REV WARD BEECHER ON THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1641, 20 August 1887, Page 3

REV WARD BEECHER ON THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC

Whatever the Rev Henry Ward Beeoher's later temperance ideas may have been, m the beginning of his ministerial life he " oried aloud and spared not." Addressing a burning appeal to a distiller, a Ohuroh member and a man of great wealth, he wrote:-' "While every morning, around the family altar, you breathe a Christian's thanksgiving and otter a supplicant's prayer, your whiskey is busy at work opening hundreds of mouths With bitter curses." "On the Sabbath day While you look heavenward they tend hellward." " What if by some supernatural power God should bring before your eyes all the results of the whiskey made by you ? From the hamlets on the verge of civilization, from vale aod hillside, from dens of vice and lairs of Crime, from the adulterer's obamber, and from the murderer's haunt, would come trooping to your eyes all the ghastly disfigurements of abominable iniquity— eaoh as il flitted past would point to you and cry, * Thou art the author.' All hideous temptations that do destroy men woald bow to you and cry out m hoarse tones, ' Hail, my parent 1 '" In its naked boldness this appear reminds one of some of the eoathing denunciations of the old Hebrew Beers. It was startling enough to give the man to whom it was addressed some sleepless nights.