Legal prohibition the only remedy for drunkenness : being the substance of two discourses, delivered in the Chestnut Street Church, Louisville, on the first Sabbaths of April and July, 1955 / by L.J. Halsey.

  • Halsey, Leroy J. (Leroy Jones), 1812-1896.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Legal prohibition the only remedy for drunkenness : being the substance of two discourses, delivered in the Chestnut Street Church, Louisville, on the first Sabbaths of April and July, 1955 / by L.J. Halsey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    to the extent of his ability, lie is a public enemy; his pre- sence, night and day, is a snare of temptation laid in the pathway of the young and inexperienced; his presence en- dangers the public peace, and, just in proportion as drunk- enness accomplishes its work of ruin upon him—making him insane, bestial and ferocious—he becomes an aggressor, directly or indirectly, upon the rights and interests of every man, woman and child around him. To all intents and purposes, he stands to society in the attitude of an un- caged, ferocious wild beast, with far more ability to injure than the brute could ever have. He is, in fact, as near a brute as human nature can be made; but, then, he is a brute armed with the ferocious malignity of a fiend. Let a community once resign itself to the undisputed reign of drunkenness—let strong drink rage in its fury until the very seats of public justice are filled with drunkards—and that community will realize a condition not too strongly pic- tured by a den of wild beasts, Or a Pandemonium of gor- gons, hydras and chimeras dire. II.—THE CRIMINALITY OE DRUNKENNESS. Bdt all men, while freely admitting the fearful evils of drunkenness, are not yet quite so willing to admit its crimi- nality. There has been with many a lurking disposition to palliate or to deny its enormity as a crime. We hold, however, upon the. clearest testimony of the Bible, and as the result of all human experience on the subject, that drunkenness, in every form and degree of it, is a violation of the law of God, a sin against morality, a crime against human nature, an outrage upon the rights of society, as well as an awful curse upon its victim. In all the book of God, there is no single specific sin of overt action, which meets with a more unsparing and terrible denunciation of Divine wrath. It is classed with idolatry, adultery, forni- cation and murder; and along with thieves, extortioners, misers and liars, drunkards are everywhere excluded frohi the kingdom of heaven. It is fearful to read the denuncia- tions of the Bible, and then to think how drunkenness prevails among us, and how little the multitude consider the damning nature of the act as a sin against God. Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they