Document – Lymann Beecher, Excerpts from Six Sermons on the Nature, Occasions, Signs, Evils, and Remedy of Intemperance (1828)

Document

Intemperance is the sin of our land, and with our boundless prosperity, is coming in upon us like a flood; and if any thing shall defeat the hopes of the world, which hang upon our experiment of civil liberty, it is that river of fire, which is rolling through the land, destroying the vital air, and extending around an atmosphere of death…

The effect of ardent spirits on the brain, and the members of the body, is among the last effects of intemperance and the least destructive part of the sin. It is the moral ruin which it works in the soul, that gives it the denomination of giant-wickedness. If all who are intemperate, drank to insensibility, and on awaking, could arise from the debauch with intellect and heart uninjured, it would strip the crime of its most appalling evils. But among the woes which the scriptures denounce against crime, one is, “woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to consume strong drink.” These are captains in the bands of intemperance, and will drink two generations of youths into the grave, before they go to lie down by their side. The Lord deliver us from strong-headed men, who can move the tongue when all are mute around them, and keep the eye open when all around them sleep, and can walk from the scene of riot, while their companions must be aided or wait until the morning…

A multitude of persons, who are not accounted drunkards, create disease, and shorten their days, by what they denominate a “prudent use of ardent spirits.” Let it therefore be engraven upon the heart of every man, that the daily use of ardent spirits, in any form, or in any degree, is intemperance. Its effects are certain, and deeply injurious, though its results may be slow, and never be ascribed to the real cause. It is a war upon the human constitution.…

But of all the ways to hell, which the feet of deluded mortals tread, that of the intemperate is the most dreary and terrific. The demand for artificial stimulus to supply the deficiences of healthful aliment, is like the rage of thirst, and the ravenous demand of famine. It is famine: for the artificial excitement has become as essential now to strength and cheerfulness, as simple nutrition once was. But nature, taught by habit to require what once she did not need, demands gratification now with a decision inexorable as death, and to most men as irresistible. The denial is a living death. The stomach, the head, the heart, and arteries, and veins, and every muscle, and every nerve, feel the exhaustion, and the restless, unutterable wretchedness which puts out the light of life, and curtains the heavens, and carpets the earth with sackcloth…

These sufferings, however, of animal nature, are not to be compared with the moral agonies which convulse the soul. It is an immortal being who sins, and suffers; and as his earthly house dissolves, he is approaching the judgment seat, in anticipation of a miserable eternity. He feels his captivity, and in anguish of spirit clanks his chains and cries for help. Conscience thunders, remorse goads, and as the gulf opens before him, he recoils, and trembles, and weeps, and prays, and resolves, and promises, and reforms, and “seeks it yet again,”—again resolves, and weeps, and prays, and “seeks it yet again!” Wretched man, he has placed himself in the hands of a giant, who never pities, and never relaxes his iron gripe. He may struggle, but he is in chains…

His resolution fails, and his mental energy, and his vigorous enterprise; and nervous irritation and depression ensue. The social affections lose their fulness and tenderness, and conscience loses its power, and the heart its sensibility, until all that was once lovely and of good report, retires and leaves the wretch abandoned to the appetites of a ruined animal. In this deplorable condition, reputation expires, business falters and becomes perplexed, and temptations to drink multiply as inclination to do so increases, and the power of resistance declines. And now the vortex roars, and the struggling victim buffets the fiery wave with feebler stroke, and warning supplication, until despair flashes upon his soul, and with an outcry that pierces the heavens, he ceases to strive, and disappears…

3. The effect of intemperance upon the military prowess of a nation, cannot but be great and evil. The mortality in the seasoning of recruits, already half destroyed by intemperance, will be double to that experienced among hardy and temperate men…

4. The effect of intemperance upon the patriotism of a nation is neither obscure nor doubtful…

The man might as well talk of justice and mercy who robs and murders upon the highway, as he whose example is pestiferous, and whose presence withers the tender charities of life, and perpetuates weeping, lamentation, and woe. A nation of drunkards would constitute a hell.

5. Upon the national conscience or moral principle the effects of intemperance are deadly.

It obliterates the fear of the Lord, and a sense of accountability, paralyzes the power of conscience, and hardens the heart, and turns out upon society a sordid, selfish, ferocious animal.

6. Upon national industry the effects of intemperance are manifest and mischievous.

The results of national industry depend on the amount of well directed intellectual and physical power. But intemperance paralyzes and prevents both these springs of human action…

We now come to the inquiry, by what means can the evil of intemperance be stayed? and the answer is, not by any one thing, but by every thing which can be put in requisition to hem in the army of the destroyer, and impede his march, and turn him back, and redeem the land.

Intemperance is a national sin, carrying destruction from the centre to every extremity of the empire, and calling upon the nation to array itself, en masse, against it.

