Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1865-09-22
The Lost Ring.
BY REV. THEODORE L. oUYLER.

a lew days ago soldier came into on
of our clothing stores, and asked for Sc,
- eral articles to replenish his pretty thol
3 oughly exhausted wardrobe. He wa
7 on bis way home with his regiment
The marks of hard service were on hi
sunburnt face and threadbare clothing
his old blue jacket had been through tn
fires of Liberty.
When he came to pay for the articles
he drew out wallet containing three o
four some hundred dollar" bills. He ha,
just been paid off bv HAL G II;
rather boastfuI manner of parading hi
: moneys and his loose tongue, made the
clothier suspect that be had been taking
a drop from e serpent's cup. II {
therefore said kindly to him, "Hadn'
you better leave your money with me
over Sunday, till you go home ?" The
blunt reply was, II have taken care Of
myself for three years Of fighting, and !
guess don't need no one to take care oil
me nor my money now"
On Monday morning the poor fellow
came into the store again, with bruise
on bis face that bore none of the glory of
the battle. field. 1t looked like an ugly
autograph of the dram shop or the dance
house. "Well my friend" inquired the
clothier, show are you, now" The
soldier took him one side and, with indie,
scribable shame, said, "See here, | have
not one red cent left My pay is all
gone. And that isn't the worst of it,
My wife sent ring, nice one too, for
me to get fixed here in town. That is
gone too. What shall tell her has be.
come of it p
Poor fellow we cannot recall the in
cident without starting the tears. And
will there be no tears shed, when, at his
own home be is forced to make the hu.
initiating confession that all the avais of
his long perilous campaign, that all the
bard earnings of the weary march, the
lonely picket duty and the bloody fight
that every treasury note his grateful
country paid him-were all sqnandered
in a single days disgraceCul debauch p
The ring too-perhaps jeweled with the
memories Of early love-who stole that ?
The accursed cup, you say. Very true
but who offered him the cup The liq.
uor seller. Then was not the liquor sell
Ter an accompce in the plunder. But
who licensed the dram-seller 10 set his
villainous trap for human appetite p
Who gives him the legal permission TO
offer deadly bait tc our returning he
roes, and life them as the bodies of their
comrades were riAed on the battlefield
" We, the people" license him to deal out
death by measure And so there are
many accompliceS in robbing the soldiers
ring. The tempted man himself, the liq-
uor vendor, the abettors of the drinking
usages of society, each have their relative
share in the shameful deed.
That nan was only one Of many thou
sands. He is not the only one who has
escaped the deadly shell only to fall by
the deadlier glass that is profIered to him
on his every homeward step.
Nor do the home coming soldiers only
need looking after. There is host of
tipplers larger than all the armies that
were huzzaed through Washington on the
day of the grand review. Scarcely a
family circle but contains one or more
scarcely congregation but has scores of
them. Not far from me to-day, sits a
lovely widowed wife whose living hus>
band is "dead in this sin )" her wedding {
ring is tear-staned by that husbands
shame. I married him. What is worse /
10 think of, | once received him into the t
Church of Christ, and for time he ran
1obly. There is another ring which he :
has lost the ring of acceptance which
he Divine Master put upon him when }
be dead was alive again, and the lost I
was found" That young man has had $
fearful struggle with his conscience and i
,is God. But there we're ten to tempt
lin where there was one to labor for his
'escue! If he perishes at last, he will Q
i'd but another to the stUpendous mass {
# victims to this frightfuly increasing v
rice. ;
Every year adds to my conviction that
n temperance the "ounce of prevention
5 worth ton of cure" But fraction a
t confirmed drinkers are ever reformed. b
This is the tremendous argument for to- h
al abstinence. This is the argument y
or renewed effort to save the young
This fact should point every sermon and 'S
very appeal from the pulpit. This fact c.
hould caution the physician to keep away f
lcoholic medicines from every patient .
rho can be saved by any other method.
christians and patriots J lei US enter up !"
n a new moral campaign against the in al
,xicsting cup--an educational work in dl
lie elementary truths that no man is good
nough to be trusted to keep drinking
Duse. and no man is strong enough to be "