Year: 1859

stroyer. There they will find what is Gods
estimate Of conduct like that which the
past weeks Investigations have disclosed;
what the decision of Heavens Supreme
Court will be, as to the man who, profess
ing friendship, could take to his own room,
a compauionn who he knew, lost his self
control as quickly as he partook of the first
intoxicating glass; who made of that room
what the just verdict Of society's unanimous
verdict calls HE'LL; who with a maliqni-
ty that one might have looked for only in
the realm where the Devil-the fist muir
derer--rules, piled his companion with the
draught Of moral death; who woR from
$50 the world describes this trade Of rob
bery) all the money in his possession; and
who (f his own tale be true) opened his
door, led forth his victim, then incapable Of
standing unaided-and, as though he would
ensure his injury, if not his death, extin-
guished the light, and left him in darkness
on the stairs to grope and to stumble, and
to plunge headlong to destruction?


Such, on his own showing, are the gamb-
lers tender mereies Such an one we
might expect to answer when the Almighty
himself gives the challenge, "Where is thy
brothcrr 81 know not, am l my brothers
keeperp To such an one speaks in thun-
der tones the Omniscient Witness, "The
voice of thy brothers blood crieth unto me
from the ground.


To each one of us, my hearers, the Prov
idence of God in this calamity has voice.


1t speaks to each of us Of tho sin of
drunkenness. There is not one word in
this Sacred Book, from first to last of the
disease Of drunkenness. do not say it is
never disease and mover to be treated as
a disease; but where man has such use of
his mental and moral faculties as enables
him to know right from wrong, he cannot
excuse himself before God, if, whatever be
his appetite, or his propensity, he yield to
the temptation. God classes the drunkard
with the murderer He says that for such
there is no part in the kingdom of Christ
and Of God. Not that it is an unpardona-
bic sin; but that it is like any other sin of
the flesh, and ono which tho Divine Justice
cannot let go unpunished. The current
conversation Of society, the common Ian
guage of the press deals altogether too
lightly with this offence against God and
against man. Even Christian men and
women are too ready to make Jest of the
drunkard and of his habits; fault which
may well remind us of the Divine declara-
tion-"Fools make mock of SIM"


OF this subject hope to speak at length
hereafter; yet let me now add in reference
to it, that every man should be keenly ap-
prchensive of his own danger if he makes
any use of intoxicating drinks. No man
can safely form such a habit Those in
whose purity of character, in whose strength
of will, in whose intellectual powers and
culture, in whose social position, there
would seem to be every possible security
have proved themselves powerless against
temptation. Tho best, wsest, the noblest
have been bound in chains by their souls
enemy, Turing them to their destruction by
the gradual steps of the drunkard's down
ward path. There is perfect safety in a
habit of abstinence there is no safety in
even occasional indulgence; there is certain
ruin for him who, conscious that he has an
appetite for strong drink, uses it at ALL From
tho grave Of the lamented E. T. Sterling,
possessed as he was of so many noble traits
Of character; from ten thousand thousand
graves comes this night the warning-Let
it alone. Trife not with what has mur-
dered such a multitude already. Tamper
not with what is dragging thousands, at
this very hour, down to death-down to
everlasting death.


Buff any imagnes himself safe let me
remind him that God hath set him to be
his brothers keeper! If not for your own
sake, yet for your poor tempted brothers
sake, abstain As you would not answer at
the Judgment day for the blood Of souls,
let not your example tempt others to risk a
peril which may work their ruin. All!
what friend of E. T. Sterlng's would not
say tonight 81 will drink no intoxicating
drinks as long as | live if that could but
restore tho dead OH that his every
friend and companion had but said to him
self, know this my brothers weakness
God hath set me as this my brothers keep
or, will never, by word or by example, en-
courage him. nor will l join him, in any
such indulgence. Had they done so, the
voice of his blood would not this day be
crying unto God from the ground.


Of the other vice into which our friend
fell, can scarcely bring myself to speak at
all. Drunkenness drags man down to the
level of the brute: Gambling, perseverediu in,
degrades him to the baseness Of fiend. 1t
was only by destroying his moral sense
through the intoxicating cup that he could
be made to stoop to such degradation. The
essential nature of gambling is seen in the
revelation that has been even partially
made, in the Investigations Of the past week
1t is worse than theft; worse than highway
robbery; worse than ahundred othercrim
for which the law sends eulprits to the pen


tentiary. So even the imperfect legisla-
tion of most well ordered communities deal.
with it. Why then, lot me ask, has itbeer
tolerated in this city Why has rot pub
lie sentiment demanded the enforcement oi
existing lawsl Why have not those in au.
thority felt themselves under continual pres.
sure of public opinion insisting that the
laws, both as to this vice and as to tho traf
fic in poisonous drinks, should be vigorously
executedG Have any of us said-''Itis moi
my businessp Have any said-IfI L dono
drink and gamble, have nothing to dc
with others who may thus ollendl


But where Is Sterling, our brothers Dare