The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-08-16


PITY tho sinner.
copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, ID. CA delicate and
difficult duty is by DIR. Talmage in this
discourse urged upon all and especially
upon those given to quick temper; text,
Ephesians ", 20, BE ye angry and sin
not"
Equipoise Of temper, kindness patience,
forbearance, are extolled by most Of the
radiant pens of inspiration, but my text
contains that which at first sight is start
ling. A certain kind of anger is approved;
aye, we are commanded to indulge in it.
The most Of US have no need to cultivate
high temper, and how often we say
things and do things under affronted inn
pulse which we are sorry for when per-
haps it ls too late to make effective apol-
Ogy! Why, then, should the apostle Paul
dip his pen in the ink horn and trace
upon paper for all ages the injunction.
BE We angry and sin notY'
My text commends a wholesome indig-
nation. 1t discriminates between the Of
fence and the offender, the sin and the
sinner, the crime and the criminal.
To illustrate, alcoholism has ruined
more fortunes, blasted more homes, de-
strOyed more souls than any evil that /
think Of 1t pOurs a river of poison and
fire through the nations. Millions have
| died because of it, and millions are dying
now, and others will die. Intemperance is
an old sin. The great Cyrus writing to
! the Lacedemonians of himself, boosted of
many Of his qualities, among others that
he could drink and bear more wine than
his distinguished brother Louis X. and
! Alexander the Great died drunk. The
! Parliament of Edinburgh in 1861 is called
/ in history "the drunken Parliament"
Hugh Miller, first stonemason and after
ward a world renowned geologist, writes
of the drinking habits of his day, saying:
! when the foundation was laid they
| drank When the walls were leveled for
! laying, they drank. When the building
was finished, they drank. When an APP
! prentice joined, they drank" In the
! eighteenth century the giver of an enter
| tainment boosted that none of the guests
went home sober. Noah, the first ship
captain, was wrecked not in the ark, for
that was safely landed, but he was wrecked
with strong drink. Every man or woman
rightly constructed will blush with indig-
nation at the national and international
| and hemisphere and planetary curse. 1t
/ is good to be aroused against it. You
come out of that condition a better man
! or a better woman Be We angry at that
abomnation, and the more anger the more
exaltatiOn to character. But that aroused
feeling becomes sinful when it extends to
! inc NlCJlm OF LulS great evil OIuukGu-
ness you are to hate with VIVID hatred,
but the drunkard you are to pity, to help
to extricate.
just take into consideration that there
are men and women who once were as
upright as yourself who have been pros
trated by alcoholism. Perhaps it came Of
a physicians prescription for the relief of
pain, recurrence of the pain calling for
a continuance of the remedy. Perhaps
! ba Il 20 oh OF bo
temptation to inebriety, leaping over
generation, has swooped on this unfortu
nate. Perhaps it was a very gradual
| claiming of the man with the beverage
which was thought to be a servant, when
one day it announced itself master Be
humble now, and admit that there is a
strong probability that under the same
! circumstances yot yourself might have
been captured. The two appropriate emo
tions for you to allow are indignation at
the intoxicant which enthralled and sym
pathy for the victim. Try to get the suf
ferer out of his present environment.
Recommend any hygienic relief that you
know of, and above ALL implore the d.
vine rescue for the struggle in which so
many of the noblest and grandest have
been wOrsted. Do not give yourself up to
too many philippics about what the man
ought to have been and ought to have
done. While your cheek fushes with
wrath at the foe that has brought the
ruin, let your eye be mostened with tears
of pity for the sufferer. In that way you
will have fulfilled the INDUCTION of the text,
BE We angry and sin not"
There is another evil the adherence of
which you are all called to, and it is on
the increase-the gambling practice. Re-
cent developments show that much of this
devastation is being wrought in ladies'
parlors. 1t is an evil which sometimes is
as polite and gracious as it is harmful.
Indeed there never were so many people
trying to get money without earning it.
But it is a haggard transgression that
comes down to us from the past, blighting
all its way.
1 have seen in the archives of the nation
in this national capital large book in
which one of the early Presidents of the
United States kept an account in his own
handwriting of gains and losses at play
ing cards, on one page the gains and on
the other the losses, and there are many
pages. In other days many of national
reputation went from the halls of Con-
gress and the Senate chamber to spend
the night in notorious gambling saloons
In Spain a don lost in twenty-four hours
what equals Sl2000,0 00 Twenty years
ago it was estimated that the average
gambling exchange of money throughout
Christendom exceeded Sl23, l00.0000 900 a
year, DuJ statistics twenty years ago woufd
be tame compared with the present Stats
tics if we could find any one able enough
at figures to tabulate them 1t is all the
same spirit of gambling whether the in
struments are cards or the clicking chips
or the turning wheel or the bids of the
Stock Exchange, where people sell what
they never owned and fail because they
cannot get paid for it. A prominent
banker tells me that he thinks 50 900 peo-
pie were financially Frustrated by the re-
cent insanities in Wall street Here and
there case is reported, but the vast ma
jOrity sutfsr in silence. The children are
brought home from school; the wardrobe
will be denied replenishment the table