In the early 1800’s, people drank whiskey like it was water. Liquor was cheap and readily available. Most every farmer operated a still to turn excess corn into whiskey. The average per capita consumption of distilled spirits was five times what it is now.
Lyman Beecher (1775-1863) was a young minister called to a church in Litchfield, Conn. He attended two ordinations where fellow clergy drank heavily, and the local ministerial society covered the cost of the open bar. Next, in a meeting of Connecticut ministers, a committee reported that intemperate drinking was increasing at an alarming rate, yet little could be done about it. Lyman appealed for new resolve to stem the tide of alcoholism, and the American Temperance Union was launched in 1826. A short while later, he preached in a town near Litchfield and knocked at the home of a young man who had helped with previous revivals. His wife lamented her husband couldn’t come to Lyman’s assistance since he was in bed–drunk. That did it! He preached six consecutive sermons against excess drinking in his church, causing no little controversy, since clergy were expected to stick to theology. His text was Proverbs 23.31-32, “Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper.” His sermons were later published and widely circulated.
Lyman was later called to pastor the Hanover Street Church in Boston. In a strange twist of irony, a merchant rented rooms in the church basement to store whiskey, which ignited and burned the church to the ground. Lyman had thirteen children, nine of which became authors, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin. All seven sons became ministers, including Henry Ward Beecher, who carried forward his father’s temperance work. Today’s prayer is taken from a book of prayers by Lyman’s son Henry: