Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Ten years of Meth

The following sermon is by T.De Witt Talmage. He is one of my favorite authors. When he is at the top of his game there are few better. He preaches against the evils of intoxicants, and was a powerful influence in the temperance movement in the 1800's. Of course he lived long before Meth was invented, and if Talmage were to preach today his sermon would have been intensified I'm sure. Having been touched by the evils of Meth, as most of us have these days, someone we know and love has been in the grip of this epedemic, I think his semon is understated. Drug and alcohol abuse has it's millions of victims, and so Talmage preaches hard against it.

“An arch fiend arrived in our world, and built here an invisible cauldron of temptation. He built that cauldron strong and stout for all ages and all nations. First he squeezed into it the juices of the forbidden fruit of paradise. Then he gathered for it a distillation from the harvest fields and the orchards of the hemispheres. Then he poured into this cauldron capsicum, and copperas, and logwood, and deadly nightshade, and assault and battery, and vitriol, and opium, and rum, and murder, and sulphuric acid, and theft, and potash, and poverty, and death, and hops.

But it was a dry compound and must be moistened and liquefied, so the arch-fiend poured into the cauldron the tears of centuries of orphanage and widowhood, and the blood of twenty thousand assassinations.
Then he took a shovel that he had brought up from the furnaces of his dominion below, and he thrust that shovel into the great cauldron and began to stir, and the cauldron began to heave, and rock, and boil, and sputter, and hiss, and smoke, while nations gathered around it with cups and tankards and kegs. There was enough for all, and the arch-fiend cried, with satanic exultation: “Aha! Champion fiend am I! Who has done more than I have for the filling of coffins and graveyards and prisons and insane asylums, and the populating of the lost world? And when this cauldron is emptied I’ll fill it again, and stir it again, and it will smoke again, and that smoke shall join another smoke – the smoke of a torment that ascendeth forever and ever.
The cup out of which I ordinarily drink is a bleached human skull, and the upholstery of my palace is of the rich crimson hue of human gore, and the mosaic of my floors is made up of the bones of children dashed to death by drunken parents, and my favorite music – sweeter than Te Deum or triumphal march – is the cry of daughters turned out at midnight on the street because father has come home drunk form the carousal.
I have kindled more fires, I have wrung out more agonies, I have stretched out more midnight shadows, I have damned more souls than any other emissary of diabolism. Champion fiend that I am!”

“And perhaps the drunken man has a will which has not been proved in the courts. That will, put in writing, would read something like this; “In the name of disease and appetite and death, amen. I bequeath to my children my evil habits. My tankards shall be theirs, my wine-cup shall be theirs, my destroyed reputation shall be theirs. Share and share alike I bequeath them my infamy. Hereto I affix my hand and seal in the presence of all the applauding harpies of hell.”

Photo from the internet

4 comments:

Joseph Pulikotil said...

Hello Fred!

Excellent post which reminds us the evils of liquor consumption!

More than the rich people, it is the poor people who are the most affected. There are daily wage earners who drink most of their earnings every day and give very little or no money for meeting household expenses.When they come home in the night they expect the wives to serve them food. If there is no food they abuse, fight and beat the wives and children.

In the process, the liquor companies are minting money.

There is a definite need to educate the drunkards of this world
who go about causing so much trouble and suffering to their near and dear ones and also cause health problems to themselves.

In Kerala the Govt. has taken over the sole distribution of liquor in the State because the spurious liquor sold by private retailers were resulting in deaths.

I hope your post will galvanise people to take some concrete remedial steps.

Have a good day!

Mel said...

Hi Fred,

I agree about the devestating affects of drugs. It would be hard to overstate them. But I guess I have a little different take on the topic of alcohol. It seems to me that people have been socially drinking wine and ale and other types of fermented beverages pretty much since the beginning. Jesus's first public miracle involved wine.

I was raised in a family where neither one of my parents drank, ever, and in a church where if someone was caught with a beer in their fridge it became the most recent church scandal. Every time I'd go to a friend's house where drinks were being enjoyed in a social gathering, I'd immediately judge them in my mind and consider myself and my family better than them. How sad.

It seems to me that the consumption of alcohol by persons of legal age should be something that is between themselves and God unless it is out of balance or negatively affecting their health or loved ones. And of course I know that this post is talking about unhealthy extremes. I know a good many people who might benefit from reading it.

Thank you! :)

MaryMGlynn said...

This is such as sick and sad reality, hidden away in homes, churches, street corners and everywhere. It makes me sad to see people hurt themselves like this, including the children and other families members witnessing this terrible addiction. Makes me sick to know how many children see their own parents suffer and witness the stages of this horrible addiction. Body changes as in this picture,personality changes and more..
Terrible stuff, it robs a person for sure.

FCB said...

Hi Joseph, good counsel, they say that over seventy percent of violent crimes are alcohol related in the US. The Bible is very clear about drinking to excess and our world is full of examples.

Hi Mel, there is quite a contrast in the Bible regarding drinking; on the one hand we will drink wine with Christ in heaven, on the other hand drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdom of Christ.

Like you say, this post is about excess. To the person prone to abuse, "one is too many a thousand not enough".
When I turned 21 y father in law, took me to a bar and had bought me my first legal drink. It was nice of him but I would not do that with my children or grandchildren. I see liberty in one's choice, but enough danger not to encourage that liberty. Again, like you said, these things are between us and God and I have no problem with moderation, but I have seen first hand the destruction and agonies the post describes with both alcohol and drug abuse. Again I say the post is understated.

Hi Mary, you are so right, it is often the children that suffer the worst in homes with drug or alcohol abuse, from Meth babies, to broken homes, abuse brings such sorrow. I am rearing two granddaughters because of this very thing.
Love Fred