The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-09-19
ALCOHOLISM.
Strong Indictment of the Curse Giveu
in the Graphic Language of
DIR. TaImaEe.

In a recent discourse from the text:
BE ye angry and sin not" Rev. L. De
Witt Talmage used the subject of
alcoholism" to illustrate the impor-
lance of discriminating between the
otfense and the offender, the sin and
the sinner. His remarks were a pow
erful argument against the use of in
toNicants, but they were also sym
pathetic appeal for a greater spirit
of charity and helpfulness toward
those who are in the bondage of in
ebriety. We publish the following ex-
tract from his sermon:
alcoholism has ruined more for
tunes, blasted more homes, destroyed
more souls, than any evil that l 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. In
temperance 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 dis
tinguished brother. Louis X. and
Alexander the Great died drunk. The
parliament of Edinburgh in 1861 is
called in history the drunken parlia-
ment.' Hugh Miller, first stone mason
and afterward world-renowned epoI-
ogist, writes of the drinking habits
OF his day, saying: when the foun-
dation was laid, they drank. When the
walls were leveled for laying the joists,
they drank. When the building was
finished, they drank. When an APP
prentice joined, they drank In the
eighteenth century, the giver of an
entertainment boosted that none of
the guests went away 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 in
dignation at the national and inter-
national and hemisphere and planet
airy curse. 1t is good to be aroused
against it. You come out of that con-
dition better man or a better wom-
'N y an az tlldI llOD,
and the more anger the more eXalta-
ton to character. But that aroused
feeling becomes sinful when it extends
to the victim of this great evil. Drunk
enness you are to hate with a 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 Frustrated by alcoholism. Per-
haps it came of a physicians prescrip-
ton for the relief of pain, recurrence
of the pain calling for continuance
of the remedy; perhaps the grand
father was an inebriate and the tempt
alton to inebriety, leaping over a gen.
Grafton, has swooped on this unfortun-
ate; perhaps it was under an attempt
to drown trouble that it was sought
after; perhaps it was very gradual
claiming of the man with the beverage
which was thought to be a servant,
when one day it announced itself mas
ter. Be humble now, and admit that
there is strong probability that I'M
der the same circumstances YOU YOUR
self might have been captured. The
two appropriate emotions for you to
allow are Indignation at the intoxicant
which enthralled and sympathy for
the victim. Try to get the sufferer
out of his present environments; rec
ommend any hygienic relief that you
know of, and, above all, implore the
divine rescue for the struggle in which
so many of the noblest and grandest
have been worsted. Do not give your
self 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
moistened with tears of pity for the
sufferer. In that way you will have
fulfilled the injunction of the text:
BE ye angry and sin not"