The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1858-08-18

| Prayer WHen tue nOuse was stlll. lie
would have gone off to bed at once as soon
as he locked up, but the force of habit is
as strong sometimes in good as evil, and
he could not be- easy at heart if he should
neglect his chapter and his prayer. So he
took down the book, and opening it at
random he read the chapter which con.
tanned these words, I" No drunkard shall
inherit the kingdom of God" They
seemed to glisten as he read them, those
words did. What did they mean?
He had begun to think over the drunk
ards whom he had known and who had
died. He called up their names he be-
gan to grow confused in his memory, and
to help himself on in the work be had un.
dertaken, he took down the book of DR..
Cr,, in which he had for years kept
running account with his neighbors. There
were many who had once stood in his bar,
and now they were in eternity. They
had died drunkards.--And the Bible told
him they had not gone to heaven--they
must be in hell.-He looked over the list,
and asked himself Was this man drunk.
ard? And this man? And Mr.. Ball
would try to rocolleot how they looked the
last time they were in his bar and one
after another they would come back to
his memory, and soon whole group of
them was there, horrid group !! dead
druukards for he had seen all of then,
dead.
And now when they rose to his view
they seemed to come from the grave and
from hell they laughed fercely and
swore terribly, and roared as if they were
beasts let loose. They wanted something
to drink and would have it and when
the squire demonstrated with them, and
told them they had been drinking already,
and that he never sold liquor to men after
they had enough, they leaped the bar and
helped themselves and one of them loap-
ed astride the shoulders Of the landlord,
and another threw the Bible at his head;
and then they made great uproar, like
that which had marked the early part of
the evening, until the Squire rose up in
wrath, and ordered them to quit the house.
Instantly they rushed upon him like 90
many devils, and seized him in their arms,
and asked him, as they bore him away,
how he would like to keep tavern in
He'll!
Before he had time to recover himself
or indeed to get his breath so as to be
able to speak he felt himself flying through
the air on the fiery wings Of steeds, and
then down, down, he sank. sank, with
his bar-room company, till, at last, after
an hour Of rapid travel downward, he was
suddenly pitched into world of darkness
SO black that he could feel it. And
strangely enough, he could see that this
dark world was inhabited, for the people
were like SO MANY flames moving amid
the dismal gloom and he could hear
chains rattling as the people crowded along
SO that he was soon convinced that he was
in the world of despair Hero he was 10
keep tavern.
The old customers who had brought
him, had been sent as committee to find
the right sort Of man to keep tavern in
hell !; for they often declared there was
no man doing 50 good business as
Squire Ball, or who had 80 many quail.
fcations for the high honor Of being the
landlord of the hosts of the prince of dark.
ness.
He was instantly and duly installed in.
to Office, and commenced dealing out spirits
to the spirits in prison. But his surprise
was great and his confusion truly pitable,
when be recognized in every customer that
came into his bar the faces he had known
iu Kingston, and all of them his neigh5ors
and their families.
"Ha! Squire Ball, is that you? p said
a hercc.looking man, who came for a
drink "when did you come"
The Squire perceived in the new conner
o man to whom he had sold liquor for IF
teen years, and who had died in the poor
house. He was sober, industrious man
when the landlord of Kingston first temp
!. ted him to taste dram, and his progress
10 the downward road had become sure
and rapid from that day
J Next came female fury,a lost woman
wild spirit who few at HIM o. she en-
tered his Internal tavern, and reproached
MIN as the cause of her ruin and that o
her family.
But for you," said she, in shrili
! clear voice, that pierced his ear ike {
; knife, {" but for you / might be an appe