It is in vain to rely alone upon self-government, and voluntary abstinence. This, by all means, should be encouraged and enforced, and may limit the evil, but can never expel it. Alike hopeless are all the efforts of the pulpit, and the press, without something more radical, efficient and permanent. If knowledge only, or argument, or motive, were needed, the task of reformation would be easy…Many may be saved by these means; but with nothing more, many will be lost, and the evil will go down to other ages. Alike hopeless is the attempt to stop intemperance by mere civil coercion.

Voluntary associations to support the magistrate in the execution of the law are useful, but after all are ineffectual—for though in a single town, or state, they may effect a temporary reformation, it requires an effort to make them universal, and to keep up their energy, which never has been, and never will be made…

The remedy, whatever it may be, must be universal, operating permanently, at all times, and in all places. Short of this, every thing which can be done, will be but the application of temporary expedients.

What then is this universal, natural, and national remedy for intemperance?

It is the banishment of ardent spirits from the list of lawful articles of commerce, by a correct and efficient public sentiment; such, as has turned slavery out of half our land, and will yet expel it from the world.

We execrate the cruelties of the slave trade—the husband torn from the bosom of his wife—the son from his father—brothers and sisters separated forever—whole families in a moment ruined! But are there no similar enormities to be witnessed in the United States? None indeed perpetrated by the bayonet—but many, very many, perpetrated by intemperance.

Every year thousands of families are robbed of fathers, brothers, husbands, friends. Every year widows and orphans are multiplied, and grey hairs are brought with sorrow to the grave—no disease makes such inroads upon families, blasts so many hopes, destroys so many lives, and causes so many mourners to go about the streets, because man goeth to his long home.

We have heard of the horrors of the middle passage—the transportation of slaves—the chains—the darkness—the stench—the mortality and living madness of woe—and it is dreadful. But bring together the victims of intemperance, and crowd them into one vast lazar-house, and sights of woe quite as appalling would meet your eyes.

Yes, in this nation there is a middle passage of slavery, and darkness, and chains, and disease, and death. But it is a middle passage, not from Africa to America, but from time to eternity, and not of slaves whom death will release from suffering, but of those whose sufferings at death do but just begin. Could all the sighs of these captives be wafted on one breeze, it would be loud as thunder. Could all their tears be assembled, they would be like the sea.

The abolition of the slave trade, an event now almost accomplished, was once regarded as a chimera of benevolent dreaming. But the band of Christian heroes, who consecrated their lives to the work, may some of them survive to behold it achieved. This greatest of evils upon earth, this stigma of human nature, wide-spread, deep-rooted, and entrenched by interest and state policy, is passing away before the unbending requisitions of enlightened public opinion.

No great melioration of the human condition was ever achieved without the concurrent effort of numbers, and no extended, well directed application of moral influence, was ever made in vain. Let the temperate part of the nation awake, and reform, and concentrate their influence in a course of systematic action, and success is not merely probable, but absolutely certain. And cannot this be accomplished?—cannot the public attention be aroused, and set in array against the traffick in ardent spirits, and against their use? With just as much certainty can the public sentiment be formed and put in motion, as the waves can be moved by the breath of heaven—or the massy rock, balanced on the precipice, can be pushed from its centre of motion;—and when the public sentiment once begins to move, its march will be as resistless as the same rock thundering down the precipice. Let no man then look upon our condition as hopeless, or feel, or think, or say, that nothing can be done.

All denominations of Christians in the nation, may with great ease be united in the effort to exclude the use and the commerce in ardent spirits. They alike feel and deplore the evil, and united, have it in their power to put a stop to it. This union may be accomplished through the medium of a national society.

The churches of our Lord Jesus Christ of every name, can do much to aid in this reformation. They are organized to shine as lights in the world, and to avoid the very appearance of evil…

When the preceding measures have been carried, something may be done by legislation, to discourage the distillation and importation of ardent spirits, and to discountenance improper modes of vending them…Republics must be prepared by moral sentiment for efficient legislation…

And now to every one whose eye has passed over these pages—I would say—Resolve upon reformation by entire abstinence, before you close the book…

Let the discourses upon the causes and symptoms of intemperance be read aloud in your family, at least once a year—that the deceitful, dreadful evil may not fasten unperceived, his iron gripe on yourself, or any of your household—and that if one shall not perceive his danger, another may, and give the timely warning. Thousands every year may be kept back from destruction, by the simple survey of the causes and symptoms of intemperance. And,

Finally, when you have secured your own house-hold—let your benevolence extend to those around you. Become in your neighbourhood, and throughout the whole extent of your intercourse and influence, a humble, affectionate, determined reformer.

Review

1. 1) Why did Lyman Beecher believe that alcohol was so dangerous to society?

2. 2) Why did Beecher compare intemperance to slavery and the slave trade?

3. 3) How did Beecher hope to remedy the problem of intemperance?