest his neighbor drink
and makest him drunken"
The prophet Isaiah uses language as
strong as Habbakuk in hurting the woe
of God against the drink sin. "Woe un-
to them that join house to house; that
t. Go1l {1of
rise up early in the morning that they
may follow strong drink, that they
may tarry late into the night till wine
infiame them Therefore, my people
are gone into captivity; their honor
able men are famished. Therefore,
hell hath enlarged herself and opened
her mouth without measure, and their
glory and their multitude and their
pomp descends into it, The wild
ruin and wanton waste of the drink
could not be pictured in language more
lucid and lurid than this My subject
tonight is "The Modern Devil By
the modern devil I mean the liquor
traffic. The drink has been spoken
of as ''the devil in solution" That
characterization is close to fact and
truth. Drink is the devils way to
Shakespeare puts the fact with dra-
matte power when he says, 80, thou
invisible spirit of winel If thou hast
no name to be called by, let us call
thee DEVIL When that consummate
villain Iago resolved on the ruin of
Cassie, he employed the devil of drink
to work his destruction. The ruined
man awoke from his stupor and dis
grace to find that he had lost the
Immortal part of himself" and was
made bestial by this demon in the cup.
We'll might the ruined man say, as he
did Every inordinate cup is un-
blessed and the ingredient a devil"
] am justified by fact and truth, by
the Bible and Shakespeare in speaking
of the drink traffic as THE Modern
Devil" and against it I hurl the four
fold woe of Almighty God.
AS the prophet wrote the vision and
made it plain, so tonight I use great
plainness of speech concerning this
traffic in the bodies and souls of my
fellow-men. With malice toward none,
and with love toward all. I declare my
honest, heartfelt. conscience burning
conviction concerning this God-defying
misunderstanding traffic in Intoxicating
liquors. With all the light God has
given me- with the clearest, soberest
language can command, I would
write the curse Of God on every dis
tillery and brewery, on every whole
sale liquor store and winery, on every
gilded saloon and low groggery. on
every flashing decanter and sparkling
wine glass, wherever they lift their
ugly, venomous head.
confess to you that I hate the
traffic. I am thankful to God that
hate it, and I pray God to give me
an ever-increasing ability to hate it.
AS love my fellow-men, I cannot do
other than hate the traffic that works
such ruin among my fellows. My hate
of the traffic grows out of a sore heart,
a heart that has been bruised and bat
tered, sympathetically, with the bruised
and battered hearts about me. I un-
derstand something of the old proph-
cts feelings when he said, For the
hurt of the daughter of my people. am
I hurt" 1 have seen so many noble
men brought to shame by the drink
/ have seen so many good women sad
dened and Inundated by the drink;
: have seen so many innocent children
orphaned and blighted by the drink
have seen so many graves swallow UP
men murdered by the drink, that
cannot do other than hate the traffic
that has brought about this desolation
and death Eye that love the Lord
hate evil.''
That the drink traffic is an evil a
giant evil, no sane man can deny
Therefore, it is thing to be hated
and loathed and destroyed. My hate
Qf the traffic &c a hate horn of love