The Penn's Grove record., 1899-05-05
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.


All Good-A Call to Christian.
TEXT: "And there shall he n grest orv
throughout all the land Of Egvpt, "NEx.,
odus XII, 6.
This was the worst Of the ten pIop,,es.
The destroying angel at midnipbt na1ned
9ls wing over the land, and there was one
uenu IN eaea Rouse. LamentatIon and
mourning O. woe through ali Egypt.
mat destroying angel has fed the earth,
Dut L inr worse has come. He sweeps
through these cities. 1t Is the DESTROYING
angel OF strong drink. Far worse d~eyasta-
tlon wrought by this second h by the
nrst' The calamity in America worse than
the calamity in Egypt. Thousands of the
siam, millions of the slain. No arithmetic
can calculate their number.
once upon a time four nends met in the
lost world. They resolved that the people
oil our earth were too happy, and these
-FOUR INTERVALS came forth to our earth on
embassy of mischief. The one hend said,
IN a charge OF the vineyards" An
other said, I'm take charge OF the grain
helds.' Another said, "Ill take charge of
the dairy" Another said, "III take charge
OF the music" The four nends met in the
great Sahara desert, with skeleton fingers
clutehed each other in handshake of ndel-
ity, kissed each other goodby with lip of
blue flame and parted on their mission.
Ihe hend of the vineyard came in one
bright morning amid the grapes and sat
down on a root of twisted grapevine In
sheer discCuragement. The lend knew
not how to damage the vineyard, or,
through 1t, how to damage the world.
The grapes were so ripe and beautiful
and luscious. They bewitched the air with
their sweetness. There seemed to be so
much health in every bunch, and while
the tiend sat there In utter Indignation
and disappointment he clutched a cluster
und squeezed 1t in perfect spite, and, lol
his hand was red with the blood of the
vineyard, and the lend said; THAT re-
minds me of the blood OF broken hearts.
III strip the vineyard, and I'll squeeze out
all the juice Of the grapes, and I'll allow
the juices of the grapes to stand untIlthey
rot. and I'll call the process fermenta-
ton" And there was a great vat pre-
pared, and people came with their cups
and their pitchers. and they dipped up the
blood Uf the grapes, and they drank and
drank and went away drinking; and, they
drank until they fell In long lines ofdenth,
90 that when the lend of the vineyard
wanted to return to his ZONE in the pit
he stepped from carcass to carcass and
walked down amid q great causeway of
the dead.
Then the second nend camo into the
grainfeld. He waded chin deep amid the
barley and the rye. He heard all the grain
talking about bread and prosperous hus-
bandry and thrifty homes. He thrust his
long arms into the grainiield, and he pulled
up the grain and threw 1t into the water,
and he made beneath it great flres-flres
lighted with a spark from his own heart
and there were a grinding and a MASKING
and stencil, and the people came with their
bottles, and they dipped Ut the fiery liquid,
and they drank, and they ~blaspbemed, and
they staggered, and they fought, and they
rloted, and they murdered, and the lend of
the pit, the flepd OF the grainfeld, was so
pleased with their behavior that he changed
his residence from the pit to n whisky bar
rel, and there he sat by the door of the
bunghole laughing in high merrlment at
the thought that out of anything so harm
less as the grain of the field he might turn
this world into a seeming pandemonium.
The lend of the dairy sawthe cows com-
ing home from the pasture field, full nd
dered, and as the maid MIXED he said, "Ill
soon spoil all that mess, I'll add to 1t
brandy, sugar and nutmeg, and I'll stir it
into a milk punch, and children will drink
1t and some OF the temperance people will
drink 1t, and II l can do them more harm
III give them u headache, and then I'll
hand them over to the more vigorous fiends
of the satanic delegation" And then the
fend OF the dairy leaped upon the shelf
and danced until the long row OF shining
milkpans almost quaked.
The lend of the music entered n grog-
shop, and there were but few customers.
Finding few customers, he swept the cir
cult of the city, and he gathered up the
musical instruments and after nightfall he
marshaled Z band, and the %trombones
blew and the cymbals clapped and the
drums beat and the bugles called and the
people crowded in, and they swung around
In merry dance, each one with a wipeglass
in his hand, and the dance became wilder
< and stronger and rougher, ultil the room
shook and the glasses cracked and the floor
broke and the crowd dropped into hell.
Then the four fends-the fiend of the
vineyard and of the g~rainfleld and Of the
dairy and Of the music hHll-went back to
their home, and they held high c~arnival
because their work had been so we'll done,
and satan rose from his throne and an
nounced that there was no danger of the
earth's redemption so long as these four
hends could pay such tax to the diabolic.
And then all the demons and all the sprites
and all the lends filed their glasses and
clicked them and cried: LET us drink
drink to the everlasting prosperity of the
liquor traficl Here's to woe and darkness
and murder and DEATH Drink Drinks"
But whether by allegory or by appalling
statistic this subject is presented you know
as well as l that it is impossible to exag-
gerate the evils of strong drink. A plagued
A plagued! In the first place the inebriate
suffers from the loss OF a good name. God
has so arranged 1t that no man loses his
reputation except by his own act. The
world may assault q man, and all the
powers of darkness may assault him-they
cannot capture him so long as his heart is
pure and his life Is pure. All the powers
Of earth and hell cannot take that Gibral-
tar. II a man is right, all the lombard
ment of the world for 5, 10, 20, 40 years
will only strengthen him in his position.
SO that all you have to do is to keep
yourself right. Never mind the world. Let
1t saw what it will. 1t can do you no
damage. But as soon as it is whispered,
"He drinks and it can be proved, he
begins to go down. What clerk can get q
position with such a reputation? What
store wants him2 What church of God
wants him for a member? What dying man
wants him for an executor? ii drinks!'
I stand before hundreds of young men
and [ say 1t not in fattery-splendid young
men who have their reputation as their
only capital. Your father gave you a good
education, or as good an education as he
In city life. He could furnish you nc
means, but he has surrounded you with
Christian influences and a good memory of
the past, Now, young man, under God you
are with your own right arm to achieve
YOUR fortune, and as your reputation is
YOUR only capital do not bring upon it sus-
picion by going in and out of liquor estab-
ilshments or by an odor of your breath or
by any glare OF you eye or by any unnat-
ural flush on your cheeks. You lose your
reputation and you lose your capital.
The lnebriate suffers also in the fact that
4 ne loses HIS VII iCoINSNs = "HSH ~ ~
stroy a mans self respect there's not much
left of him. Then a man will do things he
would not do otherwise, he will say things
he would not say otherwise. The fact is,
that man cannot stop or he would stop
now. He is bound hand and foot by the
Philistines, and they have shorn his locks
and mt his ewes out and made him grind
in the mills of a great horror. After he is
three-fourths gone in this slavery the FIRST
thing he will be anxious to impress you with
is that he can stop any time he wants to.
His family become alarmed in regard to
him, and they say; ''Now. do stop this.
After awhile it will get the mastery Of You
time lean stop now. | can stop to-mor-
row. rHe; His most confidential friend says;
why, I'm AFRAID you are losing your
lIttia fnrther than you can afford to go.
You had better stop" ooh. nor he says;
i can stop ct any |, ti nSS ,a ] SpR stop Re ee e%n,
not ston + will prove 1t. He loves him
self and he knows nevertheless that strong