Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-10-08
For the Delaware Gazette.I
REFORMATION OF DRUNKARDs.

Truly we live in an age Of wonders.
Under peculiar influences, hundreds
and thousands of once hopeless drunk
ards are becoming sober men-yet the
work of reform has but Just comu.en-
ced. It Is computed that there are in
the land no less than five hundred
thousand habitual inebFiates.
The condition of each individual
calls for sympathy and aid, that he
may become a sober man, and through
the blessing of God, gain eternal life.
For drunkness there is and can be
no apology; but the condition of the
drunkard is often pitiable in the ex-
treme. However gradual, or respect
able, may have been his progress in
the descent called to temperate drink
ing, theiappetlte now is formed within
him--the drunkard's appetite.
Wretched man ! He feels what not
family resembles the guaWing of 1.-THE
worm that never dies" He asks for
help. There are times when he would
give worlds to be reformed. Every
drunkard's life, could it be written.
would tell this In letters of fire. He
struggles to resist the temptation.
causes himself to be shut up IN pris-
on, throws himself on board a tenn
perance ship for distant VOYAGE. seeks
new alliances and new emplOyments
wrestles, agOnizes, but all in vain. He
rises to-day out to fall to morrow and
amid disappointment and reproaeh.
poverty and degradation, he saws.
Let me alone, 1 cannot live" and
plunges headlong to destruction.
Who wall come to his rescue f? Who
will aid In the deliVerance of thous
ands OF thousands from this debasipe
thraldom Of sin and Satan Our aid
they must have Their number de-
mands it. Half a million. chiefly
adults. often heads of families. bav-
ing each wife and children. making
miserable million and half Of rela-
tives and friends. They pass. too. in
rapid succession. Ten years is the
measure of a generation, and if moth
ing is done to save them, in the next
forty years two million may be swept
into eternity.
Their personal degradation and suf-
terlng require it. What would we
not do to pull neighbor out of the
water, or out of the fire, or to deliver
him from Algerine captivity, or wrest
him from the hand of a pirate or mid
night assassin !? But what. captivity,
what pirate, what murderer so cruel
as Alcohol ?
Their families plead for it. The
innocent and the helpless, the lambs
in the paw of the tiger, and that tiger
a husband and father. Amid hun
gering and thirsting, cold and naked
ness, humiliation and shame, sufFerings
which no pen can describe, they ask
for aid.
The good of the community de-
mands it. While they live as they do,
they are only moth and a curse.
The moment they are reformed, socie-
ty Is relieved of Its greatest burden.
The poor-hOuse and the Jail become
almost tenantless.
The practicability of sudden and
| complete reform of every drunkard in
the land calls for it. This, science
has denied. Religion has only said,
with man it is impossible, but not.
| with God for with God all things are
! possible" But science yields to ex-
pertinent, and religion marches on
joyful in the footsteps of Providence.
! Thousands among us say, "HoW it has
been done. we know not. One thing
we know, that whereas we we're DUNK
ards, now we are sober men" But
above all, the salvation of the soul
makes it indispensable.
Temperance is not religion. Out
warG reformation is not religion 5Ut
/ by this reform a great obstacle is
brought into the Kingdom of God
The strong chain that has been thrown
around them by the prince of of the
power Of the air" is broken. They
may be approached as they never
could be before. Conviction Of sin is
fastened upon their conscience. Graft
tude inspires their bosoms. Good
men are, of choice, their companions.
The Dram-shop is exchanged for the
house of God. A Bible is purchased.
Their little ones they bring to the
door of the Sabbath school, They
fee affrighted from the pit and.
through grace, many lift up their
hands imploringly to heaven, as the
only refuge for the Outeast, the home
for the weary.
This has been the operation of the
reform in England. OF thirty five
thousand reformed drunkards in that
country. ffty-six hundred have be-
come members of Christian churches,
having hope in God and joy in the
Holy Ghost.
| SO it has been in Scotland many
there now sing of grace and glory.
1 OO ~ IuauAAGS1AN 10 Au Au4BEAENg d4u
so will it be more aBd more around
the world, as ministers and Christians
meet them in kindness and lead tn, m
TO the waters of salvation.
But what can we do How can we
aid the poor unfortunate drunkard ?
This is the question.
All can do little. Some can do
much. Every man can get out of the
/ Of hIa VnFnrun cakNTrag
an example which proves his ruin /;
cease selling him an article which is
death to the soul discountenance the
drinking usages of society, and those
licensed and unlicensed dram-sbeps
which darken the land. Every man
can speak an encouraging word to the
wretched inebriate tell him of what
is doing in the land, allure him aud go
with him to the temperance meeting,
and urge him to sign the pledge and
when he has signed, comfort and
strengthen him, give him employment
give him clothing and if he falls.
raise him up, and if he falls seven
times, raise him up and forgive him.
Try it, Christian brother. [ know
your heart beats in gratitude to God
for what he has done that he has
raised up a new lnstrumentality for
| receiving thousands OF our race from
he lowest degradation. 1t is a token
Of good for our country and the
world. Enter into this field Of la
Dor.
You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ that though he was
rich, yet for our sake he became poor.
that We through his poverty might be
come rich" Go initiate his example ;
: become poor, if need be, to save the
lost.
"Go out into the highways and
hedges and compel them to come in. "
Try it, Christian philanthropist.
1 1t is good neither to eat flesh, nor to
drink wine, nor anything whereby thy
! brother stumbleth, or is offended, or
made weak" Sacrifices make the
! world happy, and God glorious.
Try it, Christian female. It is
a work fOr vOur sey Woman "a the