Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1870-10-20
Temperance.
The Drunkard's Grave.

What dark and losthsome place,
40 ray OF hope pierces its dense gloom.
The Soodly minister must not. dare NOT
repeat over the polluted clay, as it en-
ters the place OF sepulcher, that touch
lngly beautiful passage in the burial
sesvlce: Nv commit the body of this.
our departed brother, dust to dust and
ashes to ashes,' in sure and certain hope
oi glorious resurrection from the dead
at the last day." Hope for the drunk
ard IN death! Alas! there is none-In-
splratlon inscribed upon his death
tablet, III letters of fire, mo drunkard
shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. y
Despair enternal sits enthroned upon
the drunkard's grave, and an utterance
of awful truthfulness, proclaims its
undisputed right to hold the prisoner
as his lawful prey until he shall awake
to everlasting shame and contempt to
receive his final doom. Every clod, as
1t falls upon the collin lid, declares with
terrible Significance, the hopelessness of
the Lost man.
While kindred shed their tears of
anguish. and friends perform their last
act OF Kindness, how terrific the thought
that demons are holding a festival of
merriment over another soul plunged
by the maddening cup into perdition's
fiery depths.
Imagine, if you can, all the drunk
ards who have from the first trans
gressions pnt;l now been brought by
some invisible power into one place.
How vast the multitudeI How immense
the mound of debased humanity. What
a commingling fthe great and small,
the wise and the ignorant, the civilized
and the rude, the rich and the poor, the
honorable and the ignobleI AS you
gaze upon the mountain pile, this com.
mlngling of nations, of divers sects, of
all classes, you see written upon every
brow, by the pen of an outraged dignity,
DIED WITHOUT HOPE"
1t matters not how brave, or learned,
or rich, or generous, or noble, or eloquent
or influential that drunksrd was in
his day, the shroud of despair: covers
him.
The drunkard's grave is the very
citadel of enternal hOpelessness. What
bolts and bars and chains are hereI
And all the mere fearful because they
were forged by the miserable victim as
he went forth in his day, under the
sunlight of heaven. 1t is of no conse-
.quence to him now when,or where he
lived, whether in place or in a wig
wam, upon throne or in serfdom, in
luxury or poverty, at home or in
foreign land, 1.-The result, is lessen
TALLY the same. His life was spent in
digging grave, which to him. sis the
hope OF despair.
Strange that the living will lot take
warning, but they will not. How
many in this very town, and all over
this land are every night engaged in
forging the chain that will ultimately
bind them in this grave ofruin. With
many the business for this terrible
consummation is well nigh done. a
few more glasses from the poisonous
flood and all is over. The final stagger
made, and the hOary headed sinner fall
in the pit of gloom he has dug for him.
self. o, if he would listen to the voice
of reason and repent before he makes
the final plunge into the place where
repentance comes not!
But what is still worse, as these old
veteran drunkards die off, there is no
lack of others to take their place. What
u legion of young men have always
entered the pathway leading to the
drunkard's prison house. %, could we
spea 20 them, one and all we would
plead with them i'll accents ofburning
love to pause before they take another
step. Another glass-another spree
another bacchanalian feast, and it may
be too late! By the yearnings of a moth
er's bosom, by the first love to her to
whom you have given the nuptial
pledge; by the obligations of your man
mood, by the respect you bear to your
self, by the compassion of Savior's
n cart, and the wrath of of an offended
God. we beseech you to go on further in
the downward way. Shun the revelry
of the dram shop and the glee of the fes-
i've board as you would the scorpions
bite. Remember, young man, that
every liquor hotel-eyery drinking sa-
ioon-every dram shop of every sort, is
the gateway to the drunkard's hopeless
destiny. TO every one who indulges in
the cup that intoxicates, we would in
all affection address the solemn warn
ing of the prophet. Turn ye, turn ye
from your evil ways for why will ye
iie?"