mors Hntoersitg Cibrarg
189437
OCT 8 1948
A
oar
INTEMPERANCEj
DEL.ITERKD 1ST THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
*8 S»®RVaai9a9 *999*
On ths 21st of April, 1833,
BY REV. STEPHEN FOSTER.
KNOXVILLE, T.-
frikteb bt f. s. hsissxm.
1833.
Knoxville, 22nd Aphid, 1833.
Mev'd Sir:—At a meeting of a number of the citizens of Knoxville, friendly to the
cause of temperance and impressed with the belief that the sermon delivered by you
Upon that subject, on yesterday, is eminently calculated to do good, the undersigned
■were charged with the duty of respectfully requesting from you a copy of it, with a
view to its publication. Your compliance with this request will much oblige the un-
dersigned, and in their opinion confer a signal benefit upon the community.
Yours, respectfully,
LEONIDAS W. BAKER,
W. B. REESE,
DONALD McINTOSH,
DE WITT McNUTT,
THOMAS W. HUMES,
CHARLES SCOTT,
S. R. RODGERS,
Andrew McMillan,
RitlD Stxxhes Fostxn W. B. A. RAMSEY.
Aphid 22nd, 1833.
Gentlemen:—-The sermon you so politely request was written with no view to
publication. Among the numerous and able works on Intemperance, with which the
American intellect is teeming, it can hardly be needed. But a request from so res-
pectable a delegation of citizens on any subject within my power of compliance cannot
easily be refused by me. A copy will accordingly beat your service, accompanied by
my best wishes for the success of your endeavors to do good with it, and my high per-
■onal regard for you.
To Messrs. Leonidas W. Bakeb, STEPHEN POSTER.
Wm. B. Reese,
Donald McIntosii,
De Witt McNutt,
Thomas W. Humes,
Charles Scott,
Samuel R. Rodgers,
Andrew McMillan,
Wm. B. A. Ramsxt.
ss^icoxr
Isaiah v. II, 22. ltWoe unto them that rise early in the
morning, that, they may follow strong drink; that continue
until night, till wine inflame them. — Woe unto them that are
mighty to drink wine, and, men of strength to mingle strong
drink."
The text is descriptive bf confirmed drunkards, and denounc*
es a woe corresponding to the crime. The crime of systematic
drunkenness is here associated by the sacred penman, in the train
of several other enormous sins; the crime of oppressing the poor;
of blaspheming God, of infidel skepticism, and of flagrant and
infamous bribery; ver. 7, 8; "Here is the oppressor; I looked
for judgment, but behold oppression. Woe unto them that join
house to house, that lay field to field, till therebenoplace,thatthey
maybe placedalonein themidst of the earth." Nowtheblasphem-
er, v. 19, "That say, let him make speed and hasten his work,
that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel
draw nigh and come, that we may know it." Now the,„ infidel
skeptic, v. 20; "Woe unto them that call evil good and good
evil; that put darkness lor light and light for darkness; that put
bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe unto them that are
wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own. sight." „ .Now
the infamous receiver of bribes, v. 23; "Which justify the. wick-
ed for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous
from him." Interspersed with the description of these daring
crimes, is that of the drunkard in the Uth and 22nd verses—
"Woe unto them that rise early in the morning, that they, may
foljow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame
them. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men
of strength to minglb strong drink." ,
From this connection of sentiment in the context, it would be
natural to imagine, that drunkenness is a crime, which the diyine
Being regards with special abhorrence. Because it is connected
in description with such crimes, and followed with an emphatic
denouncement of woe. But on turning to other passages of the
Bible, we shall find,-that this conclusipn is not left to the support
of doubtful conjecture. It is a matter of the most full and spe-
cific revelation. Drunkenness is there declared to be a crime of
4
singular abomination in the sight of God, and to entail the weight
of his heaviest curses. "To add drunkenness to thirst," was a
crime against which he warned the Israelites by Moses; and the
rebellious son to be stoned to death, was denounced by that pro-
phetas "a glutton and a drunkard." "The crown of pride, the
drunkards of Ephraim," God threatened and exposed to conspic-
uous infamy by the prophet Isaiah. Deut. 2, Is. 28. The
Apostle in the first of Corinthians cautioned his brethren with
scrupulous rigor, to avoid the company of any one, who under
the insidious pretence of brother, was in fact a fornicator, an idol-
ater, a railer or a drunkard; and with such a one not even to eat.
In the sixth chapter of the same epistle, he strings together a list
of the grossly "unrighteous" including idolaters, adulterers and
drunkards; and declares that they shall not "inherit the kingdom
of God." And in a similar passage in the 5th of Galatians, he
closes the list with "murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such
like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in
time past, that they, which do such things, shall not inherit the
kingdom of God."
How shall we account for this vehemence of divine denuneia-
tiC2 against drunkards, but on the obvious supposition, that theirs
is a crime of signal enormity. But there are several collateral
considerations in the Bible, that lead irresistibly to the same eon-
elusion. The scriptures recommend abstinence from intoxicating
liquors to rulers. "It is not for kings, Gh! Lemuel, it is not for
kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink." Why this
special prescription to princes? They may be moderate drink-
ers, and yet not drunkards. May they not safely indulge the
moderate pleasures of the palate in drinking? No! because this
moderate habit of drinking is in danger of leading them to the
habit of intemperance. And then a crime otherwise great, be-
comes marked with a train of aggravated horrors, from the pros-
tratioriof their own noble characters, and the shipwreck of those pre-
cioius and weighty interests, intrusted with them for the good of
society. Accordingly We find added in the same place, this just
premonitory caution—"lest they drink and forget the law, and
pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted."
Another collateral proof of the criminality of drunkenness, is
the pointed prohibition of giving intoxicating liquors to others.
"Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy
bottle to him, and makest him drunken." Why this solemn
warning against the practice of giving liquor toothers? Because
it is a well known maxim in jurisprudence, both civil and di-
vine, that the accomplice shares in the guilt of the principal
5
—that whoever does by another does by himself—that who-
ever promotes the intemperance of another, is himself charge-
able with the crime of drunkenness.
A third collateral evidence of the scripture view of the enor-
mity of drunkenness, is, that when wine or strong drink is di-
reeled to be used, it is under such circumstances of religious so-
lemnity, as were strongly calculated to preserve it from abuse.
In the 14 th chapter of Deuteronomy, the Israelites were instruct-
ed in the manner of bestowing their yearly tithes. For the due
celebration of this duty, having met in the place of their great
solemnities, they were to eat and drink whatever their soul lust-
ed after; oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink. But how
were they to do this? "before the Lord," with the fullest sense
of his awful superintendence, of the spirituality of his character
and requisitions, and with a strict regard to those fearful warn-
ings, which he had taken so much pains to proclai m to the drunk-
ard. The man who could tipple under these awful circumstances,
would seem a more confirmed child of hell, than the ordina-
ry haunter of distilleries and grog-shops. A similar method of
remark applies to the use of wine in the sacrament, and the cele-
brated miracle at Cana of Galilee, where Jesus turned water into
wine, at a marriage ceremony, at which he was present.
Under this topic,. I will add another instance of the singular
vigilance, with which the permission of strong drink is guarded
in the scriptures. Timothy, the exemplary minister of Ephe-
sus, deep in the self-denial of primitive Christianity, during long
and scrupulous abstinence from wine, with the extraordinary
pressure of professional labors, had sunk to a state of dangerous
debility. And the Apostle Paul, with the authority of inspira-
tion, urges him to use wine from a principle of duty. But why
that degree of scrupulous accuracy, with which the apostolic pre-
scription is worded? Why does he employ so guarded a phrase-
ology as this?:—"use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and
thine often infirmities" Why does he not give him full liberty
to drink as much and, as often, as to humor the.ordinary cravings
of appetite? Why does he encourage him to take only a little, and
eventhat littleasameremedicinalrelief to his infirmities? Because
the apostle knew his high condition better, than to make suchperver-
gionof inspired authority. Heknewthatanylesscautious direction
would be in the face of the very letter of the scriptures, with which
he and Timothy had been familiar from their infancy; and would
introduce into the Bible, the anomaly of the spirit of inspiration
breaking down in one place, what he had taken so much pains to
build up in many others. He knew that his own was in perfect
8
accordance with an old and sound prescription in the Bible, "Give
strong drink to him that is ready to perish, and wine to those that
be of heavy hearts." Nor let it be forgotten, that this is the
same apostle, who exposed to so just and pointed rebukes the
drunken abominations which the Corinthians had tolerated, with
the bread and wine of the sacred communion. And although
the freest indulgence might be safely granted to so godly and cir-
cumspect a minister as Timothy, yet such an indulgence, coming
from the apostle, would seem strangely at variance with the strict-
ness of other prohibitions in the Bible, and might form a stable
bulwark of defence to a throng of sensual, tippling Christians,
who at some future day would creep into the church, and plead
the authority of this great apostle.
Now I have gone through a summary outline of the scripture
argument against intemperance; though I have not touched upon
the rich topics of scripture illustration, of this grand and weighty
subject. But the argument now before us, is substantially this;
God describes in the Bible in no doubtful manner the crime ot
drunkenness, and affixes to it tokens of his heavy displeasure.—
He associates it in description, with other forms of daring un-
righteousness, against which his wrath is revealed from heaven.
He adds a fearful warning against giving intoxicating liquors to
others. His special permission of the use of this liquor, is un-
der circumstances of most restraining religious solemnity, and
in one instance as a medicinal antidote to the infirmities of a weak
and sickly stomach.
Now we may naturally make the inquiry, where was the oc-
casion of all this effort of divine vigilance, with which the ave-
nues to intemperance are guarded, and through which the trans-
gressor can hardly lift the forbidden chalice, without the horror-
striking echo all around him, "nor drunkards shall inherit the
kingdom of God." Did an occasion arise for these heavy warn-
ings, from the nature of the wine or strong drink of Palestine?
Let those refined moralists answer, who are heartily opposed to
vulgar liquors, but as warmly in favor of those which are more
genteel and costly.
When we look into the scripture method of description on
this subject, it cannot fail to strike with astonishment, that that
profuse variety of intoxicating liquors, with which the morality
of Christendom is deluged, was totally unknown to the sacred
writers. The art of distilling, which has thrown upon our hands
millions of gallons of applebrandy, peach brandy, French bran-
dy, corn whiskey, rjTe whiskey, Holland gin, New England rum,
Jamaica spirits, and the common brandied wine of commerce,
7
together with flip, sling, grog, toddy, cherry bounce, whortle-
berry bounce, peach cordial, lemon punch, milk punch, egg-nog,
and an endless train of savory mixtures, to beguile the taste of
their different votaries, was an invention made many centuries
later by the indefatigable alchymists of the middle ages. The
ancients knew no original strong drink, but the weak, unbraridied
wine of the grape, and the juice of dates. And when this was
not strong enough, the hottest of their brains had no other re-
source, but to add such spices, roots, herbs and medicaments as are
found among the Arabs at the present day.
Might we not on this subject indulge a natural and easy specu-
lation? Might we not speciously inquire, what would the sacred,
writers have said in our day? How would they speak of that
mighty train of intoxicating liquors, and tempting mixtures and
facilities to drunkenness, which beset the peace of the American
community? How would they depict the abominations of the
land, and thunder out anathemas of a speedy and heavy retribu-
tion of its crimes? But let us stop these fruitless and idle inqui-
ries. Far be it from me to speculate on so awful a subject, as that
of dictating to the spirit of inspiration, or to doubt that the Holy
Ghost knew his proper business, when he guided the holy men of
old to speak by the impulse of his heavenly dictates, and deliver
a message, not of any private interpretation, but castin the mould
of eternal wisdom for all countries, nations and ages of men.--—
The human imagination cowers at the simple grandeur of the Bi-
ble. The human intellect confesses the supremacy of that wis-
dom, which is from above; nor let even human arrogance insin-
uate, that the light and discovery of the 18th century could have
aided the spirit of omniscient wisdom to a single item on the sub-
ject of intemperance, or a juster expression of his will in regard
to it, than that which is actually found in the Bible. No other is
by any means necessary. This shall be the standard of our doc-*
trine, the radiant point of our illustrations, the touchstone to those
arguments and incentives to the conscience, that may aim to bring
it into nearer communion with ('righteousness, temperance, and
a judgment to come." . ,
And first, I will copy out a detailed and graphic description of
drunkenness, together with the feelings of insolent delirium,
that usually accompany a drunken debauch. "Who hath woe?
who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling?
who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
Look not thou upon the wine, when it is red, when it giveth his
color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it
8
bileth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes
shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse
things. Yea, thou shalt be as he, thatlieth down in the midst of
the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have
stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten
me and I felt it not. When shall I awake? I will seekit again.''—
Prov. 23.
This language is so graphically and powerfully pertinent to the
drunkard, that the task to equal it would be totally hopeless.—
Here is a man, who is in the fullest sense a slave to the bottle.
His appetite for healthy and nourishing food, is swallowed up in
a supreme and insatiable craving for liquor. But ordinary liquor
will not suit his palate. For the very strongest he has an inces-
sant and feverish longing. His haunt is where this is found in
abundance; and there his whole soul luxuriates in taking the
deepest and latest potations. His whole soul did I say? Yes all
the soul he has remaining. For if he once had nobler tenden-
cies, they are drowned and stupified in the joys of intemperance.
Now he has come to the scene of his fondest and richest delight;
and is ready for the honors of an evening carousal. His first bu-
siness is, in deep and silent draughts, to give up himself to the
raptures of enjoyment. But soon the fumes of the head become
buoyant. The imagination swells to an extraordinary concep-
tion of individual glory and personal greatness. Thetonguecom-
mences its career of announcing the grand discovery. And now
comes the "babbling." The roof and walls resound with deeds
of daring enterprise and mighty achievement. But every one's
voice is too loud for his neighbor's. Every one's speech is too
much crowded out of its claims by the rest. Dissatisfaction be-
comes kindled to wrath; a private grudge to an open brawl; par-
ties are taken on the spot for the mastery; and now is the time for
*'contentions." The company is in one effervescence of wrath;
until with bruised heads, maimed limbs, and stabbed bodies, they
are reduced to a state of comparative inaction. They lie sprawl-
ing, dozing, muttering on the floor. Butthephrenzied play of
imagination is still active, and this mingling with the objects of
their present overthrow, forms a singular compound of glory
and shame. They fancy themselves now splashing in the midst
of the sea, now dancing on the top of the mast, now visiting
abandoned women, and in the flagrant wantonness of filthy and
abominable thoughts, uttering "perverse things," words of un-
bridled impurity, vain-glorious bravados to men, and impious
oaths to God. The brain relaxes from its giddy raving, and the
body recovers a share of its sensibility. The miserable patient,
9
smarting with a pain of unaccountable wounds,- and weak witfi
the languor of artificial debility y but not natural sickness," begins
to mutter, "They have smitten me, and I felt it not." The deli-
rious raving of. his brain, and the consequent lassitude of his body,-'
leave an oppressive sense of uneasiness; from .which 'in a half
dreaming condition, he is fain to cry out, "When shall I awake?'7
He is too far gone in debasement for shame or self reproach.-^
Drunkenness is all -for which he wishes to live, and the generous
fumes of his favorite liquor, that for which he is proud to die.
His memory, lost to other subjects, hugs the recent delight of the
bottle with fond tenacity. His affections are grown-to it with
the force of a second nature; he now conceives it the most happy
relief from immediate distress; and, from the impulse of intense
and morbid longing, exclaims—r"I will seek it again." He seeks
it again—is again in raptures, again in misery. He yields him-
self a willing; a hopeless victim, and his idol rules him. with a
rod of iron. The outward symptoms of his curse, are woe, sor-
row, redness of eyes and wounds without cause. . 'Shalll attempt,
to draw the picture.of his wretchedness? his ruin, physical, in-
tellectual, hioral and social? This I cannot think of accomplish-
ing with even a moderate share of justice. I will point out a
fewplain and obviou^ particulars. "; t • "
; Anatomists have dissected, chemists have analyzed, physiold-
gists and doctorsof medicine have experimented, to show by the
light of demonstrable reality, that train of physical horrors with-
in, •which! are indicated by.the "redness of eyes," and the bloat-
ed countenance without. / . >
. It is now admitted by all men of information, that alcohol is as
truly poisonous to the system, as the concentrated nicotin of to-
bacco, or the morphia essence of opium.' And the reason of its
slowness of action upon the drunkard, .is its great dilution in the
liquor he uses, since the strongest has hardly 50 per jcent. This
proportion, however, by constant nnd increasing doses, "as the ha-
bit of drinking grows' npon the patient, produces a certaiii
and frightful transformation. Its process here is totally different
from that of milk', fruit; bread, and any other substance,'whether
solid or liquid,'of a nutritive kind. The latter, itis well known,1
on comingin contact with the gastric juices, is converted into
chyme, thence to chyle, then transmitted in the form of vermil-
lion blood, through the arteries to the veins, thence assuming a
dark color by the impurities which it gathers inits way, it thro ws
them off through the lungs, and goes the sameprocess over again,
nourishing and strengthening the animal system.. * But alcohol i$
too stubborn a substance- for that.' " !t resists the action of the gas-
B
10
trie juices, refuses to be decomposed into any other substance,
rushes into the arteries, and impregnates the blood they contain,
with a noxious, fetid serum. This, after going the usual round,
comesto the air-vessels of the lungs. And the exhalants which
are placed there, as safety-valves of the system, endeavor to throw
it off in the vapor of the breath. Thus nature does what she can
for the drunkard, and if this was the end of it, the worst would
be, only the smell of corruption diffused in his breath. But
this is scarcely the beginning of the evil. His excess over-bur-
dens these friendly auxiliaries, which the G od of nature has ap-
pointed for his relief. If he would now stop entirely from his
drinking, the noxious impregnations of his blood would pass off,
the efforts of nature would restore the waste of the system, and
he would again be a well and happy man. But instead of that,
he pours increasing loads upon the stomach. The lacteals trans-
mit incessant streams of serum to the blood. It loses its bright
vermillion redness, and assumes the black impurities of venous
blood. They come to the exhalants. But these cannot admit
them a passage. They rush onward to the heart, and round
and round the system, and thus diffuse, and lodge, and incorporate
the savor of alcoholie poison in every part of the devoted body,
from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot.
This is only a single department briefly and imperfectly de-
scribed, of that despotism, in which alcoholic liquor waves its
iron sceptre over the tame submission of the drunkard. A des-
potism in which the corrupted flesh, adulterated blood, agitated
nerves, stiffened muscles, contracted arteries, distended veins,
consolidated coats of the stomach of more than an inch in thick-
ness, a liver bloated to double its size, or shrivelled to the mere
consistence of pimples, a brain indurated to a hard and bony
toughness—the miserable, shattered organs of a man are now
joined in mysterious union with one of the most inflammable sub-
stances in nature. It is a well known fact, that the breath of a
drunkard is inflammable at the touch of a lighted taper. Nor
should it be considered by any means an unnatural catastrophe,
that a body, so highly impregnated with inflammable vapor,
should spontaneously burn. It should rather be viewed, as a sin-
gular indulgence afforded at the hand of the holy God, that so few
cases of this awful retribution have occurred, in which the fire of
spontaneous combustion, like the fire of Sodom, has interposed
a fearful prelude to that "fire that never shall be quenched."
I said this was a department of the subject, not by any means
a developement of the whole; a single avenue through which a
few of the physical horrors of intemperance flow. Nor would
11
it be decorous for me with only a limited and theoretical aqquain-
tance with any of those professions aside from my own, to go in-
to that minute specification of particulars, which has been so of-
ten and ably made. But I have touched only a few of those mat-
ters of unquestionable fact, alike palpable to the learned and the
ignorant, the peasant and the scholar. And even now, in the
threshholdof the subject, I should not hesitate to make the inquiry
of any man, who is capable of thinking, is not here enough to war-
rant a significant meaning to those pithy words of scripture^
"woe," "sorrow," "redness of eyes?"
But the intellectual and moral ruin of the man, unspeakably
outweighs his physical debasement. It is true, those eyes^
which sparkled with animation, are now suffused with a blood-
shot redness. The countenance, once the dignified index of in-
telligence and thought, is now glaring with frightful vacuity; the
head once steady and firm, now dizzy and wavering; the step
Once easy and elastic, now faltering and awkward; a constitution
once healthy and vigorous, now decrepit, diseased and sickly,
groaning at the approach of any common disorder, and crumb-
ling at the touch of a foreign epidemic. But what are these to a
shattered intellect, perverted affections, a seared conscience, a
lost soul? * : .
It is difficult to tell in which of these particulars the fate of
the drunkard is , most signally conspicuous, and most hideously
appalling to a gazing world. The delicate fabric of an intelligent
nature, formed by the Creator for harmonious action, is broken
down and thwarted in all its movements; the imagination phrem
zied, the judgment clouded, the senses blunted, the memory
gone. Oh! it is sunk in the depth of a fearful contrast to its for-
mer elevation and glory. With the consciousness of what a de-
lightful facility, did the soul of this ruined man, range through
the handy-work of God? He read the glories of the starry fir-
mament for the tablet of his familiar text-book. He held in the
grasp of a gigantic conception, the arithmetic of the solar and
planetary wonders; the revealed mysteries of the' created uni-
verse, the laws of matter and mind, the sublimities of nature and
the beauties of art, the riches of ancient and modern genius. And
while he walked through. the smiling landscape of nature,
and looked on the sweetest enchantment of her loveliness, and
breathed the perfumes of her fragrance, and felt the amplitude and
fulness of her treasures, it was not with the consciousness of an
Upstart intruder, but as the lord of his own happy and rightful do-
minion. These, high and refined pleasures of the intellect, are bar-
tered.for a dram. -His soul nauseates them for his cups. And
12
his cherished appetite has hurled him from the eminence of his
former glory, to the drudgery of guzzling with the meanest of
his species.
Shall we view the drunkard in his social aspect? Never had
been a happier residence than his home. An honored husband,
a fond parent, a respected and trusty citizen was there. His
house and granaries vrerethe scene of plenty—his family a pic-
ture of neatness and joy. Ilis voice, his look, his presence
stirred a thousand vibrations of tenderness in a heart that was
made to love him, whose joy or woe was identified with his own.
His babes never dreamed of a richer paradise, than to stun him
to a reverie of fond delusion, with the din of their playful and
innocent chatter. But these chatterers are how aghast with dis-
may, at the raving and cursing of a drunken father. And she
whom unbounded attachment had made, from the sensitive sharer
of his purest pleasures, the true thermometer of his stormiest
passions, now quivering, shrieking, fainting from his fury, isbe-
labored with a walking stick, or eleven down with a fire-shovel.
Do you shudder at the atrocity of the man, and abhor the excess
of his brutal rage? But something like the very demon of sar-
casm is heard whispering in your ear! e'Spare the delicate phi-
losophy of your nerves. For the crime is thine, genteel distil-
ler and seller of liquors, who 'puttest thy bottle to him and mak-
est him drunken.7 May your gentle conscience spare you the
effort of aping so gross and detestable hypocrisy, the hypocrisy of
pretending to pity the family, while you supply the fuel to burn
up the sources of their happiness, and lay their honor and inte-
rest in the dust." Let the voice of sarcasm stop. For the pic-
ture of the social aspect of the drunkard, is one of stale, common
place reality. It gazes at us from every quarter. We stand ev-
ery day in the circle of its horrors. And yet its colors are too
deep for fancy to imitate, and its features too hideous for iinagina-
tion to overdraw.
View his moral and religious prospects. If his soul were riven
by the shock of despair, or his conscience crushed by the arm of
a supreme and inexorable sovereignty, or his religious hopes, and
fears and affections, blasted by the frown of God's darkest provi-
dence, and every tendency of his higher nature reduced to a cha-
os of confirmed delirium, there were yet redeeming considera-
tions in store for him. There were many possibilities within the
compass of that mercy, which is too deep to fathom, and too spa-
cious to bound, on which the eye of fond relatives might glance
with satisfaction, on which the tenderness of their Christian sym-
pathy might kindle into hope, and glow with the importunity of
IS
devout and prevalent intercession to God, ■ But in behalf of the
drunkard, the faith of the holiest Christian is staggered, the warm-
est intercession falters, the brightest hope sinks into the gloom of
despondency, and dies away forever.
What is there now in the drunkard's case, that renders his mor-1"
al condition so hopeless? His affections are struck with a deep
and fatal paralysis. His feelings have become sensualized to a
fixed habit. If the thought of religion ever becomes urgent, he
cannot think of embracing it, till he has first relieved his uneasiV
ness with a draught of favorite liquor. He drinks and stupifies
all religious concern. / At other time's* his liquor kindles a strong
and fitful religious excitement. He is free in confessing sin, for-,
ward to promise reform, and prompt to tell his experience. Of-
ten he is under a strange delusion. He fancies himself a Chris-
tian while he daily tipples; and you cannot persuade him that
he is a tippler. Sometimes you find a tippling hypocrite,, a
subscriber to total abstinence, and a loud declaimer for tempe-»
ranee societies, drinking in secret. . Some drinkers talk' high for
temperance, and disguise their breath with spices, "cinnamon
and peppermint. And some drink before going to church, to
keep up their spirits to the tone of the occasion. Some have
left whiskey for wine, and thought they were doing" well, when
truly they were tippling only at a seven fold rate of expenditures
It only requires an increased amount of liquor and a heavier Weight
of purse, to burn up the body, wither the intellect, and blast the
soul with imported wine. Many have broken off wholly for el
time, and some for the space of forty years;* and then "returned
as the dog to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wal-
lowing in the mire." These are some of the. exterior incidents
and facts of the subject. But who can descend to its deepest in-'
terior* and express in the form of specific language, the power of
that delusion, which regular drinking is known to diffuse thro'
the moral constitution, steeling the heart against religion? • I
deem this to be totally impossible. > We can learn it only by ob-
servation. We can never conceive nor describe 'its ^inveteracy.
But we can fully credit the declaration of others, and we can
feel the force of our own conviction, that any one who is a regu-
lar drunkard, is a lost man. And whence the force of this con-
viction? Because the ordinary means of grace, with the ordina-
ry blessing of Gocl, have generally been insufficient to reclaim
him. * '•
Our conviction here is scarcely inferior to that in the uniformi-
ty of natural causation, '■ But still there may he salvation for the
drunkard. A few rare instances have occurred of his hopeful re-
pentance, and we may hope and pray for a larger number. The
14
grossest sinners were addressed with matchless tenderness and
pity by the mighty Savior, when he tabernacled in flesh. They
listened to the call, forsook their sins, and in the gratitude of ho-
ly transports, fell down before him, bedewing his feet with tears
of genuine godly sorrow. And for aught we know, in that train of
transformed prodigals, was here and there a drunkard, with blood-
shot eye balls, quivering hand, swollen lip and tottering footstep,
falling into the very pit of damnation, but plucked by the hand
of this strong deliverer, a firebrand from the burning, atoned for
by the infinite merit of his blood, renewed on earth by the Al-
mighty Spirit, and taught to exercise those holy graces, which
are now expanded and ripened in glory.
But were it even admitted, that there is no probability of a
drunkard's reformation, that of the 30,000 American drunkards,
who may die the present year, there is not the least chance of a
single conversion; that of the 300,000 drunkards now in our
country, not a soul is to be reclaimed to the paths of virtue, there
is still scope enough for the vigorous efforts of the temperance
reformation. When God commissioned the plague in the camp
of Israel, to slay 14,000 of the mutinous friends of Korah, was it
the dictate of patriotic zeal and religious benevolence, for the rest
to stand as statues amidst the desolation? to shut their eyes and
fold their hands in a state of listless and idle vacuity? Did not
some fall prostrate in the deepest humiliation and entreaty to
God? and others," with censers of consecrated incense, run in the
very face of this scene of death, literally stand between the dead
and the living, and with the memorials of their pious service of-
fer up to heaven an acceptable savor? And what was the conse-
quence? The plague was stayed; the wrath was averted. A
dreadful stroke of vengeance swept off the most abandoned of
the congregation, and then in mercy, God spared the rest to the
prayers and devout intercessions of his people.
Let this be an example for our humble imitation. Let us with
humble but resolute firmness, plant ourselves between the ranks
of the dead and the living, and try to stop the progress of this
fearful destroyer. Ardent spirits are sending their ravages thro'
the land, and turning its beauty to the shadow of death. In our
own country they are blasting the temporal and eternal prospects
of more than 300,000. They are slaying 30,000 every year.—
They are shutting up 50,000 annually in the debtor's prison.
They are stimulating to active service an army of 90,000 mur-
derers, robbers, incendiaries and thieves, to infest our conn-
try. They are keeping in a state of squalid poverty more than
50,000 American families.
15
And now, my friends, is it not the obvious duty of every good
citizen, to try to put a lasting stop to their ravages? to come up to
the altar of total abstinence and engage eternal separation from
them; to create a barrier in the combined temperance of a virtu-
ous community, over which they cannot break to deluge the land.
And be assured, that this cause is too heavenly to be defeated.—
It is a cause cbngenial to the word of God, and supported by the
best and ablest men throughout the country. It cannot be de-
feated. "It is a good cause. It will ultimately prevail; it will
finally triumph